Jaime Jaramillo Uribe, considered the father of the new historiography in Colombia, passed away on October 25 at the age of 98. The year of his birth, 1917, not only evokes the heat of World War I and the beginning of the Socialist experiment in far-off Russia but also convulsions nearer at hand in the form of the Mexican Revolution. Curiously, this same year witnessed the birth of Eric J. Hobsbawm, the renowned historian who would be Jaramillo Uribe's contemporary in the “short twentieth century.” But that's about the extent of the similarities between the two historians, as each—set in a very different social context—would mark out their own careers, both academically and, especially, politically. If the British historian was a militant Communist, inspired by Marxism throughout his life, Jaramillo Uribe—although a leftist sympathizer in his youth—soon became disenchanted with Marxism and everything oriented toward political ends. That same skepticism...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
