A prodigious monster in the Kingdom of Chile

Abstract

This paper seeks to expose and reflect about the modern "monstrosity" through an exposition and dialogue with a printed relation, published in 1751, Lisbon, which we translated from the Portuguese. Its original name is: Relação de hum monstruo prodigioso, que appareceu no Reino de Chile entre os montes, que dividem este Reino das dilatadas Provincias de Tucuman, e Paraguay, ou do Rio de Prata, que Sao confinantes com o Brazil. The writing refers to the sudden appearance of a monster in the north of the Kingdom of Chile during the XVIII century, which, by its content, allows us to recognize certain forms of operation and transmission of monstrosity and how the elements that constituted it were configured.