Bolivar: American Liberator

by Arana, Marie

  they soon proved to be weak executives, etc.: SB to Briceño Méndez, Cartagena, Sept. 20, 1830, SBC, IX, 320.

  Mosquera had become the very antithesis: Ibid.; also SB to Soledad, Oct. 25, 1830, SBC, IX, 342.

  “My hero has turned into a pumpkin”: SB to Briceño Méndez.

  The regime tried to seize, etc.: Rumazo González, 265; also Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 78.

  “In answer to your demands,” etc.: Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 78.

  she meant to break the back, etc.: Ibid., 78–80.

  She courted the regiments with beer, etc.: Azuero, in particular, complained bitterly about this. Rumazo González, 266; “Documentos inéditos,” 380–85.

  initiated a formal investigation, etc.: “Documentos inéditos,” 375, for all these details.

  The mayor of Bogotá let it be known: Lecuna, “Papeles de Manuela Sáenz,” 519–20.

  She received so many death threats, etc.: Turner to Aberdeen, Bogotá, Aug. 12, 1830, PRO/FO, 18:77, 14–18; also José Manuel Restrepo, Diario político y militar, II (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1954), 102; also Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 80–81.

  Sáenz packed up her possessions, mounted her horse, and left: Restrepo, Diario, II, 102.

  entire political climate of Colombia had reversed, etc.: All the particulars in this paragraph are described in SB to Briceño Méndez, Cartagena, Sept. 1, 1830, SBC, IX, 287. See also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 482–83.

  skirmish outside the capital: Battle of Santuario, Aug. 27, 1830. Restrepo, Historia, IV, 366–67.

  on September 5, he and Caicedo were deposed: Ibid., 372. Also DOC, IV, 480–85.

  General Urdaneta, who had been behind the coup, etc.: Restrepo, Historia, IV, 372.

  using Bolívar’s glory for his own purposes, etc.: SB knew it. Writing to General Montilla six months before, he said, “A few swine who were behind the monarchical project have imagined they could sell my soul in order to save themselves; but I am resolved to maintain my dignity, my honor and glory, in spite of their perfidious projects.” SB to Montilla, March 21, 1830, SBC, IX, 230.

  “The Liberator is immortal,” etc.: Sáenz to D. Logan, Guaduas, Nov. 24, 1830, BANH, 29, no. 74 (July–Dec., 1949), 277–80.

  She sent one of her friends: This was Perú de Lacroix, who was at his side until the end. Villalba, Epistolario, 32–33.

  flourish once more when he reached England: Arciniegas, Las mujeres y las horas, 288.

  march south with three thousand troops: SB to Justo Briceño, Cartagena, Sept. 15, 1830; SB to Castelli, Sept. 18, 1830; SB to Urdaneta, Sept. 18, 1830; all in SBC, IX, 306–13.

  “If they offer me an army,” etc.: SB to Briceño Méndez, Cartagena, Sept. 20, 1830, ibid., 320–22.

  he had said so only to boost his supporters: “I offered these things vaguely, in order to dissimulate, but I was not going to Bogotá, not going to rule.” SB to Vergara, Sept. 25, 1830, ibid., 323–28.

  he was deathly sick, etc.: Villalba, Epistolario, 32–33.

  Páez’s “crazy fandango”: “un fandango de locos,” SB to Briceño Méndez, Cartagena, Sept. 1, 1830, Documentos para los anales, 266–67.

  “I cannot live between rebels,” etc.: SB to Briceño Méndez, Sept. 20, 1830, ibid.

  Where was the legal process? etc.: SB to Briceño Méndez, Cartagena, Sept. 10, 1830, SBC, IX, 304.

  He felt he had been diminished, etc.: Ibid.

  “and now here they are, wanting to strip me”: Ibid.

  “Mosquera is the legitimate president,” etc.: SB to Urdaneta, Cartagena, Sept. 25, 1830, SBC, IX, 320–23; also in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 556.

