Of History, Verses and Laws: The Political Use of the Past in the Literary Work of José Fernández Madrid (1789-1830)

Abstract

This paper is based on the premise that nations are, above all, imagined communities that must be symbolically constructed, where history plays a fundamental ideological role. Consequently, it examines the literary work of José Fernández Madrid (1789–1830), analyzing how the president-poet shapes the continental past in his verses and tracing its political implications. To achieve this, textual findings are compared with the period’s legislation and socio-political context. The study reveals that the author carries out a dual process of reactivating Indigenous peoples memory, and neutralizing their present political agency, while simultaneously promoting “new Americans” as avengers of past grievances. Ultimately, this aligns with the policies of the era, which kept Indigenous populations removed from state administration while fostering a concept of nationality rooted in the land, regardless of ancestral heritage.