Jaime Eyzaguirre | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1908-12-21)21 December 1908 Santiago, Chile |
| Died | 17 September 1968(1968-09-17) (aged 59) |
| Awards | Order of Isabella the Catholic Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History of Chile,Hispanic studies |
| Notable students | Gabriel Guarda Jaime Guzmán Armando de Ramón Ricardo Lagos |
Jaime Eyzaguirre (21 December 1908 – 17 September 1968) was aChilean lawyer, essayist and historian. He is variously recognized as a writer ofSpanish traditionalist orconservative[A]historiography in his country.[1][2]
Eyzaguirre was born into a religious upper-class family inSantiago. As young man he studied law in thePontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC) and was member of the Catholic student organizationAsociación Nacional de Estudiantes Católicos.[B] During his studies he was influenced by theJesuitFernando Vives and the writings ofManuel Lacunza.[2]
Eyzaguirre started to court Adriana Philippi[C] in 1929 and married her in 1934.[3]
The PUC founded its Pedagogy School (Escuela de Pedagogía) in 1943 and contracted Eyzaguirre to be in charge of the History of Chile (Historia de Chile) classes. Most of the students of the time were priests, nuns andbrothers. He was assisted byMario Góngora is some classes.[4] Apart from this part-time work Eyzaguirre was also part-time teacher at Liceo Alemán.[5]
At the Pedagogy School, Eyzaguirre metRicardo Krebs, who was also history teacher but had rather few contacts, and introduced him to the Catholic intellectual elite of Santiago.[4] His salary is reported to have been low at PUC, and when "raised., it mostly had to do with the currencyinflation that was experienced in Chile. Nevertheless, he was allowed to rent a small local owned by the Archbishopric of Santiago at a relatively low price. Here, Eyzaguirre ran a small bookshop calledEl Arbol until the late 1950s when it was closed. Despite his economic hardships he twice refused to be assigned ambassador to Spain. Eyzaguirre thought any diplomatic work he did would need to compete with his work as historian and therefore he would not be able to accomplish a dedicated work in diplomacy. At the same time, the writings ofLéon Bloy provided him with comfort about his economic hardship.[5]
His cultural and ethnic evaluation ofSpanish colonization of the Americas andmestizo result:
Because of that the Spaniard is not yet another element in the ethnic conglomerate. He is the decisive factor, the only one that could attract them all... Because of this any attempt to forget the Spanish name in these lands and oppose to him a hyperbolic renewed value of the indigenous, would go straight to attack the lifeblood that unite our peoples. Anything worthy that the ancient civilizations could have had at the moment of decadence when they faced the Spanish conquest was saved and defended by the Spaniards themselves who took with them just in time the instrument of writing, unknown to the indigenous peoples, to perpetuate the history and the traditions of the conquered ones. Whatever the Spaniards destroyed was not comparable with what they contributed with in terms of culture.[6]
A milestone in the work of Eyzaguirre was his essayO'Higgins, which won a prize in 1946 to commemorate the centenary of the death ofBernardo O'Higgins. It was the first written work that granted Eyzaguirre some income.[5] The reward helped Eyzaguirre to finance a trip to Spain in 1947.[7] The seven-month journey reinforced his leanings for Spanish heritage in his historiography.[8] In Spain, Eyzaguirre held a course on Chilean political and constitutional history atUniversidad Central de Madrid. His stay inSpain made him target of attacks in Chile from those critical ofFrancoist Spain, in particular from people associated with theNational Falange party (not to be confused with the Spanish movement). Personally, Eyzaguirre admired the stoic stance of the isolated Francoist Spain against both Soviet and Western pressure but never propagandised for Francoist Spain in Chile.[9]
For a time he was teacher ofJaime Guzmán.[10] When the journalHistoria was established in 1961 Eyzaguirre served as its first director.[11]
Generally Eyzaguirre dealt with similar topics asLewis Hanke. He despised 19th-century writers such asJosé Victorino Lastarria andDomingo Faustino Sarmiento because he considered they "ruptured" the historical links to Spain and characterized their views as "apostasy".[12]
The work of Eyzaguirre was criticized by left-wing historians.Mario Céspedes said in reference to Eyzaguirre's writings on theconquest of Chile that the conquest was a search for Indian labourers and "not a chivalrous journey". On the essayO'Higgins, Céspedes wrote that it lacked "the social and economic causes of the facts". The MarxistJulio César Jobet made a harsher criticism by accusing Eyzaguirre of "exalting backward doctrines and institutions" and undermining the influence of "French rationalist and critical thought in the development and progress of Chile".[13]
Writing in 1979Sergio Villalobos and co-workers characterized Eyzaguirre as "a kind of crusader" that tended to "deform" history. Thus they argued he was a representative ofPink legend historiography. The same authors also posit that he owed his prestige to his humble lifestyle, spruced writing and tragic death rather than to his contributions to historiography.[14]
