Fundación Ideas para el progreso

“Maybe I am the lone optimist, but I think that 200 years after the independence and after the last two decades of stormy Democracy, which sometimes makes progress like a snail, slobbering it all, we Latin Americans are beginning to build a discourse to find themselves as a Community and to govern ourselves alone.” These were the words of Santiago Roncagliolo, the Peruvian writer, who closed the seminars on “ The Latin American independences: Sharing reflections”, organized by IDEAS for Progress Foundation on the 2nd and 3rd December at Casa de América in Madrid.

Roncagliolo explained his optimism by the fact that “for the first time in the history of Latin America all governments but one have been elected and, in more or less standard polls, but elected and, besides, for the first time in history the governors are claiming that sovereignty lies in the popular will and not in abstract interest of the nations”. According to the author of “Abril Rojo”, from now on and “and given the huge social inequality”, there are two sectors living together: the liberals who live in urban areas, ask for strong institutions and defend the system although people die of hunger because, for instance, in rural areas they can not afford a lawyer for disputes over lands, thus the indigenous stops believing in the system, and, on the other hand, those who prefer a more social equality, if the circumstance arises, to ruin the institutions. Choosing has always been the eternal drama of Latin America.”

But, according to the Peruvian writer, “after mutually checking that one bloc will never destroy the other, a discourse has arisen to make compatible social equality and democratic stability. In fact, even the most liberal sectors think it is necessary to increase the redistribution of wealth to protect the system. All this has made us be aware, for the first time, of who we are, what we want and what we have to do.”

As a striking example of the conjunction of both sectors, Roncagliolo referred to the agreement in most part of the discourse, specially the part related social aspect, of the former president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, educated in Stanford, who is a liberal and a member of the IMF, with that of Múgica, a former guerrilla from the left who has taken over the power in Uruguay.

For all these reasons, Roncagliogo concluded that “although Democracy is not a system based on slow steps, they are firm ones and in Latin America we are on the way to finding them and govern ourselves.”

LANGUAGE, AUDIOVISUAL CULTURE AND WOMEN

Before closing the seminar, there were three round tables. During the first one dedicated to language and the common heritage of the Spanish language, the writer Alfredo Taján talked about the connection between Latin American literature and the autocratic government, citing titles like “La fiesta del Chivo”, “Tirano Banderas”, or “El otoño del Patriarca”, considering that Simón Bolívar was the “first tyrant” of Latin America and finally urged to make the most of the bicentennials to recover what he called the “frontier literature.”

At this same round table, Guillermo Corral, Director of Cultural Industries of the Ministry of Culture, said that, in his opinion, Latin American culture, under the shelter of Castilian language is in search of its development: firstly, in the construction of a common culture that, also in an industrial way, attracts the public itself, since there are currently, except in the publishing sector, no exchanges of cultural expressions (documentaries, films, etc.); secondly, in the United States, the second country in the world behind Mexico to have the most Hispanic speakers and where as he announced, the Ministry will soon create the big Casa de España, as a space to extend the influence of Spanish language taking advantage of the Cervantes network; and thirdly, in Internet with the future implementation by the Ministry of Culture of a big cultural platform in Spanish, with 100 million references, which is expected to become the great showcase of the Spanish culture, and a big digital library.

At the second round table, dedicated to analyzing audiovisual culture, the film director Enrique Gabriel regretted the scarce productions and the fact that Latin American films compete in second or third decision, excepted some Mexican, argentine and Brazilian films which have made it to the first line due to a growing interaction between markets and the increasing Latin American population in the USA. Gabriel insisted that well told stories “without imitating Hollywood, do not have to be consigned to oblivion”, although he regretted that the problem is how to sell cinema in a market dominated by the United States. Finally, he showed his bitterness for the fact that “el share legitimates it all, making the ready-cooked information stronger and transforming all that in a simple good.”

Samuel Martín, deputy director of the Culture channel of the TVE (Spanish television) who also participated in this round table, affirmed that, more than 40% of the co-productions to be broadcast by the channel, will be co-produce with Latin American countries. The Peruvian actress, Tatiana Astengo, explained the differences of budget, filming time, etc. that still exist between Spanish, European and Latin American films.

The third round table was devoted to the role of women since the declaration of the independences. The Director of Fundación Carolina, Rosa Conde, after giving historical background information, considered that there are pending issues to be classified in 6 priorities, that are facing Latin American women today: address poverty, that affects them more than men; to have more participation in equal conditions to the institutions; have access to the new information technologies; fight for a regulatory framework of migratory flows of women, internal as well as the external ones; fight gender-based violence, which can be very dramatic in cases like that of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico; and guarantee their rights to a sexual and reproductive health.

The communication of Conde was completed by that of Pilar Pérez Cantó, professor of History at Complutense University in Madrid, who talked about the fundamental role played by women in the wars waged against Spain for independence and, after in the configuration of societies, roles that many times do not transcend “because history is written by men.”

The two-day seminars on “The Latin American Independences: Shared reflections” in Casa de América, saw the participation of personalities from culture, cinema, literature, politics, etc. to a meeting attended by the Special Ambassador for the Celebration of the Bicentennials, Felipe González.