Bolivar: American Liberator
One
benefit of reviews is that a prospective buyer gets a variety of
opinions to help the decision making process. Quotes from the
“Editorial Reviews,” generally tend to be nothing more than
publicity tools to hype book sales—their only value being the name
attached to the quote; as such, they can easily be overlooked.
Instead, reviews written by the very people who have bought and read
the books tend to be more reliable, when deciding on the purchase of
a book. In the case of this publication, the reviews did not fail.
Arana's departure from fiction appeared to be a sure winner, and with
great anticipation the arrival of her experimental try-out in
history, “Bolivar: American Libertador,” was eagerly awaited.
Readers
should not confuse Arana's tenure as a writer of fiction, with her
otherwise excellent education and qualifications; nor should her
birth in Perú be taken to mean that she is biased, or that she is
not qualified to write in English. On the contrary, Arana's mastery
of the English language is beyond reproach, her imagery is vivid
without a fault, and the straightforwardness of the narrative speaks
for itself. Arana's style of writing makes it easy to get engrossed
in the biography, its protagonist, and the seemingly endless cast of
characters. That well balanced combination is what makes the reader
look forward to turning the page, to see what comes next. In that
sense, the book does read like a novel: Chatty, with flashes of
seriousness, with dramatic and light moments, and filled with details
which do not make the narrative esoteric, or tedious, and with
comments and criticisms which do not make the protagonist another
stereotypical “Third World Savage.” Arana's bibliography, too,
is quite extensive and she injects the various opinions and bits of
information casually, naturally, and without jolting the reader out
of the magic she has created in the narrative.
A
man forged by the culture and the land where he was born, Bolívar is
by far too complex of an individual, at times rational, at times
irrational but always with a “method to his madness,” and Arana
unapologetically delves into each facet of his personality, exposing
both the positive and the negative, and explaining the reasons for
each qualifier. Unlike most biographies of Bolívar, Arana's style
is not to prejudge; she is not a defense attorney, nor a
prosecutor—whether Bolívar's departure from Puerto Cabello, his
involvement in Francisco de Miranda's demise, the “War to Death,”
Bolívar's penchant for female companionship, or his personal and
military successes and failures, Arana simply provides both sides of
the issue, and lets the reader understand the whys and hows of the
events.
Speaking
of Bolívar's arrest of Miranda is one such example, “The theme of
betrayal is never far from any story of revolution; deceit is at the
very heart of radical upheaval. But history has not looked kindly on
the events that unravelled that early morning in La Guaira. For all
the glory that would accrue to Bolívar, he would never be free from
the stain of Miranda's fate. He had lured the old man to a
revolution, and, after its failure, delivered him into enemy hands.
There can be no doubt that it was a monstrous act of deception
(p.123)” Though the author is unequivocal in her condemnation of
Bolívar, and most other authors end their explanation at that point,
Arana recognizes that like “betrayal,” there is enough blame to
go around, and some of the blame falls on Miranda as well. “But
there was no shortage of deceit on all sides. The patriots had been
taken in by Miranda's swagger and braggadochio—had invested all
their hopes in him—and they reacted now with all the fury of the
betrayed. The leader they had trusted to guide them through the
vicissitudes of revolution had turned out to be more comfortable with
failure than with victory. Faltering and indecisive in the clear
advantage, he always managed to be magnificent in the face of
defeat. His fellow rebels believed they were seeing him now as he
really was: a fraud (p.123).
There
are those who will feel the book is too long, too short, or too
tedious, with too much information, or that it does not provide much
new information. At 464 pages of narrative, the book is just right,
though to this reader, another one hundred or more pages would have
been welcomed. While there may not be much new or groundbreaking
information in this biography of Bolívar, something which is almost
impossible to accomplish—as Arana points out, the Library of
Congress has close to 3000 books/documents, and other estimates
indicate there are over 5000 books on the man—this publication is
still worthy of praise, and worthy of being read. It is one of the
few biographies in which the author has managed to describe
Bolívar's persona and his military career without detriment to one
or the other,
and
one in which the narrative is fully devoted to the protagonist. The
only exception is the few introductory pages on General San Martín,
Manuela Sáenz, and General Sucre; aside from that, Bolívar is ever
present. The result is a highly balanced biography which hopefully,
in the process, Arana can make him a better known, better understood,
and better liked, individual in the United States.
Just
as there is high praise for Arana and her book, there are some
suggestions and comments. There
is an editorial choice used in this publication, which should not
become as standard as the lack of proper punctuation has become: The
deliberate omission of numerical citations in the body of the
narrative to lead the reader to the appropriate information in the
“Notes,” at the back of the book. Instead, the reader is provided
with several pages of endnotes which list the page number in the main
body of the book, followed by a short quotation to indicate the
reference. Without the proper numerical citation in the main text
the reader is left adrift, and the information becomes disconnected.
The reader has no option but to constantly refer to the back of the
book whenever there is something of interest, only to find out there
may or amy not be a reference. It is surprising that a reputable
publishing company, such as Simon & Schuster, would engage in
such a practice and attempt to pass it as “scholarly.” But even
in this criticism, other publications are far worse; case in point,
Richard Slatta's “Simon Bolivar's Quest for Glory,” (Texas A&M
University Press; 2003) in which the author bluntly points out in the
“Introduction,” the deliberate decision to omit “a plethora of
notes...[and keeping] historical accouterments to a minimum.”
