Bolivar: American Liberator
Page 56
In the course of researching Bolívar’s life, I visited many libraries and museums throughout the hemisphere, but I could not have written this book without the help of two great American institutions: the Library of Congress and Brown University. At the Library of Congress, I was fortunate to be made a Distinguished Scholar at the John W. Kluge Center, where I took up residence in 2009 and proceeded to immerse myself in the library’s extensive Latin American collection. I thank the eminent James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, who generously granted me that privilege. I am indebted to the Director of the Kluge Center, Carolyn Brown, and her staff members, Mary Lou Reker and Patricia Villamil, as well as Georgette Dorn, Chief of the Library’s Hispanic Division and her deeply knowledgeable colleagues; and the Map Division’s specialist Anthony Mullan, who turned out to be—of all things!—the great-great-grandson of the Lion of the Apure, José Antonio Páez. There is such wit in history.
I am grateful beyond words to Ted Widmer, former director of the John Carter Brown Library, who invited me to be a Fellow at his remarkable institution—so rich in Latin American holdings—at the very start of my research. It was a thrill to read and write in a room alive with Bolívariana, dedicated entirely to the Liberator’s achievements. Ted’s support was invaluable, as was the help I received from his staff: Valerie Andrews, Michael Hamerly, Ken Ward, Leslie Tobias Olsen; and a string of venerable JCBL veterans, including Norman Fiering and José Amor y Vásquez.
Years ago, when I was in the thick of research, I received a note from Thor Halvorssen, who is one of the few living direct descendants of the Bolívar family. His lineage is matrilineal, and derives directly from Bolívar’s sister Juana. Thor, who is founder and president of the Human Rights Foundation, was generous with his gifts: his master’s thesis on Bolívar’s views of the Enlightenment, some precious family books, even a DNA swab of his grandfather’s cheek, which did not corroborate what some of Bolívar’s enemies believed—that the Liberator was largely black-blooded and therefore unsuitable (to them) as a leader. To Bolívar those allegations were meaningless. He spent no time arguing them, instead recruiting blacks to his ranks. But more than likely he would have been amazed that a biographer would be able to trace his haplogroup in cells harvested from a very elderly great-great-grandnephew.
I count myself fortunate indeed to be represented by my agent, Amanda “Binky” Urban, whose fortitude and friendship over the years have been my rock. Binky has seen me through many a genre and caprice, and proved her mettle when I told her I intended to leap from fiction to history. She didn’t flinch. I am grateful, too, to Binky’s colleagues in London, Gordon Wise and Helen Manders, for their ongoing faith in my work.
A biographer couldn’t have better luck than to be edited by Bob Bender, the Simon & Schuster vice president and senior editor whose astute eye and unfailing instincts have made this book better in every way. Thanks also to my publisher, Jonathan Karp, who immediately understood that Simón Bolívar deserved to have his life’s story told again, in an English-language version, and differently. I am grateful to many good people at Simon & Schuster who helped bring this book to life: Johanna Li, Tracey Guest, Maureen Cole, Michael Accordino, Gypsy da Silva, Joy O’Meara, and my phenomenally eagle-eyed copyeditor, Fred Chase.
Thanks to all my friends at The Washington Post, who have been a fount of support over the years. Thanks, too, to my brilliant siblings, Vicky and George, to whom this volume is dedicated. But, in truth, I could not have written any of it—or any of my books, for that matter—without the love and daily sacrifices of my husband, Jonathan Yardley, who read the manuscript of Bolívar at every stage, made dinners when I was oblivious, did all the shopping, walked the dog, fed the cat, and kept the cabinet stocked with good wine.
In the last days of my parents’ lives, each gave me a distinct piece of her or his mind, so characteristic of the differences between them. My father, being a traditionally minded Peruvian, insisted that I take my time. The book had better be good, he said; he didn’t want any daughter of his embarrassing the family. My mother, on the other hand, being a forward-thinking American, would sing her impatience: Hurry! When are you going to finish that thing? Don’t you know I’m on tenterhooks, waiting?
Papi, Mother, bless you for that. I couldn’t have done it without you.
