Academic career
La verdadera fuerza del impulso anticapitalista está expandida muy difusamente en el cuerpo de la sociedad, en la vida cotidiana y muchas veces en la dimensión festiva de esta última, donde lo imaginario ha dado refugio a lo político y donde esta actitud anticapitalista es omnipresente.
Bolívar Echeverría, 2007.
Bolívar Vinicio Echeverría Andrade was a philosopher, writer and scholar born in Riobamba, Ecuador, on February 01, 1941. He died in Mexico City on July 05, 2010. Between 1962 and 1966, he studied philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin. In 1968, he moved to Mexico where he completed his undergraduate studies in Philosophy, finished a MA degree in Economics and obtained a PhD in Philosophy at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
Bolívar Echeverría took part in several intellectual circles and participated in the creation of various cultural and political journals. From 1968 on, he translated and edited a number of books for the Mexican editorial industry (Siglo XXI, FCE, ERA, El Equilibrista, Itaca). Additionally, he was member of the editorial boards of several jorunals, such as Pucuna (Quito, 1961-1964), Latinoamérica (Berlín, 1962-1967), Cuadernos Políticos (México, 1974-1989), Palos de la crítica (México, 1980-1981), Economía Política (México, 1976-1985) and Ensayos (México, 1980-1988), Theoría (México, from 1991 on) and Contrahistorias. La otro mirada de Clío (México, from 2003 on).
His research and writings draw from a critical reading of Heidegger and Sartre, an original interpretation of Marx’s Capital and a long-standing engagement with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. He made substantive contributions to the fields of cultural theory, theories of modernity, and the interpretation of the Baroque in Latin America.
Thanks to his important intellectual trajectory, Bolívar Echeverría was invited to give lectures, and participate at conferences and seminars at different universities and research institutions globally, including the Fundación Quito (1987), the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Sociales del Ecuador (CIESE, Quito, 1992), Religionswissenschaftliches Institut (Freie Universität Berlin, 1993), Centro de Estudios Economicos e Sociais (Universidad de Coimbra, 1996), Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (1997, 1998), Universidad Andina “Simón Bolívar” (1995, 1999), University of New York, “Fernand Braudel Center” (1998), Lateinamerika Institut (Freie Universität Berlin, 2000), University of Pittsburgh (2001), La Salle University of New Orleans (2001), Kunsthochschule Braunschweig (2002) Harvard University (2004) and West Ontario University (2006). From 1988 on, he was full-time faculty at the UNAM Philosophy Department.
He received a number of prestigious prizes and awards, including the Premio Universidad Nacional a la Docencia (México, 1997), Premio Pio Jaramillo Alvarado (FLACSO-Quito, 2004), Premio Libertador al Pensamiento Crítico (Caracas, 2007). He was named Professor Emeritus at the UNAM (México, 2008). Until his death, he coordinated the University Seminar "La modernidad: versiones y dimensiones" at the UNAM.
Translated by Ricardo Isea