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How did Jorge Gaitán speak directly to the people and ridicule the ruling politicians of Colombia? consult the PDF reading   titled  “Populism and the Working Class,” pp. 227-249

How did Jorge Gaitán speak directly to the people and ridicule the ruling politicians of Colombia? consult the PDF reading   titled  “Populism and the Working Class,” pp. 227-249

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  1. How did Jorge Gaitán speak directly to the people and ridicule the ruling politicians of Colombia?

consult the PDF reading   titled  “Populism and the Working Class,” pp. 227-249 

✔ Chrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help OOO ← → C blackboard Content = 3425232 STAT 112 stat 112 8 STAT 112 Sp23, section 001,00 X + learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5dd6acf5e22a7/3425232?X-Blackboard-S3-Bucket-learn-us-east-1-prod-flectory. 10 XBb 3425232 11 dhttps://docs.googl... 691 244 hartlahu.com Problems in Modern Latin American History effective employment having been created to absorb them. This caused a dan- gerous situation for those who held power. In an urbanizing country with an agrarian economy in decline and a capitalist sector unable to respond rapidly to massive employment requirements, it was imperative that development be made a national undertaking-that is, one in the interests of all the people- and that the state be charged with leading the nation to prosperity. The alliance that was to carry out the new policy incorporated at the out- set the most backward groups of landholders, the farmers who produced for the domestic market, the urban middle class, the already existing industrial sectors, and the urban masses. Not included were the agro-exporting groups (coffee growers) that had controlled the system before the 1930 revolution, or the rural masses. Although the former were to join this "developmentalist alliance" later, the peasants were to be permanently excluded. Domestic development in Brazil was supported politically by groups with conflicting interests. To create modern economic sectors capable of employing the masses, it was necessary to make a political alliance with the most backward sectors of the Brazilian production structure, the non- exporting landowners. On the other hand, the viability of such a policy of domestic development came to depend precisely on a division between the urban workers that benefited from development and the rural workers that were marginal to it. The system of accumulation and economic expansion- given their limited rate of growth-could not withstand the wage pressures that would result from incorporating broad rural sectors into the labor mar- ket. Moreover, the political strength of the landholding sectors depended on preventing rural workers from receiving the benefits of economic, political, and social participation. Since the "developmentalist alliance" encompassed the hacienda owners, the alliance would be shattered by incorporating the peasants. APR 10/12 | It was the excluded sectors that would pay the costs of industrialization. In the early stages, industrialization depended on the power of the state to tax the exporting sector and to exclude the rural and urban masses. Eventually, the export sector became diversified, and certain groups within it began to participate in development by reorienting their capital toward production for the domestic market. Nonetheless, because the rural workers continued to be isolated from the benefits of development, they constituted one of the struc- tural limits to the political possibilities of development. Attempts to expand the "developmentalist alliance" with such groups were counterproductive, and populism could not be used as a base for legitimizing power. 8 The populism of Vargas was a rather vague movement of people's incor- poration into the nation, but without entailing, as in the case of Perón, stronger trade unions and increased pressure for higher wages. It was less an economic definition of workers' rights, which would imply political partici- 21 90% + » ♫ A W 47% 47% Sat Apr 8 12:34:13 PM Update Apple ID Settings Some account services will not be available until you sign in again. Populism and the Working Class pation, than a political movement in favor of the "humble." Since the emerg- ing worker class was diluted in the urban masses, the need to accumulate capital did not seem to be much opposed to the pressures for redistribution during the phase of import-substitution industrialization. Populist leadership could also be entrepreneurial; hence the state appeared not only as employer but also, from the viewpoint of the masses, even as a good employer. At the economic level, popular protest could be taken care of because it was rela- tively weak; at the political level, it coincided with the interests of groups that, having reached power without a solid economic base of their own, were in favor of development under state direction. 