María and El Alférez Real: from Jorge Isaacs to Eustaquio Palacios. Following in the footsteps of a patriarchal and bourgeois narrative in Valle del Cauca

Abstract

This article aims to analyze and describe both the presence and meaning of the agrarian bourgeoisie in Cauca Valley and the moral and economic values inherent  to it. María and El Alférez Real, the two most representative regional novels of the nineteenth century, are the ideal inquiry scenario; not only because they are foundational of the literature of the south-west of Colombia, but also because they reflect the tensions and ambiguities typical of the post-independence period, which was torn between pretension  to freedom and an ongoing colonial mentality.