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Imagining "El Ser Argentino": Cultural Nationalism and Romantic Concepts of Nationhood inEarly Twentieth-Century ArgentinaAuthor(s): Jean H. Delaney and Jeane H. DelaneySource: Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Aug., 2002), pp. 625-658Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3875463Accessed: 16/08/2009 19:54

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J. Lat. Amer.Stud.34, 625-658 ? zooz CambridgeUniversityPress 625DOI: so.Ios7/Sooz2226Xozoo648X Printedin the United Kingdom

Imagining El SerArgentinoCulturalNationalismand RomanticConceptsof Nationhood In Early Twentieth-CenturyArgentina*JEAN H. DELANEY

Abstract. This article reexamines early twentieth-centuryArgentine culturalnationalism,arguingthatthe movement's truesignificancerestsin its promotionof a vision of Argentinenationhood that closely resembledthe ideal of the folknation upheld by German romanticism. Drawing from recent theoreticalliteratureon ethnicnationalism, he articleexaminesthe political implicationsofthis movement and explores the way in which the vigorous promotion of theethnocultural vision of argentinidad y cultural nationalists served to detachdefinitions of Argentine identity from constitutional foundations and from theideas of citizenshipandpopular sovereignty.It also challenges he acceptedviewthat Argentine cultural nationalism represented a radical break with latenineteenth-century ositivism.Positivist ideasabout socialorganicism,collectivecharacterand historicaldeterminismall helped paved the way for the Romanticvision of nationhood celebratedby the culturalnationalists.The early twentieth-century has long been considered a turning point inArgentine intellectual history. As is well known, these years witnessed theemergence of an intellectual and cultural movement opposed to what itsproponents saw as the excessive cosmopolitanism of Argentine society.The cultural nationalists, as they have since become known, formed aloosely drawn group of young intellectuals based in Buenos Aires.Primarily from prominent provincial families, these individuals shared abelief that foreign influences and the growing immigrant populationposed a threat to the nation.1 Convinced that the Argentine 'personality'was on the verge of disappearing, they called for the defence of the

JeaneH. DeLaneyeacheshistoryat St. Olaf andCarletonColleges.* The author wishes to thankAnn Rodrick,Diego Armus,Kirk Jeffreyand theanonymousLAS reviewersortheirhelpful omments. pecialhanks o to CharlesHale orhisinsightfulomments n anearly ersionand orhisunflaggingnthusiasmfor thisarticle hroughouthe revisionprocess.1 Thecoremembers f this ntellectualmovementonsisted f ManuelGailvez,RicardoRojas,RicardoOlivera,JuanPabloEchagiie,AlbertoGerchunoff, milioBecher,AtilioChiappori,MarioBravo,ErnestoMarioBarreda, uisMaria ordinandEmilioOrtizGrognet.Forindividual ackgroundseeManuelGlilvez, Amigosymaestrose

mijuventud, vol. I of Recuerdosde la vida literaria, 4 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1961), vol. I,PP. 35-75.


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626 JeaneH. DeLaneynation's authentic culture and traditions.The culturalnationalistsalsotargeted positivism, a philosophy that had dominated late nineteenth-centuryArgentinethought. Inspiredbyneo-idealistwriterssuchasRubenDario andJose EnriqueRod6, these intellectualsarguedthatpositivism'semphasison utilitarianism,science and materialismwas inimical to theArgentine character. In the words of Manuel Gailvez, one of themovement'sprincipalleaders,his generationwas engaged in the 'heroicstruggle against the atmosphereof materialism,scepticismand cosmo-politanism that disdained things Argentine and was indifferent tointellectualand spiritualvalues'.2

Despite the looseness of the movementand the vaguenessof its aims,early twentieth-centurycultural nationalism has attracted substantialscholarlyattention.This interest is due less to the intrinsic ntellectualorliterary merit of the works produced by the movement than to thewidespreadbelief that these earlynativists laid the groundworkfor laternationalist thought. This view, most forcefully articulatedby DavidRock, sees cultural nationalism as a conservative reaction to massiveimmigrationandworking-classactivism,and thusastheprecursor o suchmovements as the ultra-CatholicLiga Patri6ticaArgentinaand the right-wing nationalistmovementemergingin the late 192os.' The latter,headedby CarlosandFedericoIbarguren,JuanCarulla ndJulio Irazusta,movedbeyond a concern over the putative disappearance f Argentinecultureand embraceda political programme that was quasi-fascistin nature.Manyof these individualsfigured prominently n the I930 militarycoupthat deposed Radical PresidentHip6lito Yrigoyen.While agreeing in part with such analysis, this article argues thatcurrentscholarly reatmentsof culturalnationalismhave overlooked twokey problems central to our understandingof the movement and itslegacies.The firstproblem s the relationshipbetweenculturalnationalismand late nineteenth-centurypositivism. Certainly, Argentine culturalnationalists saw themselves as avatars of idealism, blaming bothcosmopolitanism and positivism for the putative dissolution of thenation'sculture.4But despitethe culturalnationalists'claim to represent

2 Manuel Gailvez, Amigosy maestros,p. 43.a David Rock, 'Intellectual Precursors of Conservative Nationalism in Argentina,'HispanicAmericanHistorical Review,67: 2, May 1987. For a similar view, see also Anibal

Iturrieta, 'El Primer Nacionalismo Argentino,' in Anibal Iturrieta (ed.), Elpensamientopolitico argentinocontemporaineoBuenos Aires, 1994), PP. I7-43, esp. 27; Maria InesBarbero and Fernando Devoto, Los nacionalistas(I91o-I932) (Buenos Aires, I983), esp.chapter one; Enrique Zuleta Alvarez, El nacionalismoargentino,2 vols. (Buenos Aires,1975), vol. i, p. 85 ; on Manuel Gilvez as a precursor, see Marysa Navarro Gerassi, Losnacionalistas Buenos Aires, I968), esp. chapter ten.

