Cristina Soriano | The University of Texas at Austin (original) (raw)
Articles & Book Chapters by Cristina Soriano
Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History, 2022
This bibliography looks into the impact of the French Revolution in the Caribbean and shows how t... more This bibliography looks into the impact of the French Revolution in the Caribbean and shows how this region has been at the center of Western modernity contradictions, such as empire and independence, equality and racism, freedom and slavery. The authors cited here focus on questions of ethnicity, race, land, revolution, emancipation, occupation, and interventions to explain how the people of the Caribbean have fought and struggled to find their own path to freedom and liberation.
Itinerario. Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions, 2020
At the end of the eighteenth century, members of the colonial elite of the Captaincy General of V... more At the end of the eighteenth century, members of the colonial elite of the Captaincy General of Venezuela addressed a letter to the king of Spain in which they sought permission to have a printing press in the city of Caracas. In the letter, they argued that the establishment of such a press was fundamental for the economic and commercial development of the Captaincy. Months later, they learned that the permission for a printing press had been denied without further explanations. Venezuela became one of the last capital cities in colonial Spanish America to possess this technology. The lack of a printing press during this politically dynamic period moved by the Atlantic revolutions did not necessarily affect public access to reading, sharing of information, and political debate in Venezuela. Venezuela's unique geographical location, and its open and frequent connections with the Caribbean region during the Age of Revolutions allowed for the effective entrance and transit of people and written materials that spread revolutionary ideas and impressions, creating a dynamic and contested political environment. Here I argue that during the late-colonial period, semiliterate forms of knowledge transmission, partially promoted by Spanish reformism, mobilised a socially diverse public that openly debated the monarchical regime, the system of slavery, and the hierarchical socio-racial order of colonial society. The colonial public sphere in Venezuela was shaped, then, within a context of emerging socio-racial tensions and became a space of contestation and struggle, animated by the overlapping of contradictory political discourses. This study contributes to recent debates about the character, nature, and relevance of the public sphere in the colonial world. It explores the circulation of manuscripts and ephemeral written materials, the different modes of production and reception of texts that developed in the colonial context, and an analysis of the character of the urban spaces that facilitated the performativity of texts. It thus offers a new framework for understanding the emergence of a public sphere in Venezuela, a colonial peripheral province with no printing press.
The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2019
During the last decades of the 18th century, Venezuela witnessed the emergence of several popular... more During the last decades of the 18th century, Venezuela witnessed the emergence of several popular rebellions and conspiracies organized against the colonial government. Many of these movements demanded for the reduction or elimination of taxes and the Indian tribute, the transformation of the political system, and fundamental changes for the social order with the abolition of slavery and the declaration of equality among different socio-racial groups. While demanding concrete changes in the local contexts, many of these movements reproduced the political language of republican rights enshrined by the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. Obsessed with silencing and containing local echoes of Franco-Caribbean republican values, the Spanish Crown and colonial authorities sought to defuse these political movements, which they viewed as destabilizing, seditious and extremely dangerous. This proved to be an impossible task, Venezuela was located at the center of the Atlantic Revolutions and its population became to familiar with these political movements: Hand-copied samizdat materials from the Caribbean flooded the cities and ports of Venezuela; hundreds of foreigners shared news of the French and Caribbean revolutions with locals; and Venezuelans of diverse social backgrounds met to read hard-to-come-by texts and to discuss the ideas they expounded. During the Age of Revolutions, these written and oral information networks served to efficiently spread anti-monarchical propaganda, abolitionist and egalitarian ideas that found its way to rebellions and political unrest.
The Specter of Peace: Rethinking Violence and Power in the Colonial Atlantic" , 2018
The revolutionary events of Haiti in 1791 and the rumors of “chaos and atrocities” occurring in t... more The revolutionary events of Haiti in 1791 and the rumors of “chaos and atrocities” occurring in the French colonies that continuously arrived in the General Captaincy of Venezuela in the last decade of the 18th century, drastically changed the relations among local whites and people of African descent Venezuela. Rumors of the revolution, racial hatred, and the Caribbean violent wars made the Venezuelan colonial State and the elite suspicious about local people of African descent, not only increasing their fear of them but also undermining a sense of confidence that appeared to have existed before 1791. The colonial State and the elites responded to “black insurrection” with fear, control, and repression in proportional doses, and people of African descent recognized “white fear” and used it to voice their demands, not only for freedom and equality, but also for the improvement of labor conditions. However, repression was not the only response: elites and colonial authorities showed their willingness to make concessions that could calm the “spirits of blacks” who expressed their discontent in a number of actions, expressions, and uprisings throughout the last decade of the eighteenth century. This paper explores the diverse strategies developed by the white elite and colonial authorities in order to offset the possibility of black insurrections and movements in the Captaincy of Venezuela during the last two decades of colonial rule from 1790 to 1810. The Haitian Revolution seemed to have brought more attention in part of the whites to the people of African descent, groups of power implement different strategies for the sake of the peace and tranquility in the Captaincy.
