Politics in Sculpture and Monuments

From WolfWikis

Monuments manifest people's desire to endure in time. Alfonso Catrillón-Vizcarra states that "their omnipresence could be seen as a long row of memories, which are placed on history's path" (p. 325). These statues and sculptures tell us stories about different battles, victories or failures. Carrillón-Vizcarra also sees monuments as warnings for our "fragile memories". Different monuments of heroes, saints, winners, artists or several important persons have been set up in Latin America and the whole world. Politics influence the choices people make about the monuments they want to set up, whether they want to remember a war, show respect for a president, or honor a hero.

Simón Bolivar

History

Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela on the 24th of July of 1783. He came from a wealthy creole family. His parents died when he was very young, so he was forced to live with his uncle Esteban and then with his uncle Carlos, his mother's brother. Bolivar was taught by private tutors. When he was eleven years old his uncle hired Simon Rodriguez to tutor him. Rodriguez taught him the ideas of enlightenment.

When he was 15 he was sent to Madrid to continue studying.

He married Maria Teresa del Toro in 1802, who died of yellow fever a year later. He went back to Europe and took a journey with his teacher Rodriguez and a friend, Fernando de Toro. They traveled arround Italy. That is when Simon Bolivar made his promise of freeing his people.

He came back to Latin America in 1806. When Napoleon invaded Spain, people started having ideas of independence because Spain could no longer claim its Latin American colonies. The creoles started taking over. Bolivar was sent to Great Britain to ask the government to help with the revolution. Bolivar did not succeed, still he met General Francisco de Miranda. He and Bolivar tried to convince people to support the independence movement in Venezuela. In 1811 Venezuela declared its independence from Spain.

In 1812 Spain took over Venezuela again. Bolivar fled to New Granada (Colombia). There he helped the country achieve independence. In 1813 Simon Bolivar took over Caracas and defeated the Spanish army. This is when he is given the title of "El Libertador" or "The Liberator". In 1814 however, the Spanish won again. He escaped to New Granada and then to Jamaica in 1815. The Spanish reconquered most of their Latin American Colonies, Venezuela and Colombia included.

In 1819 Bolivar went to Colombia and won the battle of Boyacá, which brought its independence. He was elected President. He went back to Venezuela in 1821 and won the battle of Carabobo. This led to Venezuela's independence. He was also elected President; now Venezuela and Colombia formed La Gran Colombia. Its capital was Bogotá.

Although Guayaquil had declared its independence most of Quito (Ecuador) was still under Spain's control. He decided to free Quito, too. Bolivar and Antonio Jose de Sucre, sent their troops. San Martin also sent some help. In 1822 General Sucre won the battle of Pichincha. Quito was also made part of La Gran Colombia.

He met with San Martin in Guayaquil and agrees to send troops to help with Peru's independence movement.

The Liberator went to Peru and Upper Peru (Bolivia) with General Antonio José de Sucre. They fought in the battles of Junin on August 4th of 1824 and Ayacucho on December 9th of the same year. Sucre's army "triumphantly entered the city of Cuzco two weeks later" (Hunefeldt, 105). After the battle of Ayacucho Bolivar formed a new congress, which proclaimed him as the nation's leader. While he was in Peru he tried to propose some liberal-minded ideas concerning Indians. He did all he could to eliminate the remaining colonial institutions and the exploitation of Indians.

He went back to New Granada in September of 1826. He wanted Latin America to be one united nation but several civil wars started taking place. Santander's followers tried to kill him one night when he was in his home in Bogotá in 1828. He resigned as president and fled to Jamaica. He got tuberculosis and died on December 17th, 1830.

Monumento a Simón Bolivar, by Adamo Tadolini

This monument of Simon Bolivar was built with the intention of making his memory permanent among peruvian people. It probably is one of the most important monuments in Lima. The Peruvian congress started with the idea of making a monument in 1825, but it was not until 1852, during Echenique's government, that this proposal was applicable. Chancellor Tirado asked Bartolome Herrera, a Peruvian Minister who was in Rome at the time, to order a statue from Milan. He gave Mr. Herrera the dimensions of the monument and the basic characteristics they wanted the statue to have. Chancellor Tirado told him it had to be made out of bronze, with a marble pedestal and the sketch of it had to be first approved by the Milan Academy.

