final project

For my final project I read two books: Selected Writings by Jose Marti and Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset. As the last of Marti's writing is in May 1895, Marti's generation is literally the one Ortega y Gasset writes about. A generation of social upheaval, from both the perspectives of both Cuban Marti and Spanish Ortega y Gasset, Ortega y Gasset insinuates that this generation also brings about the genesis of the "mass-man". In what resembles fifteen essays, Ortega y Gasset characterizes the mass-man, his origins, and his rise to social power.

In my paper, I am going to and prove Marti as one of Ortega y Gasset's "liberators of the masses" through both Ortega y Gasset's stated characteristics and the writings of Marti. I also am going to determine whether or not Marti is simply "mass" like those he is trying to free or if he is "noble", again using Ortega y Gasset's characteristics of different types of men.

revolt of the masses & one hundred years

Okay, so one of the books I am reading for my final project is this book The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset. An essay on the beginnings of the "mass-man" and his/ the mass' rise to power, Ortega y Gasset also discusses the progression of civilizations. One part that reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude: "...I believe that all life, and consequently the life of history, is made up of simple moments, each of them relatively undermined in respect to the previous one, so that in it reality hesitates, walks up and down, and is uncertain whether to decide for one or other of various possibilities."


Marquez's One Hundred Years is in fact, just this. A compilation of moments in no linear order, many of the moments told in Marquez's story would be considered more common, but it is times when Colonel Aureliano Buendia plays checkers with Moscote that eventually lead him to start a war against the Conservatives. In essence, it is what we could consider the littler, more every day moments in One Hundred Years that truly make the big impact.

cien anos de soledad - myth & archive

After reading the first article by González Echevarría, I found that the article helped me put a lot of different things in perspective - not only about the novel, but about our class this semester as a whole. Many of the themes (Biblical references, myth/ imagination over science, incest, etc) which we discussed in class in relation to 100 Years were mentioned, and after reading this article, I was more acutely aware of these details while reading the last two chapters of the novel.

What Echevarría's article, though, made me more aware of was the stylistic transition as I remembered the other works we read earlier in the year. Clearly 100 Years is completely different from The Jamaica Letter, but I came to see The Jamaica Letter, among the other writings, as truly a more scientific document, as Echevarría suggests the earlier Latin American literature is, not solely a letter from the Romantic period. Reading Echevarría's thoughts about how "the native has timeless stories to explain his changeless society" makes the more circular and definitely nonlinear pattern of the narrator's storytelling to be more understandable, as I now feel I have learned about a reason behind it.

Another circle

Okay, so, I was in Greek class tonight and we are currently translating a pretty good chunk of Sophocles' Ajax. Tonight, we made it to the Ajax's final speech, where toward the end, Ajax discusses a circular pattern of things - about how (okay, this is a really loose translation) snow-heavy winters yield to a fruitful spring; and the dreary cycle of the night stands out of the way for the brightly lit day, and finally, that an enemy is to be hated only to become a friend again. So what my mind did was immediately jump to 100 Years of Solitude - solely because of all the cyclical references we are seeing throughout the book - and I actually ended thinking about the Buendia family's relationship with the Moscote's.

Similar to Ajax's thoughts about the cycle of enemies and friends, Jose Acaradio Buendia begins with a dislike to the Moscote family because of his interference in Macondo. As time passes, the Buendia family sets asides its differences as Aureliano and Remedios marry and even Aureliano maintains his relationship with Don Apolinar Moscote after Remedios's death. But, Aureliano soon makes himself an enemy to Moscote when war breaks out on opposite sides. Thus, the cycle continues.

Although it is just a smaller circle in the midst of many, I thought this was a pretty nifty (and unexpected) connection to two very different works.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Ch1

So far, I have enjoyed reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of the things I find most interesting is the mixing of science and religion. For the most part, these two forces have always been placed in juxtaposition. But in the world of Macondo, the references I saw that seemed to relate to the book of Genesis in the Bible in the first chapter of One Hundred Years of Solitude were being introduced to scientific inventions and ideas by Melquiades. As we discussed in class, the description of Macondo when it is first founded (9) appears to be a utopian community similar to Eden. In a similar light, the townspeople of Maconodo let their curiosity overpower their fear (7), as Adam and Eve do with the forbidden fruit, with the gypsies. Again, Jose Arcadio Buendia is "seduced by the simplicity of the formulas to double gold" (7), causing Buendia to turn away from his family and his community, as the devil seduces Eve to take the fruit from the tree. Science and religion oppose each other, as the introduction of these inventions cause disruption within the utopian Macondo. Yet, as the townspeople become more exposed to these new objects, science becomes part of the culture - and thus, science and religion are able to blend.

