Between State and Utopia, between Nation and Otherness: a dialogue with the young Garavaglia of the sixties

Abstract

Through the remembrance of personal experiences and the dialogue with the memories of Juan Carlos Garavaglia, Una juventud en los años sesenta, the authors reflect upon the issues that concerned him, as a historian and as a man committed with the social reality of his time. The dialogue revolves around the research subjects of the authors of this article: in the first place, the utopia, rather understood as a politic impulse toward the future than as a specific literary genre; secondly, the Otherness of the gipsy ethnics, as the historically excluded society they signify; and, finally, a complex vision of the State. They underline the cultural pluralism and the intellectual tolerance of Juan Carlos, and suggest breaking the same barriers he fought against: those imposed by “nationalisms”, “absolute rationalities” or the presumed “the end of History”.