Critic Mariano Picón-Salas interprets the model proposed by José Enrique Rodó in Ariel (1900) as a symbol of the antagonism between Latin America and the United States. This opposition, caused by the imperialist thirst of the United States and that nation’s disdain for the Latin American world, broke the ties that were established during the struggles for independence. Nevertheless, according to Picón-Salas, the “ariel” model, individualist in nature, does not offer a solution; the “true task of the New World” is to re-establish harmony, which will only be possible when both parts of the continent deepen their democratic processes—faithful to the struggles for independence—and transcend their tribal interpretation of reality. The author concludes that Rodó’s turn-of-the-century world has died and the continent urgently needs an ethical solidarity and collective aspiration. 

The Venezuelan historian, novelist, and diplomat Mariano Picón Salas (1901–65), together with other intellectuals such as Arturo Uslar Pietri, represents a new generation of liberal thinkers who rose up in favor of a holistic understanding of Latin American culture when they were confronted with the positivist tradition that denied the values of the colonial period and negatively judged the mixing of the European and indigenous peoples.

This document represents a current of humanist thought that overtakes the Manichaean model proposed by José Enrique Rodó in Ariel (Montevideo, 1900), which was supported by his concept of “nordomania” [see doc. no. 1055578]. This trend intends to provide a lucid look at the world of the Americas that gauges and assesses the different aspects of the cultural heritages of the continent, without detriment to any. Picón-Salas’s reflection is critical; it is focused on describing the “American identity” and inscribing it into universal history through an understanding of its processes, its ideological and spiritual foundations, with thought that is distinct from simplistic or Manichean formulas.

“Américas desavenidas” was originally published in Cuadernos americanos (1951). It was also published in Fuentes de la cultura latinoamericana, First edition (México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1993).