O’Higgins Open Access

Jaime Eyzaguirre’s biography of Bernardo O’Higgins, appearing now in a fourth edition, is already familiar to many Latin Americanists in this country. The author finds much to admire in the great Chilean patriot. For example, O’Higgins is pictured as firmly rejecting the unsolicited advice of United States representatives Worthington and Bland to hold immediate democratic elections and adopt a constitution copied from the American model. He is described also as favoring close ties with England to guard against United States encroachments. He is portrayed as being at heart a good Catholic who became involved in occasional contention with churchmen only because of his regalistic tendencies. Eyzaguirre candidly records the dictatorial tendencies of O’Higgins, and is undoubtedly correct in justifying them in the light of the chaotic conditions in Chile. In short, the anti-United States, militantly pro-Catholic and conservative Eyzaguirre, who has often expressed his preference for authoritarian over democratic processes, has either found or read into O’Higgins most of the qualities that he vastly admires. For good measure, he depicts O’Higgins as a victim in his late years of Masonic scheming. The author, who is an ardent hispanista, finds it difficult to forgive O’Higgins for his anti-Spanish sentiments. The reader is left with the suspicion that Eyzaguirre feels it was after all for the best that O’Higgins, who to some degree lacked respect for the traditions of colonial Chile, was ousted from power. The book is extremely well written, handsomely printed, and is based upon substantial archival material.