4 Present-day scholars have generally accepted the cultural nationalists' own view ofthemselves as anti-positivists, characterising the movement as part of the generalised


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina 627a break with positivism, my own research suggests that many of theirideas about national character and its determinants had roots in theprevious positivist era. The question then becomes, what were theconnections and continuities between the two movements?The second problem concerns the relationship between the culturalnationalists and later right-wing nationalist movements. Althoughscholars of Argentine cultural nationalism agree that the culturalnationalists should be seen as precursors to the nationalists of later years,most have also recognised the former's divergent political inclinations.Nowhere is this more evident than in the life histories of the two mostimportant cultural nationalists, the above-mentioned Manuel Gailvez(1882-1962) and Ricardo Rojas (I882-I957).' Generally recognised as thefounding fathers of Argentine cultural nationalism, these intellectuals

idealist urrentweepingmost of LatinAmerica uring hisperiod.See forexample,David Rock, 'IntellectualPrecursors f ConservativeNationalismn Argentina,1900-1927,' pp. 272-7; CarlosAltamirano nd BeatrizSarlo,'La Argentinadelcentenario: ampo ntelectual, ida literaria temas deol6gicos,' n theirEnsayosargentinos,e Sarmiento la vanguardiaBuenosAires, 1983), pp. 73-7; EduardoZimmermann,RacialIdeas and SocialReform:Argentina, 89o-i9i6,' HispanicAmerican istoricaleview,2:1(Feb.1992),p.2z ,note4. SandraMcGeeDeutsch lsoseescultural ationalistsspartof the reaction gainst ositivism, utargueshat heseintellectualshared... withthepositivists.. a belief n the ruleof atalented liteandin racism.'SeeDeutsch,LasDerechas:heExtreme ightnArgentina,Brazil, ndChile(Stanford,999),33.While agreewith the firstpartof thisstatement,he claim hatthe cultural ationalistsmbracedacisms somewhatmisleading. s willbedevelopedbelow, he eaders f thismovement awraceasanethnoculturalatherhanbiologicalcategory.5 MarysaNavarro,orexample, ontrastshe 'liberalcultural ationalism' f RicardoRojaswiththeauthoritarian,nti-democraticationalismf ManuelGailvez; avarro,Losnacionalistas,. 161.Barbero ndDevoto ikewisedistinguishetween he'secular,liberal'nationalismf theearlyRojasandthe'Catholic,'traditional'ationalismfGailvez, avarro,Losnacionalistas,10o-1932, . 24;EarlGlauert ontrastsheliberalcultural ationalism f Rojaswiththe 'anti-liberalationalism' f Gailvez,RicardoRojasand the Emergence f ArgentinaCulturalNationalism,'HispanicAmericanHistorical eview, o. 3 (August, 1963),pp. 1-17; Zuletamakescleardistinctionsbetween he democraticature f Rojas'nationalism,eeZuleta,El nacionalismovol. ,pp.97-1oI) andGailvez'support f authoritarianationalismvol.2, pp.684-7);Sarloand Altamirano lsodistinguish etweencultural ationalism'stwo programmes:'oneliberal-democratic,he otherreactionary,arlo ndAltamirano,LaArgentina elcentenario,'pp. 100-3. Rock is exceptionaln this regard,makingno distinctionbetween hepolitical lignmentsf keycultural ationalists.nadditiono 'IntellectualPrecursorsf Conservativeationalism',eehis Antecedentsf theArgentineRight,'wherehe describesRojas'La restauracidnacionalistas an 'earlyright-wingext'. InSandraMcGeeDeutsch ndRonaldDolkart eds.),TheArgentineight: tsHistoryndIntellectualrigins,g9o tothePresentWilmington,993),p. 26.


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628 JeaneH. DeLaneyoften collaborated in the early stages of their careers.6 Politically,however, they followed distinctpaths.Gailvez,while expressingan initialenthusiasm for socialism, had by the early 900osembracedCatholicismand begun to exhibit decidedly authoritarian endencies. In 1927, forexample,he publishedvarious articlesin the right-wing newspaperLaNuevaRepziblicandpublicly supported he 1930coup.' Rojas,in contrast,remaineda self-proclaimeddemocratthroughouthis life. Until 1930,hegenerallyavoided political involvement, but after the coup joined thepartyof deposed presidentHip61litoYrigoyen. Condemningthe coup asfascist, Rojas was later arrested on charges of conspiring against thegovernmentand was brieflyincarcerated.8

The diametricallyopposed political alignments of the two mostimportantculturalnationalists,coupledwith the widespreadportrayalofthese intellectuals as the precursors to later eruptions of right-wingnationalism, present an obvious problem. If early twentieth-centurythinkerssuch as Gilvez andRojasexhibitedsuchwidelydifferentpoliticalinclinations,how could the movementthey spearheaded aveinspired hereactionarynationalistsof lateryears?The argument,while easyto makein Gailvez's ase,becomes muchmoreproblematicwhen appliedto Rojas.Given Rojas'well knownanimositytoward the laternationalists afeelingthat was strongly reciprocated),9n what way can he be consideredtheirprecursor?Related to this paradoxis the question of whether or notArgentineculturalnationalismpossesseda coherentmessageor ideology.Given thepoliticaldifferencesbetween GailvezandRojas, s it even useful,as CarlosMolinarihas asked, to considerArgentineculturalnationalisma single intellectual movement?1o If so, what commonalities did themovement'skey thinkers share?Focusing on the ideas of Rojas and Gailvez,this essay reexaminesArgentine culturalnationalism with these questions in mind. It arguesthat much of what is confusing about the movement can be resolvedbyexploring an aspect of the culturalnationalists'thought that has been6 On the importanceof these two figuresandfor informationon theirbackgrounds, eeEduardo Jose Cairdenasand Carlos Manuel Payi, El primernacionalismorgentino(Buenos Aires, 1978), pp. 13-33.7 It should be noted, however, that despite Gailvez' clear authoritarian tendencies, hisrelationship with the nationalists of later years was always rocky. For more discussion,

see M6nica Quijada's Manuel GdlveZ: 6o ahos depensamientonacionalista(Buenos Aires,1985), chapter two.s Earl Glauert, 'Ricardo Rojas and the Emergence of Argentine Cultural Nationalism,'P. 9.9 See for example nationalist Ram6n Doll's essay, 'El grave error de Ricardo Rojas,' inDoll, Policia ntelectualBuenos Aires, i933), pp. 13-28.