© CLAY BLACKMORE
MARIE ARANA was born in Lima, Peru. She is the author of the memoir American Chica, a finalist for the National Book Award; two novels, Cellophane and Lima Nights; and The Writing Life, a collection from her well-known column for The Washington Post. She is writer-at-large for The Washington Post and a senior consultant at the Library of Congress, and lives in Washington, D.C., and Lima, Peru.
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Notes
Abbreviations
BANH Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, Caracas
BOLANH Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, Caracas
DOC Documentos para la historia de la vida pública del Libertador de Colombia, José Félix Blanco and Ramón Azpurúa, eds.
FJB Fundación John Boulton, Archives, Caracas
HAHR Hispanic American Historical Review
JCBL John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
LOC Library of Congress
O’L Memorias del General O’Leary, Daniel Florencio O’Leary, 32 vols.
O’LB Bolívar and the War of Independence, Daniel Florencio O’Leary
O’LN Memorias: Narración, Daniel Florencio O’Leary, 3 vols.
PRO/FO Public Records Office, Foreign Office, Great Britain
SB Simón Bolívar
SBC Cartas del Libertador corregidas conforme a los originales, Vicente Lecuna, ed., 10 vols.
SBO Obras (Cartas, Proclamas, y Discursos), Vicente Lecuna, ed., 3 vols.
SBSW Selected Writings of Bolívar, Vicente Lecuna and Harold A. Bierck, Jr., eds., 2 vols.
EPIGRAPH
“You can’t speak with calm”: José Martí, Amistad funesta (Middlesex: Echo, 2006), 39–40.
CHAPTER 1: THE ROAD TO BOGOTÁ
Epigraph: We, who are as good as you: Oath at the coronation of the monarch, Aragón, Spain, as reported by Antonio Pérez, secretary to Philip II of Spain, 1550s. Viscardo y Guzmán, Letter, 74.
magnificent horse: Espinosa, Memorias, 260. Espinosa was a soldier in the Granadan rebel forces who became a painter. His portraits are among the most famous of SB. He painted SB from life, so spoke with him often. Hermógenes Maza, the fellow soldier present at this scene, may well have relayed the dialogue that Espinosa quotes.
small, thin: Ibid.
“Here comes one of those losing bastards”: Ibid.
He had been captured and tortured: Delgado, Hermógenes Maza, 28.
“Halt! Who goes there?”: Espinosa, 260.
“¡Soy yo!”: Ibid., 261. Also Delgado, 73.
sweltering afternoon: Groot, Historia, IV, 20.
barely alive, scarcely clothed: O’LB, 158.
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br /> He had lost a third: Lecuna. Crónica, II, 307–17.
abandoned their houses: Groot, IV, 20; also O’L, I, 578–80.
deafening detonations: Groot, IV, 20.
cold-blooded execution: Gaceta de Caracas, 1815, no. 14, 120–21.
he, too, had been ruthless: SB to Zea, Tasco, July 13, 1819, SBO, I, 393.
raced ahead, virtually alone: Groot, IV, 21.
He was gaunt, shirtless: Peñuela, Album de Boyacá, 319–20.
“God bless you, phantom!”: José Peña, Homenaje de Colombia al Libertador Simón Bolívar (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1883), 304.
dismounted in one agile movement: Juan Pablo Carrasquilla, quoted in Blanco-Fombona, Ensayos Históricos, 303 fn.
five foot six inches, etc.: O’LB, 139.
population one and a half times: Bethell, Cambridge History, III, 26. Humboldt estimated the population of Spanish America in 1800 to be 16.9 million. U.S. census figures (www.census.gov) show that of the U.S. in 1820 to be 9,638,453. The total population of Canada in 1822 was 427,465. Joseph Bouchette, The British Dominions in North America (1832), II, 235.
