The New Man in Spanish American Essay and Literature at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Century

Abstract

This paper aims to show how the “New Man” was defined in different literary and political conceptions that abounded in Spanish American culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Although both Americas were perceived through the stereotype of newness from the very beginning of the colonial era, it is at the end of the 19th century when the necessity to integrate the extremely heteregenous Spanish American societies brought forth a variety of renewal propositions. Focused on the spiritual or economic aspects of a given social or ethnic group (the elites, implicitly white, for Rodó or the working classes, mostly Indian, for the Indigenistas), those conceptions were not able to provide overall solutions for the Spanish American republics, struggling with a deepening neocolonial dependency. Nevertheless, many tendencies and formulas defined in that period – idealistic or politically subversive – have survived through the 20th century and resurfaced in new forms (e.g. the nuevo hombre bolivariano in Venezuela at the beginning of 21st century).