Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America

Nationalist politics arose throughout Latin America as a result of neocolonialism, governments kowtowing to foreign investors, and suppression of freedoms at the hands of authoritarian governments. The era of neocolonialism had reminded Latin Americans not only of their previous history when they were subjected to and subjugated by Spain (or Portugal), but also of how dangerous the lack of social and cultural unity was. The lack of a strong national identity and, more importantly, national pride provided an atmosphere to be dominated. At the beginning of the 20th century, nationalism was simply a slowly fomenting idea. However, it gained strength and momentum following the crash of the New York Stock Exchange and the subsequent Great Depression. The Depression reverberated throughout the world, and the export boom that was driving politics and the economy crashed along with it. This forced Latin America to look for other means to rejuvenate crumbling economies. The means was an import-substitution industrialization (ISI).

ISI was the opposite to the export boom. Prior to the 1930s, Latin America had developed very little along industrial lines. The economy focused on producing massive amounts of key goods, such as sugar, coffee, and bananas. The money gained from exports allowed Latin American nations to purchase industrial goods from Europe or the United States. However, when the US and Europe could no longer purchase enough of the export goods, Latin America had to begin producing their own industrial goods. Thus, they borrowed money and purchased older industrial equipment from the US and Europe. Thus, they began to produce the industrial products in-country that they used to import. This supported nationalist rhetoric and sentiments.

A key aspect of nationalism was to focus on internal development and change, something for which liberals had been fighting for decades. However, this impetus for change never had the strength before that it received from the need to move from an export economy to a more autarchical one. Nationalist ideas were further strengthened by the cultural movement known as indigenismo, which celebrated, for the first time, Latin America’s Indigenous heritage. In essence, indigenismo was transculturation come full circle. Perhaps the most well-known artist of indigenismo motifs was Diego Rivera. His greatest work in this area is the mural he painted that narrates the entirety of Mexican history since the Encounter to the present, with even a small place devoted to a Marxist-themed future. The mural is in the National Palace in Mexico City. Key aspects of Rivera’s mural are the focus of the narration is from the point-of-view of the Indigenous and mestizo populations rather than a more Euro-centric one that had dominated earlier artworks, and the scope of the work does not present history on a line, which offers a more circular or loose interpretation of events.

Nationalism often appeared as revolutions and its leaders as revolutionaries because nationalism met with strong resistance in certain countries. The greatest example of the struggle for nationalist ideals was carried out in Peru. It began with the nationalist leader Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre. He was exiled in 1920 for leading a student protest against the government. While in exile, he continued to fight against what he saw as economic imperialism and founded the Popular American Revolutionary Party (APRA). APRA continued over the ensuing decades to fight for change in Peru, but they were never as successful as nationalists in other nations. One reason for this was Peru’s demography with predominantly Indigenous people living in the mountains and those of European or African heritage living in urban centers. This stark divide made unification difficult because it highlighted differences rather than created the mixture of cultures found in nations like Mexico. In 1932, APRA revolted after losing the election, and the government responded harshly with mass executions and outlawed the party. Nevertheless, Haya de la Torre remained in exile and gained popularity among Peruvians eager to change.

The Great Depression brought about another important change throughout most of Latin America, which was improved relations with the United States. The US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, inaugurated a Good Neighbor Policy regarding Latin American nations. The goal was to improve relations that had been strained after years of the Monroe Doctrine and neocolonialism, and to focus on closer cooperation politically and economically. This was further strengthened when the US entered the conflicts of the Second World War. The US sought allies in Latin America. Many nations headed the call immediately, and all joined eventually. Brazilian troops, for example, participated in the Italian campaign. Relations were further improved by ISI because the US needed many of the resources that Latin America could offer for the war effort. It was the first time in Latin America’s history that any nation there had a favorable trade balance with Europe or the US: “In 1943, for example, Brazil’s exports totaled $445 million, a $135 million trade surplus” (259).

Although the early decades of the 20th century witnessed much improvement in Latin America, there were still many issues that caused friction socially and politically. Despite indigenismo and nationalism, racism, for example, remained problematic. The Chilean poet, Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in literature, was greatly ostracized by the Chilean elite for her mestizo roots. Racism and the fight against it was a critical point that led to populism, because racism often pitted the white European social elite against the mestizo and Indigenous lower classes. Populism is a political ideology that aims at winning the support of the lower classes by opposing the elite. Populism ran parallel to nationalism and indigenismo. The Argentine president Juan Perón is a prime example of a populist leader in the first half of the 20th century. A key aspect of Perón’s presidency was his fight to better the lives of Argentine laborers.