Cultural Opposites—N.Amer., S.Amer.—and Simon Bolivar
Few books have been more enlightening than a biography I recently read on Simon Bolivar by Marie Arana. Simon Bolivar is often compared to George Washington of the United States. George Washington led the Revolutionary War which freed the U.S. from Britain. Simon Bolivar freed 6 countries in South America from Spanish Rule. Washington was a tall impressive figure while Simon Bolivar was 5’6 inches, slight of build, and only his eyes reflected the magnitude of his imposing will. Both men sought a more ideal society but the American population was far different from the South American population, just as Britain was a far different oppressor than Spain. Simon Bolivar was a far superior military commander than George Washington. Washington needed the forces of France to win the Revolutionary War, while Simon Bolivar needed only Simon Bolivar to rout Spain completely from South America. The American Revolutionary War was relatively short, the War by Simon Bolivar to rid South America of Spain was a much longer one.
My knowledge of South America, as with most Americans, has always been rather scant. These countries are down there but they seem more violent, less tolerant, less stable, less educated, and poorer than Americans in general. I always wondered why—after all, both continents were rural at the time of Washington and Bolivar, both rich in natural resources, and so why did they evolve into such differing cultures? I suppose children are likely to reflect parental influence, so it seems South Americans are likely to reflect the different culture of Spain and Britain. Compared to Spain, Britain’s treatment of her colonies was far more humane, fair, and enlightened than the inhumane, unfair, and unenlightened cruelty exercised by Spain over her American colonies. If ever the phrase “violence begets violence” has truth, it certainly did with South America and Spain.
Two thirds of South American citizens back then were mixed race. North Americans slowly learned to tolerate distinct racial and religious groups. In South America, it was always more everybody for himself/herself. From the git-go, starting with Columbus, Spain had no use whatsoever with anyone not born in Spain. Spain was ruled essentially by the Catholic Church, and in those days, the Catholic Church ruled more like a heartless mafia then a peace loving religious organization—which is not to say, as always, that some strict catholics were not ideal ethical ‘saints’. Columbus was a devout catholic, an arduous seeker of gold, power, and cruelty to those not native Spaniards. Spanish rule was based almost entirely on violence and submission of native Americans. Aided by diseases to which the native populations had little resistance, Columbus just quickly made many native populations become extinct, working them to death, outright torturing hundreds of thousands, making slaves, bringing some back to Europe as trophies, and so on. Writings by Columbus are a picture of a deranged cruel insensitive oppressor.
Here are a few gems from Columbus:
"The Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say, 'no,'" the Columbus quote in Stephan's tweet reads, "To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone."
"They would make fine servants," a second quote from the tweet reads. "With 50 men, we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
“They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
“While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.” (one of Columbus’s sailors)
“Endless testimonies . .. prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives…. But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy…
And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers’ breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them head first against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, “Boil there, you offspring of the devil!” Other infants they put to the sword along with their mothers and anyone else who happened to be nearby. They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim’s feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive. To others they attached straw or wrapped their whole bodies in straw and set them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim’s neck, saying, “Go now, carry the message,” meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains. They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in the following way: they made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them…” (Bartolome DeLas Casas—the priest who accompanied Columbus).
This then, is how it all began—the Spanish Conquest of South America. 350 plus years later, a typical Spanish colony consisted of Spanish born, crown appointed overseers; below them the Creoles—whites born in the colonies, then came the part white/Indian (mestizo), part white/black (mulattoes), black/Indian (sambas). Finally came the slaves. Sexual combinations of all sorts was a way of life. Simon Bolivar’s 46 year old father married a 14 year old neighborhood child and the first child was Simon Bolivar. The priest who had baptized Simon died when Simon was very young and surprised everyone by naming Simon the sole heir of his vast fortune—three plantations, 95,000 cacao trees, and all his slaves. His father died when young and the Spanish courts dictated who would raise unruly Simon, worth so much in inheritance from the priest. His primary caregiver was a black slave named Hipolita. His formative years were unique in that Simon was known as a prankster, a pampered child who spent his days cavorting with the slaves’ children, running wild. By the end of the first decade of Simon’s life he had lost his father, mother, grandparents, a sister, and most of his aunts and uncles on the Bolivar side.
