The intellectual and political vanguard of the nation. History of a black and mulatto intellectuality in Colombia, 1877-1947.
By Francisco Xavier FlorezEditorial Crítica, 368 p., Cartagena.
Summary:
The intellectual history of Colombia in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century has almost always been reconstructed from the experiences of lawyers belonging to the Andean world. This book, on the other hand, studies the trajectory of self-taught black and mulatto students and professionals from the Caribbean and Pacific coasts who emerged in the seven decades that go from the emancipatory song sung by the poet Candelario Obeso, in 1877, to the academic adventure and politics that led to the creation of a Center for Afro-Colombian Studies, in 1947.
Written at a time when racism continues to show its multiple and unacceptable faces in Colombia, the text reveals the various ways in which these lawyers dealt with racial discrimination and social exclusion.
And, in a particular way, it reconstructs —through the realities, needs and expectations of their contexts— the possible worlds that they projected for their territories, Colombia and, in some cases, the Americas.
In doing so, it not only illustrates the racism, prejudices, and racialized perspectives that nested in the minds of representative voices of the Colombian elites, but also brings out of oblivion the genuine intellectual and political vanguard that was configured in Colombia in the transit of the XIX to XX century.