Eighteenth-century Venezuela was a highly stratified society in which race, education, occupation... more Eighteenth-century Venezuela was a highly stratified society in which race, education, occupation, freedom, honor, family ties, and economic resources all played important roles in defining the place that each member occupied. In this complex social map, not all social groups had equal access to education; literacy and the possession of books represented markers of status and power. Traditionally, literate and formally educated people belonged to the white elite, while the majority of the supposedly “non-literate” population belonged to lower social groups of color, who possibly had the means to buy a couple of religious broadsides and relied largely on oral media for the transmission of knowledge. By the end of the eighteenth century, this picture began to change: the number of people who owned books increased, an incipient informal market of books began to operate, and original networks for the circulation of books and printed materials among different social groups proliferated. Increasing number of mixed-race pardos learned to read and write, finding individual or collective informal ways to receive an education. These pardos along with some white educators adopted the Spanish reformist model that promoted literacy and formal education for the “common people.’’ However, members of the colonial white elite interpreted pardos’ access to literacy and education as a way of challenging the proper social order and authority. This article analyzes the case of Juan Bautista Olivares, a literate pardo musician who in 1795 was sent to court in Cádiz, accused by the Venezuelan governor of subversion; Olivares, however, successfully defended himself, declaring his loyalty to the Spanish Monarchy and proving his pious behavior. This paper shows how mixed race pardos, like Juan Bautista, creatively navigated social tensions and the effects of the Atlantic Revolutions by defining their political identity, questioning the local government and reasserting their loyalty to the Spanish Monarchy.
This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave r... more This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave rebellion in Venezuela between 1795 and 2014. We show how historical interpreters have inscribed divergent representations of this rebellion in documents, landscapes, historiographies, monuments, and music. In a political climate defined by ethno-racial and political tensions, colonial elites saw in the rebellion the republican ideology and racial violence of the Haitian revolution. Fearing the persistence of social divisions and political resentment, nineteenth-century republican leaders all but effaced the rebellion from the nation’s historical memory. This episode was finally recovered by historians at the beginning of the twentieth century; and since the 1950s, teachers, guerrilla members, and social activists have linked the rebellion to political discourses of ethno-racial struggle, cultural syncretism, bodily suffering, and social exclusion. Recently, communal organizations in the regions have begun to connect it to contemporary anti-imperialist and socialist projects. We argue that these historical memories have served to mobilize political identities at different times and to imagine regional genealogies of struggle against imperialism and political oppression.
México, Editorial Quivira, 2014
Storia e Futuro, Rivista de Storia e Storiografia, Nov 2012
This article studies the impact that the mobilization of people from the Revolutionary Atlantic h... more This article studies the impact that the mobilization of people from the Revolutionary Atlantic had in the Province of Venezuela during 1789-1790. Despite all the mechanisms that the government established in order to control the entry of foreigners in the ports and urban centers of the province, between 1791 and 1796, more than 1,000 French and Caribbean people entered the province and brought news and information about the "Revolutions". This wave of rumors seriously preoccupied the officials who found it hard to control the oral transmission of information. At the outset, local authorities thought that this would be a temporary situation but solutions did not come as easily as they expected and problems began to arise as the "voices" of these foreigners circulated in the streets of La Guaira and Caracas. Here, I seek to analyze some of the stories of the revolution and the wave of rumors that erupted from this situation, in order to understand the several versions of the Revolutions that circulated in the province and that contributed to white paranoia and repressive behavior, as well as to black rebelliousness and hope.
Series Reflexión Antropológica sobre temas de García-Pelayo , Jul 1, 2011
Queda absolutamente prohibida la reproducción de esta obra por cualesquiera medio o forma, electr... more Queda absolutamente prohibida la reproducción de esta obra por cualesquiera medio o forma, electrónica o mecánica, incluida fotocopia, grabación o cualquier otra forma de almacenamiento o rescate de datos, sin el permiso expreso del editor.
