Campaigners for democracy across the Spanish Atlantic, (1860s–1870s)

This article examines El Americano (1872–1874), an illustrated periodical published in Paris by Argentine journalist Héctor F. Varela in collaboration with Spanish democrat Emilio Castelar. The periodical sought to counter conventional knowledge by presenting Hispanic America’s republican democracies as models from which Europe could learn. Through biographical sketches, comparative essays, and visual propaganda, the periodical aimed to refute European prejudices and establish the region as an equal interlocutor in transatlantic conversations about democracy. Despite its technical sophistication and impressive list of contributors on both sides of the Atlantic, El Americano’s short run reveals structural and geopolitical constraints that limited transatlantic dialogue and the challenges of translating context-specific political practices into generalizable models. By examining this venture, the article addresses the possibilities and limitations of constructing a transatlantic history of democracy in the nineteenth century that flowed from south to north.