Beyond the mythical world of Macondo, I was curious to see what the role of religion played in Latin America during the time in which this book was written. According to the book I found, Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: Religion and Democracy in South America, I came to discover that theologians began to incorporate Marxists insights along with existential analysis into Catholicism. Thus, science and religion were beginning to meld in a similar fashion to Macondo. Science in South America (around the 1960s), becomes incorporated with Catholicism like the alchemist's set and inventions that become intertwined with the Eden-esque community of Macondo. This new discovery helped me see the book in a new way - not just a literature but also as a symbolic representation of what was going on in South America.

The Jamaica Letter & The Enlightenment

Simón Bolívar, author of The Jamaica Letter, was considered to be a man influenced by the European Enlightenment yet at the same time; he ends up creating a dictatorship in Bolivia when he writes the country’s constitution. During the course of The Jamaica Letter, various influences of the Enlightenment are mentioned. The first being the examples of the governments set up in Venezuela, New Granada, Buenos Aires, and Chile, based upon Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and Montesquieu’s ideals (19). Bolívar also quotes Montesquieu in the letter, and although it is not in reference to government but actually related to slavery, it is still proof Bolívar’s knowledge of Enlightenment thinkers and their ideals. In trying to decide which form of government would be best for the South American people, Bolívar feels that “…Americans desirous of peace, sciences, art, commerce, and agriculture, would prefer republics to kingdoms” (25). The idea of a republic was heavily regarded in the Enlightenment and is also held in high esteem by Bolívar. He views the Roman republic as perfect and sees Venezuela setting up its provisional government in the form of a republic before New Granada, Buenos Aires, and Chile attempt to follow suit.

At the same time that these provisional governments in America are being set up based off of Enlightenment theories, it is foreseeable that Bolívar will not follow suit when he writes Bolivia’s constitution later. During the latter part of The Jamaica Letter, Bolívar worries that South America is not yet ready for a republic as its form of government. Not only does he believe that “we [the Americans] threw ourselves headlong into the chaos of revolution” (21), but also that “The Americans have made their debut on the world stage suddenly and without the prior knowledge or, to make matters worse, experience in public affairs, having to enact the eminent roles of legislators, magistrates…and all the other supreme and subordinate authorities that make up the hierarchy of a well-organized state” (21). Simply, Bolívar is already aware of how little experience the American people have with running any form of government, let alone a type of government which he views as being perfect, a republic. Hearing that the provisional governments set up in Venezuela and New Granada, which were set up strictly on Enlightenment ideals, are failing, Bolívar admits that “although I aspire to a perfect government for my country, I can’t persuade myself that the New World is ready at this time to be governed by a grand republic” (23). Bolívar also admits in The Jamaica Letter that what he is looking for right away will just be a government that will work right away. Thus, because of the inexperience the New World has with running a government and how it is not ready for a republic, and therefore Bolívar wishes not to have one, there is no way that Bolivia would become a republican state when Bolívar writes the constitution.

At the same time it is interesting that a man, who is still educated in Enlightenment principles, chooses to make the Bolivian government a dictatorship with a dictator who can pick his successor. This idea goes against the idea of a republic, which Bolívar strives to see one day in South America. Although slightly bizarre, earlier in The Jamaica Letter, Bolívar states that in America, “People are slaves when the government, by its essence or though its vices, tramples and usurps the rights of the citizen or subject. By applying these principles, we will find that America was not only deprived of its freedom but deprived as well of the opportunity to practice its own active tyranny” (19). By going on the give examples of absolutist governments, Bolívar believes that is okay for these governments to be the way they are because the rulers practicing the oppression of its people are of the same nationality. Thus, when Bolívar writes the Bolivian constitution stating that there will be a dictator for life, it is justified because it is assumed that the person ruling this absolutist government will be of the Bolivian nationality.