Nuestra America

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Nuestra América (German: Our America ) is a political-philosophical essay by the Cuban writer José Martí from 1891. In the essay, the author criticizes the North American politics of interests in Latin America and proposes an anti-imperialist alliance of all Central and South American states.

The work was first published on January 1, 1891 in the New York Revista Ilustrada and on January 30, 1891 in the Mexican magazine El Partido Liberal . At the same time as the publication of the work, Martí took part in the first Pan-American Conference in Washington, in which questions of inter-American cooperation should be clarified.

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At the beginning of the essay, Martí paints a picture of a new danger that Latin America is facing. He illustrates this allegorically with trees that no longer grow in an idyll: “ The trees have to line up so that the giant with the seven-mile markers cannot pass through. It is the time of reckoning and marching together; and we must march close together. “He calls on the peoples of Latin America to seal disputes among themselves and to stand up together for their interests.

After this call, Martí clarified the problem: the cultural dependence on Europe and the USA. Latin American students would learn the political theories of Europe and North America instead of those of their own continent. Students would be taught Greek history instead of indigenous history. In order to deal with this, he suggests developing and cultivating one's own culture. Many have already started to work on solutions to the problems: “ The young people of America roll up their sleeves, put their hands on the tables and stand up with sweat-soaked heads. They understand that we are imitating too much; and that the solution is to create something. “Martí calls for people to develop their own culture and to base politics on it.

Indios, mestizos and blacks have to be politically involved in the republics so that they are really free. Martí also presents his historical-materialistic idea of ​​creating a new American man by changing some economic and logistical problems.

meaning

The essay is written in pictorial language and contains many allegorical appeals to the Latin American community to hold together and to strengthen one's own culture in relation to North America.

Martí contrasts Spanish-Portuguese and Anglophone America. He used terms like nuestra América (Our America), America mestiza ( mestizisches America), América nueva (New America) or Yanquis .

The autochthonous community of the natives is stylized into an ideal to which identity, truth and autonomy adhere. In Nuestra América, Martí rejects the predominant Hispano-centralist view of American historiography. Nevertheless, he divides the population of Latin America into a cultivated ( los cultos ) and an uncultivated ( los incultos ) part. His belief in ever advancing technological and economic progress implies the measure, supported by Martí in his political work, to civilize indigenous peoples according to western standards.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c José Martí: Nuestra America. In: Obras Completas VI, La Habana 1963, pp. 15, 17, 20.
  2. ↑ Ignacio Delgado González: Los Fundadores del Pensamiendo Cubano. De Félix Varela and José Martí. (= Concordia, Serie Monografías, Raúl Fornet-Benancourt (Ed.), Volume 42), Aachen 2006, p. 87.
  3. ↑ Tulio Halperin Donghi: Hispanoamérica en el espejo. Reflexionses hispanoamericanas sobre hispanoamérica, de Simón Bolívar a Hernando de Soto. In: História Mexicana, México e Hispanoamérica. Una reflexiónhistoriográfica en el Quinto Centenario. II, 42, 3, January 1993, pp. 745-787, here p. 761.
  4. ^ Jorge Camacho: Contra el peligro. José Martí, la crítica modernista y la justificación de las políticas liberales en el siglo XIX. In: MLN. 124, March 2, 2009, pp. 424-437.