{"id":1744,"date":"2013-06-17T13:40:39","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/modernlatinamerica\/?page_id=1744"},"modified":"2013-06-17T13:40:39","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:40:39","slug":"simon-bolivar-and-restrained-republicanism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/chapters\/chapter-2-the-colonial-foundations\/moments-in-late-colonial-history\/simon-bolivar-and-restrained-republicanism\/","title":{"rendered":"Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar and Restrained Republicanism"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Analysis of the \u201cAddress of Bol\u00edvar at the Congress of Angostura, 1819\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/b>By Anthony White and Miguel Pimentel\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar never ran short on rhetoric. As he led campaigns to free large portions of South America from Spanish control, he wrote numerous epistles and offered many speeches sprinkled with metaphor and saturated in a tone of urgency meant to persuade his contemporaries to adopt his ideal vision of independence and its aftermath. In the revolutionary tradition, Bol\u00edvar framed Spain as a tyrannical nation that denied liberty to Americans, using incendiary and condemning language to validate the struggle for independence. Bol\u00edvar\u2019s words reveal the tension between the spirit of republicanism and the development of the republic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar makes extensive use of racially targeted language in order to demonstrate the extent of creole separation from Spain and to emphasize the need for regional independence. He declared that they\u2014the people of the region\u2014\u201care not Europeans; we are not Indians. We are but a mixed species of aborigines and Spaniard Americans by birth.\u201d1<\/sup> This statement was consistent with Bol\u00edvar\u2019s oft-repeated contention that creoles represented a distinct people that deserved the right to forge their own distinct political path.<\/p>\n

It is telling that Bol\u00edvar sought to frame independence in terms of resuming the fight his Indian ancestors once waged against Spanish incursion. He stated that his nation was \u201cstruggling to maintain ourselves [sic] in the country that gave us birth against the opposition of the invaders.\u201d2<\/sup> Much like language used in \u201cLetter from Jamaica,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Bol\u00edvar references the region\u2019s Indian descendants to make his case for repelling the nineteenth century Spanish \u201cconquistadors,” who now conquer the people through tyranny rather than physical force,\u00a0for good.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

This language, however, should not be seen as a truly radical shift from commonplace ideology. Bol\u00edvar\u2019s Indian allusions were not stated in solidarity with indigenous populations, but rather to make a more impactful case for \u201ccreole\u201d independence.4<\/sup> Bol\u00edvar undoubtedly identified more readily with creoles and his Spanish roots than his indigenous ones. He referenced his indigenous roots when this strategy could be used to enhance the case for independence from Spain by framing peninsulares<\/i> as part of a long legacy of mobilization against foreign oppressors. In sum, Bol\u00edvar did not use language pertaining to Indians to suggest any substantive unity with natives or to advocate for Indian equality in the republic, but rather used Indian\/conquest allusions to present a strong case for independence, of course, to the benefiting creoles.<\/p>\n

A similar assessment can be made of Bol\u00edvar\u2019s use of racially charged language. Bol\u00edvar drew upon racially hierarchical language to emphasize the lack of freedom under Spanish rule, claiming that the region has been \u201cplaced in a state lower than slavery,\u201d \u201crobbed\u2026of their freedom,\u201d and \u201cslavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction.\u201d5<\/sup> This is in a similar vein to the \u201cLetter from Jamaica\u201d in which some variation of the word \u201cslave\u201d was used eleven times.6<\/sup> These slavery metaphors serve to indicate that the lack of American political liberty under Spanish rule is tantamount to the restricted freedom of slaves.<\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar refused, however, to engage slavery and black rights beyond the superficial. Bol\u00edvar did write about free blacks, pardos<\/i>, being important to the shift to democracy and suggested that \u201cnational unity could be achieved through racial-mixing.\u201d7<\/sup> However, such statements had a utilitarian motive and were not meant to encourage pardo liberty. Bol\u00edvar sought the help of the region\u2019s large pardo <\/i>population <\/i>to achieve independence and supported racial mixing only to promote national unity in the struggle for independence. In truth, un-mixed blacks were left on the periphery with no real plans to incorporate them in the social or political structure of the Republic. \u00a0Furthermore, the ability of blacks to participate in the republic and claim liberty remained subject to the racial injustices that were condemned in Bol\u00edvar\u2019s rhetoric but never substantially addressed.1 <\/sup>Indeed, as Marixa Lasso notes, he would later express much greater suspicion of the nonwhite pardos to Francisco de Paula Santander. According to Bol\u00edvar, the pardos wanted more than just legal equality and would eventually ruin the privileged classes.\u00a0Thus, it speaks volumes that Bol\u00edvar presented racially-charged slavery metaphors but ignored the issue of racial liberty. Racial republicanism was not a top priority, but the visualizations of injustice made great metaphors.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

1<\/sup>Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, An Address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819)<\/i>, <\/i>Reprint Ed., (Washington, D.C.: Press of B. S. Adams, 1919).<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n

3 <\/sup>Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar,\u00a0Letter from Jamaica (September 6, 1815)<\/i>, Modern Latin America: Selected Primary Documents, p. 1.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>4 <\/sup>Ibid.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>5 <\/sup>Bol\u00edvar,\u00a0Congress of Angostura<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>6 <\/sup>Bol\u00edvar,\u00a0Letter from Jamaica<\/i>, 3, 5, 9, 10, 16, 19, 20.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>7 <\/sup>Marixa Lasso,\u00a0Myths of Harmony: Race and Republicanism during the Age of Revolution, Colombia 1795-1831<\/i>, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007), 62.<\/p>\n

Skidmore, Thomas E., Peter H. Smith, and James N. Green. Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Analysis of the \u201cAddress of Bol\u00edvar at the Congress of Angostura, 1819\u201d By Anthony White and Miguel Pimentel\u00a0 Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar never ran short on rhetoric. As he led campaigns to free large portions of South America from Spanish control, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":1212,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1744","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1744\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}