Nuevos libros sobre el tema de los voluntarios y mercenarios extranjeros en la independencia, editados desde el 2006.
Aunque hay un botón de Google Translate en el blog, prefiero traducir los textos yo mismo, para que el sentido sea claro. (Por supuesto también agradezco comentarios en castellano; quiero que sea un blog verdaderamente bilingue).
En este post (publicado en inglés el 6 de enero, 2012) hablo de los libros publicados desde 2006 sobre el tema de los voluntarios extranjeros que
sirvieron bajo el mando de Bolívar.
Empecemos con la publicación en dos volúmenes de Moisés Enrique Rodríguez, Freedom's Mercenaries: British Volunteers in the Wars of Independence of Latin America (2006). Debe ser el primer puerto de escala para los genealogistas
con la sospecha de que su ancestro puede haber servido en las guerras de la independencia en América del Sur. Reúne toda la información conocida
acerca de los voluntarios / mercenarios, y los presenta de una manera clara y
accesible. Los dos volúmenes (I: El norte de América del Sur, II: El sur de América del Sur) tienen índices. Es un trabajo muy importante e impresionante.
Los lectores que buscan una versión emocionante del tema deben
dirigirse a la narrative de Ben Hughes, Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World (2010). Narra los eventos y los personajes con entusiasmo y energía, desde
el reclutamiento en Inglaterra e Irlanda hasta la Batalla de Carabobo. Los que buscan información sobre uniformes, armas y estrategia militar pueden encontrarla en el libro de John Fletcher, Adventures of the British and Irish Legions in South America 1817-1824 (2011). Contiene unas imágenes excelentes que contribuyen a dar una idea visual de los aventureros británicos e irlandeses durante las guerras de la independencia.
Finalmente, los lectores de español pueden recurrir al libro recién editado de Edgardo
Mondolfi Gudat, El Lado Oscuro de Una epopeya: los Legionarios britanicos
en Venezuela (2011), el cual reseñaré en un futuro post.
Si me he olvidado de una publicación, por favor íháganmelo
saber!
En un futuro post voy a mirar a los artículos en revistas académicas que se han
publicado sobre el tema en los últimos cinco años, por ejemplo el de Gabriel Paquette sobre las
dimensiones intelectuales del apoyo británico, y el de Karen Racine sobre la influencia cultural británica
en la independencia de América Latina.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Volunteers, Mercenaries and Adventurers in Gran Colombia: Books Published 2006-2011
This post discusses books published since 2006 on the subject of the foreign volunteers who served under Bolívar.
Moises Enrique Rodriguez's two-volume compendium and narrative Freedom's Mercenaries: British Volunteers in the Wars of Independence of Latin America (2006) should be the first port-of-call for genealogists with a suspicion that their ancestor might have served in South America. It pulls together all the known information about the volunteers/mercenaries, and presents it in a clear and accessible manner. Both volumes (I: Northern South America, II: Southern South America) have indices. It is a very impressive piece of work, a labour of love.
Readers seeking dash and vim for the subject should head to Ben Hughes' Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World (2010), which provides a page-turning account from recruitment through to the Battle of Carabobo. Uniforms, weapons and the mapping of military strategy are the subject of John Fletcher's Adventures of the British and Irish Legions in South America 1817-1824 (2011), which combines an engaging account of campaigning with attention-grabbing illustrations.
Finally, readers of Spanish can turn to Edgardo Mondolfi Gudat's new monograph focusing on Venezuela, El lado oscuro de una epopeya: los legionarios británicos en Venezuela (2011).
If I have missed any publications, please let me know!
In a future post I'll look at the articles that have been published on the subject in the last five years, including Gabriel Paquette on the intellectual dimensions and Karen Racine on British cultural influence during Latin American independence.
Moises Enrique Rodriguez's two-volume compendium and narrative Freedom's Mercenaries: British Volunteers in the Wars of Independence of Latin America (2006) should be the first port-of-call for genealogists with a suspicion that their ancestor might have served in South America. It pulls together all the known information about the volunteers/mercenaries, and presents it in a clear and accessible manner. Both volumes (I: Northern South America, II: Southern South America) have indices. It is a very impressive piece of work, a labour of love.
