N.º 25, enero de 2021 The Disease and the Hero: Representations of Belgrano’s and Bolívar’s Hidden and Public Syphilis El mal y el héroe: representaciones de la sífilis oculta y pública en Belgrano y Bolívar Juan Carlos González Espitia University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
[email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-3121-4920 ABSTRACT Date of reception: This essay explores discourses of disease, specifically syphilis, linked 06/11/2020 to two defining figures of Latin American independence: Manuel Bel- grano and Simón Bolívar. It examines the construction of discursive Date of acceptance: myths and their relation to political and societal shifts; the manner in 19/01/2021 which different representations of the disease serve as tools of myth- ification in the pursuit of cohesion-seeking narratives for their coun- Citation: González Espitia, tries; and how mythification is continuously reshaped and at a Juan Carlos, “The Disease constant risk of failure, particularly when the understanding of these and the Hero: Representa- diseases is adjusted as a result of scientific changes. It concludes by tions of Belgrano’s and Bolí- showing how the tension between extolment and debasement in var’s Hidden and Public terms of this venereal disease ultimately results in a further rooted Syphilis”, Revista Letral, n.º mythical understanding of the two independence heroes. 25, 2021, pp. 121-139. ISSN Keywords: independence heroes; syphilis; myth; disease. 1989-3302. DOI: RESUMEN http://doi.org/10.30827/RL. Este ensayo estudia los discursos de la enfermedad, específicamente v0i25.16708 la sífilis, vinculados a dos figuras importantes de la independencia latinoamericana: Manuel Belgrano y Simón Bolívar.