Marie Arana
Author of Bolivar: American Liberator
About the Author
Marie Arana is editor of "The Washington Post Book World" as well as a feature writer for "The Post". She has served on the board of directors of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as well as the National Book Critics Circle. She lives in Washington, D.C. (Bowker Author Biography)
Works by Marie Arana
LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority (2024) 83 copies, 3 reviews
De betovering van de zinnen 2 copies
Associated Works
Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything In Between (2007) — Introduction — 65 copies, 2 reviews
How I Learned English: 55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life (2007) — Contributor — 54 copies, 4 reviews
Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women (2023) — Contributor — 41 copies, 1 review
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2013 (2013) — Author "Glory Over the Mountains" — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1949
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Northwestern University (BA|Russian)
Hong Kong University (MA|linguistics) - Occupations
- writer
editor
journalist
critic - Organizations
- The Washington Post
- Short biography
- Marie was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of a Peruvian father and American mother. To friends and family, she is known as Marisi. She moved to the United States at the age of 9, and grew up in Summit, New Jersey. She completed her BA in Russian Language and Literature at Northwestern University, her MA in Linguistics and Sociolinguistics at Hong Kong University, and earned a certificate of scholarship (Mandarin language) at Yale University in China. She began her career in book publishing, becoming Vice President and Senior Editor at both Harcourt Brace and Simon & Schuster publishers in New York. In 1993, she started work at The Washington Post as Deputy Editor of the book review section, “Book World.” She was promoted to Editor in Chief of that section, a position she held for 10 years. In 2008, because of the importance of books in the metropolitan area, “Washingtonian” magazine called her one of the Most Powerful People in Washington. In 2009, she was Northwestern University’s Alumna of the Year. Currently, she is a Writer at Large for The Washington Post, a guest op-ed columnist at the New York Times, and a senior consultant on hemispheric affairs to the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington.
Marie is the author of a memoir about her bicultural childhood American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award as well as the PEN/Memoir Award, and won the Books for a Better Life Award. She is the editor of a collection of Washington Post essays about the writer’s craft, The Writing Life: How Writers Think and Work (2002), which is used as a textbook for writing courses in universities across the country. Her novel Cellophane, about the Peruvian Amazon, was published in 2006 and selected as a finalist for the John Sargent Prize. Her most recent novel, published in January 2009, is Lima Nights. She has written the introductions for many books on Latin America, Hispanicity and biculturalism. Her latest book is Bolívar: American Liberator, a biography of the Latin American founder Simón Bolívar, published by Simon & Schuster, and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award (Biography).
Marie has served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. For many years, she has directed literary events for various festivals at the Kennedy Center. She is currently the director of the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival. She has been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award as well as for the National Book Critics Circle. Her commentary has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune, The Week, Virginia Quarterly Review, Civilization, Smithsonian magazine, The National Geographic, El País, and numerous other publications throughout the Americas and Europe.
Marie lives in Washingon, D.C. and Lima, Peru, with her husband, the literary critic Jonathan Yardley.
http://mariearana.net/about-marie/Marie Arana is a former editor in chief of Book World at The Washington Post. Currently, she is a Writer at Large for The Post and a member of the Scholars Council at the Library of Congress. Arana is the author of a memoir about her bicultural childhood “American Chica,” which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award as well as the PEN/Memoir Award, and won the Books for a Better Life Award. She is the editor of a collection of Washington Post essays about the writer’s craft, “The Writing Life: How Writers Think and Work,” which is used as a textbook for writing courses in universities across the country. Her novel “Cellophane,” about the Peruvian Amazon, was a finalist for the John Sargent Prize. Her most recent novel is “Lima Nights.” She has chaired juries for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Awards, organized literary conferences for the Kennedy Center, and currently sits on the board of the National Book Festival. She has also been an active spokesperson on Latin America, Hispanic Americans and biculturalism. Currently, she is at work on a biography of Simón Bolívar, which is on contract with Simon & Schuster.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/... - Nationality
- Peru (birth)
USA - Birthplace
- Lima, Peru
- Places of residence
- Lima, Peru
New Jersey, USA
Washington, D.C., USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
48. Bolívar : American liberator by Marie Arana
published: 2014
format: 468 page hardcover (603 with notes in bibliography)
acquired: Library
read: Aug 25 - Sep 13
rating: 4
This is a terrific book and a larger than life real-life story, but, goodness, there is so much to tell, I don't know where to begin, or how to sum up. I can't explain Bolivar in a simple straight way without wandering off on convoluted discursive paths in an effort to clarify.
