Forging People: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in Hispanic American and Latino/a Thought

8. Rodó, Race, and Morality

181 [ 8 ] rodó, race, and Morality arleen salles What constitutes an authentic latin american identity, particularly in the face of european and north american values and their overpowering influence? How should such an identity be understood? these are topics that seem inescapable in any history of ideas in latin america and continue to be hotly debated. they were also discussed during the period of state formation, the early 1900s, when several intellectuals felt the need to reaffirm a distinctive collective identity and were instrumental in fueling the valorization of a latin american consciousness.1 José enrique rodó is taken to be one of the key figures in the movement.2 rodó rallied against the pervasive moral and political power of the United states by doing two things: first, he tried to invert common beliefs about the inferiority of the latin american “race”; and second, he argued for the existence of a united latin american community with an unquestionable mission: the moral revitalization of humanity. His goal becomes evident in his classic 1900 piece, Ariel, for a while considered “the conscience of latin america.”3 in this essay, and later in several short pieces and articles, rodó calls for the moral and political independence of the continent while at the same time 182 Arleen Salles worrying that the technological and material progress characteristic of the north threatens spiritual values.4 His view attracted substantial attention in latin america, inspiring a group of writers known as the “arielistas,” and it is recognized as an important source for later nationalist thought. 5 rodó’s vision rests on two ideas. Human beings as such have the moral obligation to develop the totality of their being; and membership in some races facilitates such spiritual development, as some races (significantly, the latin american race) are more likely to possess the natural balance of rationality, autonomy, and aesthetic sensibility necessary for the good life. From an ethical perspective he focuses on the human condition and promotes universal ideals, but from a political perspective he is concerned with something more specific: elevating the national standing of latin american nations. as a result, he sets up a value conflict (universal moral values vs. the latin american context) that he tried to resolve by highlighting the importance of the spiritual dimension in life and attempting to show that latin americans are more perceptive to higher moral values and ideals than other groups of people. But what does rodó mean by the term race? Understanding his view of race is not easy, for several reasons. in addition to the fact that the notion itself is highly contested and controversial, rodó himself is not consistent in his use of the term. in some passages he equates race with culture and tradition; that is, he appears to understand it purely in cultural terms. in others he discusses it in almost essentialist terms. Furthermore, sometimes he appears to apply the term interchangeably with homeland (patria) and connects it with national character. Finally, that he often intends the term to be morally prescriptive complicates the matter. Most critical reviews of his best-known work, Ariel, have focused on rodó’s adoption of a vocabulary of latin american pride and his words about cultural americanism.6 His moral universalistic concern regarding the good, virtuous life for human beings is taken as an afterthought, with limited attention to the connection between his view of the good life and his moral and political goal to elevate Hispanic americans. i believe, however, that it is his moral view that gives him the basis for standing against the discourse of Rodó, Race, and Morality 183 the superiority of north america. it is this same view, on the other hand, that underlies his more racist and elitist comments and claims. in this chapter, i take up these issues. Moral vieW although rodó explicitly acknowledged the influence of positivism on his thought, he was convinced that positivism raised serious theoretical and practical problems. at the theoretical level, it tended to ignore the significance of ideals.7 at the practical level, in latin america it had often become “a utilitarian empiricism of very low ability, like a cookie cutter intended to flatter, with its apparent clarity of ideas and its limited moral and social range, the narrowest tendencies of common sense” (“rumbos” 519). He “belongs to the reaction that takes literary naturalism and philosophical positivism as a starting point and without...