Rafael Barrett

Rafael Ángel Jorge Julián Barrett y Álvarez de Toledo (1876–1910) was a Spanish journalist and writer, and a major figure in 20th century Paraguayan literature.

Biography

Rafael Barrett was born on 7 January 1876, in the Cantabrian city of Torrelavega; he was the son of the Englishman George Barrett and Carmen Alvarez de Toledo, whose family had distant links to the Spanish nobility. In his early life, Barrett studied languages and learned how to play the piano. He began a degree in engineering at university in Madrid, which he did not complete. When he was 26 years old, he moved to Latin America, where he sought to engage with causes for social justice.Template:Sfn

In 1903, Barrett settled in the Buenos Aires, Argentina,Template:Sfnm where he worked as a journalist. For El Diario Español, he wrote of the extreme class stratification he witnessed in the Argentine capital, declaring: "At that moment I understood the greatness of the anarchist’s cause, and came to admire the magnificent joy with which dynamite thunders and cracks the vile human anthill."Template:Sfn His writings were quickly circulated by the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA).Template:Sfn He was dismissed by the paper's editor soon after.Template:Sfn During this period, he also joined the local mathematicians' union. On 6 October 1903, he sent a number of his formulas to the French mathematician Henri Poincaré.Template:Sfn

The following year, he moved to Paraguay, where he worked as a correspondent for El Tiempo. He arrived in time to witness the Liberal Revolution of 1904, which saw the rise of the Liberal Party to power. Barrett befriended the liberal leader Benigno Ferreira, who appointed him as director of the country's engineering department and secretary of the national railway agency. But when he witnessed pervasive political corruption and the widespread exploitation of labour under the liberal government, he resigned from all his posts. In 1906, Barrett married Francisca López Maíz, a relative of the former Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano López.Template:Sfn

Barrett soon became a thought leader in the Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation (FORP).Template:Sfn He was the keynote speaker at the FORP's first conference,Template:Sfnm where he addressed the issue of land reform.Template:Sfn On 2 August 1908, Barrett founded the journal El Germinal, which became the main publication of the Paraguayan anarchist movement.Template:Sfn By this time, a political crisis within the ruling Liberal Party had culminated in a coup d'état by Emiliano González Navero, whose administration initiated a crackdown against the labor movement.Template:Sfn Several trade union activists were deported during this period, including Barrett himself.Template:Sfnm

Under the order of the liberal military leader Albino Jara, on 11 October 1908, Barrett was expelled from Paraguay to Brazil. He then headed onto Montevideo, in Uruguay, where he arrived on 5 November 1908. There he wrote for the newspapers Template:Ill and Template:Ill, as well as the Argentine magazine Caras y Caretas. His work was well received by contemporary Uruguayan intellectuals, including Template:Ill, Emilio Frugoni, José Enrique Rodó and Carlos Vaz Ferreira.Template:Sfn Even in exile, he continued to publish critiques of the Paraguayan yerba maté companies and Liberal Party.Template:Sfn He also became involved in the Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation (FORU), which had been founded in 1905.Template:Sfn

By 1909, Barrett's health was declining due to tuberculosis, which was worsened by the humid Uruguayan climate. Early that year, he left for the Argentine city of Corrientes and then briefly returned to Paraguay. As his health continued to deteriorate, in September 1910, he returned to Europe to seek treatment. On 17 December 1910, Barrett died in the Gascon city of Arcachon.Template:Sfn

Political philosophy

Barrett was drawn towards anarchism during his time in Buenos Aires, where he began advocating for direct action against social injustice. He had a non-doctrinaire conception of socialism and avoided participating in political sectarianism, instead calling for cooperation between anarchists and Marxists against capitalism. He opposed determinism and upheld free will, inspired by the vitalism of Henri Bergson and the idealism of Pío Baroja. Although he had a critical and ironic approach in his writing, Barrett believed in the imminence of a social revolution.Template:Sfn Barrett also advocated for indigenous rights in South American countries.Template:Sfn

Legacy

Barrett left a large legacy on the history of Paraguayan literature, with Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos described Barrett as the "discoverer of Paraguayan social reality", while Vaz Ferreira described him as "one of our most sympathetic and noble literary figures".Template:Sfn During the 1930s, his complete works were published by the Argentine anarchist publication Template:Ill. A second edition was published in 1959 by Editorial América. A more comprehensive edition of Barrett's complete works, which included a number of his unpublished articles, was published by R. P. Ediciones in 1990.Template:Sfn

External links

• "My Anarchism" by Rafael Barrett
• RafaelBarrett.net, obras de Rafael Barrett
• Barrett, estudio, biografía, bibliografía y textos selectos de Barrett
• Rafael Barrett y la condición humana, estudio del pensamiento de Barrett por Francisco Corral
• Obra
• Evocación de Rafael Barrett Álvarez de Toledo
• A partir de ahora el combate será libre, recopilación de artículos de Rafael Barrett prologados por Santiago Alba Rico
• El pensamiento de Rafael Barrett: un "joven del 98" en el Río de la Plata, by Francisco Corral
• Rafael Barrett, textos de y sobre
• Template:Librivox author