Monday, August 30, 2010
Bicentennial Festivals in Latin America are Mexico-Plus
By Allan Wall
Mexico is celebrating its Bicentennial
and Centennial this year. (See 2010: The Year of Mexico’s Bicentennial and Centennial.)
Interestingly enough, Mexico
is not the only Latin American country celebrating its Bicentennial this 2010. On
April 19th, Venezuela had its Bicentennial. On May 25th
Argentina had its Bicentennial. Colombia had its Bicentennial on July 20th. And Chile celebrates its Bicentennial on September 18th, just a few days
after Mexico’s September 15/16th Independence Day Bicentennial.
Last year, in 2009, Ecuador and
Bolivia celebrated their Bicentennials.
And next year, in 2010, El Salvador
and Paraguay are scheduled to celebrate their Bicentennials also!
So what’s going on here? Why are so many Latin American Spanish-speaking nations celebrating their Bicentennials? Is it simply coincidence?
Or is there a reason their Bicentennials
are so close?
There is definitely a reason
for the proximity of so many Latin American Bicentennials. It’s because
their independence movements arose at about the same time, produced by a common historical situation.
When Latin American nations celebrate
their independence, they emphasize the efforts of heroes such as Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico, and Simon Bolivar, Jose de San
Martin and Bernardo O´Higgins in South America. After all, countries need their
heroes.
If we look at the big picture
though, we see that the independence of these nations resulted from a convergence of various historical factors, not just
the bravery of their heroes.
In fact, various upheavals taking
place in Spain itself helped bring about the independence of Latin American nations.
(In a somewhat similar fashion,
the independence of the United States in the 1700s owed a lot to the political situation in England, and to the support the
U.S. received from France, Spain and the Netherlands, then continental enemies of Britain.)
Latin American independence
on the mainland happened relatively quickly. In 1800, Spain ruled a vast territorial
empire stretching from California to Tierra del Fuego, in the chilly
southern extremity of South America.
But in 1808 Spain was conquered by Napoleon, which led to the Peninsular War in Spain itself.
What then became of Spain’s Empire? Napoleon was famously disinterested in the
Western Hemisphere (which is why he had sold the Louisiana Territory to the US). On
the other hand, the deposed Spanish government was unable to exercise control over the empire.
This created a power vacuum in the Spanish Empire, and nature abhors a vacuum.
So Napoleon indirectly triggered various movements within Latin America. These movements were not initially fighting for independence, but asserting local control in the name of
the deposed Spanish king.
But they eventually became independence movements, and by 1829, Spain had lost all its territory on
the Latin American mainland. (It held on to its Caribbean possessions Cuba and Puerto Rico until the end of the century).
This is the historical
reason that so many Latin American countries celebrate their independence bicentennials so close together. So there is a lot of celebrating going on in Latin America these years.
In fact, the Grupo Bicentenario (Bicentennial Group) was started in 2007, formed by Latin American nations celebrating bicentennials. The group’s goal is to coordinate joint commemoration of Latin American independence
and it has held forums discussing the topic.
The Bicentennial Group
is composed of ten nations. Nine of them are Latin American nations celebrating their independence from Spain: Mexico, El
Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina.
So what’s the tenth nation? The tenth nation is none other than Spain, the nation from which they gained their
independence! Why not?
One of the joint activities
commemorating these nations’ bicentennial was an international regatta of sailing ships which joined together in a five-month
voyage. This fleet included vessels from 12 nations from Latin America, Europe
and the U.S.
It started in Brazil and after
sailing through both Atlantic and Pacific waters, wound up in the Gulf of Mexico and completed its voyage in the port of Veracruz,
Mexico. The regatta was called Vela Sud
America and specifically commemorates, besides the Independence Bicentennials, the establishment of their independent
Latin American navies.
In Chile, a recent unexpected
development has been associated with that country’s Bicentennial. A mine
cave-in in Copiapo, in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, left 33 miners trapped underground. Things weren’t looking hopeful until August 22nd, when a probe sent underground returned
to the surface. There was a message from the trapped miners attached to the drill
bit, reporting that all 33 of them were alive and in a subterranean refuge.
Soon, Chile’s President
Sebastian Pinera was televised speaking excitedly near the mine entrance, brandishing the note sent from below. The president
linked the discovery of the miners’ survival to the country’s Bicentennial.
Pinera declared, “The news
[of the discovery] fills us with happiness and strength. I feel prouder than
ever of being a Chilean and of being the president of Chile…. I think that
we couldn’t begin our month of the fatherland [September] and the celebration of the Bicentennial any better than with
this marvelous news.”
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Allan
Wall, an educator, resided in Mexico for many years. His website is located
at www.allanwall.net.
