 Nayibe Bermúdez Barrios Bolívar I am: Telenovela, Performance, and Colombian National Identity ∗ Nayibe Bermúdez Barrios University of Calgary S elf-conscious narrative techniques in the Colombian ilm Bolívar I am (2002) position one of its protagonists, the telenovela, as a device that promotes debates about the institutional uses of heroic symbols, the social and politi- cal forces that compete to appropriate and imagine Simón Bolívar’s project of uniication, and the present state of the nation. If one takes into account ilmmaker Jorge Alí Triana’s success and experience directing historical telenovelas as well as the genre’s commercial force, a ilm centering on the telenovela’s national im- pact was long due. By emphasizing self-relexivity through the ilm-within-a-ilm meta-narrative tradition, or rather telenovela-within-a-ilm, as the Independence hero is newly created for popular audiences, Bolívar I am investigates aspects of ilming and acting that can be studied in the light of performance studies. Through erasure of the thin division between iction and reality, the ilm dramatizes per- formance as an act of interpretation, identiication, and appropriation by turning all parties involved, including spectators, into active participants and creators of national identity. Triana’s ilm, not unlike some of the Colombian literary works devoted to Bolívar, including Gabriel García Márquez’ novel El general en su laberinto and Álvaro Mutis’ short-story “El último rostro” (La mansión de Araucaíma, 978), delves into the last days of the life of the Liberator. This, however, should not be taken at face value, as the device of the telenovela-within-a-ilm that structures the narrative comes to play havoc on the seemingly historical plot. Actor San- tiago Miranda (played by Robinson Díaz) who in the telenovela portrays the hero becomes anxious about the latter’s scripted death and seems to be overtaken by the Bolívar character.  He then decides to retrace the Liberator’s last steps and to rewrite the commercial ending of the telenovela, which in order to keep up the ratings, sought to portray a heroic death by iring squad instead of the lonesome and impoverished demise experienced by the historical igure. “The Liberator’s Lovers,” as the telenovela is called, is very popular in the country and, as San- tiago leaves the set to return to Bogotá in his Bolívar attire, he is immediately recognized by television viewers who comment on the plot of the show or who request favors from him as if they were actually talking to the historical hero. Even the president of the country, seeing the popularity of the television drama and understanding Santiago’s potential value for advancing political ideas of state power and unity, asks the actor to appear as the Liberator in a series of state events. This spectacularization of Bolívar, made even clearer in the ilm through the inscription of the Liberator’s name and igure on the topography of