4 - Going Global: Ariel (1900)

Summary

Rodó's most famous work is a slim volume whose subtle and elusive message has been debated in Latin America and beyond for over 100 years. The essay addresses the future leaders of the subcontinent, who are advised to live their lives according to high ideals. Their individual development, moreover, is presented as a model for their society at large, as these young men are given the task of safeguarding and developing Latin America's cultural identity at a time when it is being threatened by materialism and utilitarianism. Ariel is a sort of compendium for their becoming the Latin Americans of the future.

In the early decades of the twentieth century the book inspired a movement across the subcontinent, styled arielismo (hereafter Arielism), led by students and young intellectuals who were concerned with the improvement of their culture and society in a rather vague and idealistic but also heartfelt way. Ariel's message later fell out of favour as new circumstances inspired political ideas and actions that were to culminate in the Cuban revolution and in a widespread belief that some form of Marxist project was the way to provide social justice and progress for the region. But the essay never altogether ceased to draw attention, both from supporters and critics. In the United States, the “arquetipo del Norte” (the image and likeness of the North) (OC 232; UTP 71) which is presented in Ariel both as essentially different from the rest of the continent and as an undesirable model for the South, the book inspired two English translations undertaken or commissioned by diplomats to the River Plate. The first, a personal, amateur project, considers that the book “has much to say to us”; for the instigator of the second, a scholarly team effort, Próspero “seemed, in fact, to be addressing […] most particularly our own [generation]”.

After a summary of the essay's argument, the present chapter will address four main aspects. It begins by revisiting what Rodó means by idealism, since this concept is the driving force behind the essay and is fundamental to his emphasis on youth, his advice about fostering a balanced personality, and the connection between morality and aesthetics (the subjects of parts one to three of Ariel).