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救赎者：拉丁美洲的面孔与思想
十九世纪初，拉丁美洲推翻了欧洲殖民者的统治，踏上了现代化的探索之路。彼时，美国正挥舞着干涉主义的大棒对它的后院虎视眈眈，欧洲老牌帝国无不垂涎于大洋彼岸的丰饶资源与广阔市场。身处百废待兴、强敌环伺的历史困境，拉丁美洲该如何找到它的出路？
在本书中，恩里克·克劳泽以媲美文学作品的笔触，借助九位拉美历史人物的人生线索，勾勒出一百五十年来拉美的政治思想面貌和历史探索轨迹。在这些人中，有为刚刚走出黑暗的拉美点亮民族之光的何塞·马蒂，有在动荡时代的夹缝中传递思想火炬的巴斯孔塞洛斯，有倾尽祖孙三代之力前赴后继投身革命事业的帕斯家族，有写出风靡全球的《百年孤独》，却因与独裁的共谋关系而饱受争议的加西亚·马尔克斯，还有一生坚持对抗独裁专制的巴尔加斯·略萨。他们虽然选择了不同的道路，却怀揣着相似的理想：建立一个公正、繁荣、和平的秩序，使饱受落后、贫穷和帝国主义之苦的拉美获得救赎。
在本书中，恩里克·克劳泽以媲美文学作品的笔触，借助九位拉美历史人物的人生线索，勾勒出一百五十年来拉美的政治思想面貌和历史探索轨迹。在这些人中，有为刚刚走出黑暗的拉美点亮民族之光的何塞·马蒂，有在动荡时代的夹缝中传递思想火炬的巴斯孔塞洛斯，有倾尽祖孙三代之力前赴后继投身革命事业的帕斯家族，有写出风靡全球的《百年孤独》，却因与独裁的共谋关系而饱受争议的加西亚·马尔克斯，还有一生坚持对抗独裁专制的巴尔加斯·略萨。他们虽然选择了不同的道路，却怀揣着相似的理想：建立一个公正、繁荣、和平的秩序，使饱受落后、贫穷和帝国主义之苦的拉美获得救赎。
528 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
96 people are currently reading
676 people want to read
About the author
Enrique Krauze
153 books154 followersWriter, historian and editor, director of Editorial Clío and the cultural magazine Letras Libres.
He studied Industrial engineering at UNAM in México city and then made a PhD in History at El Colegio de México from 1969 to 1974. He has been a professor at Centro de estudios historicos at El colegio de México (1977), guest professor at St. Anthony’s College in Oxford (1981-1983), and also at The Wilson center (1987).
He was a colaborator of Octavio Paz at the magazine Vuelta. He is founder and director of Editorial Clío and Magazine Letras Libres.
He is a Member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia since 1990. He has recieved a great number of prizes among them: “Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X, el Sabio” (2005), “Ezequiel Montes Ledesma (2006), Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica (2008).
He writes at several newspapers and magazines like: Dissent Magazine, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times.
----------------------------------------
Historiador, ensayista y editor mexicano, director de la Editorial Clío y de la revista cultural Letras Libres.
Cursó la licenciatura en Ingeniería Industrial en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México de 1965 1969, y el doctorado en Historia en El Colegio de México de 1969 a 1974. Ha sido profesor investigador del Centro de Estudios Históricos de El Colegio de México en 1977, profesor invitado en el St. Anthony’s College de Oxford, de octubre a diciembre ene 1981 y en 1983. Profesor invitado en The Wilson Center, de octubre a diciembre de 1987.
De 1968 a 1970 participó como consejero universitario por parte de la Facultad de Ingeniería. Por más de veinte años colaboró con Octavio Paz en la revista Vuelta, de la que fue secretario de redacción de 1977 a 1981 y subdirector de 1981 a 1996. En 1992 fundó la editorial Clío, de la que es director, mismo puesto que ocupa dentro de la revista cultural Letras Libres, que fundó en 1999, con circulación en varios países de habla hispana.
En 1990 ingresó a la Academia Mexicana de la Historia. Obtuvo el “Premio Comillas” de Biografía en España (1993). En diciembre de 2003, el Gobierno Español lo condecoró con la “Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X, el Sabio”. En abril de 2005, ingresó como miembro de El Colegio Nacional. El 5 de julio de 2006, fue distinguido con la Presea “Ezequiel Montes Ledesma” por parte del Gobierno de Querétaro. El 12 de septiembre de 2007, fue honrado por la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León con el doctorado Honoris Causa. El 1º de agosto de 2008, el Rey de España le concedió la Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica. En 2010, el Gobierno de México le confirio
el Premio Nacional de Historia.
Desde 1985 ha escrito en Dissent Magazine, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times.
He studied Industrial engineering at UNAM in México city and then made a PhD in History at El Colegio de México from 1969 to 1974. He has been a professor at Centro de estudios historicos at El colegio de México (1977), guest professor at St. Anthony’s College in Oxford (1981-1983), and also at The Wilson center (1987).
He was a colaborator of Octavio Paz at the magazine Vuelta. He is founder and director of Editorial Clío and Magazine Letras Libres.
He is a Member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia since 1990. He has recieved a great number of prizes among them: “Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X, el Sabio” (2005), “Ezequiel Montes Ledesma (2006), Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica (2008).
He writes at several newspapers and magazines like: Dissent Magazine, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times.
----------------------------------------
Historiador, ensayista y editor mexicano, director de la Editorial Clío y de la revista cultural Letras Libres.
