Reimagining Citizenship and Masculinity through Palma’s Bolívar

• In Event: Masculinidades y ficciones: tradición, folletín y teatro

Abstract

Among the hundreds of narrations that comprise the Tradiciones Peruanas written by Ricardo Palma (1833-1919), several focus on the renowned Simón Bolívar, “El Libertador.” Palma’s Tradiciones, published in the newspaper and then in collected editions, elaborate tidbits of cultural and material history from the Conquest up to the author’s present of Republican Peru. Palma’s Bolívar narratives center on the history, as well as the body, of the Libertador, and render him as a clever politician and flawed character. They focus on Bolívar’s carnal appetites and female conquests, aspects marked as traditionally masculine according to the binary 19th-century ideal of masculinity. However, they also emphasize Bolívar’s small stature and enthusiasm for hygienic luxuries, which were not considered traditionally masculine at that time.

Palma’s repeated invocation of Bolívar’s non-traditionally masculine body alongside his heterosexual vigor engages a more complex notion of masculinity than was the norm for 19th-century Spanish America. His characterization of Bolívar explores, if only tentatively, what R. Connell terms the multiplicities of masculinity as a means of appropriating this icon of independence for readers of late-19th-century Peru. Palma emphasizes that Bolívar is a slight figure whose power exceeds his physical might, hinting that ideal citizenship may similarly defy expectations in terms of appearance and inner strength. In the context of boundary disputes that opened the path to war, occupation, and anxieties regarding national sovereignty during this period, Palma’s expanded conceptualization of masculinity hints at the possibility of creating a powerful citizenry through reimagining America’s foundational mythology.

Author

• Elisabeth L Austin, Virginia Tech