245 6. Words as Weapons ◆ Herbert Braun Colombia was another country where populism flourished in the 1940s. There, the new breed of politician was named Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, a lawyer who carried forward the populist challenge to the traditional oligarchy in Bogotá. Due to a unique power-sharing arrangement between the Liberals and the Conservatives, the country maintained a fragile stability from the early twentieth century until the late 1930s, when Gaitán burst onto the scene. He served as mayor of Bogotá, minister of labor and education, and almost won the presidency in 1946. His assassination in Bogotá two years later brought about the riot known as the Bogotazo and initiated the long period of violent confrontation, la Violencia, between armed Colombian fac- tions. In this selection, historian Herbert Braun examines Gaitán's unsur- passed ability to connect with the working people of his city during his 1946 run for the presidency. P became an orator who never doubted Jabilities and knew that his power resided in his words. Gaitán was not responsible for the prominent place of oratory in Colombian politics. He adopted a traditional practice to create a symbiotic relationship between him- self and the crowd. Gaitán understood that linguistic shock had a subversive quality in Colombia's highly verbal and formalistic culture. He was aware that the baroque and aristocratic texture of the convivialistas' orations intimidated From Herbert Braun, The Assassination of Gaitán: Public Life and Urban Violence in Colombia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 99-103. Ⓒ 1985 by the University of Wisconsin Press. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. OG P Q View
Transcribed Image Text:✔ Chrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help OOO ← → C blackboard Content = 3425232 STAT 112 stat 112 8 STAT 112 Sp23, section 001,00 X + learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5dd6acf5e22a7/3425232?X-Blackboard-S3-Bucket-learn-us-east-1-prod-flectory. 10 XBb 3425232 11 dhttps://docs.googl... 691 244 hartlahu.com Problems in Modern Latin American History effective employment having been created to absorb them. This caused a dan- gerous situation for those who held power. In an urbanizing country with an agrarian economy in decline and a capitalist sector unable to respond rapidly to massive employment requirements, it was imperative that development be made a national undertaking-that is, one in the interests of all the people- and that the state be charged with leading the nation to prosperity. The alliance that was to carry out the new policy incorporated at the out- set the most backward groups of landholders, the farmers who produced for the domestic market, the urban middle class, the already existing industrial sectors, and the urban masses. Not included were the agro-exporting groups (coffee growers) that had controlled the system before the 1930 revolution, or the rural masses. Although the former were to join this "developmentalist alliance" later, the peasants were to be permanently excluded. Domestic development in Brazil was supported politically by groups with conflicting interests. To create modern economic sectors capable of employing the masses, it was necessary to make a political alliance with the most backward sectors of the Brazilian production structure, the non- exporting landowners. On the other hand, the viability of such a policy of domestic development came to depend precisely on a division between the urban workers that benefited from development and the rural workers that were marginal to it. The system of accumulation and economic expansion- given their limited rate of growth-could not withstand the wage pressures that would result from incorporating broad rural sectors into the labor mar- ket. Moreover, the political strength of the landholding sectors depended on preventing rural workers from receiving the benefits of economic, political, and social participation. Since the "developmentalist alliance" encompassed the hacienda owners, the alliance would be shattered by incorporating the peasants. APR 10/12 | It was the excluded sectors that would pay the costs of industrialization. In the early stages, industrialization depended on the power of the state to tax the exporting sector and to exclude the rural and urban masses. Eventually, the export sector became diversified, and certain groups within it began to participate in development by reorienting their capital toward production for the domestic market. Nonetheless, because the rural workers continued to be isolated from the benefits of development, they constituted one of the struc- tural limits to the political possibilities of development. Attempts to expand the "developmentalist alliance" with such groups were counterproductive, and populism could not be used as a base for legitimizing power. 