Simón Bolívar was a wealthy and unruly orphan show more from Caracas who was educated by a random but fascinating assortment of characters, was connected to the highest society, would play badminton with the crown prince of Spain, and later, in Parisian and Italian high society meet many of the leading figures of the day, including Alexander Von Humbolt (who "judged him a puerile man").
Simón Bolívar was a failure, part 1, 2 & 3. His most impressive role in the First Republic of Venezuela was to be exiled instead of executed. The Admirable Campaign that initially made him famous and led to him being named the Liberator and that mostly took place in Colombia, created the Second Republic of Venezuela. This one was wiped out by the Legions of Hell (that's their actual name), a marauding army of ex-slaves loyal to Spain that would rape and pillage through the second republic, massacring a large portion of revolutionary supporters. Bolivar wound up in Jamaica and Haiti. Having finally figured out that he needed to manage the slave revolt if he were to get free of Spain, he invaded again, freed the slaves, promised to undo the racial favoritism and saw his invasion quickly wiped out again. He was chased out by his own revolutionary allies and almost gutted by an ally who was so upset he swung a sword a him to kill (and would later be a loyal supporter of Bolívar).
Simón Bolívar was in a weird place. Spain had done some strange stuff to keep the masses in check in New Spain. The European descendants, Creoles, like Bolívar, were divided from the natives, and from the slaves and a large population of mixed race in what came to be tension driven freezing-in-place of the system. It was these kind of tensions that led to the Legions of Hell to fight against the Creole rebellion, and that made these new rebellious colonies impossible to manage, leading to a variety of regional warlords who no one actually liked. No one liked anyone else, except somehow everyone like the Liberator, Bolívar. So he became to only possible leader. This is just the beginning.
Simón Bolívar was special. It's only at this point that we say he was what the myths say - energetic, elegant, educated, graceful, charming, tougher than everyone else, deeply dedicated to his cause with full integrity, insightful, and finally savvy enough to be dangerous.
Simón Bolívar was the revolution. From this point Bolívar made it happen almost single-handed. His energy was the motor of the revolution, his integrity disarmed, his charm brought devout enemies to join him, his physical prowess won over his army (which included large contingents of British veterans out of work after Waterloo), his personality won over the most intransigent resistance to cooperation, his strategies, many psychological, would set the victories in place. Finally, his statesmanship won over whatever was left.
Simón Bolívar was a butcher. Outside the 800 Spanish prisoners he ordered beheaded over a few days because of rumors of a prison revolt, he lost several armies, saw populations of entire regions drop by 1/3, economies completely break down.
Simón Bolívar was a notorious womanizer. Briefly married, he met widowhood by finding prominent lovers in France, notably the married Fanny du Villars. He took with Josefina "Pepita" Machado almost as a war prize, and once held an entire invasion fleet on hold in port for several days until she could join him. She disappeared somewhere in the Venezuelan wilderness, on the way to meet him. And, most famously, Manuela Sáenz, the married Peruvian who became his final mistress, saving his life during an assassination attempt.
Simón Bolívar was a failure, part 4. He would momentarily reach an amazing high tide where he had freed future Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spain, had charmed his rival liberator, San Martín, Liberator of Argentina, out of the picture, was writing his own constitutions and had in a place a very talented successor, Antonio José de Sucre. Alas, his constitution with its life-time president left about everyone horrified, including Henry Clay, his most devout supporter in the unsupportive United States and Lafayette, one his most valued European supporters. Regional animosities, an assassination attempt and tuberculosis finally led him to resign all powers and try to flee his own country, shortly after saying in an important speech, "I am ashamed to admit it, but independence is the only thing we have won, at the cost of everything else." He would die several month after giving up the presidency. He was nearly alone, poor, out of power, unwanted, and finally broken by the news of the assassination of Sucre.
