Bolivar
South America's Greatest Hero
THE CHARACTERS
Conquistador/Father/Spanish Count
A powerful presence – attractive, animated, exuding energy,
intimidating. Pragmatic: a sinner, a winner.
Joaquin de Mier y Benitez
"Some irony a Spanish Count would take him in..."
Simon Bolivar / Son
Questing, lively, insecure, flamboyant, intelligent, suspicious, rebellious, enigmatic.
Manuela Saenz / Doctor Saenz
Independent, intelligent, sarcastic, feminine, feminist, sardonic, ‘liberated’ when it was taboo; original, steadfast, loyal.
Manuela Saenz was born in Quito, Ecuador and at 20 years of age was married off by her father to a wealthy English merchant twice her age. After two years of living with her husband in Lima Peru, she returned to Quito.
In our story, she twice deals the Tarot "Fool" card - Le Mat: a foolish wanderer pursuing chimera, stumbling on with no sense of what's real, doomed to disaster - and wonders if she is destined to meet such a person: a man who's a failure. Or is that person herself?
Maria Teresa
Naïve and indulged, wanting to escape the patriarchy of Madrid life but not equipped for the adventure and passion of her romantic fantasies.
Rodriguez
Controversial educationalist, once exiled from Spanish South American colonies because of his liberal, inclusive outlook. Companion and tutor to Simon Bolivar although only 12 years older. Eccentric: a wanderer, observer and to some extent a prophet.
Older Woman
Comforting, guiding, cajoling, companionable. Eternal.
Llaneros
Hardy, heroic, mythic horseman of what are now parts of Venezuela and Colombia. Supporting first the Royalists then switching to support Bolivar, they were agents of destruction as well as liberation.
The Haitians
Rap evolved from the African tradition of story-telling to music, such as with the Griot of Senegal, who (as story tellers, musicians, poets and historians) have profound local and historical knowledge, with which they can extemporize and provide information with humour, wit and satire.
The unstable Republic of Haiti evolved from successful revolts by slaves. On more than one occasion, Bolivar, in flight from assassination was given refuge there by President Pétion. In 1815, having tried to get help from the British, Bolivar went again to Haiti and eventually received assistance, happy to affirm that he would abolish slavery in South America when he was successful in routing the Spanish.
Guayaquil Servants
We have been conditioned to believe that modernization, revolutionary changes and the passing of time can lead to improved living standards, but cultural conflicts can subvert and be inimical to elite ideas of progress imposed at the expense of the majority. This has happened in South America, and is exemplified in Bolivar’s mysterious meeting with San Martin at Guayaquil, July 1822.
One topic of the meeting was whether the region of Ecuador would become part of Peru or Colombia – or if all would be united together, as Bolivar would attempt. Within 24 hours San Martin left South American for Europe, never to return, in exchange for a substantial pension. The elite had once again mapped out the Fate of inhabitants who would continue to die in their thousands, driven by conflicting elitist objectives.
The Children
It is often forgotten that slavery makes the formation of a cohesive family unit almost impossible: Fathers are particularly absent for long periods – if not forever – with exhaustion, illness and lack of dental and medical care taking toll of any who can return. Bolivar was orphaned at an early age, and with no memory of his father and little acquaintance with his mother he was nurtured by a black servant woman thereby perhaps developing affection with insight at an early age. He said he was inspired to a life of revolution by a dream in which an impoverished child came to him, begging for assistance to a better life.
Another Woman
The friend we all need.
Troops, Staff, Slaves, Crowds, Goons and Henchmen
To survive they do what they think they have to – and what they are paid for doing.
Francisco Santander
Francisco SANTANDER proved himself during Bolivar’s military campaign across the Andes in 1817 and by 1819 was a commander during the Vargas Swamp Battle and the definitive Battle of Boyacá. In 1821 Santander was Vice President of Gran Colombia then Acting President in Bolivar’s protracted absence. During his first administration Santander ordered captive Spanish officers to be executed - hearing of which Bolívar sent him a letter expressing regret and disapproval.
Their initial close friendship deteriorated, not only as political and ideological differences became obvious, but how to handle economic and political situations, Bolivar being more conciliatory until Santander’s opposition threatened stability and the kind of reforms Bolivar imagined. As any vestige of harmony in the ruling class of Creoles (‘Crillos’) collapsed, Bolívar declared himself dictator.
In September 1828 an attempt was made to assassinate Bolívar, Santander being among those implicated. He was tried and sentenced to death, but Bolivar pardoned him.
Francisco de Miranda
a Venezuelan hero to Bolivar. Miranda’s father had to produce a notarized genealogy proving to sceptics that his family had no African ancestors and a "pure" family bloodline - important for maintaining a place in society. In Caracas such ‘purity’ permitted family members to attend University, marry in the church and gain positions in government.
Jose de San Martin
On 22 September 1822, José de San Martin stated that by waging wars and fostering the states of Chile and Peru he had fulfilled his promises to accomplish the independence of populations enslaved centuries before by the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire. He perhaps even believed his assertion that, due to his campaigns, the inhabitants would now be equally empowered to choose their own rulers.
Antonio Jose de Sucre
joined the colonial independence battles against Spain in 1814. By 1825 Sucre had entered upper Peru, and the state of Bolivia was soon created (although not so named by any request form Bolivar himself). Bolivar considered Sucre as his only possible heir.
Sucre’s 1828 political demise was ensured by his close friendship with Bolivar. He was assassinated in June 1830, Santander being implicated in Sucre’s murder. Terminally ill, Bolivar wrote for the Gaceta de Colombia, 4 July 1830 that Sucre was “cowardly murdered in a dark mountain”. Witnesses and paid killers had been poisoned and twelve years elapsed before just one person was tried for the crime.