Cursó la licenciatura en Ingeniería Industrial en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México de 1965 1969, y el doctorado en Historia en El Colegio de México de 1969 a 1974. Ha sido profesor investigador del Centro de Estudios Históricos de El Colegio de México en 1977, profesor invitado en el St. Anthony’s College de Oxford, de octubre a diciembre ene 1981 y en 1983. Profesor invitado en The Wilson Center, de octubre a diciembre de 1987.
De 1968 a 1970 participó como consejero universitario por parte de la Facultad de Ingeniería. Por más de veinte años colaboró con Octavio Paz en la revista Vuelta, de la que fue secretario de redacción de 1977 a 1981 y subdirector de 1981 a 1996. En 1992 fundó la editorial Clío, de la que es director, mismo puesto que ocupa dentro de la revista cultural Letras Libres, que fundó en 1999, con circulación en varios países de habla hispana.
En 1990 ingresó a la Academia Mexicana de la Historia. Obtuvo el “Premio Comillas” de Biografía en España (1993). En diciembre de 2003, el Gobierno Español lo condecoró con la “Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X, el Sabio”. En abril de 2005, ingresó como miembro de El Colegio Nacional. El 5 de julio de 2006, fue distinguido con la Presea “Ezequiel Montes Ledesma” por parte del Gobierno de Querétaro. El 12 de septiembre de 2007, fue honrado por la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León con el doctorado Honoris Causa. El 1º de agosto de 2008, el Rey de España le concedió la Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica. En 2010, el Gobierno de México le confirio
el Premio Nacional de Historia.
Desde 1985 ha escrito en Dissent Magazine, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
August 28, 2022
Rating 3.5
Enrique Krauze is a good writer and historian. He knows the history of Latin America like the back of his hand. He knows even more about his own country Mexico. Moreover he likes to get his point across.
He chose twelve people from Latin American history (the last 150 years or so) that reinforce his subtitle “ideas and power in Latin America. He divides the book into six parts: four prophets (José Mari, José Enrique Rodó, José Vasconcelos and José Carlos Mariátegui), a man in his century (Octavio Paz), popular icons (Eva Peron and Che Guevara), politics and the novel (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa), religion and rebellion (Samuel Ruiz) and the postmodern caudillo (Hugo Chávez). Twelve apostles one might say.
Redeemers? One who redeems something. For instance, Jesus Christ. Another word for redeemer - liberator, saviour, deliverer.
Kind of lofty term one might say but then again, Krauze is talking about Latin America where religion and politics are intermingled at times, or at least, a stones throw away from each other.
When I was younger I thought about Latin America with their dictators ruling many countries. It was the 1970s and it was a fair assessment. Where did this idea come from?
This is the heart of the book under the section Four Prophets. The four José all spoke of moving Latin America away from the other America, the United States. The American business model of exploitation did well for the rich Americans but caused much resentment by the workers and the poor. The intellectuals chose a different path while a new political idea was being applied in the Russia, communism. A whole new game.
We all know how this path played out. Latin America was split. Some countries like Cuba and Guatemala went left; so many others like Argentina and Chile went right. Why?
El Caudillo or the strong man idea was really reinforced in Latin America. This is where this book got very interesting and disturbing. We all know the fame of Eva Peron made famous by Evita the musical. Well, her husband Juan Peron was a lover of fascism. Those big rallies where Eva spoke, look no farther than the famous Nazi rallies. And a lot of those Germans moved there after the war.
But sometimes a strong man dies fighting for his dream (Che Guevara) or disappear secretly (Subcomandante Marcos) or your friend have dubious connections (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fidel Castro) or sometimes your fame is yourself modelled on Simon Bolívar and you destroy your own country despite of yourself (Hugo Chavez) or you change political ideas (Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa). Nothing stays the same, in life and especially in history.
Of course, the problem with a book on history is that is soon goes out of date. Published in 2011, a few of the redeemers have died. In the case of Chavez, Venezuela has plunged into a black hole while Chile has swung to the left. *
So this was a strange book. There was a big focus on Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa (good and bad points) and he left a bad taste in my mouth for Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I learned a lot and yet it reinforced my ideas of Latin America. Maybe for the worse. Those strong men, those lofty ideas are maybe just too lofty. Only the people are left in turmoil. As another strong leader is ruining the world. Sigh, maybe it’s not just applicable to Latin America.
*As of August 2022, even more countries has swung left, including Colombia for the first time.
Enrique Krauze is a good writer and historian. He knows the history of Latin America like the back of his hand. He knows even more about his own country Mexico. Moreover he likes to get his point across.
He chose twelve people from Latin American history (the last 150 years or so) that reinforce his subtitle “ideas and power in Latin America. He divides the book into six parts: four prophets (José Mari, José Enrique Rodó, José Vasconcelos and José Carlos Mariátegui), a man in his century (Octavio Paz), popular icons (Eva Peron and Che Guevara), politics and the novel (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa), religion and rebellion (Samuel Ruiz) and the postmodern caudillo (Hugo Chávez). Twelve apostles one might say.
Redeemers? One who redeems something. For instance, Jesus Christ. Another word for redeemer - liberator, saviour, deliverer.
Kind of lofty term one might say but then again, Krauze is talking about Latin America where religion and politics are intermingled at times, or at least, a stones throw away from each other.
When I was younger I thought about Latin America with their dictators ruling many countries. It was the 1970s and it was a fair assessment. Where did this idea come from?
