Open AccessThe Disease and the Hero: Representations of Belgrano’s and Bolívar’s Hidden and Public Syphilis
Author(s) -
Juan Carlos González Espitia
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista letral
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.11
H-Index - 2
ISSN - 1989-3302
DOI - 10.30827/rl.v0i25.16708
Subject(s) - hero , syphilis , narrative , independence (probability theory) , politics , mythology , cohesion (chemistry) , disease , sociology , latin americans , relation (database) , gender studies , literature , political science , law , medicine , art , pathology , family medicine , statistics , chemistry , mathematics , organic chemistry , database , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , computer science
This essay explores discourses of disease, specifically syphilis, linked to two defining figures of Latin American independence: Manuel Belgrano and Simón Bolívar. It examines the construction of discursive myths and their relation to political and societal shifts; the manner in which different representations of the disease serve as tools of mythification in the pursuit of cohesion-seeking narratives for their countries; and how mythification is continuously reshaped and at a constant risk of failure, particularly when the understanding of these diseases is adjusted as a result of scientific changes. It concludes by showing how the tension between extolment and debasement in terms of this venereal disease ultimately results in a further rooted mythical understanding of the two independence heroes.