Washington of South America: Langley, Simón Bolívar, ix.
neglected to take the bag: O’L, XVI, 431 (Boletín del Ejército Libertador, Aug, 11, 1819).
hoard of pesos: SB to Zea, Bogotá, Aug. 14, 1819, SBO, I, 395. Bolívar’s letter claims it was one million pesos, but the amount in the treasury was actually 500,000 pesos in coins and 100,000 pesos in gold bars (O’LB, 164).
the serene trickle: Carlos Borges, in Restrepo de Martínez, Así era Bolívar, 24.
predatory sexual escapades: Madariaga, Bolívar (English edition), 23.
gather in the house’s parlor: Blanco-Fombona, Mocedades, 45.
ponderous carved mahogany, etc.: Ibid.; Restrepo de Martínez, 13–32.
chamber next to the living room: Blanco-Fombona, Mocedades, 45.
aware that she was ailing: Gómez Botero, Infancia, 13.
one of their prized female slaves: Ibid., 12.
Inés Mancebo, the Cuban: SB to Pulido, Gobernador de Barinas, Aug. 18, 1813, SBO, II, 222.
Juan Vicente’s lively blue eyes: Camacho Clemente, “Juan Vicente,” in La Revista de Buenos Aires, I (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Mayo, 1863), 278.
looked far older than his years: Gómez Botero, 12.
replied with youthful energy: Blanco-Fombona, Mocedades, 46.
portrait in the elaborate gold frame: Restrepo de Martínez, 16.
descendant of the powerful Xedlers: Madariaga (English edition), 12.
He arrived in Santo Domingo, etc.: Humbert, Les origines, 62.
He introduced large-scale agricultural, etc.: de la Cruz Herrera, Don Simón de Bolívar, 35.
conceived and built the port: Arístides Rojas, Estudios, 191.
Queen Isabel and the Church: Pope Alexander VI, the bull Inter Caetera, 1493. Especially: “We command you . . . to appoint to the aforesaid mainlands and islands worthy, God-fearing, learned, skilled, and experienced men, in order to instruct the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the Catholic faith and train them in good morals.” New Iberian World, I, 273; also, Ferdinand I and Isabella I, Instructions to Christopher Columbus, March 14, 1502, especially: “You are not to take slaves, but if a native should ask to come, for the purpose of learning Our language and returning, you are to give him passage.” New Iberian World, II, 107.
instructing them in the Christian faith: Las Casas, Devastation, 41.
“Forasmuch as my Lord”: Isabel I, Decree on Indian Labor, 1503, New Iberian World, II, 263.
“Slaves are the primary source”: Las Casas, quoted in Sullivan, Indian Freedom, 60.
“Spaniards are still acting like ravening beasts”: Ibid., 127.
to “a population of barely two hundred”: Ibid., 29.
stolen more than a million: Ibid., 50.
“Deep, Bloody American Tragedy,” etc.: Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, penultimate paragraph (www.gutenberg.org/files/23466/23466-h/23466-h.html).
“humble, patient, and peaceable”: Las Casas, Devastation, 28.
ten thousand African slaves: Salcedo-Bastardo, Bolívar, 4.
Chained, herded in gangs: At the port of Buenos Aires in 1630, Governor Pedro de Avila declared that he had witnessed the open sale of 600,000 Indians over the course of two years—a striking number, since the population of the entire city at that time was only 20,000. Miller, Memoirs of General Miller, I, 5.
Indian men who had no facial hair, etc.: Ibid., 12.
a cosmic race: This term was coined by the Mexican philosopher-politician José Vasconcelos in his famous 1925 essay, “La raza cósmica.”
population counted 5,000 Spaniards, etc.: Salcedo-Bastardo, Bolívar, 5.
Venezuela had 800,000 inhabitants: Ibid.
Today, more than two thirds: Francisco Lizcano Fernández, “Composición étnica de las tres áreas culturales del continente americano,” Revista Argentina de Sociología, 38 (May–Aug. 2005), 218.
Nowhere else on earth: Salcedo-Bastardo, Bolívar, 16.
he bought the title outright: Lecuna, Adolescencia y juventud, BANH, no. 52, 484–533.
