The launch of the complete works of Alberto Blest Gana (1830-1920) took place this Thursday at the Cultural Foundation of Providencia.
These are the publications of “El loco estero” (1909), “Mariluán” (1862) and “Una Escena Social” (1853), a work by the Alberto Blest Gana Foundation.
According to Miguel Laborde, director of the foundation, they proposed publishing the complete works of Alberto Blest Gana without following a chronological order, in order to be able to alternate works from his different stages and have the flexibility to select texts whose reading can be enriched by the current context.
“In this first edition, we wanted to give priority to little-known works, such as ‘Mariluán’ and ‘Una Escena Social’, which had not been published independently,” he explains.
Path
Blest Gana is considered the “father” of the Chilean novel. Son of an Irish doctor and a Chilean woman, he was a student at the National Institute and the Military School. He lived in France – where he witnessed the Revolution of 1848 – and upon returning to the country he quickly devoted himself to literature. He worked at the University of Chile and became famous with his work “Martín Rivas”.
Of liberal tendencies, he was mayor, ambassador and deputy, and wrote a large number of novels that gave rise to plays, television series and films to this day. For example, “Martín Rivas” has had three adaptations, the last one in the form of a series in 2010. Another example is the film “Los trasplantados” (1975), directed by Percy Matas. And before that, in 1968, the filmmaker Helvio Soto directed the television series “El loco estero”.
In this case, “Mariluán,” for example, is set in the city of Los Angeles in 1833, and tells the tragic fate of a young Mapuche who, trained in the Chilean army, decides to fight for the dignity of his people, according to an editorial review.
“It is interesting because it is a pioneer in addressing the Mapuche issue, their critical incorporation into the country, with all the uncertainties that this involves, such as the main character – inspired by a historical figure – who experiences the tensions of being an officer in the Chilean Army of Mapuche origin through his father and mother, a conflict that is still ongoing,” Laborde highlights.
As for “Una Escena Social”, it is Blest Gana’s first novel, and includes themes such as extramarital relationships. Its reception reflects the times: the conservative press will describe it as “a true lesson in immorality”, which, in the words of Laborde, “allows us to look into the society of the time and its taboos”.
Finally, in “El loco estero” (The Crazy Estuary), the plot revolves around the imprisonment of Don Julián, a “former captain of the Pipiolo army in the battle of Lircay.” Julián “is imprisoned in his own home due to the unfounded accusations that his sister, Doña Manuela, has made against him for financial reasons,” according to a review cited by the National Library.
Her choice for the complete works “seeks to balance the trio: it is one of Blest Gana’s classics, one of his books that are still read today, set after the Confederate War, marked by conflicts between conservatives and liberals, and where classism reflects the internal tensions of a society that was just learning to open up,” says Laborde.
Correspondence
The launch of these three novels was also preceded by the publication of the author’s correspondence from 1856 to 1916, which Laborde describes as “extraordinary.”
“It is the correspondence of a historical figure over several decades, of great writing and culture, which allows us to see crucial aspects of the era from within,” he says.
There the reader learns what the diplomatic Blest Gana will do to obtain weapons for the War of the Pacific – and observe the purchases of Peru and Bolivia -, negotiate with the Vatican the end of the privileges in a society that was becoming secularized, defend the rights of Chile in Patagonia and report on Argentina’s purchases.
He also coordinated European migrants to Chile, elucidated the risks of Orelie Antoine’s adventure as king of Araucanía and Patagonia, and negotiated the payment of the loans that Chile obtained for its independence.
“It is like witnessing major events in our history in person,” says the director of the foundation.
The “father” of the Chilean novel
When asked why Blest Gana can be considered the “father” of the Chilean novel, Laborde explains that, although he is not the author of the first, “he is recognized as having that title because he is the one who undertakes the gigantic task of fictionalizing Chile.”
This “means describing historical moments, describing the customs of the time, exercising social criticism in relation to some of them and, as a background, outlining an ideal horizon, a possible country, a better Chile. And, in the midst of all this, weaving together loves, rivalries, that keep the reader waiting to find out what will happen next.”
“If we look at it this way, his novels can be compared to great works of engineering, where everything from the structural pillars to the last bolt is important,” he says.
Validity
Today, Blest Gana, in addition to being read in secondary schools, has had multiple theatrical adaptations, films and television series, up to today. To what does Laborde attribute this relevance? What is the relevance of his work?
“As has been said, every country is an ‘imagined community.’ Beyond inequalities, possible marginalized groups, institutionalized abuses, there is a glue that satisfies that atavistic feeling of belonging, of being part of a tribe,” the director of the foundation answers.
“Artists have been decisive in these creations, which range from the music of hymns to Mexican muralism, passing through French novelists who, like Balzac, will be notable when it comes to describing the reality of customs, but also mixing it with romantic emotions to touch the public’s sensitivity, which Blest Gana also does very well.”
As for its relevance today, “in his novels we see a Chile that, partly forced by circumstances – the War of Independence, then the Confederation, at the end of the Pacific with the southern threat of Argentina – has managed to unite under the same flag and fulfilling certain rites – the Chilean Roro Festival, fondas on the 18th, Flag Day, heroes’ birthdays – which also contribute to generating an emotional climate shared by all, even if only on certain dates.”
And although much of this has lost the relevance it once had, “it remains a reference point for a possible country, a country that knew, in its own way and according to the canons of the time, how to feel integrated. And this provokes deep feelings, even though it is absent today.”
For Laborde, when Nicanor Parra produces the poem Chile that says “We believe we are a country/ and the truth is that we are just a landscape,” “he is denouncing that emptiness, which hurts him, because we may have a past but we have not known how to create a future, a dream country.”
And he quotes Charles Peguy, on the occasion of a visit to his provincial hometown, who wrote: “I have seen throughout my childhood people putting straw on chairs in exactly the same spirit and the same heart and the same hand with which those same people had built cathedrals.”
“That is an imagined community, which is not the same as an invented one; it is knowing how to discover what connects people to each other, beyond sharing the same territory,” says Laborde.
Upcoming projects
Finally, when asked about the Foundation’s upcoming projects, Laborde said that, as a major protagonist of the 19th century in Chile, both in literature and diplomacy, “Blest Gana deserves a great biography, which is a priority for the Foundation.”
“Then there is a second fundamental aspect: he did a great job of creating a national narrative in the 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time of the rise of the nation state, when it was necessary to replace the semi-divine kings, a powerful imaginary for centuries, with a civil order that, barely emerging, had no prestige,” he reflects.
“It had to be created, just as the divinity of kings had been invented, to which romanticism contributed a great deal, which speaks of the ‘soul of the people’, which seduced Blest Gana and strengthened politics and collective morality, with a mysticism and a libertarian epic; but, at present, with the collective weakened and individualism strengthened, with the consequences of corruption, these stories have lost their magic. Art and culture have always been the space where the reason for being of societies is cultivated, but culture has also lost ground and its cultivators must follow trends to survive,” he says.
For him, the example of Blest Gana is a provocation to Chileans:
“What would he do today? If the homeland has been diluted, if political parties have become blurred as guides for the masses, what is it today, in the 21st century, that can restore sociability? In person – in an annual seminar – or digitally on some platform, we aspire to offer instances where this reflection can take place,” he concludes.
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