  “I no longer have a fatherland”: SB to Vergara, Sept. 25, 1830, SBC, IX, 323–28.

  “Believe me, . . . I’ve never looked on insurrections”: SB to Vergara, Sept. 25, 1830, SBC, IX, 323–28.

  a feverish spurt of epistolary energy: Bolívar dictated fifty-two letters in the course of a month, from mid-Oct. to mid-Nov. 1830. Polanco Alcántara, 1024.

  a letter from General Lafayette: Lafayette to SB, Lagrange, June 1, 1830, DOC, XIV, 236.

  from George Washington’s family: SB to Lafayette, Lima, March 20, 1826, SB, El Libertador, 171.

  “the Washington of the South”: The letter included a commemorative medal and a lock of George Washington’s hair. G. W. Custis to SB, Aug. 26, 1825, The United States of Venezuela (New York: Government of Venezuela, 1893), 144. (Published for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.)

  “I am old, sick, tired, disillusioned,” etc.: SB to Briceño Méndez, Cartagena, Sept. 20, 1830, Documentos para los anales, 266–67.

  more than 75,000 miles: 120,000 kilometers. This figure is cited in many works on SB, including Alvaro Vargas Llosa’s review of John Lynch’s Simón Bolívar in The New Republic, June 19, 2006; or monographs such as R. D. Favale’s “Las casas más importantes de Simón Bolívar,” http://www.scribd.com/doc/19325625/Las-casas-mas-importantes-de-Bolívar. Also see Bernal Medina, Introducción.

  He had rarely experienced physical weakness, etc.: O. Beaujon, El Libertador enfermo, Sociedad Venezolana de Historia de la Medicina, conference, June 27, 1963 (Caracas: Grafos, 1969), 105ff.

  too incapacitated to do more than dictate, etc.: SB to Urdaneta, Soledad, Oct. 25, 1830, SBC, IX, 345–49.

  shooting pains in his abdomen, etc.: SB to Montilla, Soledad, Oct. 27, 1830, ibid., 349–51.

  He asked for a little dry sherry, etc.: SB to Montilla, Barranquilla, Nov. 8, 1830, ibid., 374–75; also SB to Mier, Barranquilla, Nov. 19, 1830, ibid., 393.

  The heat of Cartagena was debilitating: SB to Briceño Méndez, Dec. 4, 1830, ibid., 405.

  swaddled in wool from head to toe: Arciniegas, Los hombres y los meses, 290.

  longing for a quick voyage at sea, etc.: SB to Montilla, Barranquilla, Nov. 11, 1830, SBC, IX, 384–85; also SB to Urdaneta, Barranquilla, Nov. 8, 1830, Documentos para los anales, 253–54.

  adamantly refused medicines, etc.: SB to Urdaneta, Soledad, Nov. 6, 1830, SBC, IX, 369.

  There was no doctor, etc.: SB to Montilla, Soledad, Oct. 27, 1830, ibid.

  “I’ve deteriorated to such a degree,” etc.: SB to Urdaneta, Soledad, Oct. 31, 1830, ibid., 355.

  a living skeleton, etc.: SB to Urdaneta, Soledad, Oct. 16, 1830, ibid., 333–38.

  “Today, I had a bad fall,” etc.: Ibid.

  Climbing a few steps, etc.: SB to Justo Briceño, Barranquilla, Nov. 24, 1830, ibid., 395–96; also Wilson to O’Leary, Santa Marta, Oct. 31, 1830, O’L, XII, 131.

  He had barely enough strength to sit, etc.: José Vallarino to Panama, Nov. 10, 1830, BOLANH, no. 104, 258ff., quoted also in Madariaga, 643–44.

  a little tapioca, etc.: Vallarino to Panama, Nov. 10, 1830, BOLANH, no. 104, 258 ff.

  “I’m very, very alarmed,” etc.: Wilson to O’Leary, Oct. 31, 1830, O’L, XII, 131.

  his mind was sharp, etc.: Polanco Alcántara, 1024–25.

