ABSTRACT
In This Chapter I argue that there were at least two twentieth centuries, the European American twentieth century and the Nuestra America twentieth century. I am aware that there were others in Africa and Asia and even in Europe, but I will focus here on the first two and mainly on the second. My argument is that the European American twentieth century, which carried so many promises of democracy and welfare and experienced devastating wars in Europe and elsewhere, ended with the disturbing rise of what I call societal fascism, very often disguised under the name of hegemonic globalization. On the margins of this century, another evolved, the Nuestra America century. I argue that the alternative to the spread of societal fascism is the construction of a new pattern of local, national, and transnational relations. Such a pattern entails a new transnational political culture embedded in new forms of sociability and subjectivity. Ultimately, it implies a new insurgent cosmopolitan politics, law, and culture. I see in the Nuestra America century the seeds of new emancipatory energies, which I have been calling counterhegemonic globalization (Santos 1995: 252–268).
