Ideologues and Ideologies in Latin America

220 Pages·1997·1.753 MB·English

by  William M. Fowler

Ideologues and Ideologies in
Latin America
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Ideologues and Ideologies
in Latin America
Edited by Will Fowler
Contributions in Latin American Studies, Number 9
Greenwood Press
•
Westport, Connecticut London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ideologues and ideologies in Latin America / edited by Will Fowler.
p. cm. — (Contributions in Latin American studies, ISSN
1054–6790 ; no. 9)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–313–30063–1 (alk. paper)
1. Latin America—Politics and government—20th century.
2. Ideology—Latin America. 3. Social movements—Latin America.
I. Fowler, Will. II. Series.
JL966.I34 1997
320.5′098′0904—dc20 96–41469
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 1997 by Will Fowler
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96–41469
ISBN: 0–313–30063–1
ISSN: 1054–6790
First published in 1997
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Thomas and Eddie
(¡los ideólogos del mañana!)
Contents
Preface ix
1. Introduction: Stressing the Importance of Ideological Discourse 1
Will Fowler
2. The Rise and Fall of Anarcho-Syndicalism in South America,
1880–1930 11
Paul Henderson
3. Cuban Nationalism and Responses to Private Education in Cuba,
1902–1958 27
Laurie Johnston
4. Intellectuals and the State in Spanish America: A Comparative
Perspective 45
Nicola Miller
5. Ideology and Populism in Latin America: A Gendered Overview 65
Marta Zabaleta
Translated by Caroline Fowler and Mike Gatehouse
6. Ideology and the Cuban Revolution: Myth, Icon, and Identity 83
Antoni Kapcia
7. U.S. Ideology and Central American Revolutions in the Cold War 105
David Ryan
viii Contents
8.Ideology and Opportunism in the Regime of Alfredo Stroessner,
1954–1989 125
Peter Lambert
9.Feminism, Ideology, and Low-Income Women’s Groups in Latin
America 139
Anny Brooksbank Jones
10.Jaime Guzmán and the Gremialistas: From Catholic Corporatist
Movement to Free Market Party 151
Marcelo Pollack
11.El Mercurio’s Editorial Page (“La Semana Económica”) and
Neoliberal Policy Making in Today’s Chile 171
David E. Hojman
Selected Bibliography 187
Index 197
Editor and Contributors 209
Preface
Since 1994 my research has focused on political thought in Independent Mexico,
1821–1853. Given that in 1996 I had started to work on a study on Mexico in the
Age of Proposals, 1821–1853, I was interested, in comparative terms, to see how
ideologues and ideologies had, in fact, influenced or not, the political process in
other Latin American countries since independence. For what were clearly selfish
reasons I was particularly interested in seeing other scholars at work, concentrating
on the same issues that were obsessing me, albeit regarding different countries and
different historical contexts. The hope of stealing some of their ideas in order to
apply them to my own ongoing work, into the ideologies of Mexico during the early
national period, formed part of my motivation in inviting other specialists to
reassess the importance of ideological discourse in their own fields of interest.
Therefore, I organized a symposium on “Ideologues and Ideologies,” which was
held at the University of Leeds during the annual conference of the Society for Latin
American Studies (SLAS), March 29–31, 1996.
At a time of “ideological crisis” it seems apt to reconsider the importance of
ideological discourse. This became all the more obvious to me when twenty
scholars came forward proposing to give papers in my session, and when, of all the
symposia that took place during the conference, this one was the one that attracted
most delegates. It is evident that the apparent absence of ideological dialectics in
the world at large, at the turn of the century, is a concern shared by the majority of
academics. This volume is the result of the symposium. Evidently, in order to
present a more coherent and consistent book, only eleven of those twenty papers
are included. The process of selection meant that the nineteenth century was left
out, and therefore, this volume concentrates specifically on the twentieth century.
x Preface
For similar reasons, those papers that focused more specifically on disciplines such
as literature and geography were also excluded. In brief, the chapters contained in
this book are the works of historians and political scientists.
However, the quality of all the papers was exceptional in my mind. The
discussion that they generated was also compelling. I would like to thank in
particular all of those speakers who regrettably are not included in the volume:
Rebecca Earle, Francis Lambert, Stephanie Dennison, Brígida Pastor, Humberto
Morales Moreno, Gareth Jones, Simon Naylor, Joel Outtes, Jasmine Gideon,
George Lambie, Conrad James, Deborah Shaw, and María Negroni. Furthermore a
number of persons and institutions contributed to the success of the meeting and to
the publication of this volume. I am grateful to my colleagues at the University of
St. Andrews, Gustavo San Román, Bernard Bentley, Louise Haywood, Nigel
Dennis, Alan Paterson, and Francisco Soguero, for their support and encourage-
ment. I am grateful to the officers of the SLAS Committee who allowed the
symposium to take place: Peter Beardsell, Sylvia Chant, Colin Clarke, David Fox,
Gareth Jones, James Dunkerley, Roberto Espíndola, John Fisher, Brian Hamnett,
David Stansfield, Paul Garner, Peter Wade, Rory Miller, Elizabeth Allen and Adam
Bickersteth. I am also grateful to David Corkill and David Preston for the excellent
organization of the conference itself. As in the past, my wife, Caroline, proved
invaluable in assisting with the translation of the Spanish quotes into English and
in preparing the chapters for publication, as well as being prepared to look after
Thomas and Eddie whilst I disappeared yet again to attend another conference.
This volume is dedicated to my sons Thomas and Eddie in the hope that their
generation will find the ideological solutions to the problems with which our
generation is wrestling.
chapter 1
Introduction: Stressing the
Importance of Ideological
Discourse
Will Fowler
In Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, the character of
Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves the imaginary village of Macondo to start a civil
war for what are clearly ideological reasons. While the differences between the
conservatives and the liberals in terms of the behavior of their respective political
elites in nineteenth-century Colombia appear blurred and confused, at a village level
it becomes clear that the two movements represent in the eyes of the people two
distinct and opposed ideological discourses. In the words of the character of Don
Apolinar Moscote, the conservative mayor of Macondo:
The Liberals, he said, were Freemasons, bad people, wanting to hang priests, to institute
civil marriage and divorce, to recognize the rights of illegitimate children as equal to those
of legitimate ones, and to cut the country up into a federal system that would take power
away from the supreme authority. The Conservatives, on the other hand, who had received
their power directly from God, proposed the establishment of public order and family
morality. They were the defenders of the faith of Christ, of the principle of authority, and
were not prepared to permit the country to be broken down into autonomous entities.1
Although the colonel leads thirty-two wars in the novel, initially upholding the
liberal principles of the period, it becomes clear to the character, by the end, that
his own troops and his allied politicians are no longer concerned with bringing the
conflict to an end out of a sincere belief that a war and a subsequent conciliatory
treaty are the only means to achieving social and political justice, but that, instead,
their main priority is simply that of obtaining power.