Revista de Ciencias Sociales, UCV, Jan 2010
Ante la conocida premisa de que el presente construye al pasado, se hace necesario reflexionar so... more Ante la conocida premisa de que el presente construye al pasado, se hace necesario reflexionar sobre las nuevas miradas o perspectivas desde las cuales se puede releer la obra del Miguel Acosta Saignes. La lectura es una práctica de la cual emerge la creación de significados e interpretaciones de un saber decontextualizado que se recontextualiza en la misma acción de leer. De manera que podríamos decir que cada lectura a la obra de Acosta Saignes puede sacar a relucir diversos aspectos que el autor ha desarrollado intencionalmente en su obra; pero cada lector, dependiendo de su posición, añadirá también nuevos enfoques, debates y preguntas a viejos escritos. La escritura genera esa magia , como lo ha llamado Olson, que permite crear y recrear nuevos significados en la lectura ; de allí que haya parecido de relevancia desde las perspectivas de la historia del conocimiento y de la historia cultural reflexionar en torno a los conceptos de texto y de autor 1 . En esta ocasión me dedicaré a expresar algunas reflexiones surgidas a partir de mi propia lectura a la obra Vida de esclavos negros en Venezuela, con el expreso reconocimiento de que ésta está contaminada de mis propias miradas, dudas y reflexiones investigativas, acordes a los tiempos que vivo.
Books by Cristina Soriano
Tides of Revolution information, insurgencies, and the crisis of colonial rule in Venezuela, 2018
Winner of the 2019 CLAH Bolton-Johnson Award for best english-language book in Latin American his... more Winner of the 2019 CLAH Bolton-Johnson Award for best english-language book in Latin American history and the 2020 Fernando Coronil Prize for Best Book about Venezuela (English, Spanish or Portuguese), Tides of Revolution is about the links between politics and literacy, and about how radical ideas spread in a world without printing presses. During late 18th c and earl 19th c, Spanish colonial governments tried to keep revolution out of their provinces. But, as Cristina Soriano shows, hand-copied samizdat materials from the Caribbean flooded the cities and ports of Venezuela, hundreds of foreigners shared news of the French and Haitian revolutions with locals, and Venezuelans of diverse social backgrounds met to read hard-to-come-by texts and to discuss the ideas they expounded. These networks efficiently spread antimonarchical propaganda and abolitionist and egalitarian ideas, allowing Venezuelans to participate in an incipient yet vibrant public sphere and to contemplate new political scenarios. This book offers an in-depth analysis of one of the crucial processes that allowed Venezuela to become one of the first regions in Spanish America to declare independence from Iberia and turn into an influential force for South American independence. Diálogos Series university of new mexico press 800-249-7737
book reviews by Cristina Soriano
The American Historical Review, 2020
In 2018, professors and graduate students, librarians, archivists, writers, and storytellers dedi... more In 2018, professors and graduate students, librarians, archivists, writers, and storytellers dedicated to the fascinating yet complex history of the Caribbean shared excitement over the publication of Julius Scott's book The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution. 1 For years, copies of Scott's Ph.D. dissertation circulated among hundreds of scholars and graduate students who appreciated the innovative and transformative character of his work; now we all celebrate that this remarkable scholarship is available to a wider audience. In Caribbean and Atlantic World graduate courses, the text was considered mandatory reading for anyone willing to understand the intricate social networks and cultural-political environment that reigned in the region during the Age of Revolutions. Scott's work had opened new paths for interpretation of the reach and effects of Caribbean turmoil in the last decade of the eighteenth century, when the region was deeply transformed by a black revolution that shattered the pillars of European empires and their forms of colonialism. The Common Wind exposes how the rebellious events in Saint-Domingue and the political turbulence of other Caribbean islands catalyzed political movements and insurrections. According to Scott, communities of African-descended people in the Atlantic basin were bound together by a network of communication that gave momentum to the cause of emancipation. Enslaved people and free blacks moved from place to place, spreading news of liberation and brewing political unrest throughout the eighteenth-century Atlantic World.
