University Of Arkansas Researcher Wins Fulbright Scholarship To Study Impact Of Colonialism On Latin America

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Luis Restrepo has returned to the country of his ancestors this spring, to study the impact of European colonialism on Latin American culture for nearly five centuries. He wants to know more about the cultural history of a region he describes as shaped by "coercion, violence, and unequal power relationships." In the process, literary expressions and even the way people envisioned and created the spaces in which they lived were forever changed.

Restrepo, an assistant professor of foreign languages in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has spent the spring semester in Bogotá, Colombia, as a Fulbright Scholar. He is lecturing and studying at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, a prestigious Jesuit school of 18,000 students founded in the 17^th century. In his research, he employs a cultural studies perspective to uncover the multifaceted and complex history of colonial Latin America.

"It’s easier to analyze a poem than it is to look at a whole city," said Restrepo. "Understanding Latin American culture is a task that is forcing me to learn about art, architecture, economics, politics, public health, and the history and growth of cities."

Restrepo is studying three cities in what used to be the New Kingdom of Granada, known today as Colombia: Bogotá, Tunja, and Cartagena. These cities, all founded in the mid-16^th century, have a rich multicultural history. Cartagena was once a major slave trade center, Tunja was home to an intricate Amerindian culture of the Central Andes, and Bogotá was second only to Lima, Peru, as a center of colonial power in South America.

"The history of a city is not only the story of its buildings and plazas. It’s also the story of its people, the way they experienced and recreated their urban spaces. Although some may say that urban life is much the same everywhere, there are significant differences in the way people live, construct, and imagine their cities. Rio is not Los Angeles, Tokyo or New York," said Restrepo.

As a citizen of both Colombia and the United States, Restrepo has what he terms the "split-nationality" syndrome. He was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Medellin, Colombia, the land of his family. He constantly travels back and forth between the countries, even though he knows Colombia is one of the most dangerous spots in the world today. Guerilla armies, a right wing paramilitary, and a civil war have left over 30,000 dead in just the last decade. Three university professors were killed last year.

"I cannot say that I do not fear for my safety. But I know I cannot simply turn away from the problem and live my life as if it were not occurring. I could not live with that," said Restrepo.

Present day drug trafficking, military insurgencies and counter-insurgencies, social hierarchies, and even the literature that gets read have their origins in the past, in the policies of former colonial rulers such as Phillip II of Spain. In the 1570’s, Phillip designed a project for mapping the Spanish empire, and, Restrepo said, wrote legislation about the way new cities had to be founded and organized.

In the process, natives were forced to live according to European urban patterns. Although they were integrated into the main cities, they were relegated to the arrabales, or shanty towns, on the outskirts. Only the most powerful lived in the town’s center.

"The Spaniards celebrated the aesthetic grandeur of their buildings," said Restrepo. "But this aestheticism suppresses the exploitative reality that produced it. Today Bogotá has roughly the same division of rich and poor neighborhoods. In literature, the Spanish had strict censorship policies. Many Amerindian works have survived only because they were able to circulate them clandestinely, behind inquisitive Spanish eyes."

His work will provide the basis for a bibliography as well as chapters in the next book he intends to write. In addition to his research, Restrepo is teaching a graduate seminar on colonial literature, an undergraduate course in 19^th century Latin American literature, advising students in the Modern Language Program, and offering workshops in technology and the acquisition of a second language.

"A Fulbright Scholarship provides one of the best opportunities for scholars to work on-site, often with the top experts in their fields. Dr. Restrepo, who is already a nationally recognized authority, will return to campus with research that he can apply directly to his teaching," said Raymond Eichmann, chair of the department of foreign languages.

Restrepo is a past recipient of a Fulbright College Teaching Innovation Grant and a $190,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop interactive, multilingual software on early colonial encounters in the Mississippi Valley and the Americas.

Since 1981, there have been 31 Fulbright Scholars from nearly every college and school on the UA campus, in fields as diverse as electrical engineering, agronomy, economics, English, math, law, zoology, political science, art, dance, and chemistry.