This is the heart of the book under the section Four Prophets. The four José all spoke of moving Latin America away from the other America, the United States. The American business model of exploitation did well for the rich Americans but caused much resentment by the workers and the poor. The intellectuals chose a different path while a new political idea was being applied in the Russia, communism. A whole new game.
We all know how this path played out. Latin America was split. Some countries like Cuba and Guatemala went left; so many others like Argentina and Chile went right. Why?
El Caudillo or the strong man idea was really reinforced in Latin America. This is where this book got very interesting and disturbing. We all know the fame of Eva Peron made famous by Evita the musical. Well, her husband Juan Peron was a lover of fascism. Those big rallies where Eva spoke, look no farther than the famous Nazi rallies. And a lot of those Germans moved there after the war.
But sometimes a strong man dies fighting for his dream (Che Guevara) or disappear secretly (Subcomandante Marcos) or your friend have dubious connections (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fidel Castro) or sometimes your fame is yourself modelled on Simon Bolívar and you destroy your own country despite of yourself (Hugo Chavez) or you change political ideas (Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa). Nothing stays the same, in life and especially in history.
Of course, the problem with a book on history is that is soon goes out of date. Published in 2011, a few of the redeemers have died. In the case of Chavez, Venezuela has plunged into a black hole while Chile has swung to the left. *
So this was a strange book. There was a big focus on Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa (good and bad points) and he left a bad taste in my mouth for Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I learned a lot and yet it reinforced my ideas of Latin America. Maybe for the worse. Those strong men, those lofty ideas are maybe just too lofty. Only the people are left in turmoil. As another strong leader is ruining the world. Sigh, maybe it’s not just applicable to Latin America.
*As of August 2022, even more countries has swung left, including Colombia for the first time.
November 18, 2012
This book really should get 2 1/2 stars in my view - I "round up" to three because I think it is worth reading if you are interested in Latin America, or skimming at least. Just make sure to add your helping of salt to the reading.
Let me start with the positives of this book. It will introduce the North American reader to Latin American historical figures that most will be unaware of. Jose Vasconcelos, for example, author of the Mexican classic La Raza Cosmica, will be first among these. It is essential that a person from the U.S. or Canada understand who Vasconcelos was, if one wishes to understand Mexican history and politics. Likewise, the Peruvian Marxist thinker Jose Mariategui is given lavish attention and praise for his careful analysis of Peruvian inequality and his eloquent defense of indigenous people. Though most people have heard of Jose Marti (or at least heard the song Guantanamera!) relatively few are familiar with the nuances of his thought, such as his ambivalent relationship to the United States.
In the book's lengthy second section on Octavio Paz, it starts to go haywire. Surely Octavio Paz is one of the most important Mexican intellectuals of the twentieth century. But in a book that aims to encapsulate the role of ideas in shaping Latin American political history, devoting nearly two hundred pages to describing every twist and turn of his life and thought felt excessive. This excess is definitely rooted in Krauze's idiosyncratic personal history - he worked for Paz as an editor for a number of years. But maybe that material should have been a different book? Maybe Paz should have been summarized in, oh, a hundred and fifty fewer pages? The intellectual content of the Paz chapter, too, felt lacking. It felt lacking because Paz's stubborn liberalism felt lacking in the face of the growing divides within Mexican society, and the radicalism and anger those divides produced. Reading between the lines of this enormous chapter, it seemed as if Paz was just out of touch with the Mexican people - his lengthy exile and uniquely privileged position had made him something of an island unto himself. He came off as a lonely literary genius - not a true political leader.
With the exception of Mariategui, Krauze's portrayals of Latin American radicals were almost entirely unsympathetic. It seemed as if he saw them as infantile somehow - why couldn't they grow up and learn real democratic process? The chapter on Gabriel Garcia Marquez was particularly harsh, providing a psychoanalytic explanation of the writer's admiration for autocrats such as Fidel Castro in terms of his awestruck admiration for his own father. Reading Krauze, one would think of the admiration heaped upon "Gabito" as a form of weakness on the part of the Latin American educated public, the international literary scene, et cetera.
The overall attitude expressed in this book leaves one wondering how and why an intelligent person would ever find anything to admire in iconic radicals and leaders such as Che Guevara, Subcomandante Marcos or Hugo Chavez. I sympathize with Krauze's annoyance at the kind of hero worship so often practiced by young aspiring "militants." But his book still lacks fundamental sympathy for the people who followed these leaders, and leaves out important historical details and context that would help us understand how these leaders emerged and why they attained such popularity among people dissatisfied or enraged by the inequalities and hypocrisies created and nurtured by liberal capitalist democracy.
In sum, this isn't a balanced intellectual history - it's more like a lengthy Op-Ed piece written by an avatar of Latin American liberalism who uses his left-wing sympathies to undermine most of the heroes of the left itself. I wish Krauze had taken more account of his priors, and focused more heavily on center-left leaders such as Lula and Kirschner, or leftists with broader appeal and less questionable provenance such as Evo Morales. As far as I can tell from my readings and travels, real social change in Latin America has occurred through a combination of grand reformist coalitions (Lula's Brazil) and radical re-visionings of the social contract to reflect indigenous worldviews, accompanied by careful enactments of those visions (Morales's Bolivia). Yes, those of us with the luxury of sitting back and analyzing public affairs can take plenty of issue with the kind of ham-fisted autocratic populism practiced by Chavez and attempted by Peru's Ollanta Humala and others. But what good does that kind of criticism really do? Shouldn't we spend more time trying to understand the historical conditions that produced Chavez and trying to work on creating the conditions for better leaders to emerge? Maybe the new social order that we seek arises from long-term fixes that seem small and un-glamorous: an educational reform here, a regional cooperative there, a PES (payment for environmental services) system over there. Maybe there are bigger issues that need to be addressed, such as land inequality, that demand support for specific movements (such as the MST in Brazil).