10 CarlosMolinari, El primernacionalismoargentino,'PuntodeVista,Year2,no. 6 (JulyI979), P. 28.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina 629largely overlooked - their deeply Romantic concept of nationhood andnational identity.11 As will be argued below, animating the culturalnationalists' attack on cosmopolitanism and their call for authenticity wasa particular way of understanding nationhood, one we commonlyassociate with early nineteenth-century German Romanticism. Briefly,within the German Romantic tradition the nation is seen as an organicentity emerging naturally from the depths of history and possessing aunique personality or character. Members of the nation, according to thisview, constitute a distinctive people or Volk sharing particular mentaland emotional traits, and are bound together by language, religionand common descent. This understanding of nationality also entailsa particular view of historical development that celebrates nationaluniqueness. In contrast to the Enlightenment notion of universal valuesand the belief that all civilisations develop along a single historicalcontinuum, Romanticism promotes the idea of world history as a processof increasing differentiation. Accordingly, national societies - propelledby their own inner spirit or genius - progressively realize their individualdestinies or cultural missions. It was this Romantic vision of nations asdistinctive folk or 'ethnocultural'12 communities, I argue, that gaveArgentine cultural nationalism an underlying coherence and linked it topositivism and even earlier nineteenth-century intellectual traditions.l31 Thisapproachs inspiredby KatherineVerdery'snsistence n the needto connectstudiesof nationalism ithunderlying oncepts f nationhood ndnationaldentity,and by the work of M. RanierLepsiuson comparativeonceptsof nationhood.Verdery, 'Whither"Nation" and "Nationalism"?'DaedalusSummer,1993),pp. 37-46; Lepsius,TheNationandNationalismn Germany,' ocialResearch,2:I(Spring, 1985),pp. 43-64.12 I take histerm romWilliamRogersBrubaker,CitizenshipandNationhoodnFrancendGermanyCambridge,MA, 1992).13 While he Romantic ature f Rojas' houghthas beenmuchnoted,theoriginsandimplicationsf Romanticnfluences n cultural ationalismaveyetto be sufficientlyexplored.The mostextensive reatmento date s thealreadymentioned 963articleby Earl Glauert,'Ricardo Rojas and the Emergenceof ArgentineCulturalNationalism.'Here,however,Glauertimitshisdiscussiono thesimilarities etweenthe deasofRojas ndGermanRomantichilosopherohannGottfriedHerder.Otherswho havemadehe connection etweenRojasandGermanRomanticismavedonesoonlybriefly. ee, orexample,NatalioBotana ndEzequielGallo,who notethatRojashadcomeunder heinfluence f 'the firstwaveof German ationalism.' otana ndGallo,DelaRepziblicaosible laRepziblicaerdadera18'o-19ro),BuenosAires,i997),Io5. Nicola Milleralso arguesfor the strong impactof GermanRomanticism

(especiallyHerder) n Rojas' hought n In theShadowftheState: ntellectualsnd heQuestorNationaldentitynTwentieth-Centurypanishmerica,London,999), p. i66.Moreobliquely,MariaTeresaGramugliondBeatriz arlonotehowRojas'estheticandphilosophical omanticism'hapedhis understandingf the importancef thegauchon 'Jos6Hernindez,'nHistoria e aliteraturargentina,ol. II (BuenosAires,I980), p. I8. Tulio Halperin Donghi, while not linking Rojas'ideas to Romanticism,does describehis thoughtas havingbeen moldedby the 'decadence f the newcentury',a decadence resumablyraceableo the revivalof ethnicnationalismn


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630 JeaneH. DeLaneyThis focus on the Romantic elements of the cultural nationalists'

thought and theirunderlyingvision of nationhoodalso allows us to lookat their divergent political commitmentsin a differentlight. While thecultural nationalists' Romantic-likeconstruction of Argentine identitywas not in and of itself anti-democratic,t did serveto detach definitionsof the Argentine nation from constitutional foundations and from theideasof citizenshipandpopularsovereignty.It is in this context thatI willconsiderthe questionof Rojas'reputedrole as a precursorto right-wingnationalism.Without attemptingto draw directlines of influence,I willsuggest ways in which Rojas, despite his hostility to later nationalists,helped shapea new understandingof Argentinenationhoodthatprovedcongenialto subsequentauthoritarianprogrammes.

The Romanticisionof RojasandGdlvezPerhapsthe best place to begin our discussion of the Romantic ideasunderlyingculturalnationalistthought is with RicardoRojas'1909work,La restauracion acionalista.Considered one of cultural nationalism'sfoundingtexts, the work was conceivedof as a studyof Europeanschoolcurricula,a project for which Rojas received state funding. What thegovernment expected from Rojas is unclear, but the result was lessan analysis of pedagogy than a personal manifesto on Argentinenationhood outfittedin the trappingsof a reporton education.In his critiqueof Argentina'seducationalsystem, Rojasarguedthattheroots of its problemsrandeeperthan poor pedagogy. The realcause ofthe system's malaise, he argued, was the underlying incoherence andimmaturityof the Argentine'soul' or personality.14Accordingto Rojas,this lack of a defined nationalpersonalityhad led Argentinesmindlesslyto adoptan eclectic mix of foreigneducationalmethodsthathadnothingto do with Argentine reality.To highlight the source of the Argentinecrisis, Rojasdescribedwhat he saw as the key differencesbetween olderEuropean nations and younger ones such as Argentina. According toRojas,Europeannationsenjoyedatremendousadvantageover Argentina,becausethey had 'existed spiritually'beforebeingformallyconstitutedaspoliticalentities.15As he was to explainmorefullyin a laterwork, in suchnations the soil, race, languageand nationalliterature used togetherto

Europe. Halperin, '?Para que la inmigraci6n? Ideologia y politica inmigratoriayaceleraci6ndel procesomodernizador:El caso argentino,' Jahrbuchiir Geschichte onStaat, Wirschaft ndGesellschaftateinamerikas,and 13, I976, p. 483.14 RicardoRojas,La restauracidnacionalista1909] (BuenosAires, i971), 3rd ed., p. I36.15 Ibid.,p. 136.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina631form a single whole. 'It is as if', Rojas argued,'each of these is born fromthe others, all complementand explainthe others in a harmoniouscycleor whole.'16 The ethnic,culturaland spiritualunity of Europeannationsmeantthateach nation had a coherent'spiritualnucleus' thathadformedas a 'consequence of a homogeneous race' rooted in the remote past.17This spiritual nucleus, in turn, had shaped each nation's educationalsystem, giving it a distinctive cast. In England,for example,the spiritualnucleus had produced an educationalsystem primarilyconcerned withcultivatingthe individualconscience,while Germanschools emphasiseda blend of metaphysics and imperialism that reflected that nation'sdistinctivepersonality."sn new nations such asArgentina,by contrast,aunified race had yet to form.19This process, Rojas believed, had beendelayed due to Argentine society's excessive heterogeneity caused bymassive immigration. Calling for a 'nationalist restoration withineducation', Rojas urged the government to 'imprint the educationalsystemwith a national character'by emphasising Argentinehistory andliterature.20