Simón Bolívar is a legend. Quoting Arana, "But, for all his flaws, there was never any doubt about his power to convince, his splendid rhetoric, his impulse to generosity, his deeply held principles of liberty and justice." and later, "The intervening century had made Bolívar a good Catholic, a moral exemplar, an unwavering democrat—none of which he had been during his life."
And, worst of all, Simón Bolívar has become a rallying cry of populist autocrats the like of Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution: "Bolívar purported to hate dictatorships—he claimed he had taken them on only for limited periods and as necessary expedients—but there is little doubt that he created the mythic creature that the Latin American dictator became."
What an insane life.
I picked this up because I had just read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel [The General in His Labyrinth], based on Bolivar's last several months of life, living on little money, very ill and essentially rejected by his continent.
2018
https://www.librarything.com/topic/288371#6579922 show less
published: 2014
format: 468 page hardcover (603 with notes in bibliography)
acquired: Library
read: Aug 25 - Sep 13
rating: 4
This is a terrific book and a larger than life real-life story, but, goodness, there is so much to tell, I don't know where to begin, or how to sum up. I can't explain Bolivar in a simple straight way without wandering off on convoluted discursive paths in an effort to clarify.
Simón Bolívar was a wealthy and unruly orphan show more from Caracas who was educated by a random but fascinating assortment of characters, was connected to the highest society, would play badminton with the crown prince of Spain, and later, in Parisian and Italian high society meet many of the leading figures of the day, including Alexander Von Humbolt (who "judged him a puerile man").
Simón Bolívar was a failure, part 1, 2 & 3. His most impressive role in the First Republic of Venezuela was to be exiled instead of executed. The Admirable Campaign that initially made him famous and led to him being named the Liberator and that mostly took place in Colombia, created the Second Republic of Venezuela. This one was wiped out by the Legions of Hell (that's their actual name), a marauding army of ex-slaves loyal to Spain that would rape and pillage through the second republic, massacring a large portion of revolutionary supporters. Bolivar wound up in Jamaica and Haiti. Having finally figured out that he needed to manage the slave revolt if he were to get free of Spain, he invaded again, freed the slaves, promised to undo the racial favoritism and saw his invasion quickly wiped out again. He was chased out by his own revolutionary allies and almost gutted by an ally who was so upset he swung a sword a him to kill (and would later be a loyal supporter of Bolívar).
Simón Bolívar was in a weird place. Spain had done some strange stuff to keep the masses in check in New Spain. The European descendants, Creoles, like Bolívar, were divided from the natives, and from the slaves and a large population of mixed race in what came to be tension driven freezing-in-place of the system. It was these kind of tensions that led to the Legions of Hell to fight against the Creole rebellion, and that made these new rebellious colonies impossible to manage, leading to a variety of regional warlords who no one actually liked. No one liked anyone else, except somehow everyone like the Liberator, Bolívar. So he became to only possible leader. This is just the beginning.
Simón Bolívar was special. It's only at this point that we say he was what the myths say - energetic, elegant, educated, graceful, charming, tougher than everyone else, deeply dedicated to his cause with full integrity, insightful, and finally savvy enough to be dangerous.
Simón Bolívar was the revolution. From this point Bolívar made it happen almost single-handed. His energy was the motor of the revolution, his integrity disarmed, his charm brought devout enemies to join him, his physical prowess won over his army (which included large contingents of British veterans out of work after Waterloo), his personality won over the most intransigent resistance to cooperation, his strategies, many psychological, would set the victories in place. Finally, his statesmanship won over whatever was left.
Simón Bolívar was a butcher. Outside the 800 Spanish prisoners he ordered beheaded over a few days because of rumors of a prison revolt, he lost several armies, saw populations of entire regions drop by 1/3, economies completely break down.
