A whole new world?

National Interest, The, Winter, 2001 by William J. Perry

A slim selection of the late Mexican philosopher Octavio Paz's voluminous writings--entitled Itinerary and ably translated by Jason Wilson--provides a valuable window on how Latin American intellectuals have tended to look at the world during the 20th century. As would be expected, Paz's contribution takes the form not of an academic treatise, but of an elegant, extended philosophical essay on his own ideological evolution.

Finally, Howard Wiarda's The Soul of Latin America goes more directly to the bottom line of interest today by discussing the unique elements of the formation of regional culture (especially on the political plane), and the degree to which it is now compatible with evolving trends in the developed world, especially in the United States. Of the four works, this is the one closest to a traditional academic approach in its efforts to probe the development of political culture in Latin America.

WHILE THESE books vary enormously in approach and style, that turns out to be an advantage, for each one, in its own way, contributes to a better understanding of Latin America. Taken as a whole, these four volumes highlight the differences between Latin America's origins, experience and nature on the one hand, and the Anglo-American tradition on the other.

In contrast to North America, the vast and varied region south of the Rio Grande was subjugated by crusading states still evidencing strong medieval characteristics, as a continuation of their centuries-long struggle to recover the Iberian Peninsula from Moorish domination. The basic desire of those most directly involved was to extend the Catholic faith, extract wealth in the form of precious metals, and rule over these lands in a feudal fashion. In pursuit of such expansive aims, they found in native civilizations--themselves with pronouncedly authoritarian traditions--an already large subordinate class of peons. When disease decimated the native populations, slaves were imported to fill the role. Moreover, the riches drained away from their American empires served to prop up Spain and Portugal in gaudy splendor (for a time, at least), but their very success in these medieval terms removed any incentive to adapt, and thus made them losers in the modernization process then beginning in northern Europe. All of these factors left Latin America with a markedly different colonial legacy than the one bequeathed to North America.

By the early 19th century; locally-born New World elites--influenced by the American and French Revolutions, as well as Great Britain's industrial and commercial ascendancy--threw off the feeble, exploitive hand of Iberian colonialism. But the violence of that struggle (except in Brazil), the weakness of the middle class and the absence of experience with even limited self-rule meant that the practice of genuine democracy (even republicanism) soon proved a sad travesty. Rather than providing for liberation and genuine self-determination, the removal of traditional authority made vacillation between near-anarchy and local authoritarianism the rule in Latin America's political life. It made much of Latin America a synonym for misgovernment and underdevelopment until well into the 20th century.