¿Es la comuna popular la revolución? Los viajeros latinoamericanos en la China Roja.

Abstract

Since 1949 militants of the Latin American lefts undertook the journey towards the Chinese experience. Over two decades, they delivered travel stories where they narrated their experience in the largest nation in the world. They observed, wrote down and communicated their impressions on various topics. Among the most recurring themes, the agrarian reform and the emergence of the popular commune stand out. Latin Americans note the emergence and functioning of these, tense their vision associated with progress and industrialization, something very common in the middle of the century, with the emergence of a collective and community experience that reinvented tradition. The article argues, then, that it is the popular commune that opens some cracks in a discourse ossified by the idea of progress, allowing, in a conflicting way, to think of other forms of socialism construction.