Despitehis supportof patrioticeducation,Rojasbelievedthat curricularreform alone was insufficient o createa unified nation or a homogenousrace. In keeping with the Romantic view that nations are naturalorganismsrather hanhumancreations,he arguedthat the Argentineracewould slowly emerge over time as the Argentine people graduallydeveloped common characteristics.This would occur naturally,Rojasbelieved, as the telluric forces of the Argentine soil moulded thepopulation into a homogeneous race giving it a distinctivepersonality.Often sliding into mysticism,Rojasbelieved that the earth was suffusedwith 'invisible forces' that were 'moulders' of civilisations.In his words,'the "geniusoci"of the nationalterritory ormed the individualaccordingto his environment,until it had createda homogeneous race,and thus anationality.21The retreatfrom universalismand the belief that each nation developsaccordingto its own innerspiritwere also evident in Rojas'work. Whileprevious generations had acknowledged the distinctive character ofArgentine society, most thinkers had assumed (or at least hoped) that16 Ricardo Rojas, Los gauchescos, ol. I of La literaturaargentina.Published as vol. VIII ofObras de Ricardo Rojas (Buenos Aires, 1924), P. 27.17 Rojas, La restauracionnacionalista,p. 136. Both Rojas and Gailvez - as was commonduring this period - used the term 'race' in the historical, Romantic sense. Thedistinction between that understanding of race and the use of the term to denote a

biological category (also common during these years) will be discussed below.18 Rojas, La restauracidn nacionalista, p. I 3.19 See for example Rojas' comments in Los gauchescos,pp. 28, 139, passim.20 Rojas, La restauracidn nacionalista, pp. I45, 10io8.21 Rojas, Los gauchescos, p. I14.


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63 JeaneH. DeLaneyArgentina would eventually come to resemble wealthier, democraticnations such as England,Franceand the United States.Rojas,by contrast,rejected he ideathatArgentinesshould seek to remake heirnationalongEuropean ines,harshlycriticisingpast generations orimitatingEurope.22Again, in keeping with the Romantic ideal of the nation as possessingaunique personality,he arguedthat the emerging Argentinenationwoulddevelop according to its particularcharacteristics,one with its owndestiny. Likening national personalitiesto that of an individual,23hebelieved each nationpossesseda collective'soul' and a 'racialmemory'.24Argentina'suniquecharacter nddestiny,Rojasbelieved,were the resultof the mixing of the indigenous and Europeanraces,which the telluricforces of the Argentinesoil would fuse together to form a unique singlenationalrace.25Unlike Rojas, Manuel Gilvez was less concerned with elaboratingtheories about nations and their formation than with describing andpromoting the qualitiesthat he believed defined the Argentinenationalcharacter.In keeping with Romantic understandingsof nationhood,Gailvez saw all nations as unique entities that possessed distinctivepersonalitiesand destinies. Moreover, members of each nation werestampedwith a particularset of distinctive characteristicshat markedthem from non-members.For Gailvez, anguage and especially religionformedthe cornerstonesof this collectivecharacter,and thus constitutedthe distinguishingfeatures of each national race.26Centralto Gailvez' deas was his conviction that people of Latin, andespeciallySpanish,descentdifferedprofoundlyfromNorthernEuropeans,and that these differenceswere inextricablyintertwined with the twoversionsof Christianityhese two peoplesembraced.LatinAmericans,hemaintained,had been moulded by the spirit of Catholicism, which hadimpressed its characteron all expressions of [Latin] American life'.27While Protestantismmight be appropriate or such countriesas Englandand Switzerland,its 'hard, dry and intolerant spirit' was completelyincompatiblewith Latin 'ideals, sentiments and convictions', and rancounter to Argentines' quality of 'generosity and our notoriousmagnanimity'.28 Chastisingthose who arguedthat Protestantismwouldbe the salvationof LatinAmerica, Gailvezbelieved that such a changewould represent a complete 'denationalisation' of republics such asArgentina" and that Protestantism in Latin America would always22 RicardoRojas,Eurindia,2nd ed. Published as vol. 5 of ObrasdeRicardoRojas BuenosAires, 1924), pp. 159-60. 23 Rojas, Eurindia,p. i28.24 Rojas, Eurindia, pp. 128, 175. 25 Rojas, Los gauchescos,pp. i44-5, passim.26 Manuel Gilvez, El diariode GabrielQuiroga:Opinionesobre a vida argentinaBuenos

Aires, 19Io), p. 67. 27 G~ilvez, El diario, p. 66. 28 Ibid., p. 69.29 Ibid., p. 67.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina633struggle against the Latin 'racial characteristics, radition,environmentandeven the climate'."aHis generation'smost ardentchampionof Spain,Gailvezpraisedthe formercolonialpower as the 'crucibleof the race'andas 'perhapsthe most noble people that have existed on earth'.31 UnlikeNorthern Europe, and even other Latin nations, Spainhad resisted thelure of materialismand the cult of money, remaining mystical andCatholic.32Exhortinghis countrymento returnto theirSpanishroots, heproclaimed t time to 'feel ourselvesto be Argentines,[Latin]Americans,and ultimatelySpaniards,becausethis is the race to which we belong'.33Yet, likeRojas,Gailvezbelievedall nationspossessedauniquecharacter.For him, Argentinawas not simplyan offshootof Spainnow growing inthe New World, but a new civilisation with an importantdestiny andculturalmission.34Gilvez believed that Argentine uniquenessstemmedfrom racialmixture with the indigenous population,andfrom the impactof the distinctive geological featuresof the Americancontinent. Thesegeographical influences, he argued, had produced in the Indian andEuropean inhabitantsof the Argentine territory, 'common qualities,sentiments and ideas'.35 Despite these varied racial and geographicfactors, however, the Argentine race would remain fundamentallySpanish."6ndeed,for Gailvez,Argentina's undamental aisond'tre was topreserveandcarry orth the torchof Latincivilization,of which Spainwasthe purest example.Convincedthat the Latin race in Europe was nowexhausted,Gailvezbelievedthat Argentina'shistoricalmission would beto give this racea new beginning.As a land of 'new energy', Argentineswould carryforth the 'Latin ideal, Latin energy and Latin virtue'.37 Infulfillingthis destiny, Argentines 'should use the spiritual essons takenfrom Spain simply as a point of departure,as a seed that, when trans-planted to the moral climate of our fatherland,would vigorously takeroot [anddevelop] its own form'.38While Rojasand Gilvez developed the most elaborateversions of theidea of Argentina as a unique ethnoculturalentity with a preordained30 Ibid., p. 69.a' Manual Gailvez, El solar de la raZa, [1913] (Buenos Aires, 1936), p. 39.32 Ibid., pp. 28-9. 33 Ibid., p. 37.34 The new Argentine race, he believed, was 'predestined' for a 'magnificent destiny'. El

