Francisco García Calderón Rey
Encyclopedia
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
He was born into a wealthy and politically prominent family in Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
on April 8, 1883. His father, for whom Calderón was named, was the President of Peru for a short time during the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an occupation of Peru. Calderón occasionally has “Rey” added to his name, to distinguish him from his father.
After finishing a degree in law at the University of San Marcos, he pursued a career in public service and worked in the Ministry of Housing. He also served as president of Arequipa
Arequipa
Arequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...
's constitutional congress and was a key figure in the final peace process between Peru and Chile. He was an author and diplomat who also became the Peruvian Minister to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. He was also known for being part of what was called the “Generation of the 900,” who were identified by having old Peruvian nobility in their blood and taking part in the Chilean-Peruvian conflict.
After his father's death, Calderón and his family migrated to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. All of his works have been published by European companies. He also played a role in the Paris Peace conference of 1919
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
, a meeting of the Allied Powers of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, who determined the fate of the Central Powers.
With Latin America progressing into the 20th Century, many politicians expressed concerns with their countries' relationship with the United States. Calderón, having grown up with politics and politicians and having served as a diplomat as an adult, was concerned about the well-being of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
under the Monroe Doctrine
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention...
and the Roosevelt Corollary
Roosevelt Corollary
-Background:In late 1902, Britain, Germany, and Italy implemented a naval blockade of several months against Venezuela because of President Cipriano Castro's refusal to pay foreign debts and damages suffered by European citizens in a recent Venezuelan civil war. The incident was called the...
. Both were American foreign policies restricting Latin America from reaching out to the European powers at that time and developing their own independent relationships with countries other than the United States. This made the United States the sole supporter of the western hemisphere and the only country that could intervene in any “wrongdoing” to Latin America.
Francisco wrote a 400-page article concerning itself with Latin America and its U.S. foreign policies. It described what is called “Yankee imperialism.”
He died in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, on July 1, 1953.
Latin American: Its Rise and Progress
This was Francisco García Calderón’s most read book, published in 1912. Roscoe Hill of Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
explains how Calderón presents an “admirable interpretation of the life, the thought, the history and the problems of what he is pleased to call Latin-American Democracies.” The book itself is broken down into volumes, each detailing the different aspects of the lives and histories of Latin Americans from conquest to present times.
Book one, according to Hill, describes the pre-colonial era to the introduction to the mixing of peoples through different types of methods. The coming of the Europeans offered the blood of white men to the indigenous. Africans, who were brought over to replace the Indians as slaves, would also contribute to the mixing of the blood and people of the various “states,” or colonies, of Latin America. With the birth of mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
s, new identities were created. Mulattos are presently able to trace their bloodlines to both “Anglo-Saxons,” a term Calderón coined to refer to the people who were of English descent, and Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
who inhabited the area. Creole
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
s, whose ancestry is considered of foreign birth but whose offspring were born on Latin American soil, also contributed to the new Latin American nationality.
Book one also travels into the problems of the Latin American colonies and how they freed themselves through revolutions. Calderón salutes and recognizes the influences of the French revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
s and the uprisings of the English colonies in North America against its former owner, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. He also presents a theory about the Latin American revolution leaders and other figureheads. Leaders like Simon Bolivar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, he explains, follow the pattern of being “regenerators, restorers, and protectors.” Calderón believed that the leader regenerated the people in believing in becoming independent while restoring order and peace, then finally continuing to protect what he and his followers had fought for. He also theorized that the independent country followed a similar pattern which is as follows: “a revolution, a dictator, a program.” Though many Latin American countries did follow this specific pattern, not all did. It might have been his own personal point of view to call a leader of another country a dictator.
Books two to four were basically in support of his theory, showing some of the different leaders of the Latin American countries, their policies, and how they affected the country. It is not until book six that modern policies or influences are introduced. He talks about the nationality of Latin America in present time and the threats of the outside world upon them. He does not necessarily attack the Monroe Doctrine or its successors, but he intends to show how Northern American policies pertaining to Latin America affect them in the negative light.
He explains how, though there are connections to European countries who also pose a threat (namely Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
), North America, through the Monroe Doctrine, is trying to control the area for itself. By intervening with Latin American foreign policies, the States did not allow other countries to trade with Latin America, giving the Americans 30% control over the exports of Latin America. Calderón also described the situations with Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, which the Americans claimed to be dealing with but wound up annexing. He also uses the annexation of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, the buying of land along Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
to build the canal and the intervening of the country of Acre
Acre (state)
Acre is one of the 27 states of Brazil. It is situated in the southwest of the Northern Region, bordering Amazonas to the north, Rondônia to the east, Bolivia to the southeast and the Ucayali Region of Peru to the south and west. It occupies an area of 152,581.4 km2, being slightly smaller...
which was located in present day western Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
as some other ways of showing the negative aspects of the Monroe Doctrine and its successors.
On the other hand, Calderón brings up some honorable situations which the Americans have been involved with. The Americans supported and armed Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
ns to overthrow local tyrants. He also shows that America’s growing industry at the turn of the century helped Latin America technologically advance as well. With the help of the Americans, railroad tracks had been placed so that they could move exports throughout the continent without the use of ships. Since the canal was not yet built, shipping items from one side to the other side of the continent was time-consuming and the contents could spoil or become ruined in the lengthy transport. The high mountains of Peru and Chile were no longer an obstacle which the people would have to endure since they could now pass over them quickly.
Aside from the American foreign policies and other European influences, Calderón argues that Latin America also has its own problems which have nothing to do with the policies of other countries. Regarding the financial issues of the entire continent, he feels that the issues that many of the Latin American countries had were due to their debt problems. The necessary wars with Spain, Calderón explains, are partly to blame since Latin American countries did not have the funds to support their independent wars and had to rely on other countries to lend them money and armaments. Being unable to pay back these loans, the foreign countries, mostly Europeans who had their own reasons for helping these countries against the Spanish, tried to find other means of payment. These means ran along the lines of exported goods, land ownership, and government cooperation. The United States became the sole creditor of the Latin American countries, which led to the United States becoming hegemonic and controlling Latin American countries indirectly.
Conclusion
Calderón's writings conclude that Latin America’s dependency on other countries was inevitable. He continues this thought by explaining that without European (or American) money, none of the luxuries Latin America has today would have been possible. With the help of other countries, railroads spread, ports built, and governments stabilized. Latin America: Its Rise and Progress is not an attack or a defiance of the foreign policies of other countries in Latin America, but rather an explanation for those who possibly think this way. Though it can be argued that many of the policies were an attempt to re-colonize or control the independent states, using such key items as the Monroe Doctrine or the Polk Doctrine, Calderón does not present which side he necessarily stands on.Works
- De litteris (1904)
- Le Pérou contemporain (1907)
- Profesores de idealismos (1909)
- La creación de un continente (1912)
- Les démocraties latines de l'Amerique (1912)
- Latin America: Its Rise and Progress, with a preface by Raymond Poincaré; translated by Bernard Miall (London: T. Fisher Unwin, [1916])
- El dilemma de la Gran Guerra (1919)
- América Latina y el Perú del novecientos: antología de textos(1834–1905)