9 - Europe, Death and El camino de Paros (1916–18)

Summary

In July 1916, at last, Rodó managed to fulfil his long-standing design to travel to Europe, a dozen years after he first mooted to his confidant Francisco Piquet that he intended to publish Motivos de Proteo there and to supervise the edition in person (OC 35–36; 1347–51). His journey was supported by a contract to write three monthly columns for a Buenos Aires weekly. In a letter to Juan Antonio Zubillaga written shortly before departing, Rodó informs him of the arrangements: he will get a salary of 650 Argentinian nacionales, equivalent to 250 Uruguayan gold pesos; and in response to his friend's request to contribute to a new cultural review, he adds that he has agreed to a sole commitment to Caras y Caretas and its sister publication, the monthly supplement Plus Ultra. According to a note that accompanies his obituary in the magazine, which has a photograph of the typed clause of the contract with the signature of Rodó, the exclusivity is something that he chose to include himself. This appears to confirm the impression that Rodó had wanted to break most ties with his homeland during the trip and to devote himself intensely to the experience of travel as a way to “oxigenar el alma” (oxygenate the soul), as he put it to Unamuno in a hopeful letter of 1904 (1393).

We shall study the material in the following order: the contemporary political context in Uruguay; the meaning of the title chosen for the posthumous collection of columns, El camino de Paros; and the four main thematic strands that come through in the material, namely proteism, politics, Europe and Latin America, and the intimate dimension. In the final part, we shall also consider Rodó's finances during his trip, his deteriorating health and his death.

The World Left Behind

As well as the realization of an enduring intellectual aspiration, Rodó's European voyage also meant leaving behind his tense relationship with former president José Batlle y Ordóñez and his circle, as we saw in Chapter 7. This is made explicit in the aforementioned letter to Zubillaga: “Dentro de breves días estaré, pues, lejos de la patria y de Batlle” (Within a few days I will be far from my country and from Batlle) (1430).