SOURCE: "Primitivism in Latin American Fiction," in The Ibero-American Enlightenment, edited by A. Owen Aldridge, University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 243-55.

In the following essay, Virgillo examines the distorted image of the Native American in romantic Latin American literature of the nineteenth century.

L'enfant de la nature abhorre l'esclavage;
Implacable ennemi de toute authorité,
Il s'indigne du joug; la contrainte l'outrage;
Liberté c'est son voeu; son cri c'est liberté.
Au mépris des liens de la société,
Il réclame en secret son antique apanage.
Les Éleuthéromanes—1772

These lines, written over two centuries ago, on the eve of the French Revolution, upheld the Indian as the product of a happy primeval society—a tangible dream for the freedom-starved European who longed to cut the bonds of social injustice. Today it is difficult to think of anybody who has been more abused and enjoys less autonomy than...