In 1854 the Peruvian Consul in Rome named Adamo Tadolini as the sculptor, who would work on the statue. The government payed Tadolini 4 500 pesos for his work. Finishing the monument, bringing it to Peru, and setting it up cost approximately another 17 105 pesos.

The monument was finally done the 9th of December, 1859. This was the anniversary of the battle of Ayacucho. It measures 16.65 feet without its pedestal and 28 feet in total. It is located in the Plaza del Congreso (Congress Plaza) in Lima.

José de San Martín

History

José Francisco de San Martin was born in Yapueyu, Argentina on February 25th 1778. He came from a good family. His father was an officer in the Spanish army and the lieutenant governor of Yapueyu.(Jose B Fernandez, 6). He grew up around Guarani Indians and learned to respect them.

When he was eight years old he joined the Noble Seminary of Madrid, a boarding school in Spain. When he was twelve he joined the Spanish army. At thirteen he fought for the Spanish in North Africa. When he was 18 he was sent to fight the British and when he was 20 the British took him as a prisoner. He took advantage of the situation and learned how to speak English and play chess. He was freed in 1800.

He fought against Napoleon’s army in 1808.

In 1812 he came back to Buenos Aires to fight for Independence. He became lieutenant colonel in the Army. He was assigned the job to train a cavalry regiment. He recruited Guarani Indians, gauchos, and some creoles. In September 1812 he married Remedios Escalada.

On February 2nd of 1813, San Martin led his army to San Lorenzo, where he fought for Argentina and won.

On March 22nd, 1814 he wrote a letter to Nicolas Rodriguez Penia telling him about his plan to cross the Andes and free Chile and Peru. He said that war would not end until they took Lima (Libertador General San Martin: A Bicentenia Tribute, General Secretariat, Organization of American States, 1978, p. 2). He also asked for the government of Cuyo, so that he could organize a small cavalry. On the morning of January 19th 1817 San Martin and his army left Mendoza. After three weeks of crossing the highlands, a task that “even today is viewed as an enormous feat” (Lbertador General San Martin, 3).

On February 12th, 1817 the Army of the Andes won the battle of Chacabuco and on April 5th the battle of Mainpu. These two battles “sealed the battle of independence for Chile forever” (Libertador General San Martin, 5). He recruited and trained a 4 500-man army of Chileans, Argentines, and emigrant Peruvians. He also gathered a naval squadron, commanded by Lord Cochrane. San Martin led his invasion of Peru in August 1820. (A Brief History of Peru, Christine Hundefeldt, 2004, p. 99)

He surrounded Lima and Lord Cochrane blockaded Callao, a very important harbor. Lima's citizens did not show much interest in independence though. Viceroy Joaquin de la Plazuela was still in control of Lima. In January of 1821, Jose de la Serna overthrew the Spanish viceroy and took control of the royalist army. When he left for Cuzco to establish his headquarters there, San Martin took control of Lima. On July 28th 1821 he declared Peru’s independence in Lima’s central plaza. He was made the Governor of Peru with the title of “Protector of Liberty”. He issued several politic, economic and social measures. San Martin abolished slavery and all kinds of servitude, put an end to the tribute Indians had to pay, the penalty of arrest for gambling, and abolition of hanging among others. Still the south of Peru was still under Spanish control. He asked Simon Bolivar for help and they met in Guayaquil in 1822.

When he came back to Lima he convoked Peru’s congress so that their people could “re assume full power”, as he put it in his own words. He left Simon Bolivar and General Sucre to finish the fight for independence in the battles of Junin and Ayacucho.

He resigned and "began to travel the long route that would lead him to exile and death abroad" (Libertador General San Martin, 8)

He died in France on August 17th, 1850.