In any case, a literary historian such as Krauze, sadly, is not versed enough in the institutional context of the countries he's analyzing to provide careful analyses of the political situations that produced the bad or mediocre leaders he spends so much of the book criticizing. I can't recommend this book unless you are prepared to add it to a much longer reading list.
Read
January 30, 2012En 517 páginas, Redentores de Enrique Krauze muestra la vida de personajes latinoamericanos que tuvieron un sueño en común: La revolución.La mayoría de ellos nacidos en el sigo XX, una época de constante ajetreo en la escena mundial con guerras y levantamientos armados.
Lo que resulta paradójico es que muchos de estos personajes se dieron cuenta tarde en su vida que la utopía socialista era inalcanzable e inverosímil; la revolución como medio de liberación de los oprimidos resultaba un sueño difícil de alcanzar. La democracia resultó ser una forma más idónea de alcanzar los fines sociales que permitirían alcanzar la justicia social de los oprimidos.
Las ideas de redención en América Latina tienen sus origen en la utopía socialista y en la veneración de héroes revolucionarios. La mayoría de los redentores fueron asiduos lectores de personajes como Marx y Engles, Hegel, Carlyle, Sartre, entre otros.
Un excelente libro que permite entender la interacción de las ideas y el poder de América Latina esclareciendo el dilema de la tensión entre el ideal de la democracia y la tentación del mesianismo político.
Lo que resulta paradójico es que muchos de estos personajes se dieron cuenta tarde en su vida que la utopía socialista era inalcanzable e inverosímil; la revolución como medio de liberación de los oprimidos resultaba un sueño difícil de alcanzar. La democracia resultó ser una forma más idónea de alcanzar los fines sociales que permitirían alcanzar la justicia social de los oprimidos.
Las ideas de redención en América Latina tienen sus origen en la utopía socialista y en la veneración de héroes revolucionarios. La mayoría de los redentores fueron asiduos lectores de personajes como Marx y Engles, Hegel, Carlyle, Sartre, entre otros.
Un excelente libro que permite entender la interacción de las ideas y el poder de América Latina esclareciendo el dilema de la tensión entre el ideal de la democracia y la tentación del mesianismo político.
October 8, 2018
Este libro recorre algunos puntos clave de la historia de algunos países latinoamericanos vista desde figuras cuya vida y obra tienen un carácter casi religioso dentro de sus países. La fijación con mitificar a figuras de la política o de la intelectualidad es algo que alguna medida compartimos. Hay una fuerte presencia de figuras mexicanas, cosa entendible por la nacionalidad del autor, el capítulo más hermoso es el de Octavio Paz y es también el más completo. No es el libro más fluido de los libros de Krauze, sin embargo es una lectura muy interesante que abre la curiosidad y el deseo de explorar la vida e historia de estos personajes y sus países. Me gustaría ver más historias de mujeres.
August 1, 2020
De verdad, tenía muy altas expectativas para este libro... tal vez demasiadas. El libro se trata de 11 redentores, pero no los tratan de una manera parecida. La única mujer, Eva Perón, recibe once páginas. Once. Mientras Octavio Paz recibe 160... o sea, 30% del libro se dedica a él.
Entiendo que Paz es él que Krauze conoció personalmente, sin embargo, si quieres hablar tanto de él, por qué no escribir un libro con eso como el único tema?
También, estoy de acuerdo con otras personas que leyeron este libro en decir que Krauze no se trata tanto al histórico político de América Latina, sino de los cultos de personalidad o el imagen de ellos según Krauze. No hay mucha crítica profunda de sus ideas, ni un resumen de cómo cambiaron a sus países.
A pesar de todo eso, aprendí mucho y aprecio el gran esfuerzo que entró en la obra. Krauze capta y explica bien las ideologías detrás de muchos de sus sujetos, y le agradezco también por la sección “Fuentes” que me dará sugerencias para seguir aprendiendo.
Entiendo que Paz es él que Krauze conoció personalmente, sin embargo, si quieres hablar tanto de él, por qué no escribir un libro con eso como el único tema?
También, estoy de acuerdo con otras personas que leyeron este libro en decir que Krauze no se trata tanto al histórico político de América Latina, sino de los cultos de personalidad o el imagen de ellos según Krauze. No hay mucha crítica profunda de sus ideas, ni un resumen de cómo cambiaron a sus países.
A pesar de todo eso, aprendí mucho y aprecio el gran esfuerzo que entró en la obra. Krauze capta y explica bien las ideologías detrás de muchos de sus sujetos, y le agradezco también por la sección “Fuentes” que me dará sugerencias para seguir aprendiendo.
May 16, 2018
Realmente quería que me gustará este libro pero desgraciadamente a pesar de lo interesante del tema tiene varios puntos en contra. América Latina es una región formada por caudillos que gracias al culto a la personalidad tomaron dimensiones gigantescas acompañadas de un poder similar. Por ello es curioso la lista de personajes que Krauze seleccionó para este libro, algunos sin duda merecen su lugar ahí pero hay otros que no se justifican.
Además de ello, en algunos ensayos el autor se pierde por una tangente de pensamiento que a uno lo lleva a pensar si no se equivocó de capítulo.
