2006 Juan Manuel Carrin RESEA DE "EL SUEO QUE NO CESA: LA NACIN DESEADA EN EL DEBATE INTELECTUAL Y POLTICO PUERTORRIQUEO 19201940" DE JOS JUAN RODRGUEZ VZQUEZ Centro Journal, fall, ao/vol. XVIII, nmero 002 City University of New York. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueos New York, Latinoamericanistas pp. 246-249
Red de Revistas Cientficas de Amrica Latina y el Caribe, Espaa y Portugal Universidad Autnoma del Estado de Mxico http://redalyc.uaemex.mx
B O O K R E V I E W This book is an important contribution to the study of nationalism in Puerto Rico. Rodrguez Vzquez examines in detail the written expressions of three figures considered representative of Puerto Rican nationalism in a specific historical period. He focuses on the significant historical moment that led to the creation of the still existing colonial arrangement of Puerto Rico with the United States. We find here well-developed arguments in an interpretation of the thought of Antonio Pedreira, Pedro Albizu Campos, and Luis Muoz Marn. The first and last are representatives of what is called moderate nationalism, while the second figure represents radical nationalism. The significance of these three persons for nationalist discourse is examined. Theres a certain degree of repetetiveness in Rodrguez Vzquezs text, but that results from his exhaustive analysis and it is not a fundamental problem. On the other hand, the main problem of the book is the theoretical framework that is utilized to place these three authors in one context as representatives of anticolonial nationalism. Rodrguez Vzquez tries to follow very closely the arguments made by Partha Chatterjee (1986) in his book Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: ADerivative Discourse? Chatterjee talks about three moments in the development of anticolonial nationalism: departure, manoeuvre, and arrival. Each moment has its own particular characteristics and contradictions. To carry out his analysis Chatterjee chose to examine certain nationalist texts from India. Like the author of the book under review, Chatterjee also examines three nationalist thinkers; in his case, these are: Bankimchandra, Gandhi, and Nehru. But while Chatterjee analysis required less than 200 pages Rodrguez Vzquez has needed more than 500 pages to do the same. Chatterjees analytical framework is difficult to apply to Puerto Rico. Chatterjees purpose was to study the ideological history of the Indian state, with possible applications to other postcolonial states in Asia and Africa. Much of his discussion is about the civilizational clash with the West. Anticolonial nationalism is contradictory in that it challenges colonial domination while accepting the intellectual premises of modernity, concepts that have a Western cultural imprint. The great challenge for nationalism is then to create an authentic non-Western modernity. Chatterjee (1993) has objections to Benedict Andersons arguments about the modular character of nationalism. In countries like India nationalism is not a derived discourse because, in spite of the aforementioned contradiction, non- Western forms of the imagined national community are considered a distinctive ingredient in anticolonial struggles. An initial way of dealing with the contradiction is to combine a recognition of the material superiority of Western civilization with a claim of spiritual superiority for the native culture. In its formative stage anticolonial nationalism struggles to culturally define its own sovereign domain long before it enters into open political confrontation with the colonial power. But, even so, the contradiction does not disappear, and one of the most important problems [ 246 ] of postcolonial states is precisely an inability to look beyond Western defined forms of the modern state. The colonial heritage weighs heavily upon the now independent states. If the analysis of nationalism in Puerto Rico is to be related theoretically to a regional context, that should be Latin America and the Caribbean and not Southeast Asia. Latin American nationalism is not derived from Europe. In its origins it coincides with the emergence of nationalism in the European continent. In North and South America there were creole pioneers (to use Benedict Andersons expression [1991]) at the forefront in the origins of nationalist ideology. Moreover, the notion of a cultural clash did not become a significant issue for Latin American nationalism until the late 19th century, and this was in relationship with American imperialism. Here, too, arguments were voiced concerning Latin American spiritual superiority over the imposing material culture of the imperial power. But still one has to take into account that this cultural clash resided comfortably within Western defined forms, a