The costumbrista sketch

By any account the history of nineteenth-century Spanish America appears as a relentless panorama of upheaval. After gaining independence from Spain, the former colonies endured a long process of ideological and territorial fragmentation. Frail republics emerged everywhere, soon to be split up by the vicious struggles caused by caudillos and local bosses. Quite suddenly this conglomeration of independent territories faced the need to view itself as a community of nations, linked by similar institutions and a common history. Yet in those initial days of turmoil they did not find it easy to think in terms of covenants and solidarity. Chile and Brazil managed to consolidate relatively stable political systems but such was not the case in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and other new republics. Cuba and Puerto Rico were still lagging behind as colonial possessions. The disruptions set in motion by independence were aggravated by the territorial ambitions of foreign powers. In 1833 England occupied the Malvinas Islands; in the 1840s the United States divested Mexico of half its territory and in the early 1860s France sought to control what was left of the impoverished Mexican republic.

Predictably, the widespread turbulence reigning in nineteenth-century Spanish America is reflected in the political discourse and literary output of that period. The early novels, and, above all, the massive flow of texts produced by the costumbristas offer striking descriptions of societies besieged by uncertainties and political violence. The costumbristas practiced “the sketch of customs and manners.”