PERIPHERAL TERRITORIES AND IMAGINARIES: COLONIALITY, MEMORY, AND TERRITORIAL EXPLORATION BETWEEN THE BRAZILIAN ACRE AND ARGENTINE PATAGONIA

Abstract

The formation of Latin American nation-states was deeply associated with the incorporation of peripheral territories, frequently represented as empty, unexplored, or insufficiently occupied spaces. This article comparatively analyzes the historical processes of territorial formation in the Brazilian state of Acre and Argentine Patagonia, particularly the regions of Viedma and Carmen de Patagones, seeking to understand how these spaces were incorporated into national projects through dynamics of coloniality, territorial violence, and the production of political imaginaries surrounding borderlands. The study adopts a qualitative approach based on bibliographic review and documentary analysis, engaging with decolonial theory, critical geography, and Latin American political ecology. It argues that both Acre and Patagonia were historically conceived as peripheral territories destined for economic expansion, state sovereignty, and the exploitation of natural resources, legitimizing the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and reproducing colonial structures that continue to shape contemporary territorial conflicts. The article concludes that current disputes involving Indigenous lands, environmental conservation, and neo-extractivism reveal the persistence of colonial rationalities under new development paradigms, reinforcing the centrality of memory, territoriality, and Indigenous resistance in constructing decolonial alternatives for Latin America.