As
authors in the United Stated have consistently but erroneously done,
Arana makes some comparisons between Simón Bolívar and George
Washington, when the only commonality between the two is that they
led an army in the liberation of their respective countries. Aside
from that, they had nothing in common and cannot therefore be
compared. In fact, Bolívar did not like and rejected any comparison
to Washington, not because he felt superior, but because he thought
highly of Washington, and he understood their differences as being
too far apart for their two names being discussed in the same
sentence. As for Washington, he died when Bolívar was barely a
teen-ager, and knew nothing of him. In the end, both men were happy
with their accomplishments and accepted their failures; more
importantly, neither man wanted to be the other. Personal, social,
geographical, and political circumstances, as Bolívar constantly
pointed out, also makes the comparison between these two men
malapropos.
While
Arana is not blind to Bolívar's faults, it is disappointing to see
her use duplicitous, self-aggrandizing, and vindictive, individuals
such as H.L.V. Ducoudray-Holstein and Gustavus Butler Hippisley as
references or sources. Ducoudray-Holstein appears as having “served
Bolívar in Angostura (p. 419).” Hopefully this is an editorial
oversight; Ducoudray never made it beyond Carúpano, where he was
discharged in June 1816—two months after embarking on the Los Cayos
expedition; Bolívar did not go to Angostura until 1818.
On
the death of José Félix Ribas, there is a departure from history,
without providing a source for the comments, or further explanation.
Although Arana's description of Ribas' torture and death are
accurate, historians, consistently, have Ribas sentenced to death by
a Judge in Tucupido, east of Valle de la Pascua, then shot,
quartered; his head boiled in oil was sent to Caracas to be displayed
as a warning to other would be patriots. Arana's version is that
Ribas was dragged from the house where he was hiding, in “Pascua,”
and immediately executed (p. 165).
Aside
from these minor oversights, all in all, Arana's biography, “Bolívar:
American Liberator” is very well written, concise, and one of the
few which is well worth reading—and reading multiple times over.
Bolívar comes off the pages not as the saint his apologists would
like him to be, but as a flawed yet likeable individual; not as the
devil manufactured by his opponents, but as a visionary whose ideas
and good intentions, though they may have at times been in conflict,
or misunderstood, were far greater than his flaws. Bolívar was self
assured to the point of vanity, yet with an undercurrent of kindness
and humility, but he was also a social animal who ended up a lonely
individual A genius who, among other things, defined, planned,
crafted, executed, and achieved, the independence of five nations,
Bolívar's successes cover a not insignificant territory of 1,
853,681 square miles—4.31 times larger than the original 13 British
Colonies. He was a visionary who foresaw the need for, and planned,
a Pan American union of states to protect and secure the former
Spanish colonies, and now independent Latin American nations, against
outside pressure, and influences; and who foretold the need for a
canal cutting through the Panama isthmus, fifty-three years before
Ferdinand de Lesseps broke ground in 1881. In short, the kind of man
with whom the reader can empathize, and identify, for having all of
the human qualities, frailties, and dreams, mere mortals possess, but
who, blinded by his own vision, could not at times see through the
fog of his ideals. He was just as demanding of himself as of those
under him, and yet forgiving of the internal and external enemies who
plotted politically against him, or who wanted him dead. This is
Bolívar, a selfless patriot and leader, who gave everything he was,
and everything he had, to the cause of liberty—a charismatic
innovator, leader and a patriot of whom can truly be said that he did
not ask from anyone, anything he was not himself willing to give or
do for the Motherland. Yet, that insatiable need to accomplish his
mission, to be all, to do all, was in part what led to his downfall.
But in spite of all he did or may have done, all he was or may have
been, his prophetic words have had a more lasting, if unrecognized,
effect throughout Latin America; it is impossible to look back and
not realize it. “Fellow citizens,” Bolívar said in his last
speech to Congress, “.... I am ashamed to admit it, but
independence is the only thing we have won, at the cost of everything
else (p. 430)[;]” and to General Flores in Ecuador, Bolívar would
write, that “[t]he country is bound to fall into unimaginable
chaos, after which it will pass into the hands of an
indistinguishable string of tyrants of every color (p. 450) ....”
For all the criticism of his ego, and supposed ambition to be a
dictator for life, or to be crowned king, even his opponents knew
that Bolívar was the glue holding together the ideals of Liberty,
and Independence—the common thread between the different peoples
and opinions of the five nations he had liberated. Bolívar's
nemeses also knew or, perhaps in their urge to succeed him, they
chose to ignore that upon his departure civil war would ensue, chaos
would rule, and if Bolívar held dictatorial powers to maintain
stability, most of those who followed, into the Twenty First Century,
would give “dictator” a completely new and infinitely negative
meaning.
Unlike
other worldwide revolutionary leaders, who are no less deserving of
praise, Bolívar embraced his mission, and received little in return.
One of the wealthiest if not the wealthiest man in Venezuela at the
time of his parents' death, Bolívar devoted his entire fortune to
the War of Independence; he freed his slaves as the natural duty in
the pursuit of liberty, and never accepted renumeration for his
services during, or after, the war. For all he sacrificed, Bolívar
died abandoned and rejected by the very people whose freedoms he had
forged; without a clean shirt in which to be buried, he breathed his
last breath accompanied by, among a few remaining loyal supporters,
his old manservant José Palacios, a former slave in the house of
Bolívar's mother.
Few
authors have taken the time to be as objective and even handed, as
Arana has, in showing Bolívar's multifaceted character, and to
report history as it happened, instead of a particular notion of the
events. In so doing, Arana has succeeded in presenting not only the
thinker and unique military man, but the human being that is Bolívar,
the American Liberator.
Hardcover: 601 Pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2013)
Language: English
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