Resumen de Rebellion at Riohacha, 1820: local and international networks of Revolution, cowardice and masculinity
This article looks at the rebellion of the Irish Legion at Riohacha, New Granada (Colombia), in 1820. It highlights the Atlantic networks of politics, commerce, and migration upon which Colombia's independence from Spain took place. These networks catalysed thinking about changing notions of masculinities and collective identities in this period. The sources for the article are archival documents in Dublin and Bogotá, and newspaper reports and private correspondence that reflected on the events in question. The Irish Legion served the cause of Independence in Colombia under the command of Simón Bolívar, and it was largely envisaged as a brave and generous Irish contribution to the cause of liberty. The Legion's rebellion thus caused numerous reinterpretations of their motives, both at home in Ireland and amongst Hispanic Americans. The article provides a brief narrative of events and traces the ripples of their consequences in Riohacha itself and away in Bogotá. The study emphasises how identity formation in early nineteenth-century Hispanic America (including local, regional, national, colonial, and imperial identities) was a flexible and contested process based on understandings of masculinity and race, and influenced by often unexpected events such as hunger, looting, ambush, and desertion.
