¡Vivan las Revoluciones!: Forming More Perfect Unions Across the Americas

FAIN: GG-271459-20

Newberry Library (Chicago, IL 60610-3305)
Karen Christianson (Project Director: January 2020 to present)

A series of public programs celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States and its role in similar events in Latin American nations.

The Newberry Library seeks an NEH Humanities Discussions grant to support “¡Vivan las Revoluciones!: Forming More Perfect Unions Across the Americas.” In a series of twelve public programs, scholars, writers, artists, and community members will explore the complex histories and ongoing legacies of the Age of Revolutions across the Americas, inaugurated by the revolution of 1776. The confluence of the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding with the bicentennial commemorations in the early 2020s of independence for many Latin American nations provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on and reevaluate the vibrant, complex shared histories of the freedom struggles of the peoples of the Americas.

Media Coverage

"‘¡Viva la Libertad!’ Explores Independence Across Americas" (Media Coverage)
Author(s): WTTW
Publication: WTTW Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices
Date: 12/9/2021
Abstract: 7/3/2021
URL: https://video.wttw.com/video/newberry-library-latin-revolution-exhibit-3seryw/

Associated Products

¡Viva la Libertad! (Web Resource)
Title: ¡Viva la Libertad!
Author: Newberry Library
Abstract: Website for the project, ¡Viva la Libertad! Forming More Perfect Unions Across the Americas, including pages for each public program, a related exhibition, digital resources for teachers, students, and the general public, and information about the project.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://digital.newberry.org/libertad/
Primary URL Description: ¡Viva la Libertad! website

¡Viva la Libertad! Opening Event (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: ¡Viva la Libertad! Opening Event
Abstract: This two-part virtual event that explored the current state of scholarship on the Age of Revolutions in the Americas. Six scholars, experts in independence struggles during this period in the United States, Haiti, Mexico, and South America, surveyed the state of historical understanding and the most pressing questions currently under debate in their fields, while also providing a holistic approach to the intellectual and economic currents motivating these struggles. The first panel featured Alfredo Ávila-Rueda, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Eric Slauter, University of Chicago; and Caitlin Fitz, Northwestern University. Speakers for the second panel were Laurent Dubois, University of Virginia; Keila Grinberg, University of Pittsburgh; and Cristina Soriano, Villanova University. Both panels were moderated by Will Hansen.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 4/24/2021
Location: Virtual Public Program
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPzsCeS43pI
Primary URL Description: Video recording of ¡Viva la Libertad! Opening Event

¡Viva la Libertad! Virtual Exhibition Tour (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: ¡Viva la Libertad! Virtual Exhibition Tour
Abstract: English-language virtual tour of the exhibition ¡Viva la Libertad! Latin America and the Age of Revolutions, held at the Newberry April 2 through July 24, 2021, presented by exhibit curator Will Hansen.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 4/2/2021
Location: Virtual Tour
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGtc_kefv64
Primary URL Description: ¡Viva la Libertad! Virtual Exhibition Tour

Visita virtual: ¡Viva la Libertad! (in Spanish) (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Visita virtual: ¡Viva la Libertad! (in Spanish)
Abstract: Spanish-language virtual tour of the exhibition ¡Viva la Libertad! Latin America and the Age of Revolutions, held at the Newberry April 2 through July 24, 2021, presented by Ayer Librarian Analú López.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 4/2/2021
Location: Virtual Tour
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57vjglI8d00
Primary URL Description: Visita virtual: ¡Viva la Libertad! (in Spanish)

Revolutions Across Borders (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Revolutions Across Borders
Abstract: How did issues of borders, boundaries, and jurisdictions play out during the Age of Revolutions 200 years ago? The history of borderlands—from Argentina to Brazil, and Mexico up to Canada—is riddled with questions about immigration, labor practices, Indigenous rights, the arms trade, resource extraction, and cartography. In this program, scholars Brian DeLay, University of California, Berkeley; Jordana Dym, Skidmore College; and Mónica Ricketts, Temple University, explored this history, and how these issues continue to shape our world today.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 6/15/2021
Location: Virtual Public Program
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KecN_j7hVvA
Primary URL Description: Video recording of Revolutions Across Borders program

