Abstract

LASSO, Marixa. A Republican Myth of Racial Harmony: Race and Patriotism in Colombia, 1810-1812. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2007, n.27, pp.32-45. ISSN 0123-885X.

This article argues that the nationalist ideology of racial harmony and equality-which contemporary academics have called the "myth of racial harmony"-emerged during the anti-colonial Hispano-American wars of early nineteenth century. Factors such as the participation of blacks and mulattos in the patriot army, the elite's fear of a racial war, and the powerful nationalist ideology that appeared during those wars compelled the new Hispano-American nations to "solve" their racial conflicts by creating a nationalist myth of racial harmony and equality. The article analyzes the intellectual and ideological aspects of this process. It discusses how citizenship was denied to people of African descent during Constitutional debates in Cadiz, and how patriot discourse, as a result of such debates and the mobilization of blacks and mulattos for the patriots, started to equate the rights of pardos with the fight against the colonial system, and patriotism with racial harmony. A new and powerful nationalist ideology was thus created, infl uencing race relations over the next two centuries.

Keywords : Wars of Independence; Cartagena; Cádiz constitutions; race; republicanism; racial democracy.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )