One of Latin America's most famous historical figures, Simon Bolivar has become a mythic symbol for many nations, empires, and revolutions used to support wildly diverse--sometimes opposite--ideas. From colonial Cuba to Nazi-occupied France to Cold War-era Slovenia, the image of "El Libertador" has variously signified loyalty, national unity, liberation, freedom, and revolt.

In this volume, an array of international and interdisciplinary scholars shows the ways Bolivar has appeared over the last two centuries in painting, fiction, poetry, music, film, festival, dance, city planning,...