Journal of the Early Republic , 2020
CBS's 60 Minutes segment on the show and Lin-Manuel Miranda's turn at hosting Saturday Night Live... more CBS's 60 Minutes segment on the show and Lin-Manuel Miranda's turn at hosting Saturday Night Live also receive numerous citations. Addressing the musical numbers themselves, the Cabinet rap battles and the line "Immigrants: We get the job done!" feature frequently. This can have the effect of flattening consideration of the musical, and many of the most engaging essays draw attention to lessheralded aspects of the production. Examples include Joseph Adelman's investigation of how Hamilton uses primary sources, and Jim Cullen's discussion of the songs "Helpless" and "Wait for It" in his essay on how Hamilton can help bridge the generational gap inherent in classroom teaching.
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2017
AfroAsia,, 2017
O livro de Stephen Chambers traz uma contribuição impressionante e relevante para a história dos ... more O livro de Stephen Chambers traz uma contribuição impressionante e relevante para a história dos Estados Unidos (EUA) e sua relação com a América Latina, especificamente com Cuba. A historiografia das rela-ções econômicas e diplomáticas dos EUA com a América Latina durante o século XX é vasta e diversa; mas não foi senão recentemente que os historiadores começaram a prestar mais atenção ao estudo das ativida-des comerciais e do comércio exterior dos EUA dentro dos territórios hispano-americanos, e como tais práticas influenciaram aquelas re-lações no período 1790-1830. Es-ses historiadores trouxeram novas perspectivas sobre como o comér-cio de reexportação com a América Espanhola proporcionou a negocian-tes, banqueiros e investidores gran-des lucros e importantes remessas de capital que foram usados nos primór-dios da industrialização dos EUA. 1 1 Ver, por examplo, Jacques Barbier e Allan J. Kuethe (orgs.), O livro de Chambers faz parte deste grupo inovador de trabalhos históri-cos transnacionais, uma vez que ele apresenta interpretações originais sobre como essas primeiras ativida-des comerciais em Cuba moldaram a política externa dos EUA e promo-veram o papel do país norte-ameri-cano como guardião do Hemisfério Ocidental através da criação e afir-mação da Doutrina Monroe. O livro cobre um período críti-co da história mundial atlântica e, em particular, das histórias tanto de Cuba como dos EUA. No início do século XIX, o governo pós-revolu-cionário do Haiti lutava por um lu-gar próprio no mundo atlântico, e isso não seria tarefa fácil: os líderes haitianos estavam determinados a
Hispanic American Historical Review, 2016
Papers by Cristina Soriano
Revista Venezolana De Economia Y Ciencias Sociales, 2010
Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto
Ethnohistory, 2016
This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave r... more This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave rebellion in Venezuela between 1795 and 2014. We show how historical interpreters have inscribed divergent representations of this rebellion in documents, landscapes, historiographies, monuments, and music. In a political climate defined by ethnoracial and political tensions, colonial elites saw in the rebellion the republican ideology and racial violence of the Haitian Revolution. Fearing the persistence of social divisions and political resentment, nineteenth-century republican leaders all but effaced the rebellion from the nation’s historical memory. This episode was finally recovered by historians at the beginning of the twentieth century, and since the 1950s teachers, guerrilla members, and social activists have linked the rebellion to political discourses of ethnoracial struggle, cultural syncretism, bodily suffering, and social exclusion. Recently, communal organizations in the reg...
My project explores the circulation of information and the formation of political communities in ... more My project explores the circulation of information and the formation of political communities in Venezuela during the Age of Revolutions, when Spanish authorities became obsessed with silencing and containing local echoes of Franco-Caribbean republican values. Paradoxically, the absence of printing technology in Venezuela made these efforts even more futile. Hand-copied samizdat materials flooded the cities and ports towns of Venezuela; foreigners shared news of the French and Caribbean revolutions with locals; and Venezuelans of diverse social backgrounds met to read hard-to-come-by texts and to discuss the ideas they expounded. My work shows that the population of Venezuela had greater access to a wide range of Caribbean and European revolutionary pamphlets, anonymous broadsides, and leaflets than to the Enlightenment texts of Rousseau, Voltaire, and Raynal, which were found in a few libraries. Though distant European political thinkers may have inspired the political debates of t...
Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History, 2022
This bibliography looks into the impact of the French Revolution in the Caribbean and shows how t... more This bibliography looks into the impact of the French Revolution in the Caribbean and shows how this region has been at the center of Western modernity contradictions, such as empire and independence, equality and racism, freedom and slavery. The authors cited here focus on questions of ethnicity, race, land, revolution, emancipation, occupation, and interventions to explain how the people of the Caribbean have fought and struggled to find their own path to freedom and liberation.
