Gabriel Carrasco argentin statisztikus feljegyzései latin-amerikai és európai útjáról
An Argentine Scholar in Europe and Latin America

Summary/Abstract: Gaining their independence over the centuries, one of the chief aims of the former colonial countries was to determine the extent of their own „Europeanness”, as well as their relationship to the Old Continent. The reason was not only ties of kinship and cultural influences, but also the continued ambition of the intelligentsia to get acquainted with the achievements of the European sciences. Gabriel Carrasco, regarded as the father of Argentine statistics, travelled to Europe as the representative of his home country in order to present and popularize Argentina, on the occasion of the Paris World Exposition, at the congress of the Geographical Society, as a country open to, and even encouraging, the immigration of European working force. Based on the entries of Carrasco’s travel diary, the present paper examines the experiences of the Argentine’s long journey to Europe, shedding light on what contemporary scientists regarded as the preconditions of development, and examples to follow. In view of the conditions of Europe, the Argentine scholar was clearly aware of the backwardness of his own country, but, due to his heightened sense patriotism, he looked forward to the consequent challenges that awaited Argentina and its educated classes with a fair amount of optimism.

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