A Political and Cultural History of Power and the Dialectics

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Reframing Salvadoran Modernity: A Political and Cultural History of Power and the Dialectics of the Hegemonic Bloc in El Salvador, ca. 1850-1944 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Raúl Ernesto Moreno Campos 2015 © Copyright by Raúl Ernesto Moreno Campos 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Reframing Salvadoran Modernity: A Political and Cultural History of Power and the Dialectics of the Hegemonic Bloc in El Salvador, ca. 1850-1944 by Raul Ernesto Moreno Campos Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Raymond A. Rocco, Chair This dissertation analyzes the development, relationship, and intersection of the economic-political and cultural-intellectual axes that defined modernity in El Salvador roughly from the period of 1850 to the end of the General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez’s regime in 1944 and examines the manner in which this historical process shaped the contours of power in Salvadoran society. Using an interdisciplinary methodology and drawing from a variety of archival sources, my study frames the concept of modernity from the perspective of post-colonial societies and the Global South and reframes prevailing analyses of Salvadoran economic and political development by interrogating dominant narratives of underdevelopment, state violence, and facile understandings of political consent. Hence, the central problematic that organizes this study is explaining the process by which the constellation of leading classes within the axes of economic-political and cultural-intellectual activity, who were manifestly in tension by pitting the forces of modernization against the modernist movement, amalgamated into a coherent group ii under the leadership of the military regime in the 1930s. Its central question asks: how were these classes able to surmount their differences and transform from a loose coalition, whose interests were at times at odds, into a coherent, ruling group that went on to dominate Salvadoran politics for six decades and defined an enduring nexus of power and domination in El Salvador? Using a Gramscian theoretical framework, I advance three principal claims. First, I contend that despite the apparently incongruent aims espoused by the forces of economic and political modernization and the cultural movement of modernism, all of these processes were in fact premised upon a fundamental set of presuppositions that reified Western ideas of progress. Second, I posit that the manifest tension between these groups was in fact symptomatic of the dialectical unity between the state and the productive base or society, or what Gramsci termed the historic bloc, and that this dialectical relationship was a central component of the historical process of modernity along its economic and political vectors, and which were mediated by the cultural sphere. Third, the historical processes by which these forces and their representative classes amalgamated into a dominant group was facilitated by the consolidation of the Salvadoran military as a class in a position of leadership within the constellation of dominant classes. The process of hegemonic consolidation thus depended upon a careful balance of consent and coercion, and such a balance helps in part explain the extraordinary longevity and resilience of the Salvadoran military regime. My research reveals that civil organizations, such as the Salvadoran Athenaeum and the country’s theosophical lodges, were important interstitial institutions that forged links between the state and the civil sector, and served to legitimize and generate consent for the military regime. This project represents a contribution to both Gramscian theory, the critique of modernity from the perspective of coloniality, and the analysis of power in El Salvador along its economic, political, cultural, and intellectual vectors. iii The dissertation of Raul Ernesto Moreno Campos is approved. Anthony R. Pagden Lauren Derby Raymond A. Rocco, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv For the people of El Salvador and Latin America, who’ve dared to resist empires. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Modernity and the Solitude of El Salvador ............................................................1 Chapter One: The Paradoxes of Modernity: Modernization, Modernism, and the Dialectical Process of the Historic Bloc ...........................................................................................................20 Chapter Two: Coffee and Clientelism: Economic Modernization, Political Development, and Military Hegemony in El Salvador, ca. 1850-1944 ......................................................................64 Chapter Three: Mediating the Crisis of Modernity: Modernism and Francophilia in Salvadoran Arts and Letters, ca. 1870-1944 ...................................................................................................113 Chapter Four: The Arcane Technology of Modernity: Esotericism, Theosophy, and Networks of Power in El Salvador, ca. 1898-1944 ......................................................................................158 Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................190 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................201 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation’s represents the capstone to an educational journey that I began as a child growing up in San Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War. Indeed, its conception attests both to the manner in which my particular biography intersected with my academic interests and training, and it is a reflection of my education both inside and outside the classroom. Its completion, however, would not have been possible without the love and support of family, friends, and mentors with whom I’ve had the pleasure to share life, love, and light over numerous years. First and foremost, I would like to thank my mother Vilma Campos Romero de Moreno, who under the most dire of circumstances and facing great peril to herself and her family, had the fortitude to work, care for me and my sister Adriana, and complete a Licenciatura in International Relations at La Universidad Nacional during a period of great political repression in El Salvador. At a time when studying politics from a critical angle carried great risk, she managed not only to survive but also excel. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that she sacrificed her accomplishments so our family could be reunited in the United States. My mother’s love and compassion have sustained me throughout many trials and tribulations in my life, and this work is no exception. In addition, her keen insights on the political process in El Salvador and the Central American region have always refined my thinking and have been a source of inspiration for me. I owe to her more than words can convey—gracias madre. This accomplishment is also yours. I will also like to thank my father, José Raúl Moreno Castillo, who opened my eyes from an early age to the esoteric societies and currents that defined much of Salvadoran cultural vii modernism throughout the 20th-century and raised my sister and I in a home steeped in these traditions. A brilliant man, my father has always nurtured the love of learning and books in our home since I was a child. Thank you for sharing with me stories about your days as a student in the UCA and of your philosophy training with Ignacio Ellacuría. I continue to enjoy our conversations of philosophy, esotericism, and Eastern religions. I would also like to thank him for our many conversations on Salvadoran military history and its linkage to esotericism. Gracias padre. This project, of course, could never have come to completion without the numerous mentors and colleagues that I’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with during my time at UCLA. I would like to first recognize and thank the late E. Victor Wolfenstein, whom I met while still a sophomore at UCLA. His PS 116A opened my eyes to the demystifying and emancipatory power of rigorous criticism, demonstrated to me the highest standards of the academic profession, and gave me tools to interpret the world from the standpoint of critical theory. But most importantly, Victor, as he always wanted me to call him, inspired me to embark upon doctoral studies and become part of thinkers and pedagogues like him who were committed to emancipatory politics. Over the years our professional relationship grew into a beautiful friendship that has indelibly touched my life professionally, personally, and spiritually. Professor Wolfenstein’s commitment to education and the critical tradition’s emancipatory promise will always represent to me the highest ideals of radical politics. I continue to ask his spirit to walk with me to the classroom. Thank you, Victor. You’re always in my thoughts and in my heart. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my committee chair, Professor Raymond Rocco. Since our very first meeting while I was an undergrad completing an honors thesis on Hegel under the supervision of Professor Wolfenstein, Professor Rocco has generously viii volunteered his time and extended his help within and beyond academia. A man of extraordinary intellectual vitality, tenacity, and lived experience, professor Rocco is a Chicano

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