  “Believe me, . . . you two will end up like Páez”: SB to Justo Briceño, Soledad, Oct. 31, 1830, SBC, IX, 356.

  “Building one good accord is better”: SB to Urdaneta, Nov. 16, 1830, ibid., 390.

  “Many generals . . . know how to win”: SB to Urdaneta, Turbaco, Oct. 2, 1830, ibid., 329.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if they kill you”: SB to Urdaneta, Soledad, Nov. 4, 1830, ibid., 362–65.

  instructed Urdaneta to burn those letters: Ibid.

  could count on holding power: SB to Urdaneta, Soledad, Oct. 16, 1830, ibid.

  “Avenge Sucre’s murder,” etc.: SB to Flores, Barranquilla, Nov. 9, 1830, ibid., 370.

  he believed, beyond all evidence to the contrary: SB to Urdaneta, Barranquilla, Nov. 26, 1830, ibid., 399–400.

  he would sail for the blue mountains of Jamaica, etc.: SB to Urdaneta, ibid. Also Arciniegas, Los hombres y los meses, 313; and Belford Wilson to O’Leary, Barranquilla, Nov. 27, 1830, O’L, XII, 140.

  loyal supporters, General Mariano Montilla: SB and Montilla had not always been friend
s. Montilla served under Brigadier Manuel Castillo, who was SB’s bitter enemy, from the Admirable Campaign through the siege of Cartagena. But after 1815, Montilla was an indefatigable supporter. Parra-Pérez, Historia, I, 21.

  When Bolívar wrote to him asking for help, etc.: SB to Montilla, Barranquilla, Nov. 8, 1830, SBC, IX, 374–75.

  He found Bolívar a doctor of sorts, etc.: M. L. Scarpetta and S. Vergara, “Révérend, Alejandro Prospero” in Diccionario biográfico de los campeones de la libertad en Nueva Granada (Bogotá: Zalamea, 1879), 507.

  Bolívar arrived in Santa Marta on the 1st of December, etc.: Journals of Dr. A. P. Reverend, Gaceta de Colombia, Bogotá, Jan. 1, 1831 (Facs. nos. 494–566, Banco de la República), xxix. Also Révérend, “Relación del Dr. Révérend,” in DOC, XIV, 464–74.

  a retinue of loyal friends: Belford Wilson, Laurencio Silva, Mariano Portocarerro, and Diego Ibarra, among numerous others. Perú de Lacroix to Sáenz, Cartagena, Dec. 18, 1830, in Villalba, Epistolario, 185.

  among them Perú de Lacroix, etc.: Ibid.

  those calm December waters: M. Maza, “Subtidal Inner Shelf Currents off Cartagena de Indias,” Geophysical Research Letters, 33 (Nov. 9, 2006), L21606, 5.

  Alexander von Humboldt, etc.: Alexander von Humboldt and W. MacGillivray, The Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt, Being a Condensed Narrative of His Journeys in the Equinoctial Regions of America (New York: Harper, 1835), 272.

  his face a mask of alarm, etc.: Liévano Aguirre, 509.

  reduced to a human cinder: Arciniegas, Los hombres y los meses, 313.

  a cradle of locked hands: Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 464–74.

  they laid him on a pallet, etc.: Ibid.

  “His excellency arrived in Santa Marta”: Ibid.

  “his lungs were sadly damaged”: Révérend brought an American surgeon, Dr. George W. McKnight, from the United States warship Grampus to confirm this diagnosis. Dr. McKnight called it a chronic lung catarrh. There was also some question as to whether it was malaria, and he was given quinine. Ibid.

  a United States naval surgeon: This was Dr. McKnight. In many references he is inaccurately referred to as Dr. Night. Department of State, A Register of All Officers, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, W. A. Davis, City of Washington, 1830, 125.

  most probably tuberculosis: Gil Fortoul, I, 493.

  jaundiced, hardly able to sleep, etc.: Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 464–74.

  reduced to less than eighty pounds: Langley, 105.

  an aroma he knew well, etc.: SB’s sugar plantation in San Mateo, Díaz, 154.

  a hammock strung between two tamarind trees: http://www.museobolivariano.org.co.

