To see in throne the noble equality. Dreaming with Rousseau in Latin América

Abstract

This article offers a brief outlining of the marks made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideas on Latin American independence processes, particularly the idea of an egalitarian freedom, which was assumed by some of the most outstanding revolutionary leaders. It was mainly so in the Rio de la Plata area, where Mariano Moreno, Bernardo de Monteagudo and José Artigas were the most illustrious and determined driving forces of Rousseau’s thinking, which, moreover, arrived relatively early in the continent, where it was persecuted by the Inquisition because of its ideas of popular sovereignty and democracy. The article also analyzes the relationship between citizenship, citizen and rights, of which gender was not excluded. Also it studies the relationship between citizenship and freedom, which was considered by Moreno as a founding principle of a new era, coherent with the emancipating project generated by rousseaunian propositions.
Finally, even when the article underlines the importance of Rousseau’s ideas in the struggle for independence and for the constitution of a new political and social order, it also underlines the short time these ideas survived. They were defeated by ideas of a more moderated order, or even more a conservative one.