Abstract

CASTELLON VALDES, Luz Mary. The language of war: political construction of the enemy in the wars of independence of Mexico and Venezuela (1809-1820). Anu.hist.reg.front. [online]. 2015, vol.20, n.1, pp.41-71. ISSN 0122-2066.

In the war for Latin American independence, violence was expressed in various fields: that of the bloody war with its executions, looting, rapes, destruction of villages, but also at the level of discourse, which acquired great importance at the time of the confrontation. The study of that war speech is a crucial point to understand in depth the nature of wars, the course that followed their outcomes and the motivations of the players who took part in them. So, the questions that are addressed in this article, revolve around the Constitution of political subjects and the construction of identities, through the descriptions and testimonials that we have documents of "the causes of disclosure" of Mexico and Venezuela, in the context of the wars of independence. These testimonies examines the language and rhetoric used by its authors, which shows the construction of a project that sought to define the enemy in the war by pointing to a 'we', the Americans, as a strong collective identity that differed from a "you", the Spanish.

Keywords : infidentes; wars of independence; languages of war; enemy; political identity.

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