El Burke de América del Sur: figuraciones heroicas y operaciones políticas de Manuel Moreno en Vida y Memorias del Dr. Don Mariano Moreno

Abstract

In the Argentine imaginary, Mariano Moreno is the indisputable leader of the «Jacobin» wing of Argentine Revolution. This link with the French Terror was used while Moreno was alive to criticize his political measures and to remove him from the Junta of Buenos Aires, something that became a fact with his departure to London and his death at sea in 1811. His brother, Manuel Moreno, wrote from the English capital Vida y Memorias del Dr. Don Mariano Moreno (1812), in order to vindicate his figure and to promote economic and political ties with Britain. The biographer’s intention is to bring Moreno closer to a moderate posture that could be attractive to the British eye; therefore, he uses a comparison between his brother and Edmund Burke, the anti-Jacobin par excellence. By considering this intention, the article aims to analyze the biography’s narrative strategies and political operations that make of Moreno a civic hero, whose tragic and premature death brings him near to the figure of the romantic individual. In addition, it would be inquired in which ways Manuel Moreno seeks to mitigate the negative connotations of the American revolutions, with a view to the reception of River Plate and British publics.

Keywords

• burke
• civil hero
• jacobinism
• moreno
• revolution