The Use of the term “nation” in writings by Lucas Alaman and Mariano Otero

The construction of a State of national dimensions has been the subject of a number of studies addressing a horizon of variables, from the control of territory as a system of government till the uniformity of laws and public institutions with legitimacy besides legality. Ultimately talking about a “National State” presumes identifying its meaning, that becomes more complex when dealing with an entity in process of formation throughout the nineteenth century. The debate can be opened with key questions such as what people of the time understood by using the term “national”. This work shows the application of a methodology that allows to address that issue, among others, through the analysis of some writings by Lucas Alamán and Mariano Otero, authors that shared a historical juncture considered as a period of transition in which the entrance of an incipient modernity permeates all the social spheres and, thence, gives shape to concepts that eventually are formalized in words. On the other hand, the election of the subject of analysis, the term “nation”, obeys to the relevance assigned by a vast number of authors to the idea of nation itself, that involves a fundamental concept for modern society and that, however, has an imprecise connotation of its characteristics, since all the beliefs and values of a society are entangled in it.