Núñez: Amante y brujo Open Access

Rafael Núñez, Colombia’s late nineteenth-century “Regenerator,” continues to stir controversy, and this work can only add to it. The author contends that a study of Núñez’ love affairs and his interest in the occult provides the keys necessary to understand his character and, thus, his historic role in Colombia. In analyzing his two marriages and his scandalous love affairs, the author concludes that Núñez was a deeply passionate man imbued with nineteenth-century Romanticism and that his style in love and politics was characterized by subtlety and ambivalence. In the concluding sections the writer asserts that Núñez skepticism and romantic spirit gave rise to an interest in the occult—mesmerism, telepathy, divination, and dream analysis. Amateur psychoanalysis permeates this work which is based on familiar published materials. The book emphasizes Núñez’ multifaceted character and demonstrates that the search for the “real” Rafael Núñez must surely continue.