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La Colombie Et La France: Relations Culturelles XIXe-XXe Siècles

2014; Duke University Press; Volume: 94; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-2390267

1527-1900

Catalina Muñoz Rojas,

Historical Studies in Latin America

This book approaches the history of foreign relations between France and Colombia from the perspective of cultural exchange in a welcome effort to extend our understanding of international relations beyond diplomatic treaties and commercial ties. Margot Andrade argues that French influence in Colombia since the late eighteenth century has been very extensive and, in her words, “fecund” (p. 14). She sets out to explore its impact in areas such as education, science, and art in the nineteenth century, when France was the role model of civilization for Colombian elites, and traces it into the early twentieth century, when US influence gained preeminence.The author moves beyond the sources that have received the most attention in studies of French-Colombian cultural exchange, such as travelers’ narratives, and delves into the less explored French diplomatic archives. In particular, she draws from the archives of the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, the Centre des Archives Diplomatiques de Nantes, and the Archives Nationales de France. These sources allow Andrade to bring to light new information about the extent of commerce between both countries, the diverse activities of French immigrants in Colombia, and their organization in mutual aid societies like the Société Française de Secours Mutuels. Most prominently, she explores the cultural action of both institutional and individual actors such as the different religious congregations involved in missionary, educational, health, and charity ventures and French immigrants with different occupations, including doctors, scientists, and artists.The author defines three periods of French cultural influence in Colombia. The first period extends from the eighteenth century to the 1880s, when French cultural action was for the most part private. She explores the actions of pioneer travelers, naturalists, missionaries, and military officials, including well-known figures like Louis Peru de Lacroix, Charles Marie de La Condamine, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, Gaspard Théodore Mollien, Élisée Reclus, Charles Saffray, and Édouard André.The second period corresponds to the golden age of French cultural action that started in 1886 with the establishment of the centralist and conservative regime of the Regeneration in Colombia. Questioning the common belief that the Regeneration was founded on an admiration of Spain, Andrade argues that the political leaders of the period, including Rafael Núñez, Carlos Holguín Mallarino, and José María Samper, turned to France as their frame of reference in shaping the Colombian state. Also, the Colombian elites in general resorted predominantly to France as the vanguard in science and art. At its peak in 1886–1914, French cultural action in Colombia was strongly encouraged by the French government, which recognized its political import as part of its foreign relations policies. Andrade follows the influence of such action in Colombia in the fields of education, medicine, art, and photography.Finally, Andrade identifies a third period, after World War I and the failure of the Panama Canal project, in which French-Colombian relations grew cold and US influence grew stronger. During this period, the French government tried to maintain its cultural influence through initiatives like disseminating French books, establishing chapters of the Comité France-Amérique and Alliance Française in different Colombian cities, and providing subsidies for the works of religious congregations and to the Société Française de Secours Mutuels.Andrade believes that after both the separation of Panama from Colombia and World War I, Colombian elites sought to silence the impact of French cultural influence. Unfortunately, the author’s wish to do justice to what she considers to be the elided French contributions to Colombia prevent her from offering a more balanced and critical analysis of French-Colombian relations. Andrade’s work is built around the concept of “cultural influence,” which she defines as the “effort to expand and develop certain cultural forms or manifestations through cultural actors” (p. 15). In this sense, she understands French cultural influence as necessarily having a positive impact on Colombia, and she seems to overlook the manifest issue of power at stake in the relationship. Surprisingly, she states that in dubbing French travelers’ accounts of Colombia “ethnocentric,” Colombian elites have sought to mask “the underdeveloped character of Colombia” (pp. 15, 269). Furthermore, she explores French-Colombian relations exclusively from a French perspective, which results in an account that sees culture as flowing in one direction only. While she is right to call the reader’s attention to the need for studies of foreign relations that include a cultural approach, it is regrettable that she does not engage with recent literature on European imperialism and US–Latin American relations that has problematized the intersections of culture and power.