Imagen del heroe nacional como recurso simbolico del poder en Venezuela y Mexico

Iberoamérica. 2023. No. 1. P. 152–175.

Liudmila L. Kléshchenko

The article deals with the problem of using images of national heroes in the political process based on two cases — Bolivarianism in Venezuela and Zapatism in Mexico. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the paper analyzes the features and functions of images of national heroes as political symbols. The author concludes that the images of national heroes perform the following functions in political processes: political mobilization, legitimization of power, the function of predicting victory, integration, and consolidation. The fulfillment of these functions is connected with the peculiarities of such a symbolic resource as the image of a national hero: sacredness, recognizability, sacrifice, the presence of a unifying idea, and birth in the struggle. The images of national heroes are not universal and unchangeable, they contain a large range of interpretations. Thus, the authorities use image of Simon Bolivar in Venezuela as a symbol of Latin American unity and revolutionism, and the opposition, as a symbol of freedom and democracy. In modern Mexico the image of Emiliano Zapata is most often used by the Zapatista movement to legitimize its agrarian program and its power in the territory of the state of Chiapas.

Keywords: Мексика, Венесуэла, символический ресурс, symbolic politics, символическая политика, Venezuela, Mexico, политический символ, political symbol, national symbol, national heroes, symbolic resource, Zapatism, Bolivarianism, национальный символ, национальные герои, сапатизм, боливаризм