8 The populism of Vargas was a rather vague movement of people's incor- poration into the nation, but without entailing, as in the case of Perón, stronger trade unions and increased pressure for higher wages. It was less an economic definition of workers' rights, which would imply political partici- 21 90% + » ♫ A W 47% 47% Sat Apr 8 12:34:13 PM Update Apple ID Settings Some account services will not be available until you sign in again. Populism and the Working Class pation, than a political movement in favor of the "humble." Since the emerg- ing worker class was diluted in the urban masses, the need to accumulate capital did not seem to be much opposed to the pressures for redistribution during the phase of import-substitution industrialization. Populist leadership could also be entrepreneurial; hence the state appeared not only as employer but also, from the viewpoint of the masses, even as a good employer. At the economic level, popular protest could be taken care of because it was rela- tively weak; at the political level, it coincided with the interests of groups that, having reached power without a solid economic base of their own, were in favor of development under state direction. 245 6. Words as Weapons ◆ Herbert Braun Colombia was another country where populism flourished in the 1940s. There, the new breed of politician was named Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, a lawyer who carried forward the populist challenge to the traditional oligarchy in Bogotá. Due to a unique power-sharing arrangement between the Liberals and the Conservatives, the country maintained a fragile stability from the early twentieth century until the late 1930s, when Gaitán burst onto the scene. He served as mayor of Bogotá, minister of labor and education, and almost won the presidency in 1946. His assassination in Bogotá two years later brought about the riot known as the Bogotazo and initiated the long period of violent confrontation, la Violencia, between armed Colombian fac- tions. In this selection, historian Herbert Braun examines Gaitán's unsur- passed ability to connect with the working people of his city during his 1946 run for the presidency. P became an orator who never doubted Jabilities and knew that his power resided in his words. Gaitán was not responsible for the prominent place of oratory in Colombian politics. He adopted a traditional practice to create a symbiotic relationship between him- self and the crowd. Gaitán understood that linguistic shock had a subversive quality in Colombia's highly verbal and formalistic culture. He was aware that the baroque and aristocratic texture of the convivialistas' orations intimidated From Herbert Braun, The Assassination of Gaitán: Public Life and Urban Violence in Colombia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 99-103. Ⓒ 1985 by the University of Wisconsin Press. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. OG P Q View
✔ Chrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help OOO ← → C blackboard Content = 3425232 STAT 112 stat 112 8 10 XBb 3425232 11 dhttps://docs.googl... learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5dd6acf5e22a7/3425232?X-Blackboard-S3-Bucket-learn-us-east-1-prod-flectory. 691 hartlahu.com Logout X + 11/12 246 Problems in Modern Latin American History barely literate audiences, and he could sense the liberating effect of direct and popular forms of expression on those audiences. Yet his vulgarity was carefully measured. Gaitán was known as the "orator of the mamola." The term, a rather mild expletive with a meaning similar to the verb "to chuck" in English, was personally insulting and physically aggressive. It was also a play on words and conjured up images of human and animal sucking. Gaitán used it, to the obvious delight of the crowd, every time the convivialistas inti- mated that he ought to lay his presidential aspirations to rest. The convivial- istas were outraged and claimed that they would not permit their children to listen to him. APR Tonality and intonation were important ingredients of Gaitán's oratory. Prolonging the vowels and crisply sounding the consonants of key expres- sions, he made the words fly out of the side of his mouth. "Pueeeblooo," he intoned at the end of his speeches, "aaa laa caargaa!" ("Common people, charge!"). Gaitán's heavy and growling delivery was in a marked contrast to the melodic, calm, and lyrical rhetoric of the convivialistas. He appealed to the emotional, subjective sensibilities of his audience. Although he was capable of delivering reasoned and logical arguments on technical subjects before select groups, more often he spoke to fantasies that sparked the imag- ination of the crowd. To search for a clear line of argumentation in Gaitán's more political speeches is to misunderstand them. The orations were designed for dramatic effect, not intellectual consistency. He often returned to the same point, taking his listeners back and forth from one theme to another, reaching rapid conclusions, and supporting them much later or not at all. 8 90% + » Gaitán's speeches were filled with social and political content. His emotionalism and spontaneity and the simplicity of his words did not mean that he had thrust aside his ideology in order to transfix the crowd. Quite the contrary. His easily understandable phrases were a remarkably complete expression of his world view and a condensation of the ideas he had consis- tently held since writing Las ideas socialistas twenty years earlier. They also tellingly reflected his middle place in society. Few of Gaitán's slogans were his own, as his opponents quickly pointed out, but when they came from his mouth they held new meanings. 