Simón Bolívar was a notorious womanizer. Briefly married, he met widowhood by finding prominent lovers in France, notably the married Fanny du Villars. He took with Josefina "Pepita" Machado almost as a war prize, and once held an entire invasion fleet on hold in port for several days until she could join him. She disappeared somewhere in the Venezuelan wilderness, on the way to meet him. And, most famously, Manuela Sáenz, the married Peruvian who became his final mistress, saving his life during an assassination attempt.
Simón Bolívar was a failure, part 4. He would momentarily reach an amazing high tide where he had freed future Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spain, had charmed his rival liberator, San Martín, Liberator of Argentina, out of the picture, was writing his own constitutions and had in a place a very talented successor, Antonio José de Sucre. Alas, his constitution with its life-time president left about everyone horrified, including Henry Clay, his most devout supporter in the unsupportive United States and Lafayette, one his most valued European supporters. Regional animosities, an assassination attempt and tuberculosis finally led him to resign all powers and try to flee his own country, shortly after saying in an important speech, "I am ashamed to admit it, but independence is the only thing we have won, at the cost of everything else." He would die several month after giving up the presidency. He was nearly alone, poor, out of power, unwanted, and finally broken by the news of the assassination of Sucre.
Simón Bolívar is a legend. Quoting Arana, "But, for all his flaws, there was never any doubt about his power to convince, his splendid rhetoric, his impulse to generosity, his deeply held principles of liberty and justice." and later, "The intervening century had made Bolívar a good Catholic, a moral exemplar, an unwavering democrat—none of which he had been during his life."
And, worst of all, Simón Bolívar has become a rallying cry of populist autocrats the like of Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution: "Bolívar purported to hate dictatorships—he claimed he had taken them on only for limited periods and as necessary expedients—but there is little doubt that he created the mythic creature that the Latin American dictator became."
What an insane life.
I picked this up because I had just read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel [The General in His Labyrinth], based on Bolivar's last several months of life, living on little money, very ill and essentially rejected by his continent.
2018
https://www.librarything.com/topic/288371#6579922 show less
Marie Arana grew up in an intercultural family with a South American father born in Peru, and a North American mother. Her parents met in Boston, Massachusetts of all places. This all sounds exotic and fun, but it wasn't always easy for Arana to know how to fit in on either side of the cultural divide.
The very first sentence of American Chica sets the entire tone of Arana's memoir, "The corridors of my skull are haunted" (p 5). Indeed, Arana's family history hides ghosts and her story prods show more proverbial skeletons out of closets. I won't give away the details but there was one moment in Arana's story that had me holding my breath. She has a brush with impropriety that is tinged with the guilty question of did I bring this on myself? Is it somehow my fault? I could relate.The most poignant pieces of Arana's writing was when she was remembering her innocence; the times when prejudice didn't darken her childhood. show less
The very first sentence of American Chica sets the entire tone of Arana's memoir, "The corridors of my skull are haunted" (p 5). Indeed, Arana's family history hides ghosts and her story prods show more proverbial skeletons out of closets. I won't give away the details but there was one moment in Arana's story that had me holding my breath. She has a brush with impropriety that is tinged with the guilty question of did I bring this on myself? Is it somehow my fault? I could relate.The most poignant pieces of Arana's writing was when she was remembering her innocence; the times when prejudice didn't darken her childhood. show less
No matter your views about what America is or should be, what makes up American culture, and immigration into America, one thing proves impossible to deny: the United States of America is becoming ever more Latin.
Perhaps part of our challenge has been our denial and ignorance regarding the presence of Latino/a Americans for generations. Marie Arana seeks to present the history and present of Latino/as in America in LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority show more (galley received as part of early review program).
The author is of Peruvian descent and has found great success in America and has worked at the highest echelons of the American publishing industry. Her writing is thorough and compelling. She interviewed a great number of people and their experiences provide a lot of color and depth in her narrative.
Throughout the author recognizes the challenge of speaking about “LatinoLand” as a coherent unity: as indicated at the end, perhaps there is greater unity today in terms of the experience of Latino/as in America than before, yet the various groups of Spanish speaking people from previously Spanish dominated nations remain quite different and often at least somewhat mutually antagonistic. Some might feel more affinity with white Americans or Black Americans than some other groups of Latino/as; woe to anyone who would act as if all Latino/as are essentially the same.