Readers seeking dash and vim for the subject should head to Ben Hughes' Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World (2010), which provides a page-turning account from recruitment through to the Battle of Carabobo. Uniforms, weapons and the mapping of military strategy are the subject of John Fletcher's Adventures of the British and Irish Legions in South America 1817-1824 (2011), which combines an engaging account of campaigning with attention-grabbing illustrations.
Finally, readers of Spanish can turn to Edgardo Mondolfi Gudat's new monograph focusing on Venezuela, El lado oscuro de una epopeya: los legionarios británicos en Venezuela (2011).
If I have missed any publications, please let me know!
In a future post I'll look at the articles that have been published on the subject in the last five years, including Gabriel Paquette on the intellectual dimensions and Karen Racine on British cultural influence during Latin American independence.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Welcome to The Bolivarian Times!
My original interest came out of a doctoral dissertation at University College London on the foreign adventurers who served under Simón Bolívar in the rebel armies and navies, focusing on the years between 1810 and 1824. My conclusions were published as a book Adventuring through Spanish Colonies: Simón Bolívar, Foreign Mercenaries and the Birth of New Nations in 2006. Since then a lot of excellent publications have come out and some really interesting events have taken place as a result of the commemoration of the bicentennaries. This blog will introduce those works, and provide a way for descendants of the adventurers - many of whom have contacted me over the last decade - to share their genealogical research and establish new and unexpected links.
[The picture is of the statue of Colonel Jaime Rooke in Paipa, Boyacá, Colombia, taken by the photographer Luis Buitrago in 2011.]
Versión en castellano:
Este blog Bolivarian Times intentará reunir y comentar los trabajos históricos sobre los procesos de la
independencia hispanoamericana hace doscientos años. Habrá un enfoque en la
investigación que documenta los contextos internacionales del conflicto entre
España y sus colonias rebeldes.
Mi interés original vino de mi tesis de doctorado en
University College London, sobre los aventureros extranjeros quienes servían
bajo el mando de Simón Bolívar en Venezuela, Nueva Granada (Colombia) y
Ecuador, entre los años 1810 y 1824. Salió un libro en inglés sobre el tema en
2006, y luego en castellano en 2010: Aventureros, mercenarios y legionarios en la independencia de la Gran Colombia. En los últimos
años se ha publicado mucho sobre la independencia, relacionado por supuesto con
las conmemoraciones de los bicentenarios. El blog quiere introducir estos
trabajos, y la vez que ofrece un espacio a los descendientes de los aventureros
extranjeros para compartir sus investigaciones genealógicas, y establecer
nuevos y inesperados enlaces.
[La foto es de la estatus del Colonel Jaime Rooke in
Paipa, Boyacá, Colombia, por el fotógrafo Luis Buitrago in 2011.]
Thursday, 1 September 2011
BBC Radio 4 Podcast
A great introduction to Simón Bolívar is the October 2008 edition of the BBC Radio 4 show In Our Time, in which host Melvyn Bragg discusses Bolívar with historians John Lynch, Anthony McFarlane and Catherine Davies.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Foreign Office Podcast
The British Foreign Office currently have a podcast Podcast entitled 'Britain, Bolívar & the independence of Latin America', in which Richard Smith discusses Simon Bolivar’s links with Britain and the role played by many hundreds of British volunteers who fought alongside him. It is interesting to see the way that the present British Foreign and Commonwealth Office - the heirs to the governments who turned a blind-eye to the departure of thousands of adventurers from British ports, despite public proclamations of official neutrality in the conflict - remember the events of two hundred years ago.
Bolivar's Triumphal March
The British Library currently has a page devoted to 'Bolivar's Triumphal March', a composition for Piano
made by Thomas Simspon Cooke in 1819. In addition to images of the sheet music there is also an audio file of the music being performed by Jonathan Summers.
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/spanishamericanind/triumphalmarch.html.
It can provide an aural sense of how London dining rooms dreamed of the Americas at the beginning of the 1820s. Another example of how Londoners imagined the lands where British and Irish adventurers were headed to help Bolívar is the anonymous novel Solders of Venezuela (London: T. Egerton, 1818), a copy of which is held in the British Library, and which is coming out in Spanish translation for the first time later this year (watch this space for details).
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