Stanford scholar unearths conflicted human history of South America's great natural wonder

By Ian P. Beacock
The Humanities at Stanford

 

Nestled along the border between Argentina and Brazil are the spectacular, thundering Iguazu Falls. Surrounding them are two national parks – legally protected areas of subtropical rainforest that appear free of both people and politics.

According to Stanford's Frederico Freitas, however, the national parks served a more pointed purpose throughout the 20th century: They were geopolitical weapons and highly effective tools for nation-building.

Freitas, a doctoral candidate in Latin American history, is writing the first history of national parks in Brazil and Argentina. Combining untapped archival sources with the latest digital methods, Freitas offers a new account of how national parks were used to strengthen the border between the two regional rivals.

In the 1930s, Freitas explains, two national parks were established on land adjacent to the border: Iguazú National Park in Argentina, and Iguaçu National Park in Brazil. Both parks protected areas of scenic wilderness, including the world-renowned falls.

But Freitas says that the parks' true function was geopolitical: They were used by Brazil and Argentina as national symbols, ways of laying claim to the empty land and transforming a wild, unpatrolled frontier region into a secure border....

For the complete article, visit the Stanford Report

 

Digitized aerial images of the Iguazu Falls region help Stanford doctoral student Frederico Freitas see how national parks sharpened the border between Brazil and Argentina

Boundaries of Nature