The author began with the basic historical outline: Columbus, the Spaniards, colonization and Catholicization, exploitation, and oppression. Then came the white Americans and the conquest of Texas and much of the rest of what was northern Mexico and which is now the American Southwest.
She ultimately will profile almost every national community: some aspects of their unique history and what conditions on the ground would motivate them to want to immigrate to the United States. She of course discusses the fraught nature of immigrating to the United States, whether by some kind of student or work visa or by crossing the border by means of coyotes, and presents examples.
She discusses the constant depredations and degradations which came at the hands of the white Americans: invitations to work in substandard conditions, willingness to expel not only undocumented but also documented Latino/a immigrants when it proved convenient to do so, with even some American citizens getting deported in the process. She does not shy away from demonstrating how many times the dire conditions which compel Latino/as to risk so much to come to the United States and live as undocumented stem from our misbegotten intrusions into their political systems and as the fruit of our seemingly bottomless demand for illegal drugs.
But the author is also not sparing about challenges within Latino/a cultures: the celebration of whiteness and the desire to “whiten the race”; prejudice between communities; the very divergent political trajectories of different groups of Latino/as, and the historical and modern reasons why plenty of people whose ancestors might have come from Spanish colonized areas do not identify as Latino/a but as white.
In this book I learned that not only did FDR et al detain Japanese-Americans and detain them in concentration camps, but our government also put pressure on our Latin American allies to round up their citizens of Japanese descent and to send them to the United States so we could detain them in those camps as well. Apparently the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, thus spent time in an American concentration camp. Tragic.
The author also addressed how Latino/as both attempt to belong and the challenges of trying to belong in American society. She well explored religion among Latino/a populations: the historical legacy of Catholicism; the surge of interest in Pentecostalism; how the “evangelication” of the Latino/a population has proven significant over the past forty years and what changes have attended on account of it.
She explores various ways of thinking in Latino/a cultures, but also emphasized how diligently Latino/as labor, and how well known they are for their work and work habits. She also highlights the many contributions made in almost every discipline, from academia to the sciences, music, television, movies, publishing, government, etc., by Latino/as. She laments how these Latino/as are poorly known and their contributions left unacknowledged as well as how poorly Latino/as are represented in corporate governance, governance in general, the highest levels of academia, etc., relative to their population in the United States.
The book might be long but is well written and easy to read. If you want to understand the great growth of Latin American cultures in the United States, and want to better understand and appreciate Latino/a presence and contribution to these United States, I highly recommend this book. show less
Perhaps part of our challenge has been our denial and ignorance regarding the presence of Latino/a Americans for generations. Marie Arana seeks to present the history and present of Latino/as in America in LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority show more (galley received as part of early review program).
The author is of Peruvian descent and has found great success in America and has worked at the highest echelons of the American publishing industry. Her writing is thorough and compelling. She interviewed a great number of people and their experiences provide a lot of color and depth in her narrative.
Throughout the author recognizes the challenge of speaking about “LatinoLand” as a coherent unity: as indicated at the end, perhaps there is greater unity today in terms of the experience of Latino/as in America than before, yet the various groups of Spanish speaking people from previously Spanish dominated nations remain quite different and often at least somewhat mutually antagonistic. Some might feel more affinity with white Americans or Black Americans than some other groups of Latino/as; woe to anyone who would act as if all Latino/as are essentially the same.
The author began with the basic historical outline: Columbus, the Spaniards, colonization and Catholicization, exploitation, and oppression. Then came the white Americans and the conquest of Texas and much of the rest of what was northern Mexico and which is now the American Southwest.
She ultimately will profile almost every national community: some aspects of their unique history and what conditions on the ground would motivate them to want to immigrate to the United States. She of course discusses the fraught nature of immigrating to the United States, whether by some kind of student or work visa or by crossing the border by means of coyotes, and presents examples.
