History Always Repeats Itself

The Tempest, written by William Shakespeare in 1610-11, basically tells the story of the Europeans when they colonized the Americas.  It may not seem so at first, but the resemblance between colonization and the context of The Tempest is seen once the reader looks into the content of the play. What is ironic, however, is the time in which Shakespeare was written, the time colonization occurred, and how we, Colombians, question our true identity today.  Shakespeare wrote his play in the 1600's, colonization occurred during the 1700's, and in 2014 we are still questioning who we are and how we precisely came to be as a country and society.  Retamar expresses this in his article.

The slavery of Caliban and Ariel is the same slavery seen during the colonizations.  They are influenced by outsiders and are forced to learn their language and cultural aspects.  The same thing happened to the natives living in what is now Colombia during the 1700s.  Like Caliban and Ariel, they were forced to learn the language since that is the base of any culture/society.  In The Tempest, Prospero teaches his slaves english.  The slaves have a thick accent when they speak it and constantly curse since they did not learn it properly.  The same thing happened when the Spanish came and conquered "Colombia".   The natives began to constantly hear the spanish language being spoken, so they had to learn it.  They did not learn it how the spanish did causing them to also have an accent and speak it informally.  However, eventually their children begin to learn the language as the spanish children do since that is the only language they hear the people speak.  This causes a new form of spanish to be created.  The accents change as well as the wording.  Today, Colombians and Venezuelans use different syntax to express the same idea and have different accents.  Retamar stresses that Latin America has an identity like all of the continents that were conquered.  This is true since Colombia began the same way any other country did, but they began to mold their own version of the spanish language and mesh their cultural ideas with the Spanish's cultural ideas.  

The direct relationship that can be seen between The Tempest is Caliban and the Colombian natives during the 1700's.  They were both enslaved and FORCED to drop their own cultural and pick up a new one.  They had to learn a new language, dress differently, eat different foods, grow different crops, use new techniques and material to work the land, etc.  The same relationship, but in a higher social status, is seen between the Spanish and Prospero.  Both are able to control their slaves however they please.  They have a dictatorship over the people and have strong influences on them, both negative and positive.  

Retamar eventually opens up a debate by dropping an idea on his readers, which forces Latin Americans to reflect upon their true identities.  One begins to compare their own country, like Colombia, with others to see if they truly have their own identity since they were all explored and conquered in the same form. As barbaric it may have been, they all received the same treatment which allowed them to form into different societies, therefore creating their own identity as a country.  Due to all of the relations between Caliban and Latin America, it is impossible to not compare the two and begin to question one's own heritage.