  Sometime before, he had sent word to Manuela: Posada to Sáenz [place undetermined], Oct. 14, 1830, cited in Lecuna, “Papeles de Manuela Sáenz,” 494–525. Gen. Posada had written to her to say that although SB knew she was planning to come in December, he hoped she would come sooner.

  couriers bursting with news, etc.: Arciniegas, Los hombres y los meses, 314.

  They played cards, drank rum, etc.: Ibid.

  When the stench of one general was so noxious, etc.: Révérend, “Relación del Dr. Révérend,” in DOC, XIV, 470.

  “Excuse me, Your Excellency”: Ibid., 471.

  “Ah, Manuela,” etc.: Ibid; also in Masur, Simón Bolívar, 591.

  “Doctor, what brought you to these parts?” etc.: From Révérend, “Relación,” 471; also in Gil Fortoul, I, 494.

  he was feverish again, raving, etc.: Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 469.

  Montilla, beside himself with grief: Gil Fortoul, I, 494.

  Bolívar balked at first, etc.: Rivolba; also Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 472.

  “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?”: Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 472.

  he commended his soul to God, etc.: “Testament of Simón Bolívar,” DOC, XIV, 463; SBSW, II, 766–68.

  8,000 pesos, etc.: “Testament of Simón Bolívar.”

  last rites from a humble Indian priest: A cleric from the village of Mamatoco, Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 456.

  Colombians! You have witnessed”: SB, Proclama, Documentos para los anales, 280.

  but his mind was clear enough: Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 472.

  weaving in and out of delirium: Ibid., 473.

  His urine burned, etc.: Ibid.

  “José! . . . Let’s go!”: Ibid., 471. More editions: La última enfermedad, los últimos momentos y los funerales de Simón Bolívar, por su médico de cabecera (Paris: Imprenta de H. A. Cosson, 1866), 20–30; quoted in B. B. Celli, “La enfermedad y muerte del Libertador,” Revista de la Sociedad Venezolana de Historia de la Medicina, 58 (Caracas, 2009), 63–70.

  When asked whether he was in pain: Révérend, “Relación,” DOC, XIV, 471; Celli, 66.

  the strange wheeze, etc.: Révérend, “Relación,” 473.

  “Gentlemen, if you want to be present”: Ibid., 474.

  At one o’clock in the afternoon, etc.: Ibid.

  exactly eleven years to the minute: Larrazábal, Vida, II, 565.

  his brow softened in beatific repose: Révérend, “Relación,” 473.

  EPILOGUE

  “Goodbye to the spirit of evil!”, etc.: I. S. Alderson, Los funerales de Bolívar, BANH, Caracas, XI, no. 41, 49.

  As three rounds of cannon fire, etc.: DOC, XIV, 475.

  On December 20, 1830, the Liberator’s corpse, etc.: Ibid.

  looked around anxiously for a leader: General José Domingo Espinar, the military commander of the Isthmus of Panama, offered Bolívar the presidency of the Panamanian republic after he declared its independence on Sept. 26, 1830. Bolívar declined, urging him to return Panama to Greater Colombia.

  “Allow me, esteemed madam,” etc.: Perú de Lacroix to Sáenz, Cartagena, Dec. 18, 1830, Trofeos, III, no. 14, Feb. 20, 1908, 384; also Unamuno, 273.

  Somehow, she got hold of a venomous snake, etc.: Boussingault, III, 217. Boussingault comments that she may have been trying to die like Cleopatra.

  “I loved the Liberator when he was alive,” etc.: Rumazo González, 255.

  she landed in Paita: Murray, For Glory and Bolívar, 105–29.

