Liberation and awareness: the resurgence of Latin American currents

The message of liberation has become more apparent. The language of liberation has been transformed and political programs that were once just wishful thinking are beginning to have a concrete realization in Latin America.

Cl audio Chipana

The philosophy of liberation in Latin America emerged as a response to the European ways of thinking. This philosophy was established as a solution of continuity and to break away from tradition inherited from the colony which, in the words of Peruvian philosopher Augusto Salazar Bondy, was an imitative and unoriginal philosophy. The impulse and origin of this liberating philosophy was formed from the philosophers’ debate amongst Argentines, Mexicans and Peruvians, among them Arturo A. Roig, Dussel, Leopoldo Zea, Augusto Salazar Bondy and more recently Horacio Cerruti and other representatives.

Established for over forty years, they began the philosophy of liberation, which in turn started the break away from Western hegemonic thought and in its place an ideal belief was created that took into account the social environment with its resulting poverty, economic backwardness, dependency and injustice that characterized Latin America during the centuries of domination.

The idea of freedom rose from the Cuban revolution and social movements such as the struggle for land plus other political movements that shook the continent. Due to these political movements, the theory of this idea could not be detached from practice, that s to say the philosophy should cease to be an abstract and alien thought and rather should become a liberating tool.

As a consequence, American thinkers proposed a way of thinking differently, with specific categories that reflect the historical circumstance of becoming Latin American. The philosophy of liberation correlated with other currents of Latin American social thought such as dependency theory that questioned the development discourse of American capitalism as a way to get out of backwardness.

Liberation theology, an alternating current within the Latin American church was present and raised the “option for the poor” as the focus of their evangelical message. The conferences that took part in Medellín (1968) and Puebla (1972) laid the foundation for this new theology.

Many of the leaders behind these liberating currents were forced into exile or living in the shadows behind the onslaught of dictatorships and the weight of censorship.

Does the philosophy of liberation exist today? Some may believe in the obsolescence of these theories because later came the fall of the Berlin wall along with the so called “end of history”.

However, Latin America has changed and in the last decade it has seen the reaction of people to neoliberal offensive ideas. Therefore, progressive positions have not expired, on the contrary these ideas have experienced a comeback and found a new platform.

As highlighted by Enrique Dussel, the main representative of the philosophy of liberation these days, after several decades of its founding, this way of thinking is currently faced with new tasks.

We are witnessing a crisis in Western countries that is nothing more than the previous crisis of capitalism as a system. The language of liberation has been transformed and political programs that were once just wishful thinking are beginning to have a concrete realization in Latin America, however the urgency of the message of liberation has become more apparent.