Itinerario. Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions, 2020
At the end of the eighteenth century, members of the colonial elite of the Captaincy General of V... more At the end of the eighteenth century, members of the colonial elite of the Captaincy General of Venezuela addressed a letter to the king of Spain in which they sought permission to have a printing press in the city of Caracas. In the letter, they argued that the establishment of such a press was fundamental for the economic and commercial development of the Captaincy. Months later, they learned that the permission for a printing press had been denied without further explanations. Venezuela became one of the last capital cities in colonial Spanish America to possess this technology. The lack of a printing press during this politically dynamic period moved by the Atlantic revolutions did not necessarily affect public access to reading, sharing of information, and political debate in Venezuela. Venezuela's unique geographical location, and its open and frequent connections with the Caribbean region during the Age of Revolutions allowed for the effective entrance and transit of people and written materials that spread revolutionary ideas and impressions, creating a dynamic and contested political environment. Here I argue that during the late-colonial period, semiliterate forms of knowledge transmission, partially promoted by Spanish reformism, mobilised a socially diverse public that openly debated the monarchical regime, the system of slavery, and the hierarchical socio-racial order of colonial society. The colonial public sphere in Venezuela was shaped, then, within a context of emerging socio-racial tensions and became a space of contestation and struggle, animated by the overlapping of contradictory political discourses. This study contributes to recent debates about the character, nature, and relevance of the public sphere in the colonial world. It explores the circulation of manuscripts and ephemeral written materials, the different modes of production and reception of texts that developed in the colonial context, and an analysis of the character of the urban spaces that facilitated the performativity of texts. It thus offers a new framework for understanding the emergence of a public sphere in Venezuela, a colonial peripheral province with no printing press.
The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2019
During the last decades of the 18th century, Venezuela witnessed the emergence of several popular... more During the last decades of the 18th century, Venezuela witnessed the emergence of several popular rebellions and conspiracies organized against the colonial government. Many of these movements demanded for the reduction or elimination of taxes and the Indian tribute, the transformation of the political system, and fundamental changes for the social order with the abolition of slavery and the declaration of equality among different socio-racial groups. While demanding concrete changes in the local contexts, many of these movements reproduced the political language of republican rights enshrined by the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. Obsessed with silencing and containing local echoes of Franco-Caribbean republican values, the Spanish Crown and colonial authorities sought to defuse these political movements, which they viewed as destabilizing, seditious and extremely dangerous. This proved to be an impossible task, Venezuela was located at the center of the Atlantic Revolutions and its population became to familiar with these political movements: Hand-copied samizdat materials from the Caribbean flooded the cities and ports of Venezuela; hundreds of foreigners shared news of the French and Caribbean revolutions with locals; and Venezuelans of diverse social backgrounds met to read hard-to-come-by texts and to discuss the ideas they expounded. During the Age of Revolutions, these written and oral information networks served to efficiently spread anti-monarchical propaganda, abolitionist and egalitarian ideas that found its way to rebellions and political unrest.
The Specter of Peace: Rethinking Violence and Power in the Colonial Atlantic" , 2018
The revolutionary events of Haiti in 1791 and the rumors of “chaos and atrocities” occurring in t... more The revolutionary events of Haiti in 1791 and the rumors of “chaos and atrocities” occurring in the French colonies that continuously arrived in the General Captaincy of Venezuela in the last decade of the 18th century, drastically changed the relations among local whites and people of African descent Venezuela. Rumors of the revolution, racial hatred, and the Caribbean violent wars made the Venezuelan colonial State and the elite suspicious about local people of African descent, not only increasing their fear of them but also undermining a sense of confidence that appeared to have existed before 1791. The colonial State and the elites responded to “black insurrection” with fear, control, and repression in proportional doses, and people of African descent recognized “white fear” and used it to voice their demands, not only for freedom and equality, but also for the improvement of labor conditions. However, repression was not the only response: elites and colonial authorities showed their willingness to make concessions that could calm the “spirits of blacks” who expressed their discontent in a number of actions, expressions, and uprisings throughout the last decade of the eighteenth century. This paper explores the diverse strategies developed by the white elite and colonial authorities in order to offset the possibility of black insurrections and movements in the Captaincy of Venezuela during the last two decades of colonial rule from 1790 to 1810. The Haitian Revolution seemed to have brought more attention in part of the whites to the people of African descent, groups of power implement different strategies for the sake of the peace and tranquility in the Captaincy.
Eighteenth-century Venezuela was a highly stratified society in which race, education, occupation... more Eighteenth-century Venezuela was a highly stratified society in which race, education, occupation, freedom, honor, family ties, and economic resources all played important roles in defining the place that each member occupied. In this complex social map, not all social groups had equal access to education; literacy and the possession of books represented markers of status and power. Traditionally, literate and formally educated people belonged to the white elite, while the majority of the supposedly “non-literate” population belonged to lower social groups of color, who possibly had the means to buy a couple of religious broadsides and relied largely on oral media for the transmission of knowledge. By the end of the eighteenth century, this picture began to change: the number of people who owned books increased, an incipient informal market of books began to operate, and original networks for the circulation of books and printed materials among different social groups proliferated. Increasing number of mixed-race pardos learned to read and write, finding individual or collective informal ways to receive an education. These pardos along with some white educators adopted the Spanish reformist model that promoted literacy and formal education for the “common people.’’ However, members of the colonial white elite interpreted pardos’ access to literacy and education as a way of challenging the proper social order and authority. This article analyzes the case of Juan Bautista Olivares, a literate pardo musician who in 1795 was sent to court in Cádiz, accused by the Venezuelan governor of subversion; Olivares, however, successfully defended himself, declaring his loyalty to the Spanish Monarchy and proving his pious behavior. This paper shows how mixed race pardos, like Juan Bautista, creatively navigated social tensions and the effects of the Atlantic Revolutions by defining their political identity, questioning the local government and reasserting their loyalty to the Spanish Monarchy.
This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave r... more This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave rebellion in Venezuela between 1795 and 2014. We show how historical interpreters have inscribed divergent representations of this rebellion in documents, landscapes, historiographies, monuments, and music. In a political climate defined by ethno-racial and political tensions, colonial elites saw in the rebellion the republican ideology and racial violence of the Haitian revolution. Fearing the persistence of social divisions and political resentment, nineteenth-century republican leaders all but effaced the rebellion from the nation’s historical memory. This episode was finally recovered by historians at the beginning of the twentieth century; and since the 1950s, teachers, guerrilla members, and social activists have linked the rebellion to political discourses of ethno-racial struggle, cultural syncretism, bodily suffering, and social exclusion. Recently, communal organizations in the regions have begun to connect it to contemporary anti-imperialist and socialist projects. We argue that these historical memories have served to mobilize political identities at different times and to imagine regional genealogies of struggle against imperialism and political oppression.
México, Editorial Quivira, 2014
Storia e Futuro, Rivista de Storia e Storiografia, Nov 2012
This article studies the impact that the mobilization of people from the Revolutionary Atlantic h... more This article studies the impact that the mobilization of people from the Revolutionary Atlantic had in the Province of Venezuela during 1789-1790. Despite all the mechanisms that the government established in order to control the entry of foreigners in the ports and urban centers of the province, between 1791 and 1796, more than 1,000 French and Caribbean people entered the province and brought news and information about the "Revolutions". This wave of rumors seriously preoccupied the officials who found it hard to control the oral transmission of information. At the outset, local authorities thought that this would be a temporary situation but solutions did not come as easily as they expected and problems began to arise as the "voices" of these foreigners circulated in the streets of La Guaira and Caracas. Here, I seek to analyze some of the stories of the revolution and the wave of rumors that erupted from this situation, in order to understand the several versions of the Revolutions that circulated in the province and that contributed to white paranoia and repressive behavior, as well as to black rebelliousness and hope.
Series Reflexión Antropológica sobre temas de García-Pelayo , Jul 1, 2011
Queda absolutamente prohibida la reproducción de esta obra por cualesquiera medio o forma, electr... more Queda absolutamente prohibida la reproducción de esta obra por cualesquiera medio o forma, electrónica o mecánica, incluida fotocopia, grabación o cualquier otra forma de almacenamiento o rescate de datos, sin el permiso expreso del editor.
