“My name is Alexander Hamilton And there are a million things I haven’t done. “I am like my country, young, feisty and hungry and I am not going to waste my opportunity.” This is how the Hamilton created by Lin-Manuel Miranda is presented in an atypical work, Pulitzer Prize in 2016, which recovers the most unknown of the founding fathers of america. He did not become president but, like some of the most famous who were, the story of his life is inseparable from the narrative of USA as a country.
A few days after Donald Trump’s return to the White Housethe most presidential nation in the world needs, more than ever, to understand itself, and has begun to seek different literary paths in order to continue that irrepressible search.
They are the chosen ones of the History –and the literature– American, those who are part of the popular imagination for leading the change in the middle of the social unrestor even causing it, and paying for it with death. Like Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln y John F. Kennedy They were murdered and immediately turned into a myth, 100 years apart and with similar motives. Their biographies were already written decades ago, but the discovery is that there is still a capacity for surprise in the most recent works, due to the revelation of unpublished documents and for the inventiveness in the ways of telling it.
discover that Lincoln integrated his most staunch political enemies in his Cabinet, anticipating the civil war that was about to break out (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincolnof Doris Kearns Goodwin) or have the cards never before published Kennedy con Martin Luther Kingwho became impatient with the slow progress through the civil rightsor with the leader of the USSR Nikita Jrushchovwith whom he maintained a secret correspondence (Letters from John F. Kennedyby Martin W. Sandler) are some of the examples of how the literature It can give us back the ability to be genuine to learn what we took for granted, but no.
Against conventions
Going against almost all conventions, Miranda took the biography written by Ron Chernow and turned it into an operatic libretto that tells the story of a Hamilton who, raised in misery, “longed to be part of something greater than himself.” He wrote pamphlets to mobilize the cause of independence from the English Crown. “Why should a small island on the other side of the sea regulate the price of tea?” he asked. When the War of Independencefought and became a trusted man of Washingtonwho, when peace arrived, made him his Secretary of the Treasury.
The one who now illustrates the 10 dollar bills was also the main author of the American Constitution and a abolitionist leadertrying to make amends that he himself participated in the slave business previously. Its vital purpose was “the creation of a national feeling and the construction of a great and powerful nation from 13 discordant states,” he writes. Henry Cabot Lodgewho edited the largest collection of Hamilton’s documents. A task that would continue for many generations.
“Our founding fathers created a new nation dedicated to the promise that all men are created equal. We are now immersed in a great civil war that tests whether that nation, or any nation thus conceived, can endure for a long time,” Lincoln said in his most famous speech, barely two minutes long, in the middle of the conflict. The country was only 87 years old and already deeply divided. The north wanted abolish slavery and the south clung to it to exploit the large plantations. They feared the entry of black labor into the market and that they would eventually obtain right to vote. As with women. The white man’s acquired privileges They were in danger.
The ‘seconds’
To tell Lincoln, Goodwin also gives voice to the seconds. It opens focus to introduce us to an administration that changed the course of the country. Lincoln feared hard times and recruited those he considered the most talented politicians of the moment, although these had been his three biggest political rivals in his party’s primaries. He risked internal boycott, but he was able to befriend them, “take responsibility for his subordinates’ failures, share credit easily, and learn from mistakes,” Goodwin writes.
Convert the abolition of slavery in law It was a personal obsession of Lincoln, even more so than ending the Civil War, against the strong advice of his entire environment, political and personal. He managed to galvanize this right in the Constitution and, months later, he was assassinated.
Lincoln’s was one of the books that most influenced Obama, to the point that it served as inspiration for him to form his Cabinet
According to Obama, Lincoln’s was one of the books that most influenced him, to the point that it served as inspiration for him to form his own Cabinet, although he later denied that he saw Hillary Clinton, who was his rival in the primaries and then, as an enemy. his secretary of state. It was said of Obama that, despite his relative youth – or because of it – he had formed one of the most robust Cabinets, in addition to being the most diverse to date. Many compared him to Kennedy, who at 43 years old was the youngest US presidentdue to his young age and his charisma.
Despite coming from a respected family, the prodigal son was met with skepticism and even ridicule within his own party for his ambition. When his name began to be heard for the primaries, Eleonor Rooseveltthe ex first ladywho was then one of the most influential people in Washingtongave him advice using terms like “my dear boy, I’m only saying this for your own good,” as read in Letters from John F. Kennedy. Tough at first, she became a strong ally.
What didn’t happen
During his short term, the vietnam war He tortured Kennedy for not being able to end it, even without knowing that his successors would only make the conflict worse. Martin W. Sandlerthe editor of the epistolary compilation, emphasizes that to understand the Kennedy’s legacy We must put into perspective what could have happened but was avoided, as a nuclear warand how after his death political processes that he launched culminated. Kennedy inherited the Oval Office at the height of the Cold War and, as secret correspondence with the leader of the USSR attests, both were involved in trying to avoid the worst. “It is absurd to think that two men sitting on opposite sides of the world could decide to end civilization,” he wrote. Kruschev a Kennedy.
Kennedy missed the man’s arrival on the moon in 1969 and the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965which guaranteed the African American voting rightsa social struggle that marked his mandate. Martin Luther King wrote to the president on more than one occasion to gently pressure him to move from words to action. When Kennedy finally decided to use his presidential power and announced that he was making it illegal to prohibit entry into public or private spaces based on skin color, King sent him a telegram: “I am sure that your encouraging words will bring a feeling of hope to the millions of heartbroken people in our country. His message will become a landmark in the annals of American history.”
The 60’s decade was the most violent of American politics, but already closely followed by those of 2010 and 2020. In the last 20 years, Obama y Trump have tried to appeal to those disheartened from the well-known If possible y Let’s make America great again. They have also written two books to crystallize it. The memories before White House also Obama My Father’s Dreams: A Story of Race and Heritage (1995) are much more genuine than the later ones, A promised land (2020). Trumpfor his part, has been prolific in exploiting his more business side and the more interesting are the journalistic investigations that are about him. Many have made the attempt, but the teacher stands out Bob Woodwardwho exposed the Nixon Administration scandals in the plot of Watergate until forcing his resignation and attacking Trump in his trilogy Fear, Anger y Danger.
Recovering that hope becomes a little more difficult when the US is no longer as young a nation with everything to do, as it represented. Hamilton during the Revolution. Now he has behind him traumas that are perpetuated in inequalities who break the law. However, like everyone else, the country has maintained youth aspirations.
For this reason, Kamala Harris wanted to resurrect that illusion of change in the electoral countdown, without success. For this reason, Trump recruited a young ultra-Christian, JD Vancewho has been displaced after the triumphant entry of Elon Musk as an advisor, a foreigner without the constitutional right to become president (for the moment) and relatively young at 53 years old. Together with the incoming president, almost octogenarian, he forms a duet that tries to embody again the generational change of which the american society had been left again orphan.
