Argentina

Paradoxes of Utopia: Anarchist Culture and Politics in Buenos Aires, 1890-1910

mandy — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

In Paradoxes of Utopia, social and labor historian Juan Suriano explores the Argentinean urban anarchist movement at the fin de siecle. Drawing on archival sources, Suriano analyzes libertarian theory and practice in Buenos Aires through an analysis of anarchist books, newspapers, lectures, rallies, propaganda tours, fundraisers, theater groups, songs, rites, symbols, educational projects, and union organizing campaigns.

Suriano situates the urban anarchist movement in Argentina in the context of a rapidly modernizing nation and explores the influence of international anarchist figures and publications on the Argentinean movement. Arguing that historical studies have ignored radical politics prior to 1945, he focuses on explicitly anarchist institutions and publications, distinguishing anarchism from socialist and worker struggles while still acknowledging the relationships and overlap between these movements. He shows the many ways that anarchists in Buenos Aires contested the state, legal system, nationalism, religion, army, and electoral politics through cultural and study circles, alternative schools, radical presses, social events, worker organizing, and direct action.

Suriano describes the rise and eventual collapse of the anarchist movement in Buenos Aires. He outlines the many obstacles anarchists faced, including ideological conflicts, lack of coordination and trust between anarchists, a reluctance to analyze the specifics of Argentinean society, and the eventual marginalization of libertarian politics in favor of the more reformist agenda of socialist and worker groups. He also examines the effects of state repression in the form of Residency and Social Defense Laws, which curbed anarchist groups by criminalizing many of their activities.

While Paradoxes of Utopia outlines and analyzes in detail the political and cultural practices of urban anarchists in Buenos Aires, Suriano’s analysis falls short from a feminist perspective. The book offers tantalizing evidence that women were intricately involved in the anarchist movement as workers, wives, mothers, intellectuals, and comrades, yet he fails to fully consider the effects of women’s roles in shaping the movement. For example, at various points Suriano briefly touches on anarchist ideas concerning marriage and family structure, women’s liberation, sexual equality, and the persecution of prostitutes, but he does not fully explore these aspects of the anarchist movement.

The absence of women in Suriano's analysis does not seem to indicate that they were not involved in anarchist theory and practice. He mentions in passing the existence of an Anarchist Women’s Center and newspaper (Women’s Voice), women’s involvement in tenant strikes and social events, and the renown of several female anarchist lecturers and intellectuals. While dealing with archival sources can limit the scope of analysis, it does not appear that women’s role were completely obscured from the historical record. The lack of analysis regarding women's involvement in Paradoxes of Utopia points to the need for more studies on the role of women in radical social movements.

Despite this critique, Paradoxes of Utopia has a great deal to offer readers interested in historical and contemporary radical politics. Indeed, many of the difficulties faced by the anarchists in urban Argentina a century ago sound surprisingly similar to those that arise in radical social movements today: splintering based on ideological differences, state repression, lack of resources, high turnover, and competition with reformist social movements. This well-researched study is a valuable read for those interested in Latin American history, anarchist theory and practice, and labor movements.

Written by: Traci Yoder, September 25th 2010

Los Canallas (Podría Ser Peor)

annette — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Directed by Cristina Franco

INCINE

Los Canallas are a jolly group of scoundrels, featured in this film, written, shot, edited and promoted by a gang of enthusiastic Acting and Directing students. These young people make up the very first promotion of the newly minted film program in Ecuador. This strange and stimulating film received third place at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2008, for the best opera prima, and is now available to English-speaking audiences (and well subtitled, be it said in passing).

Reminiscent of similar films from other Latin American countries (such as Uruguayan directors Pablo Stoll y Juan Pablo Rebella’s film entitled 25 Watts from 2001), this innovative feature is a fresh look at youth culture in Ecuador, a subject that certain viewing cultures, Western and North-Americans in particular, are not often party to. Innovatively filmed and edited, it is presented as the first feature-length film by the young Cristina Franco and her classmates–they are too numerous to name, but all fulfill at least one role (and up to four) in the acting and various tasks associated with making the film. I mention Franco because she has a central role and is quite entertaining as the young girl whose failed suicide attempts frame the first part of the film.