21 Gaitán's words require close attention. He played astutely on the contrast- ing worlds of the convivialistas and the pueblo. He was best known for pop- ularizing the distinction between the país político and the país nacional and "The convivialistas, elite politicians of both parties, were perceived to be united in exploitation of the common people. *Roughly, the politicians' country versus the real country. A W 47% 47% Sat Apr 8 12 35 16 PM Update Apple ID Settings Some account services will not be available until you sign in again. Populism and the Working Class 247 using it to demonstrate the distance that separated leaders from followers: the convivialistas inhabited the former, the pueblo the latter. But Gaitán reversed the places these two "countries" had for the convivialistas. Gaitán's populist ideology pitted a small, unproductive, and meritless elite against a large majority defined by its need and ability to work. Gaitán returned to his favorite organic image. He likened the país político to a putrefied organism whose head, voice, and tentacles were strangling the productive impulses of the pueblo. Politics, Gaitán said, was simply "mechanics, a game, a winning of elections, knowing who will be the minister, and not what the minister is going to do. It is plutocracy, contracts, bureaucracy, paperwork, the slow, tranquil usufruct of public office, while the public pueblo is conceived of as grazing land and not a place of work that contributes to the grandeur of the nation." Gaitán referred to the leaders of the país político as oligarchs, a term they used to accuse one another of the use of public office for private gain. Gaitán thereby added an economic dimension to his political critique of the convivialistas. As a result of the public corruption and nepotism that char- acterized the current López regime, the term gained a particular bite during the war years. Coming from Gaitán, the accusation had an added sting. For Gaitán was an outsider, and he was using public office, if not for financial gain, for something much worse: to move from the bottom to the top of soci- ety. The crowds understood, on the other hand, that the leader used the term to refer to the system of decision making represented by the closed conver- sations of the convivialistas as well as the boardroom meetings of corpora- tions, or, as Gaitán referred to them, "monopolies." Gaitán's slogan "El pueblo es superior a sus dirigentes" ("The pueblo is superior to its leaders") took the reversal to its logical conclusions. It was the most far-reaching of all his slogans, for it pointed to an overturning of the social order. The slogan is consistent with Gaitán's habit of speaking highly of the pueblo. In an impromptu speech in Caracas, he went so far as to say that "we have learned to laugh at those decadent generations that see the mul- titudes of our tropics as beings of an inferior race." He also claimed that Gaitanismo was a "great movement of the Colombian race," and that the crowds on the streets "were exactly the opposite of anarchy," a "normal part of a true democracy." In his oratory the feared chusma (mob) became the "chusma heroica," and the despised gleba (tillers of the soil) became the "gleba gloriosa." But Gaitán was not a demagogue who promised his fol- lowers the impossible. He was harsh and demanding of them, urging them to be honest, moral, and hardworking. He never promised them a reversal of the social order that would place them suddenly at the top, living a life of luxury at the expense of toiling politicians. He was too committed to social order, and too conscious of the dangers of such promises. OG A P Seit Q View
Transcribed Image Text:✔ Chrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help OOO ← → C blackboard Content = 3425232 STAT 112 stat 112 8 10 XBb 3425232 11 dhttps://docs.googl... learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5dd6acf5e22a7/3425232?X-Blackboard-S3-Bucket-learn-us-east-1-prod-flectory. 691 hartlahu.com Logout X + 11/12 246 Problems in Modern Latin American History barely literate audiences, and he could sense the liberating effect of direct and popular forms of expression on those audiences. Yet his vulgarity was carefully measured. Gaitán was known as the "orator of the mamola." The term, a rather mild expletive with a meaning similar to the verb "to chuck" in English, was personally insulting and physically aggressive. It was also a play on words and conjured up images of human and animal sucking. Gaitán used it, to the obvious delight of the crowd, every time the convivialistas inti- mated that he ought to lay his presidential aspirations to rest. The convivial- istas were outraged and claimed that they would not permit their children to listen to him. APR Tonality and intonation were important ingredients of Gaitán's oratory. Prolonging the vowels and crisply sounding the consonants of key expres- sions, he made the words fly out of the side of his mouth. "Pueeeblooo," he intoned at the end of his