Peregrinación de Luz del Día

In Spanish Far from being, in the author’s humbly misleading words, one of those "tales attributed to the fantasy of old women", and very close to becoming "almost a book on moral philosophy…almost a book on politics and mundaneness due to its observations" "The Pilgimage…" is a masterpiece of political thought and observations upon its practice in the real Latin American world. Dated at London in 1871, "The Pilgrimage of Daylight, or Travels and Adventures of Truth in South America" is an overwhelming warning cry that today stands amazingly actual in view of the actual Latin American political panorama. Too many Latin American scholars have fallen into the trap setup by the Argentine official historians, and consider author Juan Bautista Alberdi "just the writer of the basis upon which the Argentine Constitution of 1853 was written". However Alberdi’s genius greatly exceeds this characterization, no matter how important his contribution to the Argentine miracle growth between 1864 and 1930, that undoubtedly sprang from the 1853-60 Constitution. Being a reader of John Locke , David Hume, Alexis de Tocqueville and James Madison, it was Alberdi’s clear mind that understood the freedom implied in the American Constitution: in his words "to declare freedom is not to constitute it. It is not a matter of declaring rights no one denies, but to constitute deeds no one practices". At the time of being written "The Pilgimage…" seemed too harsh, more so taking into acccount that Argentina was starting to leap forward and project itself into the world’s top countries, For years Alberdi’s harshness was pointed out as a product of his bad temper, a resentful man resulting from his political margination –posibly a way of smearing a non compromising character–. However, seen under the light of the Argentine events after 1930, and more acutely after the so called "neoliberal" failure along all Latin America, the words Alberdi puts in the Truth’s mouth (disguised as "Daylight") sound today as a chilling omen: "Latin America will stand free only after freeing herself from her liberators" If you have not done so already, this is a book you SHOULD read in order to understand Latin American politics. More so, most probably the only way Latin America can get back to a social progress path is by making this book a mandatory reading by all its future leaders-to be.