Retranslations and Mediations: The Reception of the Laozi in Latin America Between Traditionalism and Counterculture

Abstract

The reception of the Laozi in Latin America has been shaped mainly through European mediations that influenced both its translation and interpretation. This article examines two emblematic twentieth-century retranslations: that of Onorio Ferrero, published in Peru in 1972, and that of Gastón Soublette, which appeared in Chile in 1990. Both share a spiritual and practical reading of the text, yet they respond to different intellectual contexts: Ferrero approaches it from Guénonian Traditionalism and its esoteric conception of Daoism, while Soublette interprets it through the lenses of counterculture and spiritual ecology, following the hermeneutical line established by Richard Wilhelm. Through a comparative analysis, the study shows how both versions reveal a tendency toward the domestication of the text and the perpetuation of Eurocentric hermeneutical frameworks, in which Daoism is adapted to the spiritual pursuits of Western modernity. It argues that this mediation reflects the epistemic asymmetries in the global circulation of knowledge, positioning Latin America in an intermediate space between reception and reinterpretation.