Manuel González Prada, the voice that has not lost its validity [AUDIO] | Culture

"The Congress, the Judiciary and the Government, all ferment and reject an annoying odor of mediocrity", are lines that accurately represent the feelings of many Peruvians. However, these words date from 1888 and were written by Manuel González-Prada (1844-1918), a visionary who criticized the ruling class of Peru in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, commemorating 100 years of his death, his denunciations are valid.

AN INSTANT OF LUCIDEZ
Corrupt political parties, a Church that has abused its privileges and the aristocracy that has enriched itself to the detriment of the poor are problems that affect today the country and González Prada ] denounced in the texts after the war with Chile. This reality showed him that the country was plunged into an economic and political crisis. " Peru is a sick organism: where the finger pushes the pus," he wrote.

According to Jorge Huamán, historian of the National Library of Peru the thought of González Prada was for the first time reflected in a speech by Fiestas Patrias of 1888, read in the Former Teatro Politeama (which was located in Block 11 of the Lampa jungle, in the center of Lima). In his text, he asserted that the "old political class" had done nothing to improve the crisis after the war. In addition, he denounced that the interests of the country in the Grace contract – by which he handed over the exploitation of natural resources for 66 years to British creditors of the obligations of external debt – and the rights of the people ("Si del "The political authorities, far from supporting the weak and the poor, almost always help the rich and the powerful" – Manuel González Prada

In works like "Hours of struggle" or "free Pájinas", Manuel González Prada innovated by considering the participation of natives and women in the destiny of the country, which influenced personalities such as José Carlos Mariátegui and Víctor Raúl Haya du Torre

It should be noted that the It was questioned that Manuel González Prada only raised criticisms against the system and did not suggest a political program to solve it, precisely José Carlos M ariátegui pointed out that "González Prada was not an action but a verb". Despite this, Mariátegui considered that the author of "Free Pájinas" represented "the first lucid moment of Peruvian consciousness", as it says in "7 essays on the interpretation of Peruvian reality".

Huamán explains that González Prada did not have any political program, he gave a necessary reflection so that the generation of the Centenary of Independence (to which belonged Mariátegui) has began to act, that is why many intellectuals of the time recognized him as "maestro".

Similarly, González Prada left a transcendent literary legacy, influencing writers such as Abraham Valdelomar and Cesar Vallejo . The latter dedicated to him "Jehovah", his masterpiece The Black Heralds.

Huamán explained to Perú21 that the prose of González Prada was very refined and romantic. they were tying themselves like a critic of the Peruvian society but before that, in his youth he was a cultador of Sciences and Humanism and that is seen in his poetic production ", said the historian of the National Library of Peru.

100 years after his death, Manuel González Prada is a valid voice and that for two centuries to the present day, requires, like all of us, the best for the good of Peru

"Our form of government is reduced to a big lie, because a state in which two or three million individuals live outside the law does not deserve to be called a Democratic Republic "- Manuel González Prada

Data:
– Manuel González Prada had a remarkable job as director of the National Library of Peru between 1912-1914 and 1916 -1918.

– He took over from the writer ain Ricardo Palma – González Prada criticized the previous administration, in charge of Palma, for stealing books from the library and because the writer's " Peruvian traditions "took notes in the works, among other causes. The fact provoked a confrontation between the intellectuals who supported Palma and Manuel González Prada.

– According to Jorge Huamán, the management of González Prada was "successful and renovating" because she nurtured the library of a group of French books, tried to 39, improve the infrastructure of the premises, opened a book of books to improve control, etc.

– "Love without being loved", "The shadow of Huáscar" and "The origin of
Rímac" are poems written by Manuel González Prada

Fragments of speeches read at the Teatro Politeama
(Patrias Festivities, 1888)

Those who cross the threshold of life gather to give a lesson to those who approach the gates of the sepulcher.
Old men must tremble in front of children, as the uprising is always accusing and descendant army judge.
(…)
The children, be men, get up early, because no more jeneration receives sad legacies, because no more has more sacred duties to fulfill, more of them. serious errors to repair or just to satisfy.

II
Without specialists, or rather, with amateurs who boasted of omniscience, we live on a trial basis: amateur testing in diplomacy, amateur testing in political economy, amateur testing in legislation and even amateur tactics and Estratejias tests. Peru was a living body, exposed on the marble of an amphitheater, to undergo the amputations of surgeons who had eyes with senile cataracts and hands with paralytic tremors.

IV
(…) It is up to you, masters of school, to galvanize a race that sleeps under the tyranny of the justice of the peace, the governor and the priest , this stultifying trinity of the Indian.
(…)
In this work of reconstruction and revenge, we do not rely on the men of the past: the old and decomposed trunks were already producing their deleterious aroma flowers and their tasteful fruits bitter. Let new trees come to give new flowers and new fruits! The old at the tomb, the young at work!

" Love Without Being Beloved " – Poem of Manuel González Prada

At the Pain Never Sleeped,
a glory never true,
an open wound,
it is of love without being loved.

At the gate of oblivion
calls in vain the injured breast:
Silent and deaf is the door
that an open wound
is to love without being loved

Heart that you have always been
blessed and adored,
you do not know, alas! sad
to want not to be loved.