Solar de la raZa, p. 38.35 Gilvez, El diario de GabrielQuiroga, pp. 1i8-i 9. It should be noted that Glilvez placedmuch less emphasis on the indigenous component of the Argentine race than did Rojas.36 Gailvez argued that despite massive immigration, the emerging Argentine race wouldremain part of the 'Latin race,' and within the Latin race, 'we are, and eternally willbe of the Spanish sub-race' (casta espaiola). El solar de la raza, p. 39.a ManuelGlilvez, 'Los himnos a la nueva energia,' El Monitor e a educacidnomtin, ear30, vol. 39 (I9II), p. 73. 38 Gilvez, El solardela raza,p. 16.


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634 JeaneH. DeLaneyhistoricalmission, it is importantto note thattheirs were not lone voiceslaunched nto a void. In articulating heirvision of Argentinenationhoodanddestiny,the culturalnationalistsemployedlanguage, deas andimagesthat resonated with - just as they helped shape- contemporaryunder-standings. In 1918, for example, an editorial in the magazine Ideasapplauded he government'sdecision to designateOctober 12 as the 'Diade la Raza' by explainingthat peoples 'who possess the same customs,beliefs, aspirations,and above all language... are morally of the samerace'. And when to this is addeda characterforgedby common historicalorigin, the authorcontinued,'the fraternalunion thatfuses them into thesamespiritcannotbe dissolved. " Using the sameunderstandingof race,MartinNoel, an architect who sought to develop a uniquely HispanicAmericanarchitecturalstyle, wrote of the need to promote the 'racialvalues' of Hispanic Americans.40Similarly, Alvaro MeliainLafinur,reviewing Gilvez's El solarde la razain the highly influentialmagazineNosotros, oted the needfor Argentinesto define theircollectivecharacterand to 'affirm ourselves as a racialentity'. In true Romantic fashion,Lafinur believed the creation of an authentic national literaturewasintegralto thisprocess,and noted approvingly hatArgentinewritershadceased to 'hacer iteratura' nd begun to 'hacer atria'.41Even intellectualswho criticisedthe culturalnationalists or whattheyviewed as the latter'sexcessive nativism often shared their tendencytoidentify race with nationality. In the well-known literary magazineRenacimiento,duardoMaglione publisheda spiritedattack on the newnationalism,apparentlyaimed at Rojas'Restauracionacionalista.et whilecritical of the anti-immigrant implications of their ideas, Maglionenonethelessacceptedthe culturalnationalists'vision of nationhood.'Noone', he notes, 'is disputing,or candispute,the need to give a soul to thevariegated conglomerate of men and tendencies that are [now] in theprocessof formingthe Argentinerace... We are,and will continue to befor a long time, in a processof a fusion of racesandcharacters." But, heconcludes, 'This variegated cosmopolitanism is only a stage [in thedevelopment] of [our] nationality, after which will come the trueArgentineraceand Argentinenationality.'43

39 Editorial, 'Dia de la raza,' Ideas, Year i, num. i (Oct. 1918), p. 2. (This publicationshould not be confused with the earlier literary magazine by the same name publishedby Gailvez.)40 Martin Noel, 'La nueva direcci6n,' Sintesis, Year I, num. 8 (Dec. 1927), pp. 133-34.41 Alvaro Meliin Lafinur, 'El solar de la raza,' Nosotros, Year 7, num. 55 (Nov. 1913),

pp. zo202-3.42 Eduardo F. Maglione, 'Cosmopolitismo y espiritu nacional,' Renacimiento,Year I,

vol. 2, num. 6 (Nov. 3909), pp. 320, 328. 43 Ibid., p. 329.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina635The cultural nationalists'rejectionof unilinearnotions of history andtheir belief that Argentina should reject foreign models in order torealise ts own destinyalso resonatedwith contemporaryunderstandings.One contributorto the literaryreview Sagitario,or example,noted thatArgentinesno longer acceptedthe assumptionthatEuropeancivilizationwas synonymouswith the term civilizationitself. The breakdown of this'culturalmonism', he opined,hadled to 'a new wayof thinkingaboutthehistorical universe,' one that 'comprehends and accepts... that in allepochs there is a plurality of civilizations, independent worlds withdistinctivespiritualmodalitiesand vital propensities.'"" Juan Propst, theforeign-born editor of the review Verbum(who declared himself an

'Argentine at heart'), expressedsimilarnotions in an issue dedicatedtothe newly designated Dia de la Raza.'Argentina'scelebrationof the day,Propst argued, helped defined Argentine nationality by affirming'itsmembershipin the circle of Hispanic culture'. This was importantforboth Argentina and the world, he continued, since human progressrequireda 'heterogeneity' that would come from 'defined and coherentcomponents' such as the Hispanic-Americanworld.45The grouping ofnations into distinctivecomponentsor culturalcircles, Propst believed,enriched all of humanity and helped move mankind toward its truedestiny.Writing in much the same vein, Jorge Max Rohde, a foundingmember of the anti-positivist group Colegio Novecentista, decriedArgentines' tendency to follow European dictates, lamenting thatArgentines 'quiver like an errant eaf in the gusts of Europeanwind'. Itwas time, he proclaimed,for the 'latent forces of the race' to awaken.Oncethis occurred,Rohdebelieved,the 'greatHispanic family,unitedbyits language and soul,' would cease to imitate other races and wouldinstead offer 'new worlds' to the rest of humanity.46As these statementssuggest, this emphasison nationaldistinctivenessandtheconviction that each nationpossesseda distinctivecharacter, piritor serwith a unique historicaldestiny, were clearlyliberatingfor manyArgentines, who had traditionally seen the national task as one ofemulating European models. By celebrating national differences asnecessary for human progress, the Romantic philosophy of historyencouragedArgentineintellectualsto embracethe idea of Argentine (or44 CarlosAstrada,'La deshumanizaci6ndel occidente,' Sagitario, :2 (July-Aug. I925),

p. 196.45 Juan Propst, untitled editorialnote, Verbum,Year 12, num. 45 (Oct. 1918), p. i.46 Jorge Rohde, 'Apuntes,' CuadernoColegioNovecentista,Year I, vol. I, Cuaderno 3 (Dec.1917), P. 13 . It shouldbe noted that the editors of this journalstronglyidentifiedwiththe 'work and intellectualorientationof RicardoRojas'. See 'Notas', p. I84 of samenumber.