Centered around three separate but interlinked sections, the film speaks to the general problems of youth in Ecuador. The first section entitled, “We all love Helena so much” features a funny cameo by established Ecuadorian actress Ruth Basante as the grandmother who, in one of the funniest scenes of the film, walks in on her granddaughter’s prospective boyfriend as he is in the restroom, relieving himself on Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Not the subtlest message in the film, but amusing nonetheless.

“There are low blows in life”, the second section of the film, features an intense boxer, shot in close ups, who is definitely not meant for the sport. Perhaps the weakest part in terms of writing, this section is however beautifully shot.

In the third section (and ironically, the darkest in terms of shots), entitled “Those whom you meet, those who stay, those who are,” speaks to some of the difficulties facing the students who often leave for other countries where Latin American cinema may prosper: Argentina is mentioned. This note is not a coincidence since Argentina has recently had one of the most vibrant cinemas in Latin America, with a win for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2010 for The Secret in Their Eyes (directed by Juan Jose Campanella).

Shot around the stunning and beautifully captured city of Quito, we must lament that the students did not make more extensive use of their environment. This film brings to the forefront the problems and class differences which are inherent to this society culture. It also tackles some taboo subjects such as masturbation, religion (sometimes cleverly intertwined), voyeurism, poverty and vagrancy. It is an interesting and quirky first film, well worth a look at, despite its often shocking and occasionally crude content.

This candid attempt by the students to make a film (or three) should not be overlooked since it bodes well for the future of cinema in Ecuador. Let’s hope that not all of the graduating class has to move to Argentina to find work!

Written by: Sophie M. Lavoie, September 23rd 2010

Couture and Consensus: Fashion and Politics in Postcolonial Argentina

mandy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:00:00 +0000

By Regina A. Root

University Of Minnesota Press

While I was intrigued by Regina Root’s assertion that fashion played a large role in the development of national identity in postcolonial Argentina, I was more than intimidated to jump into a book with such an impressive thesis without much background knowledge of Argentinean history. Thankfully, Root packs an incredible amount of information into a slim volume.

In Couture and Consensus Root cleverly divides her work into five distinct chapters, the first of which addresses the tension that existed in Argentina following the revolution in 1810. She deftly explains the divide between the Federalists (those who pledged loyalty to Juan Manuel de Rosas, the tyrannical leader from 1829-1852) and the Unitarians (the rebels) in two ways: through a straightforward explanation of the politics of each side, and by using the lens of material history. Here is where Root’s thesis begins to take hold. By discussing the critical role that color played in this political binary—Federalists wore red and Unitarians favored green—she illuminates the power that dress held in that society to both conform and subvert a political agenda.

Root swiftly moves through her historical discussion and begins to set her sights on discussing the role that women played during this tumultuous time. She oscillates between highlighting the few, largely undocumented women who dressed as men to fight during the British invasions and women who commanded a space of their own by wearing outlandish garb such as massive skirts and intimidating hairpieces. The peineton was a hair comb that Root states was “one yard in height and width” during its most popular time. As a result of its grandeur, Root explains that woman gained more physical presence than ever and also more ridicule for being frivolous (as the combs were quite expensive). The amount of detail that Root uses in her discussion of the peineton is remarkable—she has truly searched out every archive in an attempt to form a material history of Argentina.

Her final chapter is perhaps her most interesting, because she speaks to the new found voices that women gained in the political sphere through engaging in fashionable discourse. While revolutionary men gained political footing under the guise of writing articles about fashion, it was the women who felt empowered by their ability to finally speak their minds. Root calls on everything from storylines of novels to the history of the magazines to prove this point, and the reader is almost exhausted at the conclusion of this book as a result of the incredible amount of information they’ve received. While this is an academic text, the amount of interdisciplinary thought that Root embodies is laudable—this isn’t just a book about fashion, politics, or feminism. Couture and Consensus is a book that manages to weave all of those distinct philosophies into one cohesive narrative about a beautiful country that is still forming its national identity to this day.

