Ante Los Barbaros. Los Estados Unidos y la Guerra [Before the Barbarians. The United States and the War.]
- Title:
- Ante Los Barbaros. Los Estados Unidos y la Guerra [Before the Barbarians. The United States and the War.]
- Alternate Title:
- Before the Barbarians. The United States and the War.
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Miti
- Date:
- 1918
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2357.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2357_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Imperialism
Pictorial
Politics & Government
World War I
Satirical - Measurement:
- 20 x 13 page (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map of the United States as an octopus strangling Latin America was the cover of a vitriolic work by Jose Maria Vargas Vila, a radical poet, novelist, journalist and political polemicist.
Vargas Vila was born and raised in Colombia but spent most of his adult life in political exile. While living for a short while in New York, he founded a well-regarded political journal, Némesis, devoted to attacks on American colonialism and Latin American dictatorships. Those two targets converged in November of 1903 when - in the classic instance of gunboat diplomacy - President Roosevelt sent warships to provide decisive support for the separatist movement in the Colombian “Department of Panama.” The U.S. immediately recognized the new, independent Republic of Panama, which in turn (and within days) granted the U.S. rights to build and administer the canal. “‘I took the Canal Zone,’ Roosevelt later boasted.” Goodwin 2013, 427. Vargas Vila responded with an article in Némesis entitled "Ante Los Bárbaros," which attacked all three nations with such fury that he was forced out of the United States. González Espitia 2007.
In 1918, while living in Barcelona, Vargas Vila published a “corrected and augmented,” book-length paperback version of the earlier article, updated (among other things) to attack the U.S. for its role in World War I. (Ante Los Barbaros. Los Estados Unidos y la Guerra. El Yanki; He Ahi el Enemigo.) This map is the cover illustration. A slightly revised version of the map, without the artist’s signature, was used on the dust jacket of a “definitive edition” of the same work published in Barcelona in 1930.
The octopus is a persistent trope in persuasive cartography. It first appeared in Frederick Rose's "Serio-Comic War Map For The Year 1877," ID #2272, about the Russo-Turkish War. "Once Fred W. Rose had created the 'Octopus' map of Europe, it proved difficult to rid propaganda maps of them." Barber 2010, 164. "The prevalence of the octopus motif in later maps suggests that the octopus also spoke to humanity's primeval fears, evoking a terrifying and mysterious creature from the depths (the dark outer places of the world) that convincingly conjured a sense of limitless evil." Baynton-Williams 2015, 180.
The collection includes numerous maps - from Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Latin America, the Netherlands and the U.S. - employing the octopus motif. (Search > “octopus”.) Many of these relate to imperialism and war, from 1877 to the Cold War. Others attack social and political targets, including a "reactionary" journalist, the Standard Oil monopoly, “Landlordism,” mail order houses, Jews and Mormons.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Vargas Vila, José María. 1918. Ante Los Barbaros. Los Estados Unidos y la Guerra [Before the Barbarians. The United States and the War], 2d ed., corrected and augmented. Barcelona: Imprenta de José Anglada.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.