Es un libro bien escrito pero demasiado inconsistente. Uno lo puede leer por darse el gusto de una repasada a los personajes pero no lo consideraría como un libro de lectura esencial.
Además de ello, en algunos ensayos el autor se pierde por una tangente de pensamiento que a uno lo lleva a pensar si no se equivocó de capítulo.
Es un libro bien escrito pero demasiado inconsistente. Uno lo puede leer por darse el gusto de una repasada a los personajes pero no lo consideraría como un libro de lectura esencial.
April 26, 2021
A journey through some of the ideas that have made Latin America what it is: messy, dysfunctional, different from the North's "American" reality. That we have recently lived through a lot of messiness in the USA does not make the two realities, North and South, comparable.
Some of the ideas Krauze presents are distrust of the USA, the appeal of both Socialism and Communism, contempt for representational Democracy, the need to deal with racially diverse populations from the beginning of the Colonial period, the politics of poverty... ad infinitum! The one constant in most places being the appeal of a strongman, the caudillo.
I have lived in Latin America for 18 years in two separate moments, and I found MOST of the book fascinating.
Some of the ideas Krauze presents are distrust of the USA, the appeal of both Socialism and Communism, contempt for representational Democracy, the need to deal with racially diverse populations from the beginning of the Colonial period, the politics of poverty... ad infinitum! The one constant in most places being the appeal of a strongman, the caudillo.
I have lived in Latin America for 18 years in two separate moments, and I found MOST of the book fascinating.
January 1, 2024
The first two chapters about Jose Marti and Jose Enriquez Rodo were kind of boring so I assumed the rest of the book was going to be pretty dry and rough to read but I was wrong. Starting with the chapters about Vasconcelos and Paz the author gave such a succinct yet insightful retelling of Mexican history as well as Hispanic history in the modern period. He covered all the bases and gave right wing as well as left wing perspectives and why the figures mentioned in the book believed in what they believed. His chapter on Octavio Paz is the most complete and the one where he has the most to say. I feel so much more knowledgeable about the subject after reading this book and would highly recommend Krauze's nuanced approach to anyone interested in Latin American politics and literature.
March 26, 2022
It’s a little difficult to read. You need a general knowledge of Latin America to understand it. Other then that, it’s focus was more on México than the rest of LA. It didn’t covered much Guatemala nor Nicaragua. It think there is other Redeemers in those Latin countries… but I have to admit.. not sure… but there have to more redeemers
March 7, 2025
因为饼叔的《美洲大宝荐》而对拉美历史产生了些兴趣，于是决定读这本书，读了一半，已经忍不住想喷了。
那些怀着各种抱负，坚守各种主义的思想家从历史角度来看固然是值得尊敬的，也有很多让我醍醐灌顶的观点。但他们有另一个粗俗的共同点——管不住自己的下半身。
婚外情、开放式婚姻、跟情人另有孩子的…把情人歌颂成真爱，却又不肯与原配离婚，有离婚的原因也是受不了对方是女性主义的拥护者。也未考虑过自己的这种行为会对自己的孩子，同父异母的孩子们造成什么影响，眼里只有自己的“革命事业”。既然那么热爱革命，就把下半身锁死，不要去祸害人了！
与此同时，又在笔下书写着家庭团结对拉美民族是多么重要。他们是否都没意识到自己的言行不一，自相矛盾。
那些怀着各种抱负，坚守各种主义的思想家从历史角度来看固然是值得尊敬的，也有很多让我醍醐灌顶的观点。但他们有另一个粗俗的共同点——管不住自己的下半身。
婚外情、开放式婚姻、跟情人另有孩子的…把情人歌颂成真爱，却又不肯与原配离婚，有离婚的原因也是受不了对方是女性主义的拥护者。也未考虑过自己的这种行为会对自己的孩子，同父异母的孩子们造成什么影响，眼里只有自己的“革命事业”。既然那么热爱革命，就把下半身锁死，不要去祸害人了！
与此同时，又在笔下书写着家庭团结对拉美民族是多么重要。他们是否都没意识到自己的言行不一，自相矛盾。
January 15, 2018
Una mirada personal y panorámica de las revoluciones latinoamericanas del siglo XX desde Jose Martí hasta Hugo Chavez.
May 29, 2022
马尔克斯我读的时候是只觉得他对暴君有一种莫名的同情和谅解。再加上切格瓦拉。别人我都完全没听过…拉丁美洲背负着巨大的历史政治遗产 哪怕救赎者们从开始的开始走了好久 目前也看不到所谓的亮光
July 12, 2013
By Martin Hutchinson
What has gone wrong with Latin America? In 1900, the region contained six of the world’s 30 richest countries, according to economic historian Angus Maddison. In 2010, Argentina, the richest Latin American country in per capita terms, was 51st on the International Monetary Fund’s list. Enrique Krauze explains in his book “Redeemers: Ideas and Power in Latin America” that the disastrous economic ideas of a group of intellectuals and charismatic leaders led the continent astray. That was a century ago, but the lesson remains topical.
Until the Spanish-American war of 1898, most Latin American intellectuals admired the United States, believing it showed the way to a successful democratic future. The continent’s political leaders, for example Mexico’s Porfirio Diaz (president, 1876-80, 1884-1911) and Argentina’s Domingo Sarmiento (president 1868-74) and Julio Roca (president 1880-86 and 1898-1904), were more equivocal about democracy but whole-hearted in their support for foreign investment and American-style free markets.
