I didn't know much about Bolívar beforehand, the film got on my radar as it was in the huge dump of left films that used to be available in c/movies. It's available to stream for free on Kanopy if you have a library card.
I've seen Édgar Ramírez (:panting:) play communist revolutionaries in Che (2008) and Carlos (2010), I was surprised to see him play a slave-owning settler-colonist bourgeois revolutionary.
The film felt much more akin to a hagiography about George Washington or something than a left film, as this bourgeois revolutionary was portrayed as an Enlightenment thinker trying to fight to establish liberal democracy in in a settler-colony in opposition to the (Spanish) crown.
I've done a bit of reading since but I trust Hexbears takes on history so I'm asking y'all: in the film he is portrayed as fighting with and uniting South Americans across race and national divisions, and I know his legacy is thought of fondly in present day South America as a panhispanic hero embraced by the Bolívarism of :chavez-guns:. So what's the deal? Why did Chavez embrace the legacy of a slave-owning settler-colonist and name his band of socialism after Bolívar? Is it true that he tried to unite South Africans across races? Did this include indigenous people and black slaves? Did he try to eradicate slavery in his new Republic? Or is his name just a useful symbol and the specific fine print of his legacy is ultimately irrelevant?
OK..I know a bit about this one. Bolivar wanted to be the George Washington of South America, like to a tee. He wanted a slave owning landholder class to run the continent, instead of the Monarchy. The original plan WAS to be white land owning Slaveholders just like the North American Colonists.
The Critical diversion point was that he failed multiple times, and was lucky enough to escape death each time. South America had a very high percentage of African and Indigenous inhabitants, and Bolivar couldn't get enough Criollos and Mestizos to back him in a winning campaign against Spain. After his second failure, he hid out in the Caribbean. The Haitian Leaders promised him ships and troops for the revolution if he promised to abandon Slavery and emancipate all African descended peoples.
After the Haitian help, we was able to win support from the Black, Indigenous, and mixed residents. That allowed him to turn the corner in his Gran Colombia campaign...
So yes, he did eventually use a multi-racial, multi-ethnic campaign, but I would say only out of necessity. If he had won the first or second times, his initial vision of a Spanish speaking version of Slave holding Colonial USA would have been what prevailed.