On Facing Latin/South American Coloniality: The Travesía De Amereida and the Geo-Poetic Turn at the Valparaíso School

This article traces the aesthetics, fundaments, and poietic practices developed by themembers of the School of Architecture and Design of the Catholic University ofValpara ıso during the 1960s, which enabled them to elaborate a geo-poetic perspectivelinked to the land, or “Interior Sea” ,of Latin/South America. In order to unpack thisperspective, we present how their poetic exploration of ontological and epistemologicalquestions about Latin/South America led to their performance of the Traves ıa deAmereida (1965), a radical poetic journey oriented around crossing and being crossedby the continental interior lands, and to the subsequent invention of the epic poemAmereida (1967). By examining the different Acts performed during the Traves ıaand analysing excerpts from the poem, we establish how the School situated actionstogether with the tropes of the unknown, or not-knowing, and the Interior Sea, asoriginal ways to critically confront and question the coloniality imposed upon and stillpresent in the continent. Concomitantly, we stress how this geo-poetic perspectivegrounded within the School generated a radical turn and delinking of the academicistepisteme in design, which provides stimulating perspectives not only for design studiesdeveloped in the region but also for the field of cultural studies.