The Political Language of Virtue and People’s Guidelines (Cali, 1945-1950)

Abstract

This work analyzes one of the strategies used by political elites in a Colombian city (Cali) during the mid-twentieth century in order to maintain and redefine their privileged place in society. It inquires about the conditions underlying the construction of a political vocabulary revolving around morality and virtue. Starting with the problematic definition of “the people” —as sovereign of democracy and delegate of sovereignty and political legitimacy—, we argue that the peculiarities of the Colombian political system can be better understood by using historiographical perspectives that recover the historicity of language. After reviewing local newspapers, municipal council archives and other printed sources, we recognized the configuration of a “moral language” through which local politicians legitimized their privileged position in regard to new social sectors and emerging political practices. The identity of “the people”, problematic subject and actor, was defined from an elaborated rhetoric fed by diverse daily life elements and configured through documentary records. Thus, moral references addressed by political ruling groups shaped a particular language that redefined the spaces occupied by other social groups. The identification and analysis of a specific political vocabulary in the 1940s allows us, firstly, to reconsider the traditional periodization of twentieth century Colombian political history, and secondly, to question partisan divisions (liberal-conservative) as core elements in the analysis of cultural and political transformations in the mid-twentieth century —dominant topics in a traditional historiographical approach—. Finally, this study leads us to think about more universal problems that bring the political sphere closer to intellectual history.

Keywords

• political language
• virtue
• the people
• imaginaries
• practices