The Educational Philosophy of Luis Emilio Recabarren: Pioneering Working-Class Education in Latin America

163 Pages·2020·3.952 MB·English

by  María Alicia Rueda

The Educational Philosophy of
Luis Emilio Recabarren
This text offers a unique philosophical and historical inquiry into the educational
vision of Luis Emilio Recabarren, and his pivotal role in securing independent
education for Chile’s working classes in the early 20th century.
Through close analysis of the textual archives and press writings, The Educational
Philosophy of Luis Emilio Recabarren offers comprehensive insight into Recabarren’s
belief in education as essential to the empowerment, emancipation, and political
independence of the working class, and emphasizes the importance he placed on
the education of workers through experiential learning in their organizations and
press. By situating his work amongst broader political movements occurring in
Latin America and in the world, the text also demonstrates the progressive nature
of Recabarren’s work and maps the development of his philosophy amid socialist,
Marxist, and communist movements.
Making an important contribution to our understanding of the aims and value
of adult education in light of neoliberalism today, this text will be of interest to
scholars, researchers, activists, and post-graduate students with an interest in
education, social movements, and Latin America. The text also addresses key
issues raised in studies of Recabarren and the history of education in Chile.
Dr. María Alicia Rueda is an independent researcher and adult education
scholar based in the United States. Originally from Chile, she has written and
presented extensively in English on the history of the working class in Chile.
Basing her research in adult education and social theory, as well as in literary
studies, she has published articles and chapters on literature, on the immigrant
experience in the U.S., on working-class education, and on social movements.
María Alicia Rueda completed her master's and doctorate in Adult and Con­
tinuing Education at Northern Illinois University, USA, where she also obtained
an M.A. in Spanish and Spanish Literature.
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The Educational Philosophy of Luis Emilio Recabarren: Pioneering
Working-Class Education in Latin America
By María Alicia Rueda
Critical Reflections on the Language of Neoliberalism in Education
Dangerous Words and Discourses of Possibility
Edited by Spyros Themelis
The Educational Philosophy
of Luis Emilio Recabarren
Pioneering Working-Class Education in
Latin America
María Alicia Rueda
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rueda, María Alicia, author.
Title: The educational philosophy of Luis Emilio Recabarren : pioneering
working class education in Latin America / María Alicia Rueda.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge studies in
education, neoliberalism, and Marxism ; 1 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020035677 (print) | LCCN 2020035678 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367861193 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003016984 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Working class–Education–Chile. | Socialism and
education–Chile. | Recabarren, Luis Emilio, 1876-1924. |
Education–Chile–Philosophy.
Classification: LCC LC5055.C5 R84 2021 (print) | LCC LC5055.C5 (ebook) |
DDC 370.983–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020035677
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020035678
ISBN: 978-0-367-86119-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01698-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Taylor & Francis Books
To the Chilean workers who struggled for a just society.

Contents
List of tables viii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xii
Organization of the Book xiv
List of Abbreviations xvi
Introduction xvii
1 Luis Emilio Recabarren: Educator of the Chilean Working Class 1
2 Biography and Historical Context 11
3 The Civilizing Aspect in Recabarren’s Political and
Educational Vision 23
4 Education for Power or Revolutionary Education: Education of
Workers as New Subjects (as Participants in Organizations of the
Working Class) 43
5 The Educational and Revolutionary Role of the Working-Class Press 73
6 Recabarren and his Contemporaries 88
7 Conclusion 100
Afterword 107
Appendix A: Recabarren’s Press Writings by Volumes in Devés and Cruzat’s
(1985–1987) Compilations 111
Appendix B: Working-Class Newspapers in Chile, 1890–1930 114
References 121
Index 129
Tables
A.1 Recabarren’s Press Writings by Volume 111
B.1 Chilean Working-Class Newspapers 1890–1930 by Political Ideology 114
B.2 Major Chilean Working-Class Newspapers 1902–1935 by
Organization 120
ix
Acknowledgements
“Wherever you go, do speak of these torments, brother,
speak of your brother
who dwells down there,
in hell.”
Pablo Neruda
(The Nitrate Men, Canto General)
My maternal grandfather was a British immigrant in the north of Chile, who,
attracted by advertisement, or compelled by limited options in England, or both,
travelled to the colonies in 1907 in search of work, preferably as an engineer;
instead, he would find posts as an accountant and work his way up to become a
middle-tier administrator for an American copper mine. I have often wondered
how many times he and Luis Emilio Recabarren crossed paths. The irony of the
situation, and that I feel says so much about imperialism, resides in that my
grandfather came from a working-class family from London’s East End. His
background was in fact more eminently working class than that of Recabarren,
who came from an impoverished lower middle class. They both started to work
for a living at a young age, my grandfather as a clerk and Recabarren as a
typesetter.
As an Englishman, my grandfather could frequent the elite families of Iquique,
in Tarapacá, and, just as other Englishmen, he married into a Peruvian family.
My grandmother was the youngest daughter of a War with Chile (War of the
Pacific) Peruvian navy officer, who was a hero of earlier battles in the Pacific
against Spanish ships. The elite Peruvian families in Iquique lived, nevertheless,
under occupation by the Chilean state and occasionally suffered persecution by
the Chilean so-called “Patriotic Leagues.” Many had lost their lands and mining
possessions, during or after the war; that was the case of my great grandmother.
Marrying their daughters to Englishmen seems to have been a preferred option
for Peruvian families under these conditions. My grandmother and all her female
siblings married so. In time, I have found that this pattern was quite predominant
in the north of Chile, and clearly underlines a colonial state of things.