El sueño polʹitico de los primeros modernistas en Centroamʹerica a travʹes de la imagen de sus ciudades: Rubʹen Darʹio, Juan Ramʹon Molina, Francisco Gavidia, y Enrique Gʹomez Carrillo

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the image of the city in texts by the first modernist Central American writers: Rubén Darío, Juan Ramón Molina, Francisco Gavidia and Enrique Gómez Carrillo, as a critical exploration of the attitude that they assume towards this space of power, with the objective of revealing their ideological position with regard to the new national states that formed in Central America during the period of 1870–1900.

The insertion of the Central American countries into the world capitalist system as producers of raw materials, in particular, as coffee exporters, implied a new political rhetoric by liberal politicians and government officials, who used terms such as “progress” and “modernization” in their political programs. However, in their daily practices, these same officials enforced repression, censorship and violence to build the new national states. As a result, there was an empowerment of the military in each country together with the exclusion of minority groups from political participation.

The texts analyzed in this study show how intellectuals were displaced by the military in the capital cities of Honduras and Guatemala and how modernist writers such as Rubén Darío and Francisco Gavidia imagined an ideal city, which was the opposite of the city governed by the dictatorial governments of the period. In this sense, the modernist writers, through the image of the city, claim more political participation for the artist, and propose new alternatives to create cultural identities. Thus, this dissertation examines the way in which the modernists' discourse formulates their ideology inside the national state. The voices of the Central American writers are appeals for attention and resistance in the face of repressive dictatorial power. In addition, they present their own perspective regarding these nations through the image of cosmopolitan and pluralistic cities, ideal democratic spaces where liberty triumphs over oppression and where Central America appears as a single entity, united under the banner of brotherhood and intellectual progress.