Revista de Ciencias Sociales, UCV, Jan 2010
Ante la conocida premisa de que el presente construye al pasado, se hace necesario reflexionar so... more Ante la conocida premisa de que el presente construye al pasado, se hace necesario reflexionar sobre las nuevas miradas o perspectivas desde las cuales se puede releer la obra del Miguel Acosta Saignes. La lectura es una práctica de la cual emerge la creación de significados e interpretaciones de un saber decontextualizado que se recontextualiza en la misma acción de leer. De manera que podríamos decir que cada lectura a la obra de Acosta Saignes puede sacar a relucir diversos aspectos que el autor ha desarrollado intencionalmente en su obra; pero cada lector, dependiendo de su posición, añadirá también nuevos enfoques, debates y preguntas a viejos escritos. La escritura genera esa magia , como lo ha llamado Olson, que permite crear y recrear nuevos significados en la lectura ; de allí que haya parecido de relevancia desde las perspectivas de la historia del conocimiento y de la historia cultural reflexionar en torno a los conceptos de texto y de autor 1 . En esta ocasión me dedicaré a expresar algunas reflexiones surgidas a partir de mi propia lectura a la obra Vida de esclavos negros en Venezuela, con el expreso reconocimiento de que ésta está contaminada de mis propias miradas, dudas y reflexiones investigativas, acordes a los tiempos que vivo.
Tides of Revolution information, insurgencies, and the crisis of colonial rule in Venezuela, 2018
Winner of the 2019 CLAH Bolton-Johnson Award for best english-language book in Latin American his... more Winner of the 2019 CLAH Bolton-Johnson Award for best english-language book in Latin American history and the 2020 Fernando Coronil Prize for Best Book about Venezuela (English, Spanish or Portuguese), Tides of Revolution is about the links between politics and literacy, and about how radical ideas spread in a world without printing presses. During late 18th c and earl 19th c, Spanish colonial governments tried to keep revolution out of their provinces. But, as Cristina Soriano shows, hand-copied samizdat materials from the Caribbean flooded the cities and ports of Venezuela, hundreds of foreigners shared news of the French and Haitian revolutions with locals, and Venezuelans of diverse social backgrounds met to read hard-to-come-by texts and to discuss the ideas they expounded. These networks efficiently spread antimonarchical propaganda and abolitionist and egalitarian ideas, allowing Venezuelans to participate in an incipient yet vibrant public sphere and to contemplate new political scenarios. This book offers an in-depth analysis of one of the crucial processes that allowed Venezuela to become one of the first regions in Spanish America to declare independence from Iberia and turn into an influential force for South American independence. Diálogos Series university of new mexico press 800-249-7737
The American Historical Review, 2020
In 2018, professors and graduate students, librarians, archivists, writers, and storytellers dedi... more In 2018, professors and graduate students, librarians, archivists, writers, and storytellers dedicated to the fascinating yet complex history of the Caribbean shared excitement over the publication of Julius Scott's book The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution. 1 For years, copies of Scott's Ph.D. dissertation circulated among hundreds of scholars and graduate students who appreciated the innovative and transformative character of his work; now we all celebrate that this remarkable scholarship is available to a wider audience. In Caribbean and Atlantic World graduate courses, the text was considered mandatory reading for anyone willing to understand the intricate social networks and cultural-political environment that reigned in the region during the Age of Revolutions. Scott's work had opened new paths for interpretation of the reach and effects of Caribbean turmoil in the last decade of the eighteenth century, when the region was deeply transformed by a black revolution that shattered the pillars of European empires and their forms of colonialism. The Common Wind exposes how the rebellious events in Saint-Domingue and the political turbulence of other Caribbean islands catalyzed political movements and insurrections. According to Scott, communities of African-descended people in the Atlantic basin were bound together by a network of communication that gave momentum to the cause of emancipation. Enslaved people and free blacks moved from place to place, spreading news of liberation and brewing political unrest throughout the eighteenth-century Atlantic World.
Journal of the Early Republic , 2020
CBS's 60 Minutes segment on the show and Lin-Manuel Miranda's turn at hosting Saturday Night Live... more CBS's 60 Minutes segment on the show and Lin-Manuel Miranda's turn at hosting Saturday Night Live also receive numerous citations. Addressing the musical numbers themselves, the Cabinet rap battles and the line "Immigrants: We get the job done!" feature frequently. This can have the effect of flattening consideration of the musical, and many of the most engaging essays draw attention to lessheralded aspects of the production. Examples include Joseph Adelman's investigation of how Hamilton uses primary sources, and Jim Cullen's discussion of the songs "Helpless" and "Wait for It" in his essay on how Hamilton can help bridge the generational gap inherent in classroom teaching.
