The Politics of Sentiment: Imagining and Remembering Guayaquil by O. Hugo Benavides (review)

BOOK REVIEWS THE POLITICS OF SENTIMENT: IMAGINING AND REMEMBERING GUAYAQUIL. By 0.Hugo Benavides. Austin: U Texas P, 2006, p. 216,$19.95 In this provocative and challenging work, 0.Hugo Benavides, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University, assembles a detailed history of the emergence and development of the post-modernist analytical model of hegemony, and then uses this device to investigate the historical identity of his hometown: Guayaquil, Ecuador. Integrating the ideas of the community of scholars who founded and have elaborated upon the concept of hegemony - principally Gramsci, Foucault, Zizek, Williams and Lacan - Benavides constructs an analytical model that operates upon four basic principles: that elite domination in society is not and cannot be a top-down mechanism, but relies, consciously or unconsciously, upon the production of local cultural mechanisms that internalize and cooperatewith domination; that these local creations are how hegemony is "operationalized" in people's lives; that these local creations are best understood as "structures of feeling," as defined in the work of Raymond Williams; and finally, that this localized hegemonic process ultimately, and ironically, culminates in the creation of the "Real," a larger and more encompassing sense of feeling and identity, which incorporates the individual but is projected as a national or even global reality. To demonstrate the nature of hegemonic production and domination in Ecuador, Benavides applies this analysis to three historical and cultural components of the community of Guayaquil. These elements are the poetry of the Guayaquilean artist Medardo Angel Silva, the imagery and creation of "Guayaquil Antiguo," and the music of the pasillo, particularly that of Julio Jaramillo. Spanning the century, these three components exist within a period of significant historical change and upheaval. With the Liberal transformation and modernization of Ecuador under EIoy Alfaro, Guayaquil witnessed significant migration of indigenous and black workers from the countryside into the city. The organization of a labor movement, the emergence of Socialism and the harsh repression of government massacres highlight this era, as does the integration of the Ecuadorian economy into the global market. It is within this context that Benavides finds the creation of "structures of feeling," or sentiment, in poetry, image, and song, that will contribute to Ecuadorian hegemony and a sense of the Real. Medardo Angel Silva (1898-1919) was a turn-of-the-century modernist poet, regarded as a significant national figure whose poetry is required reading. A tragic figure who committed suicide at twenty-one, his work is formally categorized as melodramatic reflections upon love, loss, grief, abandonment, and death. Benavidesdefines this poetry as a cultural creation of a "structure of feeling" which at its center is a process of denial. Benavides notes that Silva was part Black, and would be considered a "cholo." While The Latin Americanist, Fall 2007 Silva never overtly addressed this racial theme in his work, and it does not appear in the traditional analysis, Benavides finds this conscious denial of such a significant socialmarker, by both the p,oetand the public, to be a racial ”fault line” in the hegemonic culture, and evidence of how hegemony works. Neither overtly acknowledges the race issue, but intrinsically understands the tragedy and angst of this social component. ”Guayaquil Antiguo” is another social construction of local and national sentiment. At the turn of the century a nostalgic discourse of the history and identity of Guayaquil emerged with the production of photographs, etchings, and sketches. These popular visual images presented a city of order, stability, and social harmony. For Benavides, the element of denial marks their true significance.The racial complexity, labor and social unrest, and tensions associated with modernization are absent from the “Real” in this cultural creation. The pasillos are, in essence, the themes of Silva put to music. Benavides highlights Julio Jaramillo (1935-1978) as the most successful and effective musician of this genre, someone who is considered a national icon. As with Silva’s poetry, the overt themes of romantic loss and failing unconsciously carry themes of social repression and domination and resonate universally with Ecuadorians as evidence of the unspoken but felt hegemonic sentiment, or Real. The hidden dynamic propelling these and other elements of hegemony is the historical incidence of colonialism. As...