Abstract
The literature on Simón Bolívar's Jamaica Letter has underestimated the importance of Hispanophobia. Generally this aspect of the text has been regarded as purely rhetorical and circumstantial. However, this element is of central importance to the text, because virtually every idea in the essay is closely tied up with this hatred towards Spain. Without Hispanophobia, the Jamaica Letter would simply cease to exist. In this work, I will try to show the three cornerstones of this enmity created by Bolívar: criticism of the Conquest and the Colony, the time gap undermining the Spanish Empire and the invention of this Empire as the worst tyranny in history, an issue to which I will devote particular attention. By means of this exaggeration, Bolívar offers an unintentional justification of every political disaster or constitutional failure.
Translated title of the contribution | Anti-Spanish sentiment in the Jamaica Letter: Between the legitimacy of independence and the justification of republican failure |
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Original language | Spanish |
Pages (from-to) | 405-429 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Revista de Indias |
Volume | 77 |
Issue number | 270 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 CSIC.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- History
- Sociology and Political Science