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Twisted Roots by Carlos Alberto Montaner

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Twisted Roots by Carlos Alberto Montaner Twisted Roots A Look at the Historical and Cultural Influences that Shaped Latin America Into the Most Impoverished, Unstable, and Backward Region of the Western World by Carlos Alberto Montaner An indispensable book for understanding why Latin America has been, until now, an unfulfilled promise. -- Mario Vargas Llosa Translated by Louis Aguilar and Marilú del Toro1 1 Translator’s Note: Quotations were translated from the author’s Spanish and were not taken from the original English, in the case that the text had been written in English, or from published English translations of texts written in another language. The titles that appear in English of publications that were originally written in another language were either already in existence or were a direct translation from a simple title. For other, more difficult titles, they either appear only in the original language or, in the case of Spanish titles, they appear in the original Spanish and my own translation. The word “liberal” to refer to a political inclination is used to mean favoring little government intervention in the economy. 2 For Beatriz Bernal, to whom this book and I owe so much 3 “We live in difficult times during which we can neither speak nor refrain from speaking without running some danger.” -- Juan Luis Vives (Letter to Erasmus, 1540) “We are all but heart and soul. Remote from us is the dangerous novelty of thinking.” -- University of Cervera (“Declaration of Support to Ferdinand VII,” Gaceta de Madrid, May 3, 1827) “We have before our eyes two great examples: the American Revolution and the French. Let us discreetly imitate the first and carefully avoid the fatal results of the second.” -- Francisco de Miranda (1799) “The only thing to do in America is emigrate.” -- Simón Bolívar (1830) 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 6 A Suspicious Origin: Fraud, Sophisms, and Other Theological and Judicial Traps 9 One State to the Dissatisfaction of All 35 Blacks in a Persistently Racist Society 53 Sex, Sexism, and Gender Roles 77 An Economy Twisted at Birth 102 ‘Let Others Invent!” 133 Caudillos, Montoneros, Guerillas, and Liberals and Conservatives 175 An Escape from the Labyrinth 197 Bibliography 212 5 TWO WORDS Let us go straight to the heart of the matter: this book is based on the painful hypothesis that Latin America’s patent economic failure, political instability and poor scientific contribution stem greatly from its unique history. A history that, from its inception, was viewed as illegitimate and unjust even by its own protagonists -- Spaniards, Creoles, Indians, and blacks, each group from its own aggrieved perspective and all partly justified. A history that merged the machismo of the conquerors with that of the conquered, to this day brutally undermining women, the most disadvantaged half of Latin America. A history in which the social fabric that emerged, loosely woven from these ethnic snippets, did not manage to form a state reflecting the interests and values of the immense majority. A history that inspired certain customs and attitudes and a particular economic vision at odds with the creation and preservation of wealth. A history, in short, that did not foster scientific originality or technical inventiveness, perhaps because we were never able to overcome the scholastic framework of our culture and the repressive mechanisms that had engendered a social mentality resistant to progress. This book began as a university course. The first seven chapters consist of a series of lectures on Latin American identity I gave in 1997 at the Francisco Marroquín University of Guatemala. I modified the series and repeated it in the summer of 2000 at the University of Miami as part of a special program directed by historian and political scientist Jaime Suchliki. My sole stipulation for these talks was that they be open to the 6 public, for I intended to project a historical view of Latin America useful not only to students, but also to any intelligent or merely curious person who has ever asked why Latin America is the poorest and most underdeveloped region in the West. The eighth chapter, “Escape from the Labyrinth” -- or rather, an early version of it -- was the last lecture I taught at Lima’s Peruvian University of Applied Sciences in the summer of 1999, at the behest of its president, former senator and noted defender of civil liberties, Luis Bustamante Belaúnde. The chapter concluded a series titled, “A Different History of Latin America.” The purpose of this piece, the logical conclusion to my work, was to respond to the agonizing question derived from my previous argument: if Latin America’s historical roots are rotten, is it then permanently condemned to eternal underdevelopment, tyranny, and cultural backwardness? Or might Latin America some day take its place among the other leaders of Western progress? Fortunately, the answer is hopeful: the twentieth century has taught us, especially after World War II, that economic growth is