Festejos y símbolos: El primer centenario de la independencia de Centroamérica (1921)

Abstract

Finally we have an analysis of the significance of the 1921 celebrations of the first centenary of Central America's independence. In this book Patricia Fumero follows in the tradition of William Beezley, Silvia Alejandra Palermo, Mónica Lacarrieu, and Annick Lempérière, among others, who have analyzed the 1910 centenary celebrations of the beginning of the independence process in Mexico and Argentina. But Fumero studies national independence centenary celebrations throughout a whole region instead of a single country. These commemorations present an extra layer of complexity because 1921 marked also the last real effort to re-create a united Central American republic. The reason is what Patricia Fumero calls “dual identity,” which reflects the unique situation of the Central American countries, a group of entities that have lived separately since 1838 celebrating their common past almost a century later while attempting to, once again, forge a unified federal republic (p. xxvii).Her book starts with a general description of the 100-year process of unification and separation, including a detailed explanation of the renewed support in 1921 for creating a unified Central America. Her book then follows with individual chapters dedicated to how each of the Central American countries celebrated the independence centenary. While studying the centenary celebrations of each Central American state could constitute a book in itself, Fumero's most important contribution comes in the final chapters, which concentrate on how labor organizations, women's movements, student organizations, and other social movements understood the centenary and used it to promote their own agendas. These organizations pushed for democratic and social reforms that challenged the political control of the oligarchic governments, including the expansion of voting rights, labor laws, and women's rights. The reforms contained in the short-lived Political Constitution of the Federal Republic of Central America of 1921 were just two decades later included in the national constitutions of the different Central American countries, marking a convincing victory for the reformist factions.An important element that Fumero rescues for her discussion of the Central American context of 1921 is the rise of groups supporting regional unification as a response to the expansion of US interventionism. In traditional Central American political culture, one of the most important aspects of the conservative-liberal divide has been the support of liberals for a federal republic. Curiously enough, the development of the individual nation-states in Central America during the late nineteenth century, led mostly by liberal governments, created the conditions for further separation. This separatism benefited US influence in the region, including interference in the 1909 elections in Honduras and the military invasion and occupation of Nicaragua in 1912. Interventionism then promoted the rise of a nonliberal unionism that challenged liberal oligarchies by promoting social and democratic reforms and creating a common front between reformist politicians, intellectual elites, workers, students, and women's movements. Therefore, the centenary was seen as a time for reaffirming Central American identity but also for renovation and change.If there is any room for improvement in this book, it is in the organization and presentation of topics. For example, at the beginning of chapter 5, Fumero argues that Honduras is an exception in the context of the centenary celebrations because the country dealt with a multilayered identity at the national, regional, and federal levels. Nevertheless, a dual identity is present in all the other countries studied by Fumero, and she does not clarify in the chapter why she thinks that Honduras was different. At the same time, Fumero describes elsewhere the strong antiunionism of Costa Rica and the church's absence from Guatemala's independence festivities, both clearly marking relevant differences with the other Central American countries.While Fumero's book studies the independence centenary celebrations in Central America, its main goal is to establish these commemorations as a watershed in Central American political culture, especially due to how they prompted a reevaluation of each country's political systems and thus led to the integration of the region's labor movements, women's movements, and student organizations. A book that initially seems to be embedded exclusively in cultural history and national identity (as studied by Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner, and Eric Hobsbawm, among others) ends up also including social and political analysis based on a broad use of secondary sources and a deep digging into primary sources, including newspapers, congressional and municipal documents, government statistics, and reports from various labor organizations, church organizations, and education and foreign relations ministries from every Central American country. This book is essential for any scholar of Central America, but it can also serve historians with an interest in the transformational value of social movements during the early twentieth century, and their challenge to the belle epoque style of government and politics.