Camilo Yanquificado
Lenkersdorf, Karl
The church in Latin America has become a focus of attention as it generates movements of radical dissent and revolutionary action. Camilo Torres, a priest who turned revolutionary and was killed...
...The following essays have been completely eliminated...
...STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (Act of October 23, 1962: Section 4369, Title 39 USC) Date of Filing: October 1, 1970 Title of Publication: NACLA Newsletter Frequency of Issue: Monthly, except May-June and July-August, when published bimonthly...
...On one hand Torres shows how a minority power elite controls all the channels of social mobility be they economic, cultural, political, administrative, military or eclesiastical...
...The underprivileged masses became conscious of their situation and got organized as a counter-society with its own channels of social mobility, new values and new rules...
...It does not only produce counterviolence but it generates among the masses a new social order and consciousness independent from the repressive social system...
...Why was this insight withheld from the North American reader...
...For Torres the repression in his country is not only similar to McCarthyism but has its final roots in U.S...
...A similar deradicalization of Camilo Torres can be observed in other cases...
...The reader is, rather, left with the mistaken belief that he has the translation of the collected writings of Camilo Torres before him as they were originally published in Spanish...
...To my knowledge none of them approaches the depth of Torres' analysis...
...Platform for a People's Mass Movement...
...This mutilated paper with no indication whatever of the parts omitted loses all resemblance to one of the most brilliant social analyses by Camilo Torres...
...Location of Known Office of Publication: 160 Claremont, New York, New York 10027 Location of the Headquarters or General Business Offices of the Publishers: 2728 Durant, 310, Berkeley, California 94704 Names and Addresses of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor: Published, Edited and Managed by Fred Goff, 2728 Durant, 0310, Berkeley, California 94704 Owner: Owned by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc., a non-profit membership corporation with no stockholders...
...Bogota, Preindustrial City...
...Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning I percent or m6re of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None Extent and Nature of Circulation: A B Total No...
...Camilo Torres refers to a "secret McCarthyist society" and also to the "McCarthyist phenomenon...
...In addition every student of Colombia knows of the importance of the Violencia in the 40's and SO's24 during which between 100,000 and 300,000 people were killed...
...103...
...In it Camilo Torres attempted to give greater precision to his organizing a people's movement with particular emphasis on the participation of workers and the goals of his revolutionary movement...
...On another occasion Camilo Torres asserts, "The repressive policy which the United States imposed upon the Colombian government could not allow 'suspect' areas, even though they may have been peaceful...
...In this particular case I cannot avoid giving the Spanish original...
...Likewise, the repression of the extended speech to workers is indicative...
...Why is the American reader not confronted with this side of Camilo Torres' thought which he shares with other Latin American revolutionaries and in which he shows his insight into the roots of the power structure of his society...
...No matter what the reasons were for these changes they minimize the influence of the United States on Colombia as Camilo Torres sees and expresses it very clearly...
...Part I deals with the problematic relationship of theological evaluation and sociological analysis...
...The two suppressed major sections deserve particular attention...
...Robert Olsen and Linda Day (New York: Herder and Herder, Inc., 1969...
...The Priest is a Magician...
...Actually, one is tempted to speculate about the reasons for the omissions particularly in light of changes introduced by the translators...
...It cannot be maintained that these articles have been eliminated because they repeat ideas expressed in the other writings...
...foreign policies on Latin America...
...At that stage of his development Christian morality made Torres oppose violence...
...Books and articles have been written to explain the Violencia and to find some meaning in this butchering...
...The translators opt for an approximation to a former title of the paper, presented at a convention in Belgium, and speak of "The Christian Apostolate and Economic Programming" (p...
...Yet as a sociologist he could not help seeing violence as an important factor of social change...
...Address to Workers...
...This is an invaluable insight into the workings of any society in which repressive violence in the name of law and order is the order of the day...
...of Copies Printed 1,800 2,000 Paid Circulation 1. Sales through Dealers, Carriers...
...188), "With the United States advising a cut-back, the leaders of the Colombian government claimed they could not allow 'suspect' areas to be left unwatched, even though they may have been peaceful...
...100 and 150...
...For instance, he published an article entitled, "Revolution, Christian Imperative...
...Violence unleashed by the same elite, divided in itself, produced, on the other hand, unforeseen results...
...His writings were made available to the public in English -- Camilo Torres, Revolutionary Writings, trans...
...La politica represiva de los Estados Unidos impuesta a sus gobernantes, los gobernantes colombianos, no podia permitir zonas 'sospechosas' aunque fueran pacificas...
...Let us look at some outstanding examples...
...Street Vendors and Counter Sales 25 100 2. Mail Subscriptions 1,315 1,485 Total Paid Circulation 1,340 1,55 Free Distribution (including samples) 100 125 Total Distribution 1,440 1,710 Office Use, Left-Over, Unaccounted and Spoiled After Printing 360 290 Total 1,800 2,000 = Average Number of Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months B = Actual Number of Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date...
...Camilo Torres, a priest who turned revolutionary and was killed in guerrilla action in 1966, became one of the outstanding spokesmen of a Christian revolutionary movement...
...Special consideration is required, finally, for his essay entitled "Violence and the SocioRural Changes in Rural Colombian Areas...
...In other words, repressive violence from above contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction...
...The deleted part III focuses on "Variables Proper to Rural Societies of Underdeveloped Countries...
...The translators replace the title with "The Problems of Rural Society" and reduce the article by two thirds...
...It is understandable to omit parts II and III of "The Standard of Living in Bogota" because, as the original French manuscript got lost, the mistakes, particularly among the statistical data, cannot be corrected...
...The remaining substantial omissions, however, cannot be explained the same way...
...In the English version we read (p...
...It is this same elite based mainly on its economic power which produces frustration and latent aggressiveness among the rural masses...
...Religious Freedom...
...This is simply not the case as I will show in the following instances...
...In conclusion this translation, by omission and conspicuous mistranslation, makes Camilo Torres appear less anti-American, less concerned with repressive violence, less interested in the workers' contribution to revolution and less committed to the "revolution as a Christian imperative...
...The translators, however, prefer to speak instead of a "sinister secret society" and of the "watchdog phenomenon" (pp...
...Out of this tension his new Christian commitment to join the guerrillas may have finally grown...
...In comparison with the original Spanish publication by the Centro Intercultural de Documentacion in Mexico, the English version raises some serious questions, not about how the writings were translated, but rather about what was not translated (i.e., left out or changed without any indication whatever...
Vol. 4 • October 1970 • No. 6