Simon ended up in Spain where he then received a good education, became an avid reader, appreciated fine culture and fell in love with a young gal Maria Teresa, then moved back to Venezuela to live the life of a rich plantation owner. Except Maria Teresa died and after that, Simon Bolivar became a prodigious lover for the rest of his life, with a few constant companions along the way. Maria died within 5 months of reaching Venezuela. Bolivar later stated “I loved my wife very much and at her death I took an oath never again to marry. As you can see, I have kept my word.” Then again, he rarely slept alone except on the battlefield.
Around this time Simon Bolivar met Alexander Van Humbolt, a noted explorer of South America. Later Humbolt wrote “I confess I was wrong back then, when I judged him a puerile man, incapable of realizing so grand an ambition (freeing South America from Spanish rule).
At about this time John Adams wrote this about the possibilities of democracies in South America: “you might as well talk about establishing democracies among the birds, beasts, and fishes as among the Spanish American people.” This would prove to be very true.
Simon Bolivar was not the only person eager to lead a revolt against Spain in various South American Countries. But he was low on the totem pole because of his age and perceptions of him. The consensus in Venezuela among the potential leaders of a revolt was that Simon Bolivar was “too untried, too impulsive, too incendiary”.
The social atmosphere was difficult. The Catholic Church was adamantly opposed to independence. So were the lower classes who felt their oppression might get worse without Spain offering them some protection against the upper classes. It will not be the purpose here to go through the tedious path of Bolivar’s rise to be a leading revolutionary force.
In the first attempts by military leaders to lead a revolution, the Spanish forces ordered troops to sack towns, rob the innocent, kill anyone who got in their way. Houses were torched and the residents mowed down as they tried to flee the fire, prisoners had their throats cut, their ears lopped off, and body parts were worn as trophies by the Spanish troops. Even Spanish priests were heard encouraging fellow soldiers to spare no one over the age of 7.
In short, these budding revolutions were nothing like the battles for independence in the United States where battlefield military victories were, with few exceptions, the sole determinate of who was winning or losing. While major revolutionary generals with larger forces were getting massacred by Spanish troops, Bolivar was putting together an army of raggedy ‘have nots’ with nothing to lose. Bolivar was a master of psychological warfare and given the social environment of the time, understood that an army of people with nothing to lose would be able to beat larger armies of soldiers living the ‘good life’. Simon decided he would operate on his own with his rag tag band of soldiers. He declared, “We’ve run out of goodness” and he put it in writing that all Spaniards in Venezuela would be exterminated. “Count on death even if you have been indifferent. For non Spaniards “count on life, even if you have been guilty of past allegiance to the Crown.” From then on the war for independence would be fought on the terms established by Spain and the Catholic Church.
Probably neither side foresaw the long term consequences of such terroristic mind sets on both sides of the battles. Simon at least took this road as a last resort. He didn’t start this mentality. Simon used surprise, endless surprise before and during the battles. This was no sophisticated army, this Bolivar army. There were no uniforms, no educated soldiers, no ‘softies’ among the ranks. All the pent up anger of an army of ‘have nots’ would roar down when least expected, looking like savage beasts intent on murdering anything in sight. Bolivar, with a vastly smaller army, used advance spies to spread the word that he had far more men, that the attack would be a surprise, that he was known to lure whole armies into endless traps, appearing to flee when he was just setting up the pursuing army for an attack from the rear or finding themselves is the wrong terrain to defend themselves. Almost overnight, Simon Bolivar’s reputation unnerved the Spanish forces. As a consequence, fearing for their lives, Spanish forces would often abandon a town before Simon could attack, and Bolivar would enter the town a hero with little bloodshed. Also, Bolivar never rested, his pursuit was incessant, his bag of tricks endless, and the Spanish soldiers began to feel it better to escape than run the risk of personal and brutal deathly harm. Stated Bolivar: “A weak man requires a long fight in order to win. A strong one delivers a single blow and an empire vanishes.”
At about this time Bolivar would lead his forces atop his white horse Palamo, with a bright-eyed mastiff dog at his side, a dog which would be at his side for eight years, while ‘Petita”, his girlfriend for the next six years would always be in camp with him and his army. Also with him at his side was his old black nursemaid, Hipolita.