But the United States’ naked imperialism of 1898 changed the mood. Even Diaz in a 1908 interview for Pearson’s magazine said: “It is useless to deny a distinct feeling of distrust, a fear of territorial absorption, which interferes with a closer union of the American republics.” With suspicion of the United States came antipathy to free markets.
Jose Marti (1853-95) didn’t wait for the war. The first of Krauze’s four “prophets” and the inspiration of Cuba’s revolution against Spain was deeply suspicious of U.S. motives by the time he returned to Cuba and his death in 1895. The second “prophet” was Uruguay’s Jose Enrique Rodo (1871-1917). In his 1900 “Ariel,” Rodo postulated a radical opposition between idealistic Latin American culture and the materialistic world being forged in the Anglo-Saxon United States.
The third, Mexico’s Jose Vasconcelos (1882-1959), ran for president in 1929 on a radical socialist platform. He proposed a mystical nationalism supposed to liberate Mexico from the capitalist, pro-American “porfirismo” of Diaz. Finally, Krauze’s fourth “prophet,” Peru’s Jose Carlos Mariategui (1894-1930), decided that Marxism wasn’t sufficiently indigenous for Latin Americans; instead they should return to the Inca economics of communal property.
In “The Redeemers,” the prophets are followed by four charismatic political leaders: Argentine populist icon Eva Peron (1919-52), Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-67), Mexican guerrilla leader “Subcomandante Marcos” (1957- ) and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez (1954-).
Only Marcos can qualify as something like an intellectual, but all of them were strongly influenced by the anti-American, anti-capitalist intellectual climate. Peron and Guevara provided a transmission mechanism to popularize the worldview for future generations. Marcos and Chavez may yet do the same.
Krauze goes a bit off-topic with his literary diversions - essays on the Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1914-98), and on two novelists, the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927- ) and the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa (1936- ). None of them has added much to a leftist intellectual current that was already in full flow. He would have done better to study the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-73), whose maunderings are now taught in U.S. high schools.
Krauze examines in detail the political and economic ideals of his subjects, as well as their writings. As a Mexican, he has his own presumptions, one of which is that the autocratic and charismatic “caudillo” leadership style contributes heavily to the region’s problem.
Not being Mexican, I would cast as much blame on the succession of uncharismatic, oligarchic Institutional Revolutionary Party political leaders at the country’s helm from 1929 to 2000.
Krauze presents a detailed case that Latin American intellectuals have had a uniquely poisonous influence on their countries’ politics, and through misguided political leaders, on the economy. Cristina Fernandez’s bad economic policies - nationalization of foreign-owned oil company YPF, confiscation of private pension schemes and seizure of central bank reserves - are squarely within the Peronist political tradition.
In pragmatic Anglo-Saxon lands, public intellectuals have less influence than leading businessmen - Warren Buffett, John Harvey-Jones and, in his day, Andrew Mellon. Latin America might have been better off if it had more such business wisdom and fewer heirs to the intellectuals whose baleful influence is well chronicled in Krauze’s book.
What has gone wrong with Latin America? In 1900, the region contained six of the world’s 30 richest countries, according to economic historian Angus Maddison. In 2010, Argentina, the richest Latin American country in per capita terms, was 51st on the International Monetary Fund’s list. Enrique Krauze explains in his book “Redeemers: Ideas and Power in Latin America” that the disastrous economic ideas of a group of intellectuals and charismatic leaders led the continent astray. That was a century ago, but the lesson remains topical.
Until the Spanish-American war of 1898, most Latin American intellectuals admired the United States, believing it showed the way to a successful democratic future. The continent’s political leaders, for example Mexico’s Porfirio Diaz (president, 1876-80, 1884-1911) and Argentina’s Domingo Sarmiento (president 1868-74) and Julio Roca (president 1880-86 and 1898-1904), were more equivocal about democracy but whole-hearted in their support for foreign investment and American-style free markets.
But the United States’ naked imperialism of 1898 changed the mood. Even Diaz in a 1908 interview for Pearson’s magazine said: “It is useless to deny a distinct feeling of distrust, a fear of territorial absorption, which interferes with a closer union of the American republics.” With suspicion of the United States came antipathy to free markets.
Jose Marti (1853-95) didn’t wait for the war. The first of Krauze’s four “prophets” and the inspiration of Cuba’s revolution against Spain was deeply suspicious of U.S. motives by the time he returned to Cuba and his death in 1895. The second “prophet” was Uruguay’s Jose Enrique Rodo (1871-1917). In his 1900 “Ariel,” Rodo postulated a radical opposition between idealistic Latin American culture and the materialistic world being forged in the Anglo-Saxon United States.
The third, Mexico’s Jose Vasconcelos (1882-1959), ran for president in 1929 on a radical socialist platform. He proposed a mystical nationalism supposed to liberate Mexico from the capitalist, pro-American “porfirismo” of Diaz. Finally, Krauze’s fourth “prophet,” Peru’s Jose Carlos Mariategui (1894-1930), decided that Marxism wasn’t sufficiently indigenous for Latin Americans; instead they should return to the Inca economics of communal property.
In “The Redeemers,” the prophets are followed by four charismatic political leaders: Argentine populist icon Eva Peron (1919-52), Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-67), Mexican guerrilla leader “Subcomandante Marcos” (1957- ) and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez (1954-).
Only Marcos can qualify as something like an intellectual, but all of them were strongly influenced by the anti-American, anti-capitalist intellectual climate. Peron and Guevara provided a transmission mechanism to popularize the worldview for future generations. Marcos and Chavez may yet do the same.
