4.3: Republican Era and Spanish-American Romanticism

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The so-called republican era, or the era of the constitution of national republics, was a turbulent period for Latin America, marked by numerous civil wars and changes of government. Forming new, relatively democratic nations was a huge challenge, due to the tremendous diversity of their people (indigenous, Afro-descendant, Euro-descendant , and their mixtures), the authoritarian and class-based colonial heritage, the lack of communication between regions, and the economic dependence resulting from international debts. Cultural production, in general, sought to incorporate the aesthetic developments of Europe (especially France and England) while proposing its own models of nation, coexistence, and expression.

“The Battle of Angostura”, civil war in Costa Rica, by Lorenzo Fortino (1860).

National Storms

In most of Latin America, the first seventy years of the 19th century were marked by sociopolitical conflicts and internal wars. One of these was the progressive regional disintegration. After more than ten years of battles with the Spanish army (approximately 1810-1822), seven independent states had been formed: the Mexican Empire, Gran Colombia, the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, Chile, Peru, the Republic of Bolívar and Paraguay. However, a couple of decades later, these territories were divided into fifteen countries (the same as in the 21st century, with the exception of Panama, which separated from Colombia in 1903; it should also be remembered that, in the Caribbean, Cuba and Puerto Rico were still part of Spain and the Dominican Republic separated from Haiti in 1844 and then from Spain in 1865). Border wars between these countries were also abundant.

However, even within these countries, frequent conflicts arose between regions and between sectors of the population with opposing interests. The list of civil wars and rebellions is extensive. The enslavement of people of African descent, for example, which leaders like Bolívar had aspired to abolish since the 1830s, continued for several decades in many of these countries. The situation of indigenous people and peasants did not necessarily improve with the new independent governments, but in many cases, it worsened. In addition, the Creole elite was divided, sometimes violently, between two national development projects: those that favored a land-based economy (generally associated with conservative sectors) and those whose wealth was derived from domestic and international trade (liberal sectors). Another factor contributing to this political instability was the weakness of the States, as they had limited financial resources and were burdened with high debts to European banks, which they had incurred during the wars of independence and subsequently.

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The Nation-Building Debate

The new Spanish-American countries maintained the social class structure that had existed during the Spanish colonial era. There was a privileged minority (5%) of European descent (the “Criollos”), with almost all the economic power, in contrast to an impoverished majority, made up of mixed-race, indigenous or African-American peasants. The ruling classes faced a central problem: how to convert former colonies, with their different ethnicities and social classes, into coherent nations? For many enlightened Creoles, the answer was to identify with European “civilization”, where wealth, democracy, the light of reason and progress were located. It would then be necessary to eliminate or transform (educate) indigenous, African or mixed race “barbarism”. But that “barbarism” was the majority and had very different characteristics from those in Europe. Thus, a fundamental debate about the literature—and of the turbulent political life—of the 19th century in Latin America revolved around what cultural, political and socioeconomic place the various sectors of the population should have.

Many educated Creoles embrace the values of individualism, freedom, and nationalism found in European Romantic aesthetics. Many liberal creoles — often urban residents — viewed the lower and rural classes as a wild and chaotic force that threatened to destroy everyone's freedom and the ideals of forming European-style republics. This is how the Argentinian Esteban Echeverria (1805-1851) emotionally represents the indigenous people in the epic poem “La Cautiva” (1839):

Listen! The band of savages is approaching, roaring all the neighboring countryside. [..] See that the ugly tips of their spears, because of their spoils, carry human heads! (v. 140-57)

¡Oíd! Ya se acerca el bando de salvajes, atronando todo el campo convecino. [. . . ] ¡Ved que las puntas ufanas de sus lanzas, por despojos, llevan cabezas humanas! (v. 140-57)

Echeverria is also the author of the story “The Slaughterhouse”. Because of its rich construction, which draws a parallel of spaces, concepts and characters (between the bull and the unitary; the slaughterhouse and the nation; barbarism and tyranny), as well as because of the social complexity it represents, this story has been established as one of the key works of the Spanish-American narrative. Although his connection with scenes and situations from his historical moment, such as the dictatorship, links style to realism, the fascination with the grotesque and the passion for a national debate are romantic. As was typical of the political controversies of the republican era, the story represents the confrontation between two sectors of the elite, in their effort to dominate other sectors of the population and justify this domination in the name of civilization and the defense of institutions.

For a sector of Creole liberals, it was then evident the need to eliminate or assimilate this “band of savages” in order to build “civilized” nations, that is, similar to French or Anglo-Saxon models. That's why some governments organized campaigns against indigenous populations and encouraged European immigration to bring white people to the country. In Argentina, liberals tended to favor a centralist government from Buenos Aires, to encourage trade, industry and a way of life comparable to that of Paris or London.

