I am a PhD student in the Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures program. The Summer Travel
Fellowship 19 allowed me to spend five weeks in Santiago, Chile, conducting preliminary data-collection for my dissertation project. Thanks to the CLACLS Fellowship, I was able to visit several public archives such as Archivo Histórico Nacional, Archivo General del Ejército and Museo Histórico y Militar de Chile as well as interview Chilean historians researching the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), in order to find private letters written by ordinary Chilean soldiers who participated in the conflict. Because my dissertation project will examine how subjects from the lower ranks of Chilean society constitute and negotiate political subjectivities through language and emotion in the nation-state building process during the XIX century, finding private letters from foot soldiers who participated in one of the most relevant national experiences of the time is crucial to observe the inner perspective of war and nationalism. During my time in Santiago, I found almost 50 letters from ordinary soldiers who sent them to their relatives and friends while they were on the battlefields. These findings will constitute my dissertation corpus.