Josefa’s mother was an Indian from Aroa: Rafael Diégo Mérida, SB’s declared enemy and virulent detractor (whom SB called “El Malo”), claimed this. See Mijares, The Liberator, 14.
a black slave from Caracas: Claimed by SB’s Peruvian nemesis, José de la Riva Aguero, who was deposed by SB but eventually returned to the presidency of Peru. Ibid.
age of sixteen, served the Spanish king, etc.: Masur, Simón Bolívar, 30.
a sexual profligate, etc.: Madariaga (English edition), 23–24, 659.
He began to molest, etc.: Madariaga, Bolívar (Mexico: Editorial Hermes, 1951) I, 67–72. From the Spanish edition of this biography, which is more complete in these details than the English translation. Madariaga quotes from a “reserved file” in the Archives of the Archbishopric of Caracas, titled San Matheo. Año de 1765. Autos y sumarios contra Don Juan Vicente Volíbar sobre su mala amistad con varias mujeres.
When the bishop of Caracas, etc.: This was Diego Antonio Diez Madroñero.
“fearing his power and violent temper”: Madariaga (Spanish edition), 67–72.
“this infernal wolf,” etc.: Ibid.
“loose ways with women”: Ibid.
“by force of law”: Madariaga, Bolívar (English edition, and hereafter), 24.
sent to the convent at four: Ducoudray, Memoirs, I, 40.
on the corner of Traposos: Mijares, 8.
elite were close acquaintances: Ferry, The Colonial Elite, 218.
a baby had just been born: www.euskalnet.net/laviana/palacios.
decorated the heavy sideboards, etc.: Carlos Borges, in Restrepo de Martínez, 24.
“incapable of filling”: Viscardo y Guzmán, 69.
a sentiment held for years: Norman Fiering, ibid., vii.
A Bourbon minister mused: Manuel de Godoy, as quoted in Lynch, Simón Bolívar, 7.
“The Indies and Spain are two powers”: Charles de S. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, II (Cincinnati: Clarke, 1873), 51.
letter proposing revolution, etc.: Juan Vicente de Bolívar, Martín de Tobar, and Marqués de Mixares to Miranda, Caracas, Feb. 24, 1782, Colombeia, II (Caracas, 1979). The editor of this collection remarks that the letter may be inauthentic. Miranda’s biographer Karen Racine (Francisco de Miranda, 27–28) claims it is probably a forgery; she suggests it was written by Miranda himself. Even so, it is a reflection of the sentiments of Venezuelans of his time and class.
Don Juan Vicente’s nephew: Fundación del Mayorazgo de la Concepción, por el presbítero Dr. Don Juan Félix Xerez de Aristiguieta. Caracas, Dec. 8, 1784. Archivo del Registro Principal de Caracas. Quoted in Juan Morales Alvarez, “Los bienes del mayorazgo de la concepción,” Instituto de Altos Estudios de America Latina, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Feb. 2011, www.iaeal.usb.ve/documentos/nro_91/morales.
Juan Vicente’s will and testament, etc.: Madariaga, 22.
“whose milk sustained my life” and “the only father I have ever known”: SB to María Antonia, July 10, 1825, SB, Cartas: 1823–1824–1825, 339.
Willful, irascible: de la Cruz Herrera, 138.
No one scolded him: Arístides Rojas, Historia patria, II, 252.
brought him to live: There is some dispute about this. José Gil Fortoul, for instance, recorded it in his initial history of Venezuela, but edited the material out in a new edition. Francisco Encina, in his Bosquejo psicológico de Bolívar, calls it total “invention.” The historian Arístides Rojas, on the other hand, fully describes Bolívar’s stay in Sanz’s house, and quotes Sanz’s daughter as the source for many stories about the stern lawyer and naughty boy.
“You’re a walking powder keg,” etc.: Arístides Rojas, Historia patria, II, 254.
locked Simón in a room, etc.: Ibid., 254–55.
hired a learned Capuchin, etc.: Ibid., 255.
returned to Caracas and died, etc.: Pereyra, La juventud, 67.
“Concepción decided to lay her illness”: Encina, La primera república, 314.
she had bled for seven days, etc.: Ibid. Don Feliciano’s letter, quoted above, specifies that she began to bleed on Saint Peter’s day, which was a week before her death.