She discusses the constant depredations and degradations which came at the hands of the white Americans: invitations to work in substandard conditions, willingness to expel not only undocumented but also documented Latino/a immigrants when it proved convenient to do so, with even some American citizens getting deported in the process. She does not shy away from demonstrating how many times the dire conditions which compel Latino/as to risk so much to come to the United States and live as undocumented stem from our misbegotten intrusions into their political systems and as the fruit of our seemingly bottomless demand for illegal drugs.
But the author is also not sparing about challenges within Latino/a cultures: the celebration of whiteness and the desire to “whiten the race”; prejudice between communities; the very divergent political trajectories of different groups of Latino/as, and the historical and modern reasons why plenty of people whose ancestors might have come from Spanish colonized areas do not identify as Latino/a but as white.
In this book I learned that not only did FDR et al detain Japanese-Americans and detain them in concentration camps, but our government also put pressure on our Latin American allies to round up their citizens of Japanese descent and to send them to the United States so we could detain them in those camps as well. Apparently the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, thus spent time in an American concentration camp. Tragic.
The author also addressed how Latino/as both attempt to belong and the challenges of trying to belong in American society. She well explored religion among Latino/a populations: the historical legacy of Catholicism; the surge of interest in Pentecostalism; how the “evangelication” of the Latino/a population has proven significant over the past forty years and what changes have attended on account of it.
She explores various ways of thinking in Latino/a cultures, but also emphasized how diligently Latino/as labor, and how well known they are for their work and work habits. She also highlights the many contributions made in almost every discipline, from academia to the sciences, music, television, movies, publishing, government, etc., by Latino/as. She laments how these Latino/as are poorly known and their contributions left unacknowledged as well as how poorly Latino/as are represented in corporate governance, governance in general, the highest levels of academia, etc., relative to their population in the United States.
The book might be long but is well written and easy to read. If you want to understand the great growth of Latin American cultures in the United States, and want to better understand and appreciate Latino/a presence and contribution to these United States, I highly recommend this book. show less
If, like me, you don't know too much about Simón Bolívar even though the guy has entire countries and political movements and so on named after him, then this biography is a good place to start. It ably covers all the standard origins activities who he banged legacy stuff, although I found the international context a little lacking, in that I would have appreciated a little more quantification of the comparison between Bolívar's liberation efforts and someone like George Washington's, or show more even Napoleon's. Arana is at pains to mention that Bolívar's job was, on paper, even more difficult than Washington's, but you don't feel like you really grasp why South American society was so much more difficult to unify than North America's was, except at the most basic level, because the main character of this book is Bolívar, and the continent is merely a background for him to run around on.
Speaking of international comparisons, it's tempting to play armchair quarterback since Bolívar's Gran Colombia fell apart instantly whereas Washington's United States did not. While granting that the geographically vaster, more racially and economically mixed lands of South America would be way tougher for any one to liberate and administrate (and keeping in mind that those two skills are very rarely combined in one person anyway), it seems like Bolívar would have benefited from following a few management/leadership guidelines:
- Try to keep your womanizing separate from your revolutionizing. There's one part where Bolívar holds up an entire invasion fleet that's halfway to its goal for three days so that he can retrieve his mistress Pepita from her island and then sleep with her while everyone sits around and twiddles their thumbs. Later in the book his "permanent mistress" Manuela becomes a politically divisive figure in classic court-politics style. I get that being the father of a nation (or six) has its privileges, but try to keep your eye on the prize.
- Don't retain and promote provably disloyal subordinates. The second half of the book, and even to some extent the first half as well, is an endless string of betrayals, backstabbings, and double crosses, to the point where it seems like the only one who didn't turn against Bolívar is his manservant. I don't know if the historical record is just spotty, or if Arana is garbling everyone's motives, or what, but it certainly seems like Bolívar could have avoided a lot of heartache by refusing to hand out amnesties like candy and just straight up exiling/executing high-level malcontents. I get that forgiveness is a good way to retain support from crucial allies, but there's got to be a point where you realize that you're just setting yourself up for yet another rebellion/coup/assassination attempt a year down the line.
