Creole Democracy

Rufino Blanco Fombona

Rufino Blanco-Fombona, (b. June 17, 1874, Caracas, Venezuela—d. October 17, 1944, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Venezuelan literary historian and man
of letters who played a major role in bringing the works of Latin American writers to world attention. Jailed during the early years of the dictatorship
(1908–35) of Juan Vicente Gómez, Blanco-Fombona fled to Europe, where he established Editorial América in Madrid (1914), which presented Latin
American writers to the European literary world. A prolific author, he wrote poetry,short stories, novels, and essays. Of Blanco-Fombona’s vast output,
his literary essays are considered his best work. Two of hiscritical works, El modernismo y los poetas modernistas (1929; “Modernism and the
Modernist Poets”) and Camino de imperfección, diario de mi vida (1906–1913) (1929; “Road of Imperfection, Diary of My Life 1906–1913”), are
considered standard works on the Modernist movement in Spanish. Other importantworks include Letras y letrados de Hispano-América (1908;
“Letters and the Learned in Latin America”) andGrandes escritores de América (1919; “Great Writers of America”). His novel, El hombre de oro (The
Man of Gold), was published in 1912.

Creole Democracy
Pampas – the vast grassy plains of northern Argentina
Creole – a person of European descent born in the West Indies or Latin America, a person descended from French ancestors in southern United States
(especially Louisiana)
Mulatto – an offspring of a black and a white parent
Peon – drudge: a laborer who is obliged to do menial work
Salvannah – savanna: flat grassland in tropical or subtropical regions
Machete – a large heavy knife used in Central and South America as a weapon or for cutting vegetation
Vaquero – local names for a cowboy (`vaquero' is used especially in southwestern and central Texas and `buckaroo' is used especially in California)

What is the story of creole democracy?

The creole democracy is about an upcoming election in the hamlet of comoruco. the village people thought that there
is going to be a war by he election.

Creole Democracy By Rufino Blanco Fombona

Creole Democracy
Rufino Blanco Fombona

The hamlet of Camoruco stands at one of the gateways to the plains. The wagon road cuts the little settlement squarely and neatly in two, like the
parting of a dandy’s hair. Stretched out upon the savanna, the village consists of two rows of houses which stand in a file along the edge of the road and
seem to peer furtively upon the passerby. They look like a double row of sparrows upon two parallel telegraph wires. Close by flows the Guarico, an
abundant stream that irrigates the pampas; in its sand slumbers the skatefish and on its banks, with half open jaws the lazy alligators take their
noonday rest.
It was election time; a governor of the Department was to be chosen. For certain political reasons, the interest of an appreciable part of the Republic
was centered upon the contest. El faro (the lighthouse), a backwoods sheet which had been established for the occasion, declared in its opening
number: “Perhaps for the first time inCamoruco, the elections will cease to be work of a group of petty politicians; perhaps for the first time in
Camoruco the elective fabric will be woven by the unsullied hands of the people.”
The number of candidates had dwindled to two. On the eve of the election the local bosses, wealthy cattle breeders of the district, brought into the
neighboring town, which served as a business center for the shacks of the outlying settlement, herd of peons, submissive farm hands, good, simple
plainsmen ignorant of everything, even on what they were to do in the next day’s election; for these peons, rounded up like cattle, were the citizens; that
is to say, the voters. The apparel of most of them consisted of drill trousers, striped shirts; on their feet, hempen sandals; on their heads the high
crowned, wide-brimmed sombrero or the saffron-colored pelo de guma around their waist, slung diagonally like a baldric, the red and blue sash; in
their right hands, like a cane, they carried the peasant weapon-...