The radial program co -produced by the Simón Bolívar Studies Center (CESB) y South radioconducted by historians Alejandro López and Rosanna Álvarezin its last edition with the participation of the Colombian historian Rocío Castellanos to unravel the role of brown in the social and political construction of the country.
Castellanos is a doctor in History from the Autonomous Metropolitan University, a researcher at the Jaume I University and author of key works such as “Pardos, infiditor and insurgent in Venezuela 1790-1812”, in which it analyzes how this ethnic, majority and marginalized group, challenged colonial and Creole power structures.
The guest explained that the brown (mestizos of African, indigenous and European descent) constituted more than 50% of the Venezuelan population in the 18th century. “They were the productive and cultural base: farmers, militiamen, smugglers, artists and even healers,” he said. Although their presence was omnipresent, the colonial system excluded them from basic rights such as education and political participation, reinforcing a social hierarchy that privileged white Creoles.
In his book “The struggle for equality: the brown in the independence of Venezuela 1808-1812”, revealed how they took advantage of legal fissures, entering real militias to gain social status. “They used uniforms, wearing weapons and negotiated with Creoles, settling bases for later alliance with the patriotic cause,” he said.
Before Rosanna Álvarez’s question about the absence of brown in the traditional stories, Castellanos said that “they were associated with the uncontrollable. His power, even economic, as cocoa merchants, threatened the elites. ”Only recently, colonial archives have allowed to rebuild their networks of influence and their fight for rights.” The brown were not spectators, but architects of Venezuela that emerged after independence, “concluded the historian.
The broadcast closed inviting the public to the Bolívar XXI Chairthat this will be done Friday April 25 At the headquarters of the Simón Bolívar Studies Center (CESB), where Castellanos will present the Conference «Identities in dispute. The popular sectors in the speeches of the Independence Celebrations of Venezuela 1819-1831 ”.
T: CESB Press.