Krauze goes a bit off-topic with his literary diversions - essays on the Mexican poet Octavio Paz (1914-98), and on two novelists, the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927- ) and the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa (1936- ). None of them has added much to a leftist intellectual current that was already in full flow. He would have done better to study the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-73), whose maunderings are now taught in U.S. high schools.
Krauze examines in detail the political and economic ideals of his subjects, as well as their writings. As a Mexican, he has his own presumptions, one of which is that the autocratic and charismatic “caudillo” leadership style contributes heavily to the region’s problem.
Not being Mexican, I would cast as much blame on the succession of uncharismatic, oligarchic Institutional Revolutionary Party political leaders at the country’s helm from 1929 to 2000.
Krauze presents a detailed case that Latin American intellectuals have had a uniquely poisonous influence on their countries’ politics, and through misguided political leaders, on the economy. Cristina Fernandez’s bad economic policies - nationalization of foreign-owned oil company YPF, confiscation of private pension schemes and seizure of central bank reserves - are squarely within the Peronist political tradition.
In pragmatic Anglo-Saxon lands, public intellectuals have less influence than leading businessmen - Warren Buffett, John Harvey-Jones and, in his day, Andrew Mellon. Latin America might have been better off if it had more such business wisdom and fewer heirs to the intellectuals whose baleful influence is well chronicled in Krauze’s book.
March 9, 2017
Krauze enfrenta un papel necesario en América Latina: desmitificar aquellos personajes sobre los cuales comienza a crecer la pátina de la santidad (tan venerados en esta parte del mundo). Con rigor investigativo logra levantar ampollas mediante un relato crítico, con buen ritmo narrativo y varios detalles que van tejiendo esa maraña que es la historia de cada ser humano.
Una lectura que demuestra el lado humano de doce personajes, mediante los cuales Krauze trata de hacer un complejo esbozo de lo que es latinoamérica, a través de sus incertudumbres, amores, contradicciones, odios, convicciones, conveniencias y el valor que cada uno asume frente a la historia y las sociedades que influenciaron.
Vale la pena leerlo con valentía, reconocer al hombre detrás del mito, para darse cuenta cómo es esa latiniamérica profunda.
Una lectura que demuestra el lado humano de doce personajes, mediante los cuales Krauze trata de hacer un complejo esbozo de lo que es latinoamérica, a través de sus incertudumbres, amores, contradicciones, odios, convicciones, conveniencias y el valor que cada uno asume frente a la historia y las sociedades que influenciaron.
Vale la pena leerlo con valentía, reconocer al hombre detrás del mito, para darse cuenta cómo es esa latiniamérica profunda.
December 8, 2011
Una visión impresionante de la importancia que tiene Latiniamérica en la economía y política Estadounidense y cómo desde los inicios estan de la mano, aunque con una carga de beneficios claramente inclinada al país del norte.
Los años han pasado y las formas de hacer política y economía han cambiado, y con ello latinoamérica ya no está dispuesta a aceptar la mismas formas "elegantes" de extorsión. Ahora se exige mayor equidad y tratos mayormente claros y justos. Aqui se presenta las nuevas formas para lograrlo pasando por un repaso de gran nivel sobre cómo ha influído esta política en las artes y en particular en la literatura (tiene estupendos comentarios sobre Octavio Paz, García Marquez o Vargas Llosa y su participación en estos cambios sociales no solo en sus países sino en el continente).
Aunque creo que exageré al tardar 2 meses para terminarlo, me parece que es un libro para leerse lento por la cantidad de sensaciones que provoca al descubrir algunas verdades muchas veces ocultas, y por la cercanía de los hechos y la historia. No menos valioso es la visión futurista de las doce figuras para lograr el tan deseado equilibrio.
Es el primer libro que leo de Krauze, y aunque me reconozco apenas como un simple lector de solo algunos de sus artículos o de sus investigaciones que se llegan a cruzar por mi camino, me deja un muy buen sabor al terminarlo y una admiración por la investigación y el trabajo realizado aqui. AJB
Los años han pasado y las formas de hacer política y economía han cambiado, y con ello latinoamérica ya no está dispuesta a aceptar la mismas formas "elegantes" de extorsión. Ahora se exige mayor equidad y tratos mayormente claros y justos. Aqui se presenta las nuevas formas para lograrlo pasando por un repaso de gran nivel sobre cómo ha influído esta política en las artes y en particular en la literatura (tiene estupendos comentarios sobre Octavio Paz, García Marquez o Vargas Llosa y su participación en estos cambios sociales no solo en sus países sino en el continente).
Aunque creo que exageré al tardar 2 meses para terminarlo, me parece que es un libro para leerse lento por la cantidad de sensaciones que provoca al descubrir algunas verdades muchas veces ocultas, y por la cercanía de los hechos y la historia. No menos valioso es la visión futurista de las doce figuras para lograr el tan deseado equilibrio.
Es el primer libro que leo de Krauze, y aunque me reconozco apenas como un simple lector de solo algunos de sus artículos o de sus investigaciones que se llegan a cruzar por mi camino, me deja un muy buen sabor al terminarlo y una admiración por la investigación y el trabajo realizado aqui. AJB
August 9, 2013
This book has been on my shelf for a while. I wanted to read it before I reread Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives. But before I started Redeemers, I also wanted to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude (which I skipped in college). Thankfully, Redeemers was well worth the wait.