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2017
AfroAsia,, 2017
O livro de Stephen Chambers traz uma contribuição impressionante e relevante para a história dos ... more O livro de Stephen Chambers traz uma contribuição impressionante e relevante para a história dos Estados Unidos (EUA) e sua relação com a América Latina, especificamente com Cuba. A historiografia das rela-ções econômicas e diplomáticas dos EUA com a América Latina durante o século XX é vasta e diversa; mas não foi senão recentemente que os historiadores começaram a prestar mais atenção ao estudo das ativida-des comerciais e do comércio exterior dos EUA dentro dos territórios hispano-americanos, e como tais práticas influenciaram aquelas re-lações no período 1790-1830. Es-ses historiadores trouxeram novas perspectivas sobre como o comér-cio de reexportação com a América Espanhola proporcionou a negocian-tes, banqueiros e investidores gran-des lucros e importantes remessas de capital que foram usados nos primór-dios da industrialização dos EUA. 1 1 Ver, por examplo, Jacques Barbier e Allan J. Kuethe (orgs.), O livro de Chambers faz parte deste grupo inovador de trabalhos históri-cos transnacionais, uma vez que ele apresenta interpretações originais sobre como essas primeiras ativida-des comerciais em Cuba moldaram a política externa dos EUA e promo-veram o papel do país norte-ameri-cano como guardião do Hemisfério Ocidental através da criação e afir-mação da Doutrina Monroe. O livro cobre um período críti-co da história mundial atlântica e, em particular, das histórias tanto de Cuba como dos EUA. No início do século XIX, o governo pós-revolu-cionário do Haiti lutava por um lu-gar próprio no mundo atlântico, e isso não seria tarefa fácil: os líderes haitianos estavam determinados a
Hispanic American Historical Review, 2016
Revista Venezolana De Economia Y Ciencias Sociales, 2010
Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto
Ethnohistory, 2016
This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave r... more This article analyzes the construction and circulation of historical memories of the Coro slave rebellion in Venezuela between 1795 and 2014. We show how historical interpreters have inscribed divergent representations of this rebellion in documents, landscapes, historiographies, monuments, and music. In a political climate defined by ethnoracial and political tensions, colonial elites saw in the rebellion the republican ideology and racial violence of the Haitian Revolution. Fearing the persistence of social divisions and political resentment, nineteenth-century republican leaders all but effaced the rebellion from the nation’s historical memory. This episode was finally recovered by historians at the beginning of the twentieth century, and since the 1950s teachers, guerrilla members, and social activists have linked the rebellion to political discourses of ethnoracial struggle, cultural syncretism, bodily suffering, and social exclusion. Recently, communal organizations in the reg...
My project explores the circulation of information and the formation of political communities in ... more My project explores the circulation of information and the formation of political communities in Venezuela during the Age of Revolutions, when Spanish authorities became obsessed with silencing and containing local echoes of Franco-Caribbean republican values. Paradoxically, the absence of printing technology in Venezuela made these efforts even more futile. Hand-copied samizdat materials flooded the cities and ports towns of Venezuela; foreigners shared news of the French and Caribbean revolutions with locals; and Venezuelans of diverse social backgrounds met to read hard-to-come-by texts and to discuss the ideas they expounded. My work shows that the population of Venezuela had greater access to a wide range of Caribbean and European revolutionary pamphlets, anonymous broadsides, and leaflets than to the Enlightenment texts of Rousseau, Voltaire, and Raynal, which were found in a few libraries. Though distant European political thinkers may have inspired the political debates of t...
Itinerario
At the end of the eighteenth century, members of the colonial elite of the Captaincy General of V... more At the end of the eighteenth century, members of the colonial elite of the Captaincy General of Venezuela addressed a letter to the king of Spain in which they sought permission to have a printing press in the city of Caracas. In the letter, they argued that the establishment of such a press was fundamental for the economic and commercial development of the Captaincy. Months later, they learned that the permission for a printing press had been denied without further explanations. Venezuela became one of the last capital cities in colonial Spanish America to possess this technology. The lack of a printing press during this politically dynamic period moved by the Atlantic revolutions did not necessarily affect public access to reading, sharing of information, and political debate in Venezuela. Venezuela's unique geographical location, and its open and frequent connections with the Caribbean region during the Age of Revolutions allowed for the effective entrance and transit of peop...
Hispanic American Historical Review