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636 JeaneH. DeLaneyHispanicAmerican)distinctiveness.But at the sametime, the celebrationof nationaluniquenessalso helped produce a new anxietyover culturalauthenticityanda fearthatArgentinawas in dangerof losing its essentialcharacteror of deviating from its historicalmission. Although writingabout the SpanishGenerationof 1898, H. Ramsden could be describingthe Argentines' deas when he noted the Spanish ntellectuals'beliefthat,each nation has its own particular haracter,ts own way of looking atreality.. its own special trengths ndweaknesses;n short, ts own'concienciacolectiva,'ts own 'personalidadacional.' nation thatstrugglesagainstor isforced o actagainst ts own nativecharacterecomes nwardly onfusedandoutwardlyneffectual; countryhat ives at onewith its characterprospers.4"Thus the task at hand was no longer one of emulating supposedlymoreadvancedsocieties,but in graspingthe truenature of the sernacional,ndinsuring that the nation did not stray from its authentic self and itspredestinedpath.The belief in the existenceof an essential,underlyingnationalser oressence with which Argentineswere in dangerof losing touch prompteda new interestin the ruralinterioramong culturalnationalists.Like themembers of the Spanish Generation of 1898 who celebratedthe ruralfamily as the repository of the 'soul of the race' and of the Spanishpeoples' 'intrinsic virtues',48 many Argentines of the same periodbelieved the real Argentinacould be found only in the countryside.Inboth SpainandArgentina, heassumption hatgeographyorenvironmentshapednationalcharacterwas undoubtedlyan impulse behind the newruralism:people who lived more closely to the soil were believedto bemore authenticembodimentsof the nationalbeing or sernacional,whilethose who lived in urbancentreswere less affectedby the telluricforcesof thenationalterritory,andthusmorealienated rom the underlyingcoreof national traditions.49In turn-of-the-centuryArgentina, however,ruralismwas given addedweight by the arrivalof millions of foreignerswho settledprimarilyn thecity,andby thetraditionalnineteenth-centuryview of Buenos Aires as the conduit for European, modernisinginfluences.Thus, for both Gailvezand Rojas, the provinces were more47 H. Ramsden,TheI898MovementnSpain Manchester,1974), p. i6. The similarities nd

links between the Generationof 1898and the Argentine culturalnationalistswill bediscussed furtherbelow.48 EnriqueMadrazo,Elpueblo spaholamuertoSantander, 903), quotedin Ramsden,Theg898Movement n Spain, p. 41.49 See for example, Ricardo Giiiraldes' comments on individuals whose everyday workkept them in 'close contact with the soil' in 'Nosotros (Lo que puede ser)', publishedposthumously in La Nacidn, Feb. 3, 1963. Giiiraldes, of course, was the author of thecelebrated gaucho novel Don SegundoSombra which appeared in 1926.


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Twentieth-CenturyArgentina 637idealistic, less tainted by materialism and thus more authenticallyArgentine.50 n Gailvez'words, the rural nteriorwas where the 'nationalsoul' had taken refuge.51Sourcesf ethnoculturalnderstandingsf nationhoodHow do we account for the florescenceand great strengthof Romanticnotions of nationhoodduringthis period? In answeringthis question, itis firstimportantto note thatRomanticismhadlong playedan importantrole in Argentine intellectuallife, and had served as a constant (albeitsubordinate) counter current to the nation's fundamentally liberaltraditions.As is well known, the membersof Argentina's independencegenerationdrew their primary nspirationfrom the French Revolution,justifyingtheir call for independencenot in the name of some preexistingethnicor culturalentity,but for the purposeof establishinga new nationbased on the liberal and supposedlyuniversal principlesof equality,liberty and popular sovereignty.52Despite the importance of Frenchrevolutionary hought, however, Romantic ideasaboutnationhoodsoonseeped into politicaldiscourse.53Such tendenciesintensifiedin the early183os, when the ideas of Edgard Quinet, Jules Michelet, VictorCousin- all French interpretersof German Romanticism gained cur-rencyin the Rio de la Plataregion,having an especially mportant mpacton the famousArgentineGenerationof 1837.54 ndeed,manyof the ideasexpressedby Juan B. Alberdi, D. F. Sarmientoand especiallyEsteban50 This ruralism was also manifested in the celebration of the Argentine gaucho orcowboy, who enjoyeda new statusas the prototype of the Argentine race. The newinterpretationof the gauchoandthe view of the countrysideas the sourceof authenticArgentine values have been much discussedin the scholarly iterature,and thus neednot detain us here. 51 Gailvez,El diariodeGabrielQuiroga,p. 138.52 CarlosChiaramonte, Formas de identidad en la regi6n de la Plata luego de i8io,'Boletin el Instituto eHistoriaArgentina AmericanaDr E. Ravignani', rdSeries,Sem.I, no. I (i989), p. 83. For recenttreatmentsof the influenceof the FrenchRevolutionon nineteenth-centuryArgentine political thought, see essays by various authors inImagen recepcionela Revolucidnrancesa nla ArgentinaBuenos Aires, 1990).51 MichaelRiekenberg, El conceptode la naci6nen la regi6n del Plata,' Entrepasados,,PP. 4-5 (1993), PP. 95-6. For more discussion, also see Chiaramonte, Formas deidentidad en la regi6n de la Plataluego de i8io,' pp. 71-92.4 Muchof my discussionof the impactof Romanticismon the Generationof 1837 drawsfrom Jorge Myers,'La revoluci6nen las ideas: La generaci6nromaintica e 1837en laculturay en la politicas argentinas,' in Noemi Goldman (ed.), Revolucidn,epublica,

Confederacionz8o6-s8ly),(Vol. 3of NuevaHistoriaArgentinaBuenosAires, 1998).Alsohelpfulare FerminChivez, Historicismoiluminismon a culturargentinaBuenosAires,1977), p. 43; Michael Riekenberg, 'El concepto de la naci6n,' Jorge Myers,"'Revoluciones inacabadas":Hacia una noci6n de "revoluci6n" en el imaginariohist6rico de la nueva generaci6n argentina: Alberdi y Echeverria, 837-I850o,' Imageny recepcidnde la RevolucionFrancesaen la Argentina. (Buenos Aires, 1992), p. 25 i, andEduardo Segovia Guerrero, La historiografiaargentinadelromanticismo,diss. UniversidadComplutense de Madrid, 1980.