attainable and that poverty and stunted growth are surmountable. Spain, Portugal, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan demonstrate just that. Chile today is also pointing in that promising direction. I am grateful to these universities and their directors for these academic forums, which led to exciting intellectual interaction and enabled me to improve the original text by eliminating previous excesses and adding new reflections. What was once conceived as an extensive, singular piece became two shorter, more distinct works. This book is the first half. The second, A Different History of Latin America, focuses on the foundations of Ibero-American culture and will be published soon. 7 Of course, none of the statements made here is the responsibility of these institutions. They merely provided the stove -- I set the fire and brewed the concoction. Likewise, I owe a debt of gratitude to Professors Beatriz Bernal, Gastón Fernández de la Torriente, Laura Ymayo and Leonardo Fernández-Marcané for their attentive reading of the manuscript. They pointed out discrepancies and generalizations and made valuable suggestions. I also give thanks to my assistant, Ana Grille, who kindly and patiently organized the index, and to Linda Montaner, my wife, who made intelligent observations throughout the writing of this book. 8 A SUSPICIOUS ORIGIN: FRAUD, SOPHISMS, AND OTHER THEOLOGICAL AND JUDICIAL TRAPS In the initial days of the year 2000, a group of Ecuadorian colonels attempted to seize power, repeating a scenario that had been played out a dozen times throughout history in every capital of South America. It was, to paraphrase Marx, like the performance of a well-known farce that almost always ended in tragedy. It often seems as if in that part of the world, democracy -- government ruled by laws and elected with the free consent of the majority -- is the exception, not the rule. Is there anything more Latin American than the shameful spectacle of pistol-wielding soldiers bursting into the presidential palace as government officials flee out the back door? At the close of the twentieth century, only one country in the hemisphere, Costa Rica, was exempt from these afflictions, though twice it witnessed the collapse of institutional order. In 1917 General Federico Tinoco staged a coup that lasted two years; and in 1948 chaotic, disputed elections resulted in a revolution marked by armed conflict and executions. Fortunately, the latter episode ended with the constitutional dissolution of the armed forces and the conversion of barracks into schools, a change of which ticos (familiar term for Costa Ricans) are rightfully proud. The notion that Latin America’s worst problem is militarism mistakes the symptom for the disease. The real issue lies more truthfully in Latin Americans’ nonconformity with the state. They do not believe in it. They do not see government officials as public servants elected to work for society. They suspect, instead, that the laws are unjust and that judges sentence unfairly, if, in fact, the legal process is 9 undertaken at all. They assume political and bureaucratic corruption to be a given, believing that the most unscrupulous careerists use their positions to “grease” business deals. Although Latin Americans seek to legitimize their constitutions through referendums, they do so in a mechanical fashion, as if following ritual stripped of meaning. Hence the weak loyalty to public institutions: strong ethical bonds and a sense of moral obligation are forged with families, friends, and business associates. The state, in the meantime, is perceived as a distant entity -- generally hostile, inefficient, and unjust. This attitude can explain why a majority of Peruvians supported Alberto Fujimori’s violent shutdown of Congress in 1992, and why the same year, 65 percent of Venezuelans backed Hugo Chávez' brutal coup attempted against the constitutional government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. It explains the success of “strongmen” of twentieth- century Latin American history: Juan Vicente Gómez, Trujillo, Somoza, Estrada, Carías, Perón, Pérez Jiménez, Batista, and Castro. The nineteenth century also had its own caudillos: Santa Anna, Rodríguez de Francia, Rosas, Porfirio Díaz, and others in a long, redundant list. It appears that Latin Americans, as a whole, have not been able to create a state with which they feel comfortable, a state believed to have legitimate power and institutions and government entities that truly work to serve society. What accounts for this phenomenon? The roots of the discrepancy are old and worth a closer look, for history may offer perfectly valid solutions to these problems that have persisted into the twenty-first century and show no signs of disappearing. 10 The Original Illegitimacy of Power As would seem perfectly logical, with the arrival of the conquistadors, the wrongly labeled “Indians” doubtless felt victims of a devastating injustice. These were not tribes of “noble savages” living naked in the jungle, but literally millions of human beings -- Incas, Chibchas, Mayas, and Aztecs, among others.
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