Frei Servando Teresa de Mier e o exotismo às avessas

o selvagem ilustrado desbrava as terras do Velho Mundo

Abstract

This article aims at comprehending the changes which took place in the way of thinking in the Hispanic-American context of formation of the national independent states, during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century, when Illuminism ideas reached the colonies, becoming the basis of Mexican priest Servando Teresa de Mier (1763-1827) ideas. For being privileged witness, wandering around places from where reforming forces were strong, like in the United States of America and Europe, and after suffering expatriation for
relating political reasons to Guadalupe’s miracle, Mier appears as a typical representation of the criollos, which protagonism associates concepts of the illustrated modernity, with its rational and scientific ideals, to the Colonial Mexico cultural and spiritual background. This work discuss the boundaries of the work Memorias and his contribution to the establishment of the Mexican Independent State, as well as to the formation of a national identity making use of the historical categories of memory, identity and representation to explain this phenomenon better. It is concluded that Servando´s ideal is a Hispanic-American exponent of the reformist intellectual trend present in Western history of the period which was analyzed, being essential to the comprehension of the History of Ideas in Hispanic-America.