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63 JeaneH. DeLaneyEcheverriaseem to presagethose articulatedover half a centurylaterbythe cultural nationalists.Fundamentalamong these was the notion thatArgentinesshould pay attention to 'that which is ours',55 and the beliefthat the developmentof the new nation would be 'based on the specificexperiences of the New World, with its representative landscapes,autochthonoushumantypes, etc'.56But while the impact of Romanticism on early- and mid-nineteenth-centuryArgentine thought was clearlypowerful,its influence shouldnotbe overestimated.As Jorge Myershas noted, the politicalculture of theRiverPlateregion was fundamentallyRepublicanduringthis period,andthese values served as a sort of intellectual 'screen' through whichRomantic ideas were filtered."5The result, according to Myers, was aRomanticismtempered by Enlightenmentideals, whose adherentssawtheir mission as that of fulfilling the liberalrevolution against Spain.58Although committed to the notion of an authentic,original Argentineculture,they saw the nationnot as a pre-existingessenceor atemporal ernacional, ut as the product of a dynamicrevolutionaryprocess thatwasin large part shaped by human agency."5Nor did this emphasis onoriginalitymean rejectingEuropeanmodels. While the members of theGeneration of 1837 believed Argentinawould develop accordingto thespecificnature of the New Worldexperience, t should also expresswhatwereseenas universal(European)values,amongwhich was democracy.61Accordingly,Echeverriaurgedmembers of his generationto concentrateon promoting the symbols of 'liberty', 'equality', 'progress' and'association', forging them into a coherentdoctrine that would becomethe basis of a unifiednationalsystem of belief.61The vision of the Argentinenationasacivic communityand theliberal,universalistmodel upon which it was basedfacedincreasedcompetitionfrom both Romantic and positivist ideas during the closing decadesof55 Myers, 'La revoluci6n en las ideas,' p. 412.56 Ibid., p. 426. Other similarities between the Generation of 1837 and the culturalnationalists was the former's criticism of their predecessor's embrace of a 'materialistic

philosophy' that ignored Argentine realities, and their belief that literature and art weredirect reflections of an underlying collective character. Accordingly, they called for aliterature that would reflect the nation's individuality. Myers, 'La revoluci6n en lasideas,' pp. 422, 420. Finally, the Generation of 1837 embraced a form of historicism,or a philosophy of history that saw the historical trajectories of individual nations asgoverned by underlying, general laws. As Myers notes, however, this embrace ofhistoricism was not complete. Rather, the Generation of 1837 also believed thathuman agency could shape historical development. Myers, 'La revoluci6n en las ideas,'pp. 436-7, 490. 5 Ibid., p. 418. s58 Ibid., p. 424.5s Ibid., p. 425.60 Ibid.,p. 426. On this point see also Oscir Terin, Vidaintelectualn el BuenosAires in-de-siglo(188o0-i9ro0):derivasde la culturacientifica(Buenos Aires, 2000zooo),p. 56-7.l61 Myers, 'Revoluciones inacabadas,'p. 258.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina 639the nineteenth century. As is well known, positivism dominated latenineteenth-centuryArgentinethought, and providedthe justification ormanyof policies of the rulingPartido Aut6nomo Nacional (PAN). Thisparty,organisedby GeneralJulio Roca,controlledthe Argentinepoliticalsystem from 188o to 1914, and took as its watchwords the positivistideal of 'order and progress'. The assumptions underlying Argentinepositivism will be discussedin greaterdetailbelow, but for now what isimportant s thenotion of 'scientificpolitics' thatjustified he PAN's longrule.Drawingfromthepositivisttenetthatpolitical nstitutionsshould betailoredto underlyingsocial conditions, PAN leaders embracedthe ideaof a limitedor controlleddemocracy, hatwould preservethe republicanpoliticalinstitutionsoutlinedby the 1853 Constitution while at the sametimeusing fraudand voter manipulation o ensureruleby theenlightenedelite.Romantic ideas about nationhood also gained ground during thisperiod."6Key here were the increasingnumbersof European mmigrantsarriving during this period and their perceived impact on Argentineidentity.Grapplingwith thequestionof how to assimilate henewcomers,elites focused on patriotic education as a means of convertingimmigrants or at least their children- into loyal Argentines,63 and it isin debatesover educationalpolicyandlanguage nstruction hatRomanticideasfrequentlysurfaced.64n 1896,for example,the Senateconsideredabill that would requireall schools to carryout instructionin Spanish.Whenpromotingthe measure,SenatorMarcoAvellanedaappealed o theideas of Swiss jurist M. Bluntschli, who, like most Romantics, sawlanguage and nationhood as organically linked. Citing the threat tonationalunity posed by immigration,Avellanedaargued that the state62 In many ways, the increasing attractiveness of Romanticism among Argentinesmirroreda similarphenomenon n Europe.As Eric Hobsbawmhasnoted, the upsurgeof ethnic nationalism in late nineteenth-centuryEurope stemmed from three keydevelopments:the tide of modernity hatthreatened raditionalgroups,the emergenceof new social classesin the urbanareas,and massivemigrationsthat brought differentgroups in contactwith each other for the first time. All, of course,are relevantto theArgentine case. See Hobsbawm,Nationsand Nationalism incei78o: Programme,Myth,Reality (London, 1990), 109.63 The political climate of the time meant that assimilation was seen in cultural, ratherthan political terms. Give the PAN's desire to de-emphasise popular political

participation, the notion that assimilation should also entail naturalisation, and thatbecoming Argentine meant assuming the rights and obligations of citizenship, enjoyedlittle appeal.64 As Oscir Terdin has noted, after 1 890 discussions of the 'national question' would ina sense be a dispute about the nation itself, whose 'terminal points' would be thecivic nationalism of previous generations stressing political and universal values, andanother that was 'essentialist' and 'culturalist' in nature. Terin, Vida intelectualen el

BuenosAires fin-de-siglo(188o-z9ro) pp. 56-7.