- To that end, be vigilant about your underlings' independent means of support. One of the interesting things that Cyrus the Great did in Persia, with a similarly large and ethnically varied empire, was to post administrators in different parts of the empire than they were from, so that they couldn't build their own power bases. Mixing the various elites of Peru, New Granada, Venezuela, etc., might have led to a greater feeling of continental solidarity. Of course the US also had its own problems with federalism that wouldn't get even partially resolved until the Civil War, but it's important to do what you can to make your administrators feel like your empire is better to administrate than to liquidate.
- Don't waste too much time on paperwork. After about the third or fourth one, you get the impression that Bolívar was addicted to constitutional conventions. While legal institutions are very important (as he himself predicted, Napoleon's civil code has outlasted his empire by centuries), getting bogged down in minutiae can be lethal, especially when there are more pressing matters to attend to, like enemy armies or the collapsing economy. Additionally, Bolívar's attempt to include a President-for-life in his constitution is so stupid it beggars belief - try not to throw out your single selling point over the monarchy you just overthrew!
Still, for all his faults, Bolívar comes across as an incredible figure, and it's hard to make the argument that anyone else could have achieved any more than he did. Now that UNASUR is slowly becoming a reality, he's one of those rare figures who you can truly say was ahead of his time. show less
Speaking of international comparisons, it's tempting to play armchair quarterback since Bolívar's Gran Colombia fell apart instantly whereas Washington's United States did not. While granting that the geographically vaster, more racially and economically mixed lands of South America would be way tougher for any one to liberate and administrate (and keeping in mind that those two skills are very rarely combined in one person anyway), it seems like Bolívar would have benefited from following a few management/leadership guidelines:
- Try to keep your womanizing separate from your revolutionizing. There's one part where Bolívar holds up an entire invasion fleet that's halfway to its goal for three days so that he can retrieve his mistress Pepita from her island and then sleep with her while everyone sits around and twiddles their thumbs. Later in the book his "permanent mistress" Manuela becomes a politically divisive figure in classic court-politics style. I get that being the father of a nation (or six) has its privileges, but try to keep your eye on the prize.
- Don't retain and promote provably disloyal subordinates. The second half of the book, and even to some extent the first half as well, is an endless string of betrayals, backstabbings, and double crosses, to the point where it seems like the only one who didn't turn against Bolívar is his manservant. I don't know if the historical record is just spotty, or if Arana is garbling everyone's motives, or what, but it certainly seems like Bolívar could have avoided a lot of heartache by refusing to hand out amnesties like candy and just straight up exiling/executing high-level malcontents. I get that forgiveness is a good way to retain support from crucial allies, but there's got to be a point where you realize that you're just setting yourself up for yet another rebellion/coup/assassination attempt a year down the line.
- To that end, be vigilant about your underlings' independent means of support. One of the interesting things that Cyrus the Great did in Persia, with a similarly large and ethnically varied empire, was to post administrators in different parts of the empire than they were from, so that they couldn't build their own power bases. Mixing the various elites of Peru, New Granada, Venezuela, etc., might have led to a greater feeling of continental solidarity. Of course the US also had its own problems with federalism that wouldn't get even partially resolved until the Civil War, but it's important to do what you can to make your administrators feel like your empire is better to administrate than to liquidate.
- Don't waste too much time on paperwork. After about the third or fourth one, you get the impression that Bolívar was addicted to constitutional conventions. While legal institutions are very important (as he himself predicted, Napoleon's civil code has outlasted his empire by centuries), getting bogged down in minutiae can be lethal, especially when there are more pressing matters to attend to, like enemy armies or the collapsing economy. Additionally, Bolívar's attempt to include a President-for-life in his constitution is so stupid it beggars belief - try not to throw out your single selling point over the monarchy you just overthrew!
Still, for all his faults, Bolívar comes across as an incredible figure, and it's hard to make the argument that anyone else could have achieved any more than he did. Now that UNASUR is slowly becoming a reality, he's one of those rare figures who you can truly say was ahead of his time. show less
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