HIST 439
September 17, 2011
Critique: Poverty of Progress
Retelling nineteenth-century Latin America through literature

The time period is the nineteenth-century, the setting: a geographic and cultural space once known as the New World. It’s not your typical account of heroes and villains, the rich against the poor, good versus evil, or princesses, castles and glass slippers. Although all of these actors play a fundamental role in the tale that is about to unfold (with perhaps, the exception of the glass slippers), the real story traces its roots to a time period plagued by significant socioeconomic changes in the way of life of an entire civilization. By no means was it a homogeneous collection of peoples, but rather a mosaic of diverse indigenous folk, African descendants, Europeans, and peoples of every possible mixed ethnic makeup. This is the story of modernization imposed by the Eurocentric elites, forever leaving its mark on the social and cultural construct of Latin America. Historian, Bradford Burns, in his work the Poverty of Progress concludes it was modernization that led to the destruction of the quality of life in the aftermath of independence movements across Latin America. The overarching themes of his book revolve around the wealthy and educated minority imposing modernization on the less educated majority: the indigenous folk, Africans and those of mixed ethnicity. As can be expected, historical accounts during the nineteenth-century also reflect this Eurocentric mentality. History of this region often exemplified the worldview of the elites. It’s a classic case of the conquerors retelling the stories of the conquered. The upper class used their elitist presuppositions to exonerate any political or economic decisions that they had made. The popular conviction that history represented the aims of the elites prevailed. Historical accounts