—
By Carole Holden
At the moment I am devoting much of my time in the preparation of an exhibition scheduled for May 2010 in the gallery of the Folio Society of the British Library on the independence of Latin American countries. Surely we will have many festivities, both in the BL and in other sites, to celebrate the bicentennial of the independence movements that began in 1810 and continued until the end of the 19th century.
These independence movements were not simply intended to obtain the political and economic emancipation of Spain. They sought, in fact, to revolutionize and replace the colonial system that had lasted on the continent for more than 300 years. The new republics that were formed from the independence movements embraced the illuminist principles of freedom, equality and social justice and sought to eradicate the socioeconomic delay of the region through progressive constitutions that defended, among other things, popular education, including education for women, the abolition of slavery and the improvement of the social and economic conditions of the indigenous population. These were the central issues defended by leaders like Simón Bolívar, who understood that no social revolution could be carried out without the radical change of oligarchic power inherited from the colonial regime. Unfortunately, the Bolivar project of a united and democratic America proved impossible to implement in a society still divided by regional conflicts, private economic interests and a rigid system of class division.
The exhibition will present a variety of materials from our collections, emphasizing the development of the independence movements and their impact on the various Latin American countries in this tumultuous period. Bolivar’s dream of an American continent free of colonial oppression and economic exploitation is still alive on the continent as the Mexican revolution of 1910, the implementation of the socialist government in Cuba in 1959 and the current Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. To get an early idea of the exhibition visit our online gallery.
—
This post was Previously published on blogs.bl.uk. and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
◊♦◊
Talk to you soon.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want to join our calls on a regular basis, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Istockphoto.com