Uruguay and development’s intercultural dimension

Abstract

Uruguay has positioned itself in Latin America as a country of high social and democratic standards. A deeper analysis, however, which draws on other dimensions, shows that there still are some outstanding issues. This article will focus on the field of interculturality, which according to research through secondary sources, has been overlooked beginning with the extermination of the “charrua” people during the Spanish conquest and continuing up until the present. In Latin America cultural identity has emerged as a demand not only to be recognized, but also to obtain expanded rights, to be vindicated and to achieve self-government; all of it aiming to break with the European-colonialist model. Uruguay is not the exception, although the movement does not yet involve a majority and is not too influential. This paper’s aim will be to assess how the Uruguayan State has faced this trend and incorporated ‘Charrua tenacity’ (garra charrúa) from the perspective of interculturality.