The present of China is the future of Latin America: South American leftists and the invention of an imagined community with China (1950-1974)

The article delves into the portrayal of China in South American leftist publications between 1950 and 1974, following China’s post-revolution period. It explores the travelogues of Latin American visitors to China, focusing on the parallels established by the authors between those two realities. Overcoming prevalent orientalist stereotypes, these texts sought to construct a bond between the regions. Drawing on Koselleck’s notion of horizon of expectation, I propose the existence of a shift in representing the East post-World War II that contributed to the creation of narratives aligning Latin America and an idealized East. After that, I outline the intellectual operation that made possible the invention of a shared past and a common future between China and Latin America based on different leftist theoretical repertoires available at that moment.