Academia Argentina de Letras
[2] It currently includes two dozen full members,[2] chosen for having distinguished themselves in academic study related to language or literature.
The earliest lexicographical projects in the Río de la Plata area included a limited but rigorous work titled Léxico rioplatense, compiled in 1845 by Francisco Javier Muñiz, and another lexicon put together in 1860 by Juan María Gutiérrez for the French naturalist and geographer Martin de Moussy.
Led by the poet Martín Coronado, this academy did not solely focus on the study of the Spanish language; it was dedicated to the various branches of knowledge, from law and science to visual art, literature, and history, as they pertained to Argentina's national culture.
The same periodical announced in 1876 a Collection of American Voices, the work of Carlos Manuel de Trelles, which included contributions from some 300 people.
When in the 1880s the Royal Spanish Academy began inviting various Argentine intellectuals—including Ángel Justiniano Carranza, Luis Domínguez, Vicente Fidel López, Bartolomé Mitre, Pastor Obligado, Carlos María Ocantos, Ernesto Quesada, Vicente Quesada, and Carlos Guido Spano—to assist in creating a correspondent language academy in Argentina, others—such as Juan Bautista Alberdi, Juan María Gutiérrez, and Juan Antonio Argerich—doubted the utility of joining the Spanish project, suspecting it was intended to restore peninsular culture to the country, to the detriment of Argentine culture.
In 1903, Estanislao Zeballos, in his contribution to Ricardo Monner Sans' Notas al castellano en la Argentina, unsuccessfully proposed that the Argentine correspondent members of the Royal Spanish Academy at the time—Bartolomé Mitre, Vicente Fidel López, Vicente G. Quesada, Carlos Guido Spano, Rafael Obligado, Calixto Oyuela, Ernesto Quesada, and himself—form an Argentine section of the academy.
Obligado came up with a plan of action that included not only the work of editing and expanding the local lexicon contained in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy but also working with the other Latin American academies to coordinate a register of local phrases, with the aim of creating a separate Latin American dictionary.
However, a lack of political support and mutual friction with the Spanish academy led to the rapid dissolution of the body, which was never able to publish its research.
With this dual mission, the academy sought to define and strengthen the "spiritual physiognomy of the country," using narrative, lyrical, and above all theatrical work to develop a cultural model.
After the military coup of 1955, the self-proclaimed Revolución Libertadora regime led by Pedro Eugenio Aramburu initiated a policy of persecution of journalists, athletes, politicians, and intellectuals with ties to Peronism or other political movements, and among those who were targeted were members of the Academia Argentina de Letras.
It also works to regulate its use and to stimulate and contribute to literary study, which are both considered crucial elements of Argentina's national culture.
Thanks to a bequest from Juan José García Velloso, in 1936 the library gained 3,000 books of Latin American literature and theater.
The library of the Academia Argentina de Letras has inherited the important personal collections of: Juan José and Enrique García Velloso (3,341 volumes), Rafael Alberto Arrieta (4,000 vol.
The library also holds four significant collections of correspondence: those of Manuel Gálvez, Roberto Giusti, Atilio Chiáppori, and Victoria Ocampo.
The new institute's work was regulated in 1961, but it was not until 1966 that, under the direction of Carlos Ronchi March, the processes around maintaining its archives and producing lexicographical reports were formalized.