The situation reminds us of what Voltaire said early in history: “All murderers will be punished, unless of course they kill in large numbers, to the sound of trumpets” Aligned with another saying “Violence begets violence”, the battles for independence from Spain established a culture of violence and cruelty to others which would remain intact in South America right up to the present. It is the same kind of violence which perpetuated the endless violence in the Middle East right up to today.
Spaniards living in a town were often taken to the market place, and en route be shot limb by limb while bands would play music as the dying Spaniard would wiggle until, responding to the cheers of “kill him” the soldiers would then put a final bullet to his brain. It should be noted that Simon himself never participated in these cruel scenes—he was not by nature a cruel person, but he understood that most of his army were seeking revenge on the people of privilege and wanted to level the class structure. Simon saw no other way to get the Spanish out of South America. It was sort of a message to ‘run for your life while you still have one”. And it worked for the most part. Many a Spanish person, in the army or not, began to sense they better get back to Spain while they still could.
The Spanish soldiers had muskets, but these muskets required six complicated actions to reload, and by that time Bolivar’s rough hewed crude ruffians would be upon them with the fury stored up in them from decades of abuse by Spanish rule.
Simon Bolivar was wise enough to realize he was primarily skilled as a warrior, not that interested in the daily run of any government. From his first successes he never wavered here as evidenced by one of his first speeches to a conquered nation or area:
“I am not your sovereign. To save you from anarchy…I exercised supreme power. i gave you laws, I gave you government… You honor me with the illustrious title of Liberator. The officers, the soldiers of your army—those are your liberators, they are ones who deserve the nations’ gratitude. You know very well that they are the authors of your rebirth… I beg you now to release me from a charge that is far greater than my capabilities. Elect your representatives, your magistrates, a just government, and rest secure that the forces that Rescued the Republic will protect your liberty…A country in which one lone person exercises all power is a country of slaves!”
It would not be until the end of his life (in his mid 40’s) that Bolivar realized the culture he helped create, was not suited for democracy. What kind of government it was suited for is elusive. Violence had been instilled as the most effective way to control the people and intolerance of diversity was so ingrained for centuries that cooperation and respect were never able to gain a foothold as strong priorities. Bolivar himself, when betrayed by those he trusted, would respond with blind anger. When Bolivar learned that a trusted general was involved in a plot to have the captured prisoners engage in a violent uprising, he had every Spanish prisoner in a huge area marched out of their prison and beheaded. Every one of them.
While killing in cold blood sickened Bolivar, one of his main strengths was creating fear amongst his opponents. He tended to look the other way when some of his generals reveled in death and torture. Simon once expressed: “Our people are nothing like Europeans or North Americans; indeed, we are more a mix of Africa and South America than we are children of Europe…It is impossible to say with any certainty to which human race we belong. Most of our Indians have been annihilated; Spaniards have mixed with South Americans and Africans; their children, in turn have mixed with Indians and Spaniards…we all differ visibly in the color of our skin…..even the slightest alteration can throw off, divide, or undo its delicate balance.” Thus he proposed an educational body that would be responsible for instilling ethics and civic responsibilities.
Time after time a freed nation would install him as a dictator to rule over them. But Bolivar would just as quickly tire of it as he stated: “I am not versed in the art of government. I cannot and do not wish to govern, for to do it well one must have an inclination or, better yet, an uncontrollable passion of it. For my part, each day I feel a growing repugnance toward the command.” Bolivar’s greatest hope was that South American nations would become an integrated whole so that their world influence would be maximized.
The physical stress Simon Bolivar put on his body via many military battles and traveling over the South American continent to help one country, then another, expel Spaniards from their nations, took a heavy toll on his body. From arthritis to endless battle injuries, Simon was often in extended periods of pain. To relieve the pain he became addicted to opium for long periods of time. His energy level was truly amazing and long standing. By age 38 Simon was an ‘old’ man. He was still nimble of movement but he was emaciated, riddled with fevers and other mysterious medical conditions.
Towards the end of his life, which was to end at age 46, Bolivar was a spent liberator. He succeeded in driving the Spanish out of South America, but he paid dearly for the effort. Most of his relatives were dead, his wife was dead. Always on the move he had few close friends and many of his favorite generals and soldiers had been killed in battle, captured—tortured— then killed. He managed to have loyal female companions till the end, but by the end he could not even walk. Most of the countries he freed were total disasters politically, corrupt, powerless to unite the various constituents of their nation, and all this depressed Bolivar. He used violence, ruthlessness, and fear to expel the Spanish, but in the end he realized all the violence and intolerance could not just be suddenly turned off.
