Jairo Campuzano-Hoyos

Este artículo examina la trayectoria y el legado de Alejandro Echavarría Isaza, empresario y filántropo colombiano que actuó durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y las primeras décadas del XX. La primera parte destaca el papel de la familia como unidad empresarial en la que creció y se formó su carácter. Con su padre como iniciador de una tradición de hacer negocios a través de empresas familiares, Alejandro y su hermano mayor se convirtieron en empresarios y aumentaron el patrimonio familiar por la misma vía. De forma independiente y como socio de diferentes sociedades mercantiles, Alejandro participó en múltiples empresas bancarias, comerciales, de transporte e industriales. Una de ellas fue la mayor empresa textil de Colombia del siglo pasado: Coltejer. La segunda parte ilustra su actuación bajo un esquema de valores cristianos, propios del entorno social en el que creció, que lo llevó a implementar diversas obras filantrópicas como el Hospital San Vicente de Paul. En este empe...

did not and that the intellectual movement that Bergel describes was rather a regionwide affair. Much of the book in fact deals less with Argentina than with Buenos Airesbased intellectuals, not all of whom were Argentine. Chapter  also underlines that ‘inverted Orientalism emerged closely linked to the latinoamericanismo of the period’ (p. ) in that both were interlocked with an anti-imperial impetus. Rather indirectly, then, the book also tells us something about how Argentina became a part of Latin America. In sum, this is an inspiring, well-researched an elegantly written study of a hitherto neglected subject, which will surely redirect the way in which we think about Argentine intellectual history. It further benefits greatly from its author’s agnosticism towards the narcissism of the little differences between different intellectual-history ‘schools’. Bergel’s analysis of the material conditions facilitating the discourse he examines therefore ties seamlessly into the thrust of an interesting and compelling argument.

By Jairo A. Campuzano-Hoyos Historians have often framed the historiography of nineteenth-century Colombia around relatively homogeneous, identifiable groups and their ideological struggles, labeling them accordingly after the foundation of the Liberal and Conservative parties in 1849. However, during the second half of the nineteenth century, factionalism rather than consistency characterized these groups’ members and politics, particularly the Liberal party. Thus, although the way Colombians conceived of progress was to some extent linked with ideological principles, the traditional conservative-liberal dichotomy does not work to circumscribe a group of scattered Colombians looking for models of material progress in a global perspective. To a degree, simple references to the classic Liberal– Conservative dichotomy serves to obscure more than it reveals about how Colombians and Latin Americans overall thought in the nineteenth century. This dissertation examines a large body of kno...

Colombians were not isolated during the last third of the nineteenth century. Transportation difficulties that slowed the movement of people and goods-a particularly challenging issue in the Andean region-proved less of a hindrance for the movement of ideas. Many intellectuals, seeking knowledge about Latin America's latest progress, worked diligently to promote the spread and understanding of global ideas among fellow Colombians. They looked to learn from republics in the region, with whom they also developed mutually beneficial intellectual and material relationships. Colombian intellectuals, many of whom played a decisive role in diplomatic postings abroad, facilitated this circulation of ideas within Colombia.

This article examines the technological origins and changes of the Colombian fique (henequen) industry throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It argues that the industry was established and reached significant levels of growth, in part due to the input of Colombian intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and scientists who examined global developments, disseminated useful knowledge, and sought to adapt suitable crops, practices, and technologies to Colombia’s particular needs, settings, and social traits. These individuals looked mainly at Mexico. This history challenges the traditional assumption that Latin American countries generally developed a technological dependence on the North Atlantic nations. Mid-nineteenth-century Mexican inventions turned out to be particularly useful to Colombians seeking to foster small productive units in rural areas. The Colombian fique industry developed initially as “patrimonio de los pobres” (“heritage of the poor”). Attempts to introduce sophisticated, expensive technologies proved futile.

This article argues that New Granadian and Colombian leaders examined models of material and intellectual progress in the United States and in their neighboring countries within the hemisphere. For many Spanish-Americans, the material progress already achieved by the United States and the North Atlantic overall was an idealized end, and they looked at some U.S. institutions as potential templates. As for the means to meet such an idealized end, influential people in New Granada and Colombia found among their neighboring countries a more pragmatic set of experiences that would help them foster progress in their own right. Over the second half of the nineteenth century, and more actively when turning into the twentieth, some Colombian leaders sought to follow the example of countries such as Argentina, one of the front-runners of Latin American contemporary progress.

Es este un breve recorrido por la vida de Juan Gonzalo Restrepo Londono,quien ademas de tener la fortuna de crecer en el seno de una familia tradicional antioquena, fue haciendose portador de invaluables conocimientos que le permitirian engranarse exitosa mente en la maquinaria empresarial colombiana durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. La institucion de la familia, el conocimiento del entorno natural y social, y una marcada propension al servicio de los intereses regionales, seran, entre otros, los elementos que caractericen y hagan comprensible las ejecutorias de este empresario multifacetico e innovador.

Las regiones y la historia empresarial. Editado por: Grupo de Historia Empresarial EAFIT
Autores:
Mario Cerutti Pignat
Carlos Dávila L. de Guevara
Juan Carlos López Díez
Víctor Álvarez Morales
Javier Santiago Ortiz Correa
Rodrigo de J. García Estrada
Ricardo Gaviria Cock
Adolfo Meisel Roca
Juan Carlos Jurado Jurado
Luis Aurelio Ordóñez Burbano
Beatriz Patiño Millán

Tocando fibras es una contribución a la historia económica y empresarial de Colombia desde una perspectiva particular: la producción de fique en Antioquia, una industria innovadora, esencialmente rural y con base en pequeñas unidades productivas de familias campesinas y pueblerinas, más que en grandes empresarios agrícolas y sus industrias. Examina la historia de esta industria en el departamento desde tiempos prehispánicos hasta el último cuarto del siglo XX, cuando el polipropileno y otras innovaciones petroquímicas reemplazaron gran parte de los productos que tradicionalmente eran elaborados con cabuya, y se concentra en la primera mitad del siglo XX para mostrar cómo el desarrollo de esta industria en el departamento estuvo determinado por cuatro aspectos: la expansión de la actividad exportadora cafetera, la experimentación científica in situ, el estímulo de la actividad inventiva local y la valoración de experiencias que países vecinos como México venían realizando con el henequén y su beneficio desde mediados del siglo XIX. Presenta también cómo el fique y la cabuya han estado presentes en algunas manifestaciones culturales antioqueñas. Recoge entonces, el origen, apogeo y posterior declive que el cultivo del fique y las manufacturas con cabuya tuvieron en Antioquia y el impacto que esto ocasionó en los miles de campesinos que se dedicaron a esta actividad hasta los años setenta del siglo XX.