situation very different from India. Following Chatterjee, Rodrguez Vzquez develops his analysis examining three moments or stages in the evolution of anticolonial nationalist ideology. The stages are not necessarily chronological but follow a logical sequence. In the case of Chatterjee, one of the authors chosen for analysis was from the nineteenth century, while the other two were from the twentieth century. Rodrguez Vzquez, on the other hand, has chosen three authors coexisting simultaneously in the same period: 19201940. Another difference is that there is no example for the moment of arrival. Pedreira is an example of the moment of departure, and Albizu and Muoz are both examples of the moment of manoeuvre, but of two different kinds of nationalism. In the case of India the stages are, as mentioned, a device to examine the ideological history of the Indian state. The moment of arrival began with the establishment of the postcolonial nation state. The logical sequence of these stages point to similar processes in other countries. Has there been a moment of arrival in the case of Puerto Rico? Rodrguez Vzquez in several occasions points toward the affirmative, but he does so without elaboration, perhaps because it lies outside of the historical period he examines. This is very problematic because to say the least Muoz was no Nehru. The stages in Chatterjee and Rodrguez Vzquez are connected to an analytical framework taken from Antonio Gramsci, especially his concept of passive revolution. For Gramsci passive revolution was a concept used to explain the way the modern state advanced in the many cases in Europe where bourgeois rule could not be established in the French revolutionary way (1971). In Italy the objective conditions and the correlation of subjective forces made it difficult for the bourgeoisie to achieve hegemony. These conditions created the need of another possible strategy for the formation of the bourgeois state. In some of his writings passive revolution is related to the concept of war of position. Military metaphors are commonly used by Gramsci, perhaps due to the then- recent experience of the First World War. Awar of position, politically, would be trench warfare, while a war of manoeuvre would be the frontal assault of the enemy fortress or, in the terminology of the next war, a Blitzkrieg. Agiven historical period can be characterized by passive revolution or a war of position until conditions change and a war of manoeuvre can be carried out. Passive revolutions have among their characteristics the notion that they are achieved with less popular mobilization, with the state taking the leadership role that the bourgeoisie is unable to take and [ 247 ] El sueo que no cesa: la nacin deseada en el debate intelectual y poltico puertorriqueo 19201940. By Jos Juan Rodrguez Vzquez San Juan, P.R.: Ediciones Callejn, 2004 523 pp.; $23.95 [paper] REVIEWER: Juan Manuel Carrin, Universidad de Puerto RicoRo Piedras BookREVIEWS(v7).qxd 10/19/06 10:36 PM Page 246 B O O K R E V I E W the incorporation of the former dominant classes (that retain certain spheres of power) in the new historical block. Applying some of Gramscis concepts, Chatterjee argues that in colonial societies the local bourgeoisie finds it specially difficult to achieve hegemony. Their economic and political domination is always fragile, and their lack of cohesion leads to a fragmented intellectual and moral leadership. Passive revolution becomes in Chatterjees estimation the typical form in which a new national state can be established under the conditions of advanced capitalism. He does not mention Vietnam and other cases that I suppose would be exceptions. In Chatterjees account the war of manoeuvre is a moment in the passive revolution and not a different set of revolutionary conditions. Rodrguez Vzquez utilizes the concept of passive revolution to describe the process that led to Muozs rise to power and the dominance of his brand of moderate populist nationalism. The passive revolution in Puerto Rico has a moment of arrival. Rodriguez Vazquez mentions how different features of Pedreiras nationalism of departure were incorporated into Muozs populism; when it became a nationalism of arrival, features such as a geographical fatalistic determinism [p.103] and an apology for nineteenth century autonomism [p.142] were offered. But, ironically, moderate nationalism in its moment of arrival became part of a chorus orchestrated by the Imperial Other. If Muoz represents a moment of arrival, it is of a different kind from the passive revolution Gramsci and Chatterjee had in mind. It was, instead, a passive revolution where it was the old incorporating the new rather than the other way around. Instead of becoming a postcolonial nation state with the deadweight