This is an anthology of essays and speeches by a versatile and prolific Ecuadorian intellectual, Darío Guevara (1905-). Although written and delivered a number of years ago, they have but recently been published through no fault of the author. In an afterword Guevara bitterly explains that since 1951 Minister after Minister of Public Education vainly promised to publish this collection.
In this case I cannot but sympathize with those pedagogues, as these five pieces possess little literary and less historiographical merit. The first three deify Bolívar and San Martín not only as liberators but the precursors of panamericanism. The fourth explains the origins of Latin American problems and offers solutions, all in twentyeight pages; and the fifth, written in 1939, informs us that Jews are human beings and could make valuable contributions as immigrants to America.
It should be pointed out that these examples of bombastic prose were dashed off during a period when Good Neighborism was emotionally as well as politically in vogue. But that is no excuse for befuddling the reader by calling the Liberator and the Protector “las dos grandes creaciones de la influencia bioantrogeográfica de Latinoamérica” (p. 75). Nor can one defend oversimplifying Bolivar’s political philosophy to “the liberation of peoples, the creation of republics essentially democratic, the foundation of large nations, and the integral unification of the great world of Columbus” (p. 117). Guevara has repeatedly demonstrated intellectual worth as folklorist and biographer. It is unfortunate that he has chosen to impair his reputation by peddling best-forgotten panegyrics of yesteryear.
