Andrés Bello was a towering figure in nineteenth-century Latin America, as influential and as famous there as Thomas Jefferson is in the United States. Poet, politician, educator, essayist, philosopher, he wielded astonishing influence and played a major role in shaping the national identities of newly independent Latin American countries. He held several key government positions, authored Chile's civil code, launched several periodicals, wrote prodigiously on a vast array of subjects, and implemented important educational reforms. Available here in English for the first time, the Selected Writings of Andrés Bello, edited by Iván Jaksic, gathers wide-ranging selections that explore such subjects as grammar and philology, constitutional reform, the aims of education, international relations, historiography, Latin and Roman Law, government and society, and many others. The Selected Writings of Andrés Bello gives us a generous sampling of a gifted thinker who must be included in any understanding of the origins and development of Latin America.

Life of Bolivar Sim6n Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 24, 1783, and died in Santa Marta, Colombia, on December 17, 1830. His life was relatively brief, but it was crowded with many activities, many hardships, many re verses, and many accomplishments. He is now revered as the Liberator of five Latin American countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. A descendant of a distinguished Creole family that originated in Biscay, Spain, the young Bolivar was orphaned at an early age and was cared for by his uncle, Carlos Palacios. As was customary, tutors were employed to edu cate the young boy. One of these was Andres Bello, later to become a distin guished scholar. Another was Sim6n Rodriguez, who was particularly influ enced by Rousseau and other eighteenth century philosophers. Later the young BoHvar was sent to Spain to continue his education. There he met Maria Teresa Rodriguez del Toro, whom he married in 1802. Bolivar and his bride returned to Caracas, where she died of yellow fever in 1803. Boli var never remarried. Returning to Europe, Bolivar went to Spain and then to France. There he found that Napoleon, the former republican, had proclaimed himself Em peror of the French. After a trip to Italy, Bolivar returned to Caracas in 1807 by way of several cities in the United States.

The author, one of the most influential Latin Americanists in the US, has published a number of books, but none display the importance of her work in literary criticism, cultural studies and marxist and feminist theory as successfully as this collection o

Latin American Constitutions provides a comprehensive historical study of constitutionalism in Latin America from the independence period to the present, focusing on the Constitution of Cádiz, a foundational document in Latin American constitutionalism. Although drafted in Spain, it was applied in many regions of Latin America, and deputies from America formed a significant part of the drafting body. The politicization of constitutionalism reflected in Latin America's first moments proved to be a lasting legacy evident in the legal and constitutional world of the region today: many of Latin America's present challenges to establishing effective constitutionalism can be traced to the debates, ideas, structures, and assumptions of this text. This book explores the region's attempts to create effective constitutional texts and regimes in light of an established practice of linking constitutions to political goals and places important constitutional thinkers and regional constitutions, such as the Mexican Constitution of 1917, into their legal and historical context.