Bello and Bolívar: Poetry and Politics in the Spanish American Revolution

In June 1810, the Venezuelans, fearful of French aggression, sent a diplomatic mission to London in search of an ally. The mission was headed by Símon Bolívar; the secretary was Andres Bello. Bello remained in London through the Spanish American Revolution and became one of the most accomplished members of the Spanish-speaking intelligentsia. In this book, Antonio Cussen reconstructs Andres Bello's account of the Revolution. The official history of the Revolution, the heroic history of Bolívar, is replaced by the account of a poet, who was first Bolívar's teacher, and later his critic. Through a detailed study of the manuscripts of Bello's unfinished poem "América" the author argues that Bello recorded the disintegration of the Augustan model of power and culture and intimated the inevitable approach of liberalism with a certain longing for the classical culture of his youth.