speeches, "aaa laa caargaa!" ("Common people, charge!"). Gaitán's heavy and growling delivery was in a marked contrast to the melodic, calm, and lyrical rhetoric of the convivialistas. He appealed to the emotional, subjective sensibilities of his audience. Although he was capable of delivering reasoned and logical arguments on technical subjects before select groups, more often he spoke to fantasies that sparked the imag- ination of the crowd. To search for a clear line of argumentation in Gaitán's more political speeches is to misunderstand them. The orations were designed for dramatic effect, not intellectual consistency. He often returned to the same point, taking his listeners back and forth from one theme to another, reaching rapid conclusions, and supporting them much later or not at all. 8 90% + » Gaitán's speeches were filled with social and political content. His emotionalism and spontaneity and the simplicity of his words did not mean that he had thrust aside his ideology in order to transfix the crowd. Quite the contrary. His easily understandable phrases were a remarkably complete expression of his world view and a condensation of the ideas he had consis- tently held since writing Las ideas socialistas twenty years earlier. They also tellingly reflected his middle place in society. Few of Gaitán's slogans were his own, as his opponents quickly pointed out, but when they came from his mouth they held new meanings. 21 Gaitán's words require close attention. He played astutely on the contrast- ing worlds of the convivialistas and the pueblo. He was best known for pop- ularizing the distinction between the país político and the país nacional and "The convivialistas, elite politicians of both parties, were perceived to be united in exploitation of the common people. *Roughly, the politicians' country versus the real country. A W 47% 47% Sat Apr 8 12 35 16 PM Update Apple ID Settings Some account services will not be available until you sign in again. Populism and the Working Class 247 using it to demonstrate the distance that separated leaders from followers: the convivialistas inhabited the former, the pueblo the latter. But Gaitán reversed the places these two "countries" had for the convivialistas. Gaitán's populist ideology pitted a small, unproductive, and meritless elite against a large majority defined by its need and ability to work. Gaitán returned to his favorite organic image. He likened the país político to a putrefied organism whose head, voice, and tentacles were strangling the productive impulses of the pueblo. Politics, Gaitán said, was simply "mechanics, a game, a winning of elections, knowing who will be the minister, and not what the minister is going to do. It is plutocracy, contracts, bureaucracy, paperwork, the slow, tranquil usufruct of public office, while the public pueblo is conceived of as grazing land and not a place of work that contributes to the grandeur of the nation." Gaitán referred to the leaders of the país político as oligarchs, a term they used to accuse one another of the use of public office for private gain. Gaitán thereby added an economic dimension to his political critique of the convivialistas. As a result of the public corruption and nepotism that char- acterized the current López regime, the term gained a particular bite during the war years. Coming from Gaitán, the accusation had an added sting. For Gaitán was an outsider, and he was using public office, if not for financial gain, for something much worse: to move from the bottom to the top of soci- ety. The crowds understood, on the other hand, that the leader used the term to refer to the system of decision making represented by the closed conver- sations of the convivialistas as well as the boardroom meetings of corpora- tions, or, as Gaitán referred to them, "monopolies." Gaitán's slogan "El pueblo es superior a sus dirigentes" ("The pueblo is superior to its leaders") took the reversal to its logical conclusions. It was the most far-reaching of all his slogans, for it pointed to an overturning of the social order. The slogan is consistent with Gaitán's habit of speaking highly of the pueblo. In an impromptu speech in Caracas, he went so far as to say that "we have learned to laugh at those decadent generations that see the mul- titudes of our tropics as beings of an inferior race." He also claimed that Gaitanismo was a "great movement of the Colombian race," and that the crowds on the streets "were exactly the opposite of anarchy," a "normal part of a true democracy." In his oratory the feared chusma (mob) became the "chusma heroica," and the despised gleba (tillers of the soil) became the "gleba gloriosa." But Gaitán was not a demagogue who promised his fol- lowers the impossible. He was harsh and demanding of them, urging them to be honest, moral, and hardworking. He never promised them a reversal of the social order that would place them suddenly at the top, living a life of luxury at the expense of toiling politicians. He was too committed to social order, and too conscious of the dangers of such promises. OG A P Seit Q View
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