of its colonial past and the problems that this implies, the colonial state was rejuvenated, incorporating in a subaltern manner the nationalist impetus of the moment of manoeuvre. Perhaps it was a passive revolution in terms of the social transformations that went along with the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, but more precisely it could be described as a passive counter-revolution that blockaded the way out of colonialism. In Chatterjee we must mention that there is no distinction between moderate and radical nationalism. The three thinkers he chose for his analysis do not represent two different traditions with their own particular evolution but three moments in one same evolutionary process. One has to ask how the moderates under consideration are transformed into nationalists. In Puerto Rico the distinction between moderates and radicals can be quite ideological. This is not an appreciation of Rodrguez Vzquezthe notion of a moderate stance seems to speak of a reasonable and correct position, while a radical stance can be inter- preted as fanatical and exaggerated. Violence seems to be a differentiating criterion, with the supposition that violence is always invalid. Rodrguez Vzquez contributes also to this possible interpretation when he seems to equate Muozs peaceful revolu- tion with the passive revolution. One also has to be careful categorizing historical figures with the nationalist label when they themselves reject it, as in the case of Pedreira. Muozs case is special; he is the only one of the three that once described himself as a radical nationalist. Yet one can question what he meant by that, and anyway, after a brief period, he became a ferocious opponent, politically and ideologically, of nationalism. Moderate nationalism seems to be shorthand for the autonomist tradition in Puerto Rico. Autonomist arguments can [ 249 ] [ 248 ] be considered nationalistic if what is involved is a national definition of the political space even when sovereignty is claimed only partially. But autonomism is not necessarily a nationalistic posture, it can also be (and Rodrguez Vzquez is conscious of this) more or less a regionalistic demand that being inclusive does not reject aspirations of full integration with the metropolis. The history of the autonomist movement in Puerto Rico shows both tendencies. Autonomism in Puerto Rico has been an extremely contradictory and ambivalent movement, a movement where the element that could be rightfully called nationalistic has had a permanent precarious existence. Nationalism is in the final analysis a question of loyalty, and autonomists in Puerto Rico through- out their history have been prone to express with passion their loyalty to the metropolis, be it Spanish or American. Rodrguez Vzquezs very close and detailed analysis of Pedreira, Albizu, and Muoz offers many rewarding concepts for the careful reader. The theoretical framework that he uses gets in the way of a more facile understanding of the authors under consideration, but that is small change in comparison to what can be learned from this book. Rodrguez Vzquezs detailed reading of Muoz provides the elements necessary to understand how from the very beginnings it provided a base for the subsequent evolution that would lead him to abandon the goal of independence. What perhaps could have been developed in more detail is the discursive continuity of the moderate nationalism of Muozs father and son. To what extent was Muoz Marn in his independentista phase no more than an overheated version of the phoney nationalist postures in the Unionist Party that he once criticized? To what extent did Muoz Marn, in his moment of arrival, return to the possibilist and accomodating positions of his father Luis Muoz Rivera? R E F E R E N C E S Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London & New York: Verso. Chatterjee, Partha. 1986. Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse?. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ________ 1993. The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York: International Publishers. In 25/4 Julio: conmemorar, festejar, consumir en Puerto Rico, Maria Margarita Flores Collazo presents a historical account of the changing symbolic significance of the 25th and 4th of July celebrations in Puerto Rico throughout seven decades of U.S. and Puerto Rican political relations. Flores Collazo seeks to address the circumstances by which these commemorations were created and the people who were directly and indirectly involved in the emergence 25/4 Julio: conmemorar, festejar, consumir en Puerto Rico By Mara Margarita Flores Collazo Historicas, 2004 217 pages; $16.95 [paper] REVIEWER: Johana Londoo, New York University BookREVIEWS(v7).qxd 10/19/06 10:36 PM Page 248