Radically universal and differentialist. For a critical geography from Latin America

Abstract

This essay proposes an insight on what implies the critical analysis of reality for geography and social
sciences. Such critical view requires considering the universality of capitalism and the multiscale
interests that produce space. Likewise, it is important to consider subjectivity and everything that goes
beyond the concept of class. In this sense, it is necessary to point out the shadow left by a pernicious
attitude of researchers identified with postcolonial theory, who seek to understand the Latin American
territories under local conceptual referents, an arrange of words locally created. If something can be
rescued from these ideas, that is the implicit denunciation to the powers that dictate the norms of
production and circulation of knowledge, intimately linked to global geopolitical interests. Thus, the
essay proposes a journey through the genesis of critical, anti-imperialist and militant geography. Next,
a dialogue is proposed between two great authors of the 20th century, Henri Lefebvre and José María
Arguedas; of Lefebvre we take the concept of difference and exemplify this concept through a story
written by Arguedas in “Los Ríos Profundos”. The objective with this dialogue is to provoke reactions
to those who insist that Latin America and its territories cannot be understood through categories
created outside the continental limits.