When the Boat Comes In: Myth, Reification, and the Changing Face of Simón Bolívar in Venezuelan Politics and Culture

Roberts, Nicholas

Abstract

Eugenio Montejo’s poem “Nostalgia de Bolívar” (1976) depicts Simón Bolívar as the (symbolic) essence of the Venezuelan land and people. But both are also emptied of this essence, as, within the poem, Bolívar departs to sea on a boat. “Bolívar” becomes a “floating signifier,” open to all and not bound to any one meaning. Its status as that which holds together all Venezuelans depends on this. In present-day Venezuela, however, the name “Bolívar” is irrevocably tied to those of “Chávez” and his Revolución Bolívariana. As a result, politically and socially, Bolívar has been closed off from effective use by others, amid an increasing call to “de-Bolívarize” the country and its political discourse, whilst, culturally, the revered figure of Montejo’s poem has been replaced by one satirized in stand-up routines. Will Bolívar set sail once more? Or will his current incarnation prove the undoing of the multivalent mythic Bolívar in Venezuela?

Citation

Roberts, N. (2016). When the Boat Comes In: Myth, Reification, and the Changing Face of Simón Bolívar in Venezuelan Politics and Culture. In M. G. Shanahan, & A. M. Reyes (Eds.), Simón Bolívar : travels and transformations of a cultural icon (215-229). University Press of Florida. https://doi.org/10.5744/florida/9780813062624.003.0013

• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 12, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 14, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2017
• Pages: 215-229
• Book Title: Simón Bolívar : travels and transformations of a cultural icon.
• Chapter Number: 12
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5744/florida/9780813062624.003.0013
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1639895
• Contract Date: Apr 30, 2014