The authors of compendia and school lessons on National History and the dissemination of pro-liberal Central American historiography

Abstract

Most studies about the emergence of Central American historiography highlight its distinct pro-liberal character and attribute it to the role played by liberal governments in promoting and disseminating the first national history texts, specifically by commissioning their writing to intellectuals related to that political current. For the same reason, these texts are considered to be the official versions of past events in these countries. Although this held true in general, this article argues that in certain cases, the creation and dissemination of that pro-liberal version of history was more so the product of the individual initiative of the authors of the first compendiums or school lessons of National History, than of the State. The following pages explain that the authors of these textbooks were not always the same ones who wrote the first national history textbooks for their respective countries. This is a commonly ignored nuance that this essay presents, providing examples from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The text argues that the authors of some of these compendiums or manuals, on their own initiative, embraced and ‘took advantage of’ the possibilities offered by the State to publish and disseminate their own work.