Written by: Alyssa Vincent, September 5th 2010

Women Build the Welfare State: Performing Charity and Creating Rights in Argentina, 1880-1955

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:08:00 +0000

By Donna J. Guy

Duke University Press

Donna J. Guy is a distinguished Argentinean historian, and her book on women’s role in the welfare state (1880-1955) could not be timelier. In the past decades, human rights have often been thwarted in Argentina, producing the need for a reevaluation of women’s rights in South America. Women Build the Welfare State offers some tools to understand the movements that developed in contemporary Argentina by explaining the context and traditions that existed there.

In recent Argentine history, women played key roles in the demand for rights. Startling cases of systemic abuse are prevalent in the country; for example, the country’s “disappeared” and the adoption scandals stemming from the 1976 military coup and ensuing Dirty War Period. In the former, around 30,000 citizens were “disappeared” as suspected political activists in one of the deadliest sweeps in the Argentinean history of bloody dictatorships. In the latter—and as a consequence of the former—pro-government couples adopted around 500 infants born of imprisoned activist women. The Official Story, a film fictionalizing one woman’s discovery of one such adoption, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1985.

Among key groups of demonstrators against the country’s egregious crimes were famous women’s groups including Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers, some of the same mothers of these desaparecidos who began to search for their illegally adopted grandchildren. Eighty-eight children, now in their thirties, have been identified thus far. The development of these women’s movements is extensively studied; however, the context for the emergence of the activities is not.

Guy's study thus fills this vacuum by returning to the last century and the history of orphans and mothers. Although her title limits the study to 1880, Guy brings readers back to Argentina’s 1816 independence in order to construct the different movements and women’s involvement in these. She successfully synthesizes the historic, popular, and academic debates surrounding charity, welfare, women, social class, and children’s rights in Argentina. Guy claims to be taking a “child-centered gendered approach,” but the study can only be one of women’s history of rights since, as she demonstrates, women were the primary actors in the establishment of the philanthropic movement of that epoch.

Perhaps because of my academic background in women’s studies, Guy’s use of the original expression “performance of charity” was a bit disconcerting. The term “performance” at its most basic is something “acted” and not necessarily lived. Its most complex connotation is that of Judith Butler’s theory of socially constructed gender roles. Both definitions could seem to weaken Guy’s argument about the stake that women had in the charitable work and could imply, following a Butlerian analysis, that women only had this vocation because it was considered a “feminine” endeavor. My confusion about her use of this term came to its zenith when Guy analyzed Evita Peron’s “performance of charity” since Guy seems to stress the pictorial nature of her philanthropy. Was Evita doing “good” for political advancement or was her social engagement founded in true charitable values? This has been a long-standing historical debate of Perón’s ambiguous role in her (husband’s) political success.

Sidestepping these important questions, Guy defines her expression as one of women’s empowerment because of women’s “accrual of social status and community recognition, along with an opportunity to perform good works outside the home.” While reading, I had to constantly remind myself of Guy’s definition. More shocking to me was the use of the term “retarded” by the author, one I (mistakenly) thought had been banned forevermore from scholarly writing.

Nevertheless, one can only admire the amount of research that went into synthesizing the enormous quantity of data and testimonials that Guy includes in her excellent historical study. She incorporates an analysis of both religious and secular charitable organizations, including notable Jewish and Catholic associations. Although her study centers on Buenos Aires (where most of the organizations were based), she makes every effort to include data from the provinces. Guy’s study is a noteworthy contribution to the field of women’s studies and history in Latin America.

Written by: Sophie M. Lavoie, July 6th 2009