National Consciousness and Shared Americanism in Hero Formation: Representations of Andres Bello in Nineteenth-Century Chile

Arriving in Valparaíso from London in 1829 after a prolonged separation from his native Venezuela, Andrés Bello quickly emerged as one of the most illustrious men in Santiago and a prominent sociocultural, literary, and political contributor to Chile. Bello greatly influenced the development of diverse areas considered vital for the conceptualization of the nation and national progress: in the second half of the nineteenth century following his death, he would be remembered for his accomplishments in Chile that were frequently of international significance. In texts published primarily in Chilean newspapers upon his death in 1865, during the centenary of his birth in 1881, and after his reinterment in 1898, the sociocultural and political contexts surrounding the outbreak of the Chincha Islands War, key Chilean successes obtained in the War of the Pacific, and border disputes with Argentina often moulded the way in which Bello's achievements could be recast to recreate him verbally and textually as an exemplary figure and an intellectual hero for Chile, a model for all nations, and a symbol of Spanish-American unity, or a shared Americanism. © 2015 Bulletin of Spanish Studies.