7 - Politics, Heroes and Literature: El mirador de Próspero (1913)

Summary

In a letter of April 1904 to his confidant, Juan Francisco Piquet, Rodó explains that after the intense work demanded by Motivos de Proteo he plans to write shorter and potentially remunerative pieces for a while. He wants to take a break, not in the sense of stopping writing altogether, but so as to produce “artículos y correspondencias, notas de viaje, revistas críticas, etc.; todo ello breve y sin orden” (articles and correspondences, travel notes, critical reviews, etc.; shorter and more spontaneous pieces) (1345). The aim is to loosen (“desentumecer”) his muscles and his mind after the intense and regular discipline required to produce that massive and demanding work. It will allow him to fulfil the many requests for contributions that come to him regularly from periodicals in Spain and Latin America and to gather funds to put towards his planned trip to Europe.

El mirador de Próspero (Prospero's lookout tower) (1913), Rodó's last book published in his lifetime, includes some of these planned briefer pieces as well as some substantial new studies, together with older articles which had previously appeared in the press or literary magazines, as far back as the Revista Nacional. The volume consists of forty-five items of various dates, lengths and genres, which in a handwritten page in his archive the author grouped under the seven headings of biography, book reviews, psycho-sociological commentary, literary reflection, fiction (“fantasía”), literary doctrine, and miscellanea. The distribution of this material in terms of length is as follows: out of 245 pages in OC, just over half, 126, are devoted to biographies; 67 to psycho-sociological analysis; 40 to literary commentary and creation; and 12 to miscellaneous material most of which is in fact consistent with the first two categories. As suggested by the title, the overarching focus of the collection is Latin America: having addressed the youth of the subcontinent in Ariel and Motivos, Próspero now sets his sight on the wide panorama before him at his belvedere (“mirador”). The task is symbolically confirmed, says Roberto Ibáñez, by the fact that the book came out on 12 October, the anniversary of Columbus's landing in the new world – traditionally referred to as “Día de la Raza” (Day of the Hispanic race).