I.3.7 DIGITAL ARCHIVE 1052919
Parisian-based Francisco García Calderón was one of the foremost thinkers of fin-de-siècle Peru and Latin America. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Francophile wrote an important trilogy on identity formation in Latin America: Le Pérou contemporain (1907), Les Démocraties Latines de l’Amérique (1912), and La Creación de un continente (1912). The text published here includes the introduction to the latter which is García Calderón’s most widely read book. While writing about Peru in 1907, he acknowledged that his country was but part of a larger, more uniform world that bound fellow nations together. Writing from a continental perspective, García Calderón argues that the Latin American nations share certain key characteristics that transcend provincial differences. The text has been translated from the original [La Creación de un continente, (Paris: P. Ollendorff, 1912), vii–xiv].
No lyric phrases, valiant systems, nor fervent speeches by the tribune move us more religiously than the emotional appeal of our race. When we feel that a history, tinged with gravitas and haloed by gilded legends, supports our meager individuality, our acts take on transcendental meaning. In the fullness of time we participate in an ancestral work, painstakingly adding our own contribution to our common heritage, shaken by a vibration that emanates from the bowels of the Earth. We retell the old legend and draw restorative strength or the gift of hope from the nurturing soil where heroic ancestors lie buried.
While studying the magnificent history of Peru in a devotional book, I discovered that my motherland was but a portion of a uniform world. Beneath the surface of the soil, impatient roots of fraternal trees lay closely intertwined. Ever since the heroic century of the Spanish Conquest, a stubborn solidarity has bound these fellow nations together. In the first place, we share a political continuity; in the second, we are inspired by a common intellectual restlessness and a unanimous struggle for freedom. From a continental perspective, the only differences between these countries with so much in common arise from their provincial originality. When a great conductor of men emerges to direct the vast scenario, the separate parts reclaim their old unity to produce a magnificent symphony that springs from the very bosom of their apparent discord. In this Spanish New World, patriotism is one with Americanism. If petty antagonism clouds the vision of collective need, the moral strength of the race is diminished. Within the immense loudspeaker, hostile notes dissolve Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” [1837]:
The foe long since in silence slept
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream w[h]ich seaward creeps.
In the disparity of these bewildered nations we found an ancient harmony. There is a continent, a confederation with no written agreements, a moral league with no harsh sanctions, a gathering driven by destiny and dictated by terrain and by race. Powerless men conspire against unity; they consecrate iconic stones to the worship of hatred. And yet a powerful force that rises from graves buried deep in the earth is pushing this chaotic race of people toward an eventual union. As the Liberators faced their final twilight, this future unity was all that soothed their dying eyes. Those great patrons live on within us and help us to see beyond our temporary separation to their vision of a unified continent.
Those who advocate for Utopia wish that the splintered Old World could follow the example set by this impressive congregation of countries. Europe, however, is merely a geographic expression, totally lacking in moral profile. Their history is a conflicted collection of hegemonies, upheavals spawned by invasions, hostility among creeds, linguistic confusion reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, and endless difficulties arising among castes. France has clarity of language, subtlety of reason, an equalizing democracy, an imperial religion, and radiant skepticism. In Germany there is a religious individualism that flourishes in active sects, an authoritative feudalism, a complex and imprecise language, and a restless mysticism. History has created a fundamental antagonism between two neighboring nations. England is surrounded by the sea, which imbues it with an insular hostility. Only the farsighted will of politicians has managed to unite theocratic Austria and liberal Italy.
Taking their cue from the European divorce, [Latin] Americans deny the originality of their land and their history. In the River Plate region they are discovering the gravity of the Balkan problem; on the Pacific coast, they face the unavoidable conflict between those of Latin and German descent. Whereas the Liberators were forever comparing themselves to Napoleon and [George] Washington and aspiring to duplicate their impressive accomplishments and our Romantics were flailing about in Byronic despair, [Latin] Americans now try to exacerbate their disputes by mirroring foreign divisions or promoting artificial oppositions. Chileans pride themselves on their Teutonic will. But what does it mean to be Germanic without a disillusioned Faust, with no mystic legacy, with no sweeping, complex philosophies on the scale of Gothic cathedrals, with no scientific credentials or proud imperial tradition? Lacking foresight, these nations squander their meager resources on weapons and splendid ships. They fervently build an armed peace, seeking a balance of power and trying to identify influential blocs in neighboring nations, while ignoring the vast barren areas in their own countries that demand creative policies.
