The Strait of Magellan and “the famous Antarctic Region”: openings, closings and displacements in la antártica y otros mitos by Miguel Serrano

Abstract

The first references in literature to the Magellan territory as a place of passage, and later as a failed colony, are based on a series of openings, closings, displacements, and blockages. Those aspects are also associated with enormous natural forces, a gigantic indigenous world, and a cult which eventually gives full control of the territory to the Devil. As a result, a series of representations are produced to explain the Spaniard’s failure in the territory at the time which are functional to the political project of the Spanish Empire. I argue that La Antártica y otros mitos (1948) by Miguel Serrano alludes to such representations of the Southern imaginary and displaces them towards the White Continent, hence finding the nexus between Chile and Antarctica in Magallanes: a place of passage in the national project. Furthermore, myths and legends of the Selk’nam people, territory and Nazism will articulate the cause of the nationalization of Antarctica that stems from a patriotic duty, reestablishing, elevating, and projecting the Chilean being and the West.