Acknowledgments
My expedition, with Aguirre, through the Latin American anti-imperialist imagination would not have been possible without the intellectual guidance of Dr. Verónica Salles-Reese. Since I began this adventure four years ago, lost in a jungle of uncertainties, Dr. Salles-Reese helped me to build a critical boat in which to navigate the rivers of cultural studies and overcome the obstacles posed by such a voyage. I also want to thank Dr. Gwen Kirkpatrick and Dr. Rolena Adorno for their support, kindness, and trust when I was assembling the theoretical equipment for my explorations.
Likewise, I am grateful for the collaboration and advice of my great friend Nicholas Collura. With his incredible literary sensibility, Nicholas helped me to achieve the clear and fluent English embodied in this work.
I want to express my gratitude to Nicolette Amstutz, Jessica Tepper, Lara Hahn, and the entire team from Lexington Books for believing in my project. Journeying with my first book through the world of publishing has been pleasant and enriching thanks to their kindness and expertise.
Thanks to the soldiers on my ship: my professors and colleagues at Georgetown University and the University of North Georgia. They helped me to paddle when the waters were cloudy and reaffirmed that cooperation enriches us much more than competition does. After all, we are all in the same boat.
I thank all my friends who were with me during the writing of this book. They fortified me with new ideas and helped to forestall any readers’ rebellions.
Thank you to my parents for instilling in me an intellectual curiosity, existential humility, and desire to strive for a better world. For their unconditional love throughout this process, I also thank my brother, Luis, another intellectual adventurer whom I much admire; Malex; my godchildren Sofi and Nico; and my uncles, cousins, and family-in-law.
Thanks to my dear wife Denisse, my “Doña Inés,” for supporting me at all times, even when the hostility of the jungle began to take its toll upon the boat and the illusion of El Dorado seemed to fade away. Thanks to my sons Mateo, Daniel, and Gabriel; they too are part of this expedition.
Finally, I thank God for helping me along the way with time and resources. It is a blessing to be able to dedicate myself to what I love. If I don’t reach El Dorado, I can still say that I’ve enjoyed the adventure.
Introduction
The conquistador Lope de Aguirre and his storied depiction in novels, essays, theatrical works, films, and comics will serve as a gateway leading deep into the continent’s anti-imperialist imagination. My analysis will bring to light some of the anti-imperialist dimensions of Latin American culture that have recurred throughout the region’s history, and which connect in some way with the Chavista project. Lope de Aguirre is deeply relevant here: in the history of the Americas, he was the first revolutionary leader, in the modern sense, to rebel against imperial forces and to create an independent government in opposition to the king and to colonial political structures. On the other hand, Aguirre also ruled tyrannically and oppressively: over time, he killed the majority of his followers, even including his daughter.
In addition to this dual liberating/oppressive dimension, Aguirre stands as an incarnation of anger, which has won him the praise and condemnation of writers and artists for centuries since. Anger, as a political emotion, will be my main theoretical lens in approaching the figure of Aguirre; this is where the novelty of my research lies.
My book has six chapters. In the first one, I trace the conceptual map my project will follow, and I explain its relevance for the contemporary intellectual debate. In this chapter, I note that while emotions play a leading role in anti-imperialist crusades, there is insufficient research on this topic in the field of postcolonial studies.
In the second chapter, I analyze the first literary narratives about Aguirre and propose an innovative reading of them, suggesting a parallel between the first relaciones[1] and, on the other hand, the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. I interpret the expedition to El Dorado and the marañón rebellion as a descent into Hell, wherein Lope de Aguirre represents a new Lucifer in opposition to religious and imperial powers.
In the third chapter, I continue my study of colonial sources, but I do so this time from the standpoint of the history of emotions. In the sixteenth century, according to several historians, there was a paradigm shift in the way various emotional expressions were perceived as embodiments of “anger.” This shift was promoted by the national monarchies, by movements in humanistic education, and by religious reforms.[2] In this context, the first colonial writings about Lope de Aguirre condemned his angry behavior and associated it with his rejection of the empire; at the same time, they rejected not only the use of anger but also the practice of mercy as a political behavior.
An analysis of Aguirre’s literary depictions is the subject of my fourth chapter. My main discovery is that from the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth, Aguirre was condemned across the board by writers and thinkers of varying political ideologies. In 1891, however, Carlos Arturo Torres published a drama in which the figure of Aguirre was vindicated for the first time. In that same year, José Martí published Nuestra América, considered the founding text of Latin American anti-imperialism and liberationist thought. From that point on, numerous authors—particularly those associated with the political left—began to exalt the figure of Lope de Aguirre.
In the fifth chapter, I explain how Aguirre became an international icon in the 1970s, at the same time as the Latin American liberation movements picked up steam. While Werner Herzog’s famous film amounted to a condemnation of the man, Spanish and Latin American authors began a systematic defense of Aguirre that spanned the twentieth century. Like Latin American anti-imperialism and liberationist thinking, the exaltation of Lope de Aguirre began in the late nineteenth century and reached its peak in the 70s, and it was associated with the continent’s political left. Vengeful anger is precisely the element most vaunted by Aguirre’s defenders, and it finds an echo in people like Che Guevara and Hugo Chávez.
In the last chapter, I develop the genesis and consolidation of liberationist thought in Latin America, surveying its main figures and their common theoretical approaches. In reaction to positivism and the threat of American expansion, Latin American intellectuals began to develop their own theoretical response on the basis of their colonial history and the desire for liberation. After its heyday in the 1970s, this current of thought fell into disrepute with the end of the Cold War, the imposition of neoliberal policies, and the development of postmodern philosophies in the 1980s and 90s. However, beginning in the late 1990s, Latin America tacked to the left under the leadership of Hugo Chávez and other governments unified by an anti-imperialist ideology that returned liberationist thought to center stage. During the so-called “Pink Tide,” this resurrection of liberationist praxis was accompanied by angry and violent speeches from the majority of its proponents, echoing the wrathful tone of Lope de Aguirre.
This leads me, ultimately, to ask: Is anger a constitutive element of the anti-imperialist imaginary? Do social demands for justice following years of colonial oppression amount to a cry for historical revenge? How can one justify the actions of an irate and violent leader simply because he opposes the hegemony of empire?
Notes
1.
The relaciones were texts written during the time of the conquest and of colonial expansion that narrated events in the Americas and were intended to keep the courts and lettered people of Europe informed.
2.
In his