In the face of watchful imperialism, the Americas can only achieve their eventual independence through a merging of mutual interests. Now that the Panama Canal has sliced through the isthmus, the southern continent will become an impressive geographical region in its own right, upon which it will be easy to lay the foundations for the intellectual, moral, and economic union of participating nations. The advantages of unity were fully understood by the greatest caudillos, the Lords of Chaos: [Jose Manuel de] Rosas, [Andrés de] Santa Cruz, [Joaquín] Mosquera, and [Francisco] Morazán. In Nero-like fashion, the former wanted to rebuild the dismantled Vice-Royalty of the River Plate. Santa Cruz temporarily welded the homogeneous destinies of Peru and Bolivia. Mosquera dreamt of that Greater Colombia whose magnificent heritage was carved up by ruthless generals. Morazán fought to the death for a united Central America. [Simón] Bolívar, being a visionary warrior, understood that without unity, autonomy is a vain prize, and segued from magnificent hero of an Iliad to peaceful organizer of the Peoples’s congress.
In both Europe and the Americas, history praises those who create unity: [Camilo Benso, Count of] Cavour, [Abraham] Lincoln, [Otto, Prince of] Bismarck. Cavour built a strongly united Italy on a foundation of Dante-esque disputes between power-hungry principalities. When the North and the South went to war over the enslavement of an exiled race, Lincoln reunited the splintered states and solidified George Washington’s undertaking. Bismarck founded the Prussian hegemony by sinking the rough columns of a healthy federation in the enemy blood of elegant France and noble Austria. Feudal division was followed everywhere by modern unity. Local exclusivity was rendered mute before the majesty of broader mergers. As in the biblical vision, the scattered rocks came together against a backdrop of solemn music to build the edifice of the future.
Our era strives to organize random forces in all realms of thinking and action, determined to achieve its goal of synthesis. In the sciences, it is not satisfied with partial analysis; it develops ambitious theories concerning evolution or Darwinian struggle and would like to surround the universe with inflexible formulas. The strangest disciplines are confederated, and philosophy—according to [Herbert] Spencer’s definition—is nothing more than completely unified knowledge. Major international movements tend to destroy frontiers: socialism and unionism, united classes, the trusts of feudal capitalism, unselfish scientific groups, all flourish in a century that is hostile to the old divisions. All races aim to define their interests and to preserve their moral unity. A free Saxon Empire, saluted by the booming waves of all the oceans of the world, is the largest political structure of modern times. Only our America is unaware of the universal advantage of unity. She does not act in harmony with the land or with the dead, those sacred charges that are respected by vital nations. Within our republics, families and provinces are at war with each other; across the continent, states argue among themselves about ancestral hierarchies. Instead of populating the remote areas of the country or swelling the national coffers, these aggressive democracies attempt to create atomic divisions, suicidal scattering, or an apocalyptical chaos.
The solvent power of rampant jingoism lasted a century. While a consolidated, protective state was being created in the North of our continent, the nations in the South continued to pursue their original fragmentation. The first centennial of liberty—celebrated with great pomp from Venezuela to Argentina— ushered in a new attitude. It was time to take a serious look at oneself. A shadowy flock of twilight birds can be seen along the uncertain horizon. Is it the decline of hard-won independence, the end of an effective brotherhood? The future of our race will depend on the course charted by American policy. This course will either create a continent built on the dust of hostile nations or will sow the seeds of the final breakup—the tragic contributor to the isolating desert, the dividing cordillera, the annihilating instincts.
This book condemns artificial enmity and rejects Utopia. It respects vested interests and century-old borders, and proposes the creation of a continent where nations can live in harmony with each other. In the moral order, it translates the dictates of geography. It modestly aspires to continue the work of all those who labored tirelessly to unify race and language, rights and morals, family and faith, political system and necessary ideals. It seeks to perpetuate the efforts of the Conquistadors and the Liberators, the solemn jurists and the meticulous doctors, and all who fought with quixotic zeal across the jagged mountains, the violent rivers, and the endless plains to create a beloved, ideal, and independent America.
We began by studying the various forms of unity: [Latin] American congresses and assemblies presided over by the United States; we analyzed two great trends of economic and moral reconciliation: Pan Americanism and Pan Hispanicism (Book One). A new race, original and autonomous, grows up in overseas territories: its goal is an Americanism that can withstand all outside influences. We distinguished this strong trend from the excesses of national spirit that are liable to promote dangerous divisions (Book Two).
The Americas, jealous of their political freedom, have not yet achieved their intellectual and economic independence. They even imitate servility, revere the foreigner, and forget their current originality. We successively established the basis for their autonomy in religion, politics, education, the arts and literature (Book Three).
Our review yields some optimistic conclusions. Not the vulgar Panglossian satisfaction, but rather the specific lesson provided by Voltaire: let us lovingly cultivate our garden and make it a small universe. The clement skies, the subtle race, the invincible freedom, the wealth of the land and its minerals, of the shaded forests and turbulent rivers are all part of a precious legacy held in trust for those who will build wealthy, welcoming cities where once there was nothing but desert.