History, nature and ethics in the travel writings of Ezequiel Martínez Estrada

This article provides an analysis of Argentinean essayist Ezequiel Martínez Estrada's travel writings to the USA. Martinez Estrada visited the country in 1942 as part of a cultural program to improve the contact with Latin American writers. He wrote a travel diary with notes about race relations, politics and literary life in several North-American cities including Miami, Washington and Chicago. After returning to Argentina, he published a long essay on the USA. These texts offer some different perspectives on the subject. Both, however, are discussions on the historical formation of the USA and Argentina, covering several questions already present in Radiografía de la Pampa. The author suggests that these different historical experiences and the relation of each nation with its past are essential questions to understand the ethics of each of those societies.