The ‘Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia’ (Mendoza, Argentine):intangible heritage.

Historiographical approach from public history

Abstract

Indeed, the community of Mendoza enjoys the National Harvest Festival since 1936, when it was institutionalized by a Decree of Governor Guillermo Cano. From there and except on rare occasions, the celebration is held between the end of February and March, each year. However, in the decade of ’10, a provincial deputy presented to the Legislature a project to carry out Fiesta but did not prosper. It was used in 1913 on the occasion of receiving and entertaining the government delegation that visited Mendoza on the occasion of the Congress of Commerce. The way in which that party was organized and the great influx of the public places this event in the direct antecedent of the institutionalized party.

The interest is centered in the first place, in making a description of some constituent elements of the historiographic perspective of the New cultural history and the Public History approach; secondly, to address the harvest stories as harvest festivals from two well-defined aspects: as intangible cultural heritage and as a space for identity construction; Finally, to examine this enriching confluence with the specific purpose of identifying and describing the constituent elements of these approaches by applying them to the historiographic approach of the representations in some harvest festivals in the province of Mendoza.