Women and the Revolutionary Age (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Women and the Revolutionary Age
Abstract: Throughout the Western Hemisphere in the Age of Revolutions, women played essential roles in independence movements. In this program, Patricia Galeana, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Sarah C. Chambers, University of Minnesota; and Zara Anishanslin, University of Delaware, shared stories of remarkable women who actively engaged in intellectual debate, community and political organizing, legal challenges, and even military conflict. For this program some presenters spoke in English and some in Spanish; simultaneous interpretation was available for both languages on Zoom.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 9/28/2021
Location: Virtual Public Program
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG5ImNwmW8w
Primary URL Description: Video recording of Women and the Revolutionary Age program

Territory, Land, Identity: A Conversation with Artist Fernando Martí (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Territory, Land, Identity: A Conversation with Artist Fernando Martí
Abstract: A video conversation between the curator of the exhibition, ¡Viva la Libertad!, Newberry Curator of Americana Will Hansen, and artist Fernando Martí, whose work appeared in the exhibit.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 6/4/2021
Location: Virtual Program
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW28k7PB4KA
Primary URL Description: Territory, Land, Identity: A Conversation with Artist Fernando Martí

Digital Collection for the Classroom: Latin American Independence in the Age of Revolutions (Web Resource)
Title: Digital Collection for the Classroom: Latin American Independence in the Age of Revolutions
Author: Will Hansen
Abstract: Between 1775 and 1850, most of the colonies in the Western Hemisphere declared and successfully won their independence from the European monarchies of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, and France. This era of European and American history is generally thought to begin with the Revolutionary War to found the United States of America and end with number of European efforts for democratic reforms in 1848, and is often referred to as the “Age of Revolutions." In the American colonies formerly held by Spain and Portugal - what we now refer to as Latin America - colonists claimed independence in a series of military and political struggles between 1808 and 1825. White elites of Spanish descent in the colonies protested the demands and constraints of the imperial states, particularly the taxes and other economic burdens imposed by the colonial powers on their colonies, and the lack of opportunities in colonial administration. These complaints converged with ideas of Enlightenment thinkers about freedom, progress, and representative government, and the examples of the revolutions in the United States, France, and Haiti, to form independence movements. They also resonated with many members of oppressed and marginalized populations, including enslaved people, people of color, the Indigenous, the poor, and almost all women - many of whom joined the struggles for independence. By 1836, the former Latin American colonies of Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Bolivia had gained independence from Spain; Brazil from Portugal; and Uruguay from Brazil. That year, Spain formally renounced all claims to these lands. Cuba and Puerto Rico would remain Spanish colonies until the Spanish-American War of 1898; in the Dominican Republic, the fight for independence from Spain and from Haiti continued into the 1860s.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://dcc.newberry.org/?p=18337
Primary URL Description: Digital Collection for the Classroom: Latin American Independence in the Age of Revolutions

The Art in Race in Revolutions (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Art in Race in Revolutions
Abstract: Visual art played a major role in expressing the values of revolutions from the United States to South America. Works of art both reinforced and challenged the racial hierarchies (or castes) that these revolutions struggled against. Examples include Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre identifying Crispus Attucks as one of its victims as well as the casta paintings of colonial Latin America, which illustrate different racial mixtures resulting from unions between Spaniards and Native peoples. In this program held at the National Museum of Mexican Art, photographer, printmaker, and installation artist Delilah Montoya conversed with curator Mia Lopez to explore the intersection of art, race, and revolution across the Americas.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 04/30/2022
Location: National Museum of Mexican Art
Primary URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0S6BfmRnk
Primary URL Description: The Art in Race in Revolutions public program

Slavery and Emancipation in the Age of Revolutions (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Slavery and Emancipation in the Age of Revolutions
Abstract: Slavery was abolished in Brazil on May 13, 1888, marking the official end of legal slavery in the Western hemisphere. Scholars Celso Thomas Castilho, Marcela Echeverri Muñoz, and Chernoh Sesay Jr., discussed controversies over the role of Indigenous and African enslaved peoples in the formation of new nations and governments throughout the Western Hemisphere. They examined choices of the period regarding rights, liberties, and citizenship of formerly enslaved peoples, and how the repercussions of these decisions extend to the present day.
Author: Newberry Library
Date: 05/12/2022
Location: Newberry Library
Primary URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWEWYFKVKiU
Primary URL Description: Slavery and Emancipation in the Age of Revolutions public program

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