  He rode, “fighting all the way,” etc.: Thomas Carlyle, “Dr. Francia: Funeral Discourse Delivered on Occasion of Celebrating the Obsequies of His Late Excellency,” Foreign Quarterly Review, no. 62 (1843).

  Never had Latin America dreamed so large: I owe this to the Colombian poet and novelist William Ospina, in Ospina, 9.

  reduced civilian populations by a third: Archer, esp. 35–37 and 283–92.

  In marble or bronze, Bolívar’s flesh, etc.: Ospina, 9.

  preserved in a small urn: Historians were unable to find that urn or duly document its existence. See José Ignacio Méndez, El ocaso de Bolívar, Santa Marta, 1927, 212–13, in Masur, Simón Bolívar, 693.

  “the dastardly, most miserable”: Karl Marx to Fredrich Engels, Feb. 14, 1858, quoted in Enrique Krauze, Redeemers (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 464.

  “Nothing is more beautiful,” etc.: José Martí, “Discurso pronunciado en la velada de la Sociedad Literaria Hispanoamericana,” speech in New York, Oct. 28, 1893, in Unamuno, Simón Bolívar, 196.

  publication of a thirty-two-volume history: This was O’Leary’s Memorias, which contain Bolívar’s letters, proclamations, and a narrative history. It is the mainstay of all research on Bolívar’s life and work.

  in 2010, the bicentenary year of the start of the revolution: To be precise, the exhumation was on July 16, 2010. The revolution began on April 19, 1810.

  had them taken from his sarcophagus, etc.: G. Pereira, “Dead Commodities,” in Forensic Architecture, http://www.forensic-architecture.org/docs/cabinet_43_dead_commodities_0.pdf.

  narrated, prayed, rhapsodized: “My God, my God . . . my Christ, our Christ, while I was praying in silence watching those bones, I thought of you! . . . Ho
w much I wanted and would have liked for you to arrive and order, as you did to Lazarus: rise Simón, this is not the time to die!” Two entries on Hugo Chávez’s Twitter account (7:41 A.M. and 7:48 A.M., July 16, 2010). See , quoted in Pereira.

  astronauts in moon gear: The bizarre ceremony can be seen in many videos, including one accompanied by a voice-over of President Chávez’s comments, but this was one of the first videos released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqRT4q7zOg8&feature=related.

  “the magic of his prestige”: The phrase used by Gen. Daniel O’Leary, as referred to earlier in this book.

  many of the most tyrannical and barbaric: G. García Márquez, “Una naturaleza distinta en un mundo distinto al nuestro,” April 12, 1996, La Jornada, Bogotá, Oct. 28, 2010, 4.

  “The most stubborn conservatism,” etc.: E. Sábato, “Inercia mental,” in Uno y el universo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Seix Barral, 2003), 90.

  In Bolivia, a famously debauched dictator, etc.: This is Mariano Melgarejo, who was killed in exile, in Lima, in 1871. See Clayton, The Bolívarian Nations, 22.

  in Ecuador, a deeply religious despot, etc.: This is Gabriel García Moreno, an intensely Catholic president, who was a bitter rival of President José Eloy Alfaro. Ibid., 23.

  in Quito, a liberal caudillo, etc.: President José Eloy Alfaro, a liberal Freemason, who tried to dismantle the Church’s power in Ecuador. Ibid., 36.

  Equality, which Bolívar had insisted was the linchpin of justice: Bolívar to Vergara, Dec. 16, 1828, in Larrazábal, Vida, II, 511.

  Until he remade a world: Vicuña MacKenna, quoted in Blanco-Fombona, “Bolívar escritor,” Unamuno, 295.

  Bibliography

  PRIMARY SOURCES

  Austria, José de. Bosquejo de la historia militar de Venezuela. 2 vols. Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1960.

  Baralt, Rafael María, and Ramón Díaz. Resumen de la historia de Venezuela desde el año de 1797 hasta el de 1830. 2 vols. Paris: Fournier, 1841.