The Disease and the Hero: Representations of Belgrano’s and Bolívar’s Hidden and Public Syphilis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/rl.v0i25.16708Keywords:
independence heroes, syphilis, myth, disease, Simón Bolívar, Manuel BelgranoAbstract
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.
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