Miranda

by Mariano Picón Salas

Enemigo de la piedad histórica y de los esquemas simplistas, Picón Salas trató de interpretar en su biografía de Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816) lo que no solo fue un fracaso individual sino también un drama colectivo. No era tanto que su actitud de desarraigo o su pulido cortesanismo chocase contra los resabios y argucias de la gente nativa, sino sencillamente que la revuelta oligarca de 1810 –la de la Primera República, con toda razón llamada la «Patria Boba»– preparaba ya el terreno para su propia destrucción en la actitud bisoña de los patricios caraqueños que, plegados a sus intereses de casta, pretendían darle una rebuscada fórmula de legalidad a lo que aún no se atrevían a llamar por el verdadero nombre de revolución.

339 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Mariano Federico Picón Salas, was an influential Venezuelan diplomatic, cultural critic and writer of the 20th century. Among his books, his collection of essays on history, literary criticism and cultural history are remarkable. He travelled a lot through the Americas. His work is also important because of his wide perspective, studying the culture of the entire continent. He left Venezuela, under the political persecution of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez. Living for a large period in Chile, he studied History gaining the degree of “Profesor de Historia” and later the Doctorate on Philosophy and Letters.
He came back to Venezuela in 1936, working as a professor and author. He founded the Asociación de Escritores de Venezuela (Writers Association from Venezuela), and worked for the Ministry of Education.
His studies on "Barroco de Indias" (the term that he coined to talk about the baroque from Hispanic America) are very influential among the general study of Baroque.
He received the National Prize for Literature in 1954. He taught at Columbia University, New York.