Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

civilized folk marry the barbarians 221
targets a broader audience. It calls upon all Americans (i.e., Latin Americans)
to come together in the cause of national (continental or Ibero-
American) development and to resist foreign aggression, especially the
growing neocolonial power of the United States.
“Our America” is framed by the same civilization/barbarism dichotomy
that defi nes Sarmiento’s Facundo and Gallegos’s Doña Bárbara. But
Martí distinguishes himself from these authors in a decisive way. Instead of
vanquishing barbarism, as Sarmiento does, or reconciling it with civilization,
like Gallegos, Martí proposes that it be the foundation of America’s
future society. Martí actually moves away from civilization and barbarism
and favors a language that emphasizes local origins versus foreign infl uence.
As Martí put it, “The struggle is not between civilization and barbarity,
but between false erudition and Nature.” 7 By “false erudition” Martí
means ideas or programs originating in foreign lands that are directed by
foreigners and/or their local lackeys. By “Nature” he refers to homegrown
ideas and leaders that are organic to the Americas and not imported. Martí
purposefully capitalizes the word because he believes it is the foundation
upon which America should be built.
Despite its brevity, “Our America” roots its political agenda in historical
context. Whereas authors had argued and others would continue to argue
that America was trapped in its duality between mother America and
father Europe, Martí rejects the notion that the two aspects of American
history (the indigenous and the colonial) are irreconcilable. Rather, out of
their combined history emerges America’s distinctiveness. In this way,
“Our America” offers a classic nationalistic program by seeking out that
which is supposedly original to the land and emphasizing it as the spirit or
soul upon which the new nation should be built. Of course, Martí advocates
for a continental nation, a Pan-America, rather than numerous individual
nations, but the concept remains the same. The uniqueness of a land and
its history is to be emphasized and drawn upon. In Martí’s words, “Government
must originate in the country. The spirit of government must be that
of the country. . . . Good government is nothing more than the balance of a
country’s natural elements.” 8
Martí uses the dichotomy of mother America and father Europe to defi ne
the new natural leaders of America. The “sons of Our America,” should not
be “ashamed of the mother who reared them, because she wears an Indian
apron,” nor should they disown their mother because she is sick and on her
deathbed. Instead, the natural leader should “tend his mother and nurse her
in her illness.” These “sons of Our America,” Martí writes, “will be saved
by its Indians.” 9