The female characters in Cayo Graco, a tragedy translated by José María Heredia

Abstract

His article aims to investigate the use of classical history in the elaboration of a nineteenth-century historiographic discourse. The Cuban José María Heredia, poet, journalist, narrator, critic and playwright was also part of the nineteenth-century historians with the publication in Cuba of his book Lessons in Universal History; written between 1831 and 1832 and, to grant him the status of historian. Focused on the events of the war of independence of his native homeland he found in the symbology of ancient history a political civic repertoire through written, educational, performative and symbolic discursive practices. Like other historians of the first half of the 19th century, they try to understand classical history as part of the history of mankind and elaborate a comparative history to understand universal and local historical processes.