Monumento a José de San Martín, by Mariano Benlliure

The "Monumento a José de San Martín" or "Monument to Jose de San Martin" is located in the Plaza de San Martín in Lima, Peru.

On the anniversary of a century of Peru's independence, president Agusto B. Leguía wanted to celebrate this important event by giving the city of Lima various sculptures to make parks and avenues nicer. By building the monument in the memory of San Martin, the Peruvian State felt it was "paying a gratitude debt to the Argentinian Liberator"(Castrillon-Vizcarra, p. 347).

The Peruvian government started planning for this statue in 1906. They organized an international contest to choose a sculptor. The winner was Mariano Benllure. He was the director of the "Academia Española en Roma", the Spanish Academy in Rome. He was also the author of a monument of Bolivar in Panama and a monument of Bernardo de Irigoyen in Buenos Aires.

The San Martin statue is made out of granite and bronze, and it is 14.6 feet high without the base. It was inaugurated on July 27th 1921.

This part was donated by the Italian colony in Peru. It was also made by Mariano Benlliure. It's 52,76 feet high and it's made of marble. The two women are replicas of Michael Angelo's work.

Manco Cápac

History

Manco Capac was the founder of the Inca Empire, the Tahuantinsuyo. Legend says it, that he was sent from the sun god to start a new empire. He came out of Lake Titicaca in Puno with his sister-wife Mama Ocllo. The Sun gave him a pole and told him that wherever that pole sank (to see if the land was fertile), he should start his kingdom. They were sent to the Andes to “educate the untutored and uncivilized peoples who lived there” (Hunderfelt, 14). They walked together for a long time until the pole sank in Cusco. That's where everything started.

Manco Capac taught the men about agriculture, how to till the soil and plant seeds and how to irrigate those lands through different canals. He also taught them how to use weapons in case they had to “convince” other people to join them. Mama Ocllo taught the women how to “spin and weave, how to make clothing, and how to cook their food. They educated and showes them how to be civilized. Thousands of people joined them and the Inca expansion started.

Monumento a Manco Cápac, by David Lozano

This monument was donated by the Japanese colony in Lima after being in Peru for 27 years. They chose the father of the Tahuantinsuyo because of the theory that people from Latin America originally came from Asia. The colony approved David Lozano's and Benjamín Mendizábal's sketches in 1921. This was the first monument with "incaista" characteristics. He used several mythical animals. Arround the pedestal one can see four different reliefs that illustrate how Manco Cápac and Mama Occllo worked to educate people.

In August of 1922 David Lozano took charge of the production, he was supposed to have the monument ready in August of 1923. Lozano explained through a letter for the commission that was responsible for over viewing the project, that he had had several difficulties. The project was inaugurated on April 4th of 1926.

The statue is made of bronze and it measures 15.75 feet. The pedestal is made out of marble and bronze and it measures 30.84 feet. It is located in the Manco Cápac Plaza in Lima.

Alfonso Ugarte and Francisco Bolognesi

History

• War of the Pacific

During the 1870, nitrate was a very important natural resource for Peru and Bolivia. After the collapse of the guano boom, Peru needed nitrate to recover from its dreadful economic situation. In 1873 president Manuel Prado signed a mutual defense treaty with Bolivia and created the state nitrate monopoly (Estanco del Salitre) (Hunefeldt, 143). The State forced the owners of the nitrate mines, who were Peruvians, Chileans and British, to sell their product to the Peruvian state. The Chilean and British owners were not willing to respect the new taxes imposed by the government. When the president announced he wanted to nationalize the nitrate mines, Chile declared war on Peru. The mutual defense agreement was supposed to stop the Chilean government from doing this.

Although this war had terrible effects on Peru and Bolivia, the Peruvian army had very courageous military leaders that fought until death to defend their country. Alfonso Ugarte and Francisco Bolognesi are very admired among Peruvians because of their devotion to their patria-native country or fatherland. They sacrificed themselves for their country.

