Johnson Center, Room 240A
November 29, 2009, 07:00 PM to 07:00 PM
This dissertation is primarily a critique of nineteenth-century Colombian Liberalism and Conservatism with a specific focus on the historical period known as the Regeneration (1880-1899). More specifically, it exposes the contradiction of liberalism in the late nineteenth century Colombia through the notion of citizenship. Although the Regeneration has produced important intellectual analyses that concentrate on the economic and political realm, it has produced little understanding on the issue of citizenship beyond its political connotation. Through the analysis of legal and political evidence such as Constitutions, the Diario Oficial, and the Spirit of the Law against literary texts and popular non-official writings, this project argues that citizenship in the Regeneration not only reinforced the contradictions of the liberal notion of citizenship, but it also reinforced colonialist views of it deeply affecting both the private and public life of Colombians at the time and beyond. It also establishes whether such notions were contested or adapted considering that citizenship was permeated by particular ideas of Catholicism, race, class and gender.