Community of the faithful or community of citizens? Colombian travel journals from the XIX century

Abstract

This article is a comparative analysis of two travel narratives written by two Hispanic American writers: Viaje a la Tierra Santa (1870), by Fray Vicente Cuesta, and Viajes de un colombiano en Europa (1862), by José María Samper. The analysis focuses on the way they build up their subjectivities, (one of them as a catholic, the other as a citizen), and on the type of communities they want their republics to be. The context of this analysis is not only national Hispanic American history: these texts are also to be read and located in the scenario of the religious community whose center is Rome and in the scenario of the 19th century modern empires, and specifically in the English empire.