Of all the countries he saved from the Spanish, Peru he considered the most messed up. He felt sorry for the Indians” “I want to do all that is possible for them. First, for the good of humanity; second, because they have a right to it; and, ultimately, because doing the right thing costs so little and is worth so much.” He ordered roads built, demanded that monasteries be converted into schools, built an aqueduct, established colleges—but little changed. He finally concluded that wealth and slavery had ruined the country. His dream of a strong confederation of South American nations faded, as the differing nations distrusted each other, were fearful of each other, and cooperated little with each other.
Bolivar had little appreciation of the United States. He realized the culture in the U.S, was different from the backward, violent culture of South America. He stated: “The united States seems destined by Providence to plague South America with torments in the name of freedom.” Nearing the end of his life he commented pointing to his emaciated arms: “it isn’t nature that reduced me to this, but the pain gnawing at my heart. My fellow citizens couldn’t kill me with daggers, so they are trying to kill me with ingratitude. When I cease to exist, those hotheads will devour each other like a pack of wolves, and what I erected with superhuman effort will drown in the muck of rebellion.” While the colonies were dead, the colonial mentality was very much alive. Most of the countries he liberated were economically worse off than under Spain. Like the words of an old song: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”
“The America’s that were emerging under Bolivar’s horrified eyes were feudalistic, divisive, militaristic, racist, ruled by warlords who strove to keep the ignorant masses blinkered and under bigoted control.”
In the end Bolivar was destitute. Early in his life he was a very wealthy man via inheritance. At the end he was destitute. He had turned down every compensatory award every government had offered him. He had pressed his salary on others, or neglected to collect his salaries. He had little to show for all these sacrifices. In his 47 years of life he had traveled 75,000 miles under extremely difficult terrain, earning the nickname ‘iron ass’. He had seemingly inexhaustible stamina. But it all took a tremendous toll on his body and he died young a totally spent emaciated skeleton of his former self.
He listed what two decades of battling for liberation had taught him:
“1. South America is ungovernable
2. He who serves a revolution ploughs through the sea’
3. All one can do in South America is to leave it
4. South America is bound to fall into unimaginable chaos, after which it will pass into the hands of an undistinguishable string of tyrants of every color
5. Once we are devoured by all manner of crime and reduced to a frenzy of violence, no one—not even the Europeans—will want to subjugate us
6. And finally, if mankind could revert to its primitive state, it would be here in South America, in her final hour”
Does all that went down in South America have any relevance to current day world politics? Perhaps, but cultures are becoming more global. Plus today, with everything being so global, all nations are now faced with repercussions from global human overpopulation. Human population cannot continue to double with every generation as it has done in my lifetime. Without global realistic minimum wages, workers across the planet are doomed. Then there is climate change which has taken many decades to develop and cannot be reversed quickly. A vast toxic distribution of wealth is taking place across the globe under every form of government. This is leading to modern day terrorism and will likely generate chaos when the masses of poor revolt. Violence is becoming more and more acceptable as a means to an end and ever more random and ever more violent. Change is coming but God only knows what the future will really look like. Given the way God’s laws govern the evolutionary process, maybe God doesn’t know either. But the brilliance of Evolution is that no matter how dire the environment becomes, things bounce back even if it take millions of years for it to bounce back. For those of us with such limited years left, the future becomes almost irrelevant.
Simon Bolivar is truly one of the most intriguing individuals to study. With the best of intentions he used violence as a means to an end, but this generated violence to drive Spain out of South America itself generated a pattern of behavior which was self destructive to civilized governance and any peaceful socially tolerant culture. It all started with Columbus and his attitude toward native Americans. The survival of the Catholic church in South America is another interesting phenomenon. The church was a major player in the class warfare back in the days of Bolivar. Blind religious faith seems to be the opiate of the downtrodden. No matter how badly a religion treats a population, many people need the faith religion brings them. While the Catholic Church in South America is vastly different from the Catholic Church in colonial days, the Church too, seems incapable of bringing about the kind of tolerant prosperous peaceful society so badly needed throughout South America. The book Bolivar by Marie Arana is a masterpiece of insightful information about human nature and why South America remains such a troubled region of the world.