Krauze's central thesis is that Latin American writers and popular political figures too often choose a path of mytho-historical redemption for their people rather than engage in the hard work of building democracies. Regardless of whether these redeemers chose communism or fascism, the result was always political and economic disaster and quite often massive bloodshed. Krauze explains how these leaders crafted social identities in direct opposition to the United States as well as the importance of youth to their movements.
There are a few flaws here. The chapter on Octavio Paz is a bit too long, and Krauze's narratives are sometimes muddled by his tendency to jump back and forth in time. Lastly, he doesn't always sufficiently explain the historical events that provide the context for these leaders.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in 20th century Latin American literature or Latin American politics.
Krauze's central thesis is that Latin American writers and popular political figures too often choose a path of mytho-historical redemption for their people rather than engage in the hard work of building democracies. Regardless of whether these redeemers chose communism or fascism, the result was always political and economic disaster and quite often massive bloodshed. Krauze explains how these leaders crafted social identities in direct opposition to the United States as well as the importance of youth to their movements.
There are a few flaws here. The chapter on Octavio Paz is a bit too long, and Krauze's narratives are sometimes muddled by his tendency to jump back and forth in time. Lastly, he doesn't always sufficiently explain the historical events that provide the context for these leaders.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone interested in 20th century Latin American literature or Latin American politics.
February 7, 2013
The book seemed a little uneven- the first section is split between several authors(/thinkers/political figures- few of them wore just one hat) but then the second section is devoted entirely to just one (Octavio Paz) and substantially longer than the first. It gives the impression that the book was started with just Paz in mind and the others were tacked on later. Which is not to say it's a bad book. But I think I would have liked it better if a) I read it in the original and b) I knew more about the history of the Americas beyond the arrival of the conquistadors. As it stands, the book served more or less as an intro to Latin American political thought, sadly one which I couldn't benefit fully from, as I don't doubt that the average Mexican schoolchild has a firmer grasp of the history involved than I do.
October 24, 2011
Een prachtig boek, als je geinteresserd bent in de politiek van Latijns-Amerika. Krauze laat een hele rij politieke denkers en politici de revue passeren. Allen hebben de geschiedenis van hun land of heel Latijns-Amerika beinvloed, ten goede of ten kwade.
Het gaat vooral over de laatste 120 jaar. Er zijn schrijvers bij (Octavio Paz, Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa), filosofen en politici (Che Guevara, Evita peron, Hugo Chavez), en nog veel meer. Al met al een bonte rij personen, die allemaal een interessante kijk op de wereld hadden.
Het gaat vooral over de laatste 120 jaar. Er zijn schrijvers bij (Octavio Paz, Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa), filosofen en politici (Che Guevara, Evita peron, Hugo Chavez), en nog veel meer. Al met al een bonte rij personen, die allemaal een interessante kijk op de wereld hadden.
April 20, 2016
This was a great overview of different people who have influenced political thought in Latin America over the last 100 years or so. This book is also a great way to start learning about how different countries and regions differ from each other, in terms of political thought and beliefs.
The only thing that I found lacking was a figure or two from Central American history.
The only thing that I found lacking was a figure or two from Central American history.
February 25, 2015
"Sólo me conforma un infinito"-Vasconcelos, los ideales de América Latina se han considerados como pasajeros y no como una noción central de lo que podría ser la concepción más estructurada de una realidad que se puede cambiar. Ernesto Guevara, Subcomandante Marcos, García Márquez y Hugo Chávez, esos ideales en acciones/libros/pensamientos son el fundamento de la lucha en América Latina.
October 11, 2016
The author is a great writer and it is so easy to read. I only feel that the author could develop better the ideas he brought up in introduction and conclusion. He described details about figures' lives but didn't develop very well their ideas about Latin America. It is a good start to know the ideas in Latin America and and excellent source of bibliography to dig on the topic!
January 15, 2016
a VERY extensive history of the ideologies and thoughts of many famous Latin American thinkers. Despite the subject mater and the book's translation from Spanish, this is about as accessable a book as this topic could allow.
May 24, 2015
La manera de describir a los personajes citados en éste libro por Krauze es magnifica. Un libro muy recomendado para conocer un poco a esos heroes-villanos, revolucionarios-dictadores, fascistas-presidentes de está gran América Latina!
September 30, 2011
Excellent overview of Latin American politics and power through mini-biographies of its "redeemers."
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February 13, 2018He leído capítulos salteados, y debo decir que algunos me han gustado más que otros. El libro en general es un excelente brochazo de la evolución del pensamiento político en América Latina.
November 25, 2012
Trying to educate myself in Latin American political thought. Mind-stretching and most rewarding! I highly recommend it.
April 10, 2016
bleh. I think there is a reason it took me so long to read this book. It's just not that good. Not horrible but not in the least memorable, either.
February 23, 2016
It's very hard to understand the inspirations of another culture. This is as through an attempt as I've seen.
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May 3, 2017It would help if you know more about Latin American history than I did, which was done. It was interesting to be introduced to a series of writers, leaders and other historical actors. Krauze is good at showing how the figures influenced each other. He also illustrates how the same ideas and concerns Latin America's feelings about Indians, the United States and in the latter part of the 20th Century Castro.
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November 20, 2018A nonfiction book reviewing some of the main thinkers and influencers of Latin American thought in the late 19th and 20th centuries. (All men, except Eva Perón.) Definitely an interesting read. Makes me want to delve a little deeper into some of these people, and definitely continue reading about Latin America, even after I leave Peru.
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