This study of Laureano Gómez (1889-1965) is useful but troublesome. As editor, author, orator, congressman, and diplomat, Gómez became leader of the Conservative party and president of Colombia, 1950-53. Nevertheless, there have been few scholarly attempts to evaluate his career (virtually none in English). Insofar as this book fills the void, it is a pioneer effort and probably an important one. Based on the author’s Las ideas de Laureano Gómez (Bogotá, 1985), the book emphasizes the conservative thought underlying what often appeared to be extreme, unpredictable—even opportunistic—actions. Gómez believed in an organic, hierarchically structured, corporatively organized society with a representative, but antimajoritarian, government run by an elite in accordance with Roman Catholic beliefs. Nothing could be tolerated that did not advance this vision. Liberals, Masons, Jews, Marxists, fascists, even fellow Conservatives, suffered his scathing attack for not sharing his viewpoint.
In stressing his ideology, Henderson compares Gómez with other conservative thinkers in Latin America. The intention is to dispel the confusion surrounding Gómez and to suggest that he was not “the monster” that he was reputed to be. A central argument is that Gómez was faithful to his principles regardless of his conduct at any given moment. Drawing heavily on Gómez’s own writings, the work successfully shows how he could rationalize his actions—at least to himself.
Paradoxically, the very strength of this work may be its chief weakness. It is largely a one-dimensional portrait, Gómez explaining Gómez, that does not make him any less controversial. Rather, what emerges here is a man so convinced of his righteousness that he brooked no opposition. For him, extremism in defense of virtue was no vice; indeed, it was often his normal course of action.
The work has great heuristic value. By focusing mainly on ideas, it separates thought from action. In so doing, it raises as many questions as it answers and whets the appetite for further research.
