Il monumento a Cristoforo Colombo a Buenos Aires: Derive e mutamenti

With the aim of consolidating its position vis-à-vis the local ruling elite, on the occasion of the first centenary of the May Revolution the Italian community presented the Argentine Republic with a monument to Christopher Columbus. The monument was inaugurated only in 1921. In 2012, the monument was removed, to be relocated to a new site: its place was taken by a monument honoring Juana Azurduy, donated by the Bolivian government. This decision provoked an immediate reaction from the authorities of the City of Buenos Aires, from certain sectors of the Italian community residing in the country, and from defenders of historical and cultural heritage, giving rise to a public, «top-down» debate on ethnic, political, and gender identities in local society. The article highlights the inexorable process of resignification undergone by the figure of the Genoese navigator between the first and second centenaries, a process that targeted this single monument among the various sites dedicated to commemorating the «Columbian enterprise». Fil: Balsas, María Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; Argentina