• Francisco Bolognesi

After the defeat of the peruvian army in the battle of Alto de la Alianza in Tacna, Bolognesi moved his troops to Arica and asked for support from Arequipa. His requests received no response and on June 5th, 1880, the Chilean command comes to Bolognesi and asks him to surrender, but he answers “no me rendiré hasta quemar el último cartucho” ( I wont surrender until I burn the last cartridge).

He died on the Arica battlefield from a blow to his skull with the butt of a musket. He was 64 years old when he died.

His courage and willingness to fight for his country made him one of Peru's most respected and remembered heroes.

• Alfonso Ugarte

Alfonso Ugarte loved Peru. He was born in Tarapacá (which was at that time part of Peru as was Iquique) and studied in Valpariso, Chile. He was Iquique’s mayor and a member of the department of public welfare. He formed a batallion to fight for Peru, the Iquique batallion, with his own money.

He fought with Fracisco Bolognesi in the last battle of the War of the Pacific, the battle of Arica on June 7th, 1880. When he noticed that the Chileans had already taken over the Morro, he wrapped himself in the Peruvian flag and jumped off the cliff with his horse. He was not going to let the enemy take his coutry's flag. He was 33 years old when he died.

La Fama

The Liga de Defensa Nacional (National Defense League) started to collect money to assemble a monument in the name of "The Defenders of Arica" in 1899. They had a contest to see who would get to do it.

153 projects were presented by artists from Spain, France and Italy. Agustin Querol won the first prize. The monument was done in the “Artisica Marriera y Campiens de Barcelona” foundation. The cross-like base is like a stage where several scenes of the Arica battle. On one side Alfonso Ugarte’s episode can be seen, on the other side there several scenes with the “heroic actions of the defenders of the Morro” (Castrillón-Vizcarra, 343), on the other side, the “Patria” and in front there’s the statue of “La Fama”. It is shaped as an angel with covered eyes, starting to fly while it raises its hand.

On top there’s a statue of Bolognesi. He was represented wounded and about to fall. This shows the idea of “martyrdom over any gesture of triumph” (Castrillón-Vizcarra, 343) However, the original sculpture by Querol was replaced by a new one by Artemio Ocaña in 1954.

This is the original version of Bolognesi. It's made out of bronze. It can be seen in the Museo del Real Felipe in Lima.

This is the new statue of Bolognesi. It is made out of bronze and can be found in the Plaza de Bolognesi in Lima. It replaced the old one because people thought that showing Bolognesi as a falling hero was dishonorable.

Annotated Bibliography

• Escultura en el Peru: Escultura Monumental y Funeraria en Lima, Alfonso Castrillón-Vizcarra. 1991 p. 325-393: This source provided all the information about the monuments. It was the only source where I could find reliable information about sculpture and monuments. It also has information about different movements and artists. The language it uses is very academic.

• Simón Bolivar [electronic resource] : Latin American Liberator, Frank de Varona. Brookfield, Conn. : Millbrook Press, c1993: This e-book talks about Simon Bolivar's life from his childhood to his death. I found it very useful.

• Libertador General San Martin: A Bicentennial Tribute 1778-February 25-1978, Organization of American States. General Secretariat, Inter-American Council for Education, Science, and Culture: This book talks about all the battles, achievements and life history of San Martin. It also has some documents on his "Americanist thinking." It was not very long and it had exacly the kind of information I needed.

• José de San Martín [electronic resource] : Latin America's quiet hero, José B. Fernández. 1994: This e-book had some information about San Martin's life. It was too wordy sometimes, but easy to understand.

• A Brief History of Peru, Christine Hunefeldt, Lexington Associates 2004: This source provided almost all the information I needed abut the Incas, the War of the Pacific, and some information about San Martin and Bolivar. This was one of the most useful sources together with the one about Peru's sculpture.

• Historia de La Republica del Peru, Enrique Chhirinos Soto, Lima Editorial Minerva, 1982 p.311-314: This source gave me the information about Bolognesi and Ugarte, which I was not able to find in the Library.