At the same time, other social sectors had differing views on the subject. On the one hand, many conservative Creole aristocrats had a paternalistic relationship with the peasant population—in some places of indigenous descent and in others of mixed race—who worked on their estates and tended to favor a federal government that would give them more autonomy to manage their lands according to their interests. On the other hand, independence struggles and trade had opened up opportunities for a large mixed race that was decisive in the many civil wars for political power. Many of these mixed-race people were peasants and were the subject of romantic idealization in poetry, presented as the basis for a model of nation that could integrate their local cultures. In the novel, which was finally able to be cultivated freely after centuries of colonial prohibition in Spanish America, narratives appear that, while representing romances and subjective experiences as typical romantic themes, function as allegories of the nation. This is the case, among others, of María (1867), of the Colombian Jorge Isaacs (1837-1895) —who, together with a tragic love relationship, idealizes the regional geography and the ways of life of peasants—; of Cumandá or A Drama Among Savages (1879), in which the Ecuadorian Juan León Mera dramatizes a love between a woman from the Zápara culture (Amazon) and a man from a landowning family; and of Sab (1841), of the Cuban Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, a story of love between a slave and a Creole woman who at the same time serves as a complaint against slavery and discrimination based on socioeconomic class.

Two extensive and narrative poems that idealize marginal groups and peasants have become particularly famous and are today considered to be very representative works of Spanish-American Romantic poetry. One is “Tabaré” (1888), a famous epic poem by the Uruguayan Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, which tells a love story “in the wild spring of America” at the time of the European conquest, between an indigenous man and a Spanish woman. The other is the epic work of the Argentine José Hernández: El gaucho Martín Fierro (1872) and La Vuelta de Martín Fierro (1879), which tells the story of the gaucho, the famous cowboy from the Pampa, who drew from both indigenous and Spanish traditions. Hernández writes within the tradition of Gaucho poetry, which emerged during the struggles for independence at the beginning of the 19th century and celebrated the patriotic heroism and the local, distinctive culture of the cowboys from the Argentinian and Uruguayan plains.

The following stanza from “Martín Fierro” summarizes the romantic and sociopolitical ideals of freedom that sustained Spanish-American countries in their turbulent life during the 19th century:

My glory is to live as free as the bird in the sky; I don't nest on this ground, walk, there's so much to suffer; and no one should follow me when I take flight. (v. 91-96)

Mi gloria es vivir tan libre como el pájaro del cielo; no hago nido en este suelo ande hay tanto que sufrir; y naides me ha de seguir cuando yo remonte el vuelo. (v. 91-96)

 

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Aesthetic Context: Romanticism

A reaction against Enlightenment rationalism had begun in Germany and England since the 1770s, which valued unscientific knowledge, the irrational, the emotive and the mysterious. This reaction, later called Romanticism, spread throughout the Hispanic world from the beginning of the 19th century, channeling the nationalist and passionate ideals that accompanied the struggles for independence and the founding of new nations or political systems. In general terms, it opposes the normativity of Enlightenment neoclassicism, which emphasized the precision, balance and didactic value of art based on clear rules. The Romantics, on the other hand, defended originality and both creative and political freedom. The first Romantics included well-known authors such as Schiller and Goethe in Germany, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats in England, as well as Chateaubriand and Victor Hugo in France. From the latter is the famous phrase: “Romanticism is liberalism in literature”, which emphasizes unfinished and passionate work against strict academic rules. The basic features can be summarized as follows:

1) Subjectivism: the work is conceived as an expression of the creative self and its subjective world; the individualism and originality of the artist are emphasized; emotions predominate, and the environment is used to reflect them.

2) Nationalism: the modern ideal of political and personal freedom, with a strong nationalist or patriotic tendency, is highly valued; local language is incorporated; the typical, the folkloric and the popular are idealized as the basis of “the authentic”.

3) Escapism: alternative realities such as the past (medieval, baroque, pre-Columbian), the exotic, the mysterious, the nocturnal, the morbid, the erotic are explored; there is fascination with the labyrinths of the human psyche.

Romanticism, then, can be considered as an individualistic rebellion that seeks to emphasize the emotional in the artistic sphere, with great appreciation for personal and national subjectivity. This is why romantic heroes are often prototypes of rebellion. Likewise, there is a renewal of themes and styles. The nightly and sordid environments are appreciated, seeking the fantastic and exotic stories that enlightened people ridiculed. And it is because of this individualism and desire for originality that the movement has different, sometimes opposing, characteristics in each country and in each author.

 

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“The Death of Abel”, Santiago Rebull, 1851. National Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

As we have seen, a part of the Spanish-American socioeconomic elite sought to form nations based on the models of France and England. In many cases, the training of artists and the commissions they received were based on themes, tastes, and expectations associated with Europe, as seen in this painting by the Mexican artist Santiago Rebull (1829-1902). The romantic aesthetic is evident in the emotional intensity of the characters, which is also reflected in the dark environment and the effective management of light and shadow. Part of Rebull's work was funded by Emperor Maximilian I, who was “imported” from Austria by conservative leaders and governed Mexico between 1863 and 1867, a clear case of political “Europeanization.” Strangely enough, he was succeeded by civil rebellion by President Benito Juárez, of indigenous descent. This historic episode is representative of the violent tensions between proposed nations, social classes, ethnicities and power groups that characterized most of the 19th century in Latin America, and which often could only be stabilized through authoritarian governments or dictatorships.

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Fuentes

• Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to Hispanic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Frank, Jean. History of Spanish-American literature. Barcelona: Ariel, 1983.
• Echeverria, Esteban. “The Captive” 1839. Rhymes. https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/La_cautiva_(Echeverría)
• Hernandez, Jose. Martín Fierro the gaucho. 1872. https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/El_Gaucho_Martín_Fierro_(1894).
• Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 4th ^ed. Berkeley: U of California, 2005.