1. Do you think that an American artist’s work should reveal a preoccupation with American themes?
2. Do you think Americanness is a matter of optics, content, or vehicle?
3. Do you believe there are characteristics that are common to every Latin American country’s art?
4. How do you think American artists should react to European art?
Cuba’s bimonthly (and later monthly) revista de avance not only fleshed out the direction of the country’s avant-garde tendencies of the late 1920s; the publication also became one of the timeliest venues for cultural debate among Latin American intellectuals. On September 15, 1928, the journal’s editors—Francisco Ichaso, Félix Lizaso, Jorge Mañach, Juan Marinello, and José Z. Tallet, collectively known as Los Cinco—polled their readership on the question of Latin American art (“Directrices: Una encuesta”). In their survey guidelines, the editors announced: “We invite replies from any American with a considered opinion. For obvious reasons, please make the answers as brief as possible.” During 1928 and much of 1929, the journal published responses to this survey from a select group of influential artists, writers, and intellectuals. The survey represents one of the earliest attempts to arrive at a definition of a Latin America aesthetic, an issue at the core of this anthology.
Included herein is a selection from six of the sixteen contributors to the published surveys:
• Prominent Mexican writer (and eventual politician) Jaime Torres Bodet (1902–1974) [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.1] [1928. revista de avance (Havana), year 2, vol. 3, no. 28 (November 15, 1928), 313–315, 325];
• Painters Eduardo Abela (1889–1965) [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.2] and Carlos Enríquez (1900–1957) [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.3], two of the most influential voices of the Cuban avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s [year 2, vol. 3, no. 29 (December, 15, 1928), 361] and [year 3, vol. 4, no 33 (April 15, 1929), 118];
• Nicaraguan-born, Havana-based journalist, poet, and scholar Eduardo Avilés Ramírez (1896–1989) [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.4] [year 3, vol. 4, no. 31 (February 15, 1929), 55];
• Cuban playwright José Antonio Ramos (1885–1946) [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.5] [year 3, vol. 4, no. 34 (May 15, 1929), 150];
• Cuban intellectual and diplomat Raúl Roa (1907–1982) [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.6] [year 3, vol. 4, no. 37 (August 15, 1929), 242].
On September 15, 1929, essayist Francisco Ichaso (1900–1962) summarized the key findings of the survey while praising the journal’s attempt to provide an initial and very timely inquiry into the possibility of creating a continental art [“Balance de una indagación,” 1929. revista de avance (Havana), year 3, vol. 4, no. 38 (September 15, 1929), 258–65, 258] [SEE DOCUMENT II.2.7].