200 years ago the Liberator Simon Bolivar wrote The Elegy of Cuzco

Published at: 10/07/2025 08:37 AM

On July 10, 1825, the Liberator Simon Bolivar from Peru wrote a letter to his uncle Esteban Palacios, revealing his deep feelings after the consequences of the war.

The writing was specifically captured from Cuzco, located in the Peruvian Cordilleran strip, one of the most emotional letters, due to its emotional burden, that are known from the illustrious Caracas.

The document is currently in the General Archive of the Nation, Archive of the Liberator Collection Volume 47 pages 53 and 54, written in writing by Colonel Juan Santana, Private Secretary of Bolivar.

The signature and rubric are autographs of the Liberator, as well as the presignature: “his nephew”. Since there are two originals of this letter, the one kept by the heirs of Esteban Palacios and the one found in the Liberator's Archive.

Below is the complete letter better known as the Elegy of Cuzco:

“Cuzco, July 10, 1825.

My dear uncle Esteban and good godfather: With what joy you resurrected yesterday for me!

Yesterday I learned that you were living and that you were living in our beloved country. How many memories have flowed over my mind in an instant! My mother, my good mother! so much like you, she rose from the grave, offered herself in my image. My most tender childhood, Confirmation and my godfather, came together at one point to tell me that you were my second father. All my uncles, all my brothers, my grandfather, my childhood games, the gifts you gave me when I was innocent... everything came in droves to excite my first emotions... the outpouring of a delightful sensitivity... Everything that I have as human was removed yesterday in me: I call human what is most in nature, what is closest to primitive impressions. You, my dear uncle, have given me the purest satisfaction of having returned to your homes, your family, your nephew and your country. So, like me, enjoy this true pleasure, and live among your loved ones the rest of the days that Providence has appointed you, and so that a fraternal hand may close your eyelids and carry your relics to be reunited with those of the parents and brothers who rest on the ground that heaven gave us.

My dear uncle: You must have felt the dream of Epimenides; you have returned from the dead to see the ravages of inexorable time, of the cruel war, of fierce men. You will find yourself in Caracas like a leprechaun, who comes from the afterlife and observes that nothing is what it was. You left behind a long and beautiful family; it has been cut by a bloodthirsty sickle: you left a nascent homeland that unfolded the first seeds of creation and the first elements of society; and you find everything in rubble... everything in memories. The living have disappeared: the works of men, the houses of God, and even the fields have felt the formidable damage of the trembling of nature. You will ask yourself where are my parents? .. where my brothers?. .. where are my nephews? . The happiest were buried inside the asylum of their domestic mansions, and the most unfortunate have covered the fields of Venezuela with their bones, after having watered them with their blood... for the sole crime of... having loved justice. The sweat-drenched fields of three hundred years have been exhausted by a fatal combination of meteors and crimes. Where is Caracas? ... you might ask yourself. Caracas doesn't exist; but its ashes, its monuments, the land that had it, have been shining with Freedom, and are covered with the glory of martyrdom. This consolation repairs all the losses, at least, this is mine, and I wish it to be Vmd's.

I have recommended to the Vice President the virtues and talents that I have recognized in Vmd. My recommendation has been as ardent as the passion I profess to my uncle. Direct your eyes to the Executive Branch, and they will be heard. I have begged the same Executive Branch to have five thousand pesos delivered to the order of Vmd., in Caracas, so that you can live while we see each other, which will be next year. My order has been to the Minister of Finance, so that they can send you the corresponding package from Bogotá.

Goodbye, dear uncle: comfort yourself, in your homeland, with the remains of your relatives; they have suffered a lot; but they have the glory of having always been faithful to their duty. Our family has proved worthy of belonging, and its blood has been avenged by one of its members. I have had this fortune. I have reaped the fruit of all the services of my compatriots, relatives and friends. I have represented them in the presence of men; and I will represent them in the presence of posterity. This has been an unprecedented joy: fortune has punished everyone... only I have received your favors... I offer them to you with the sincerest outpouring of my heart.

His nephew SIMON. '

Mazo News Team