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640 JeaneH. DeLaneyshould strive to protect the nationallanguage 'as an element of union,force and nationality'.65Also typical was the warning of ErnestoQuesada, who expressed fears that Argentine Spanish was beingcontaminatedby foreigntermsandexpressions.Callingupon the educatedclassesto preserveSpanish n its pureform, he proclaimed anguageto bethe 'depository of the [national]spirit, race and genius'.66Such statementsmake t clear hatRomantic deaswereverymuchapartof late nineteenth-centurydebates over nationalityand immigration.Butas in the case of the earlierGenerationof 1837,these essentialist,organicnotions of nationhood continued to remain subordinate to the oldermodelof Argentinaasa communitywhose unityrestedon common idealsrather han on sharedethnicity.6" or the most part,the new nationalismwasmore civic thanethnic,and moreconcernedwith nation-buildingandthe expansion of state authority than with defending a pre-existingcollective characteror essence.68Moreover, many of proponentsof thenew nationalismproved deeply ambivalent about breakingwith Argen-tina's universalistictraditions. The plan to promote patriotismthroughthe public schools, andparticularlyhe effortsandattitudes of Jose Maria65 Quoted in Botana and Gallo, De la reptiblicaosible,p. 70. It was precisely thisRomantic-likereasoningthat drew the ire of the bill's opponents. In his attackon themeasure,E. Gouch6n citedthe examplesof BelgiumandSwitzerland,where apluralityof languages and customs coexisted with a profound sense of nationhood.F. Barroetanvefia, n his response to the bill, described it as 'obscurantist' and'reactionary,'and warnedthat its passagewould leadto a similarcall for the 'unity ofreligion and race.' All quotes from Botana and Gallo, De la reptiblicaosible,pp. 70-I.It should be noted that although the bill failed to pass in the Senate,two yearlater itwas approvedby both chambers of Congress.At that point, however, the executivevetoed the measure,arguingthat it might be perceivedas anti-immigrant.SeeHobartSpalding, 'Education in Argentina, 1890-19 I4: The Limits of OligarchicalReform,'

Journal f Interdisciplinaryistory,3:1(Summer, I972), pp. 42-3.66 Ernesto Quesada, 'El criollismo,' Estudios,vol. 3 (June-July 1902), pp. 452-3-Romantic-like ormulationsof nationhoodappearedelsewhere as well. The organicisttendenciesof JoaquinGonzilez' La tradicidn ativa 1888), a work Tertindescribesasthe one of the firstmanifestationsof what would become the 'march toward culturalnationalism',would find fullerexpression n the author'si900 textbook Patria.Terin,Vida intelectual,p. 225. Officially approved for use in primary schools, Patriaproclaimed hat'Every nationthat hasmanaged o become anindividualandperpetualorganism becomes a fatherland (patria); [a fatherland] is a complex and unitedpersonality hat at the sametime is an indestructibleunit.' JoaquinGonzilez, quotedin CarlosEscude, Elfracasodelproyectorgentino:ducacionideologia, . xxvii.

67 As Natalio Botana has noted, despite the very open divisions within the Argentinepoliticalelite, both supportersof the statusquo andwould-bereformers aw the liberalConstitution of 1853 as the undisputed foundation of the political order. Botana,El ordenconservador:a politica argentina ntre I8go1y 9I6 (Buenos Aires, 1994),pp. v-vi.68 On this point, see Maria Teresa Gramuglio, 'Literaturay nacionalismo:LeopoldoLugones y la construcci6nde imtigenesde escritor,'Hispamerica22: 64-65, Apr.-Aug.I993), p. 7.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina 641Ramos Mejia, the plan's chief architect, are illustrative. A prominentpositivist, Ramos Mejia served as president of the Consejo Nacional deEducaci6n from 1908 to 1912. During his tenure, schools adopted a dailypledge of allegiance, dropped foreign texts in favor of ones authored byArgentines, and organised frequent civic festivals. But, as Tulio HalperinDonghi has argued, despite his activism, Ramos Mejia remained, deeplyambivalent about the measures he himself instituted. Loath to abandonthe liberal progressivism that had for decades guided Argentina's politicalelite, he viewed the new nationalism as a necessary evil and as the mostacceptable means of integrating immigrant children into the nationalcommunity."9 Also important in understanding the impulse behind thesenew policies are the views of fellow positivist Carlos Octavio Bunge,another vocal supporter of patriotic education. Like Ramos Mejia, Bungesaw the Argentine nation as an entity to be constructed, and whose basiswould be collective sentiment rather than ethnicity. Contemporarysocieties, Bunge argued, were unavoidably pluralistic, thus making itnecessary 'to seek social unity in something distinctive and superior toethnic, linguistic, religious or geographic unity'. This something, hecontinued, was the 'unity of sentiment and the idea of the homeland[patria] .70But with the cultural nationalists, this ambivalence toward the newnationalism would vanish. What Ramos Mejia and his fellow positivistssaw as a necessary evil, the younger generation of intellectuals promotedwithout reservation." Moreover, the Romantic tendencies already evidentin debates over education and language would come to full flower.What led to this unabashed embrace of the idea of the nation as anorganic, ethnocultural community that so marked early twentieth-centuryArgentine cultural nationalist thought? Certainly it would be fair to seethis movement as an intensification of prior Romantic tendencies, despitethe cultural nationalists' insistence that their generation represented abreak with the supposedly cosmopolitan ideologies of the past. Europeanintellectual influences also played a role. Gailvez, in particular, notes theimpact of French nationalist Charles Maurras, and both he and Rojas werewell aware of the broader currents of ethno-linguistic nationalism sweep-ing Europe during the late nineteenth century. But without questionthe most important influences from Europe came from the Spanish69 HalperinDonghi,'jParaquda inmigraci6n?', p. 480-3.70CarlosOctavioBunge,'La educaci6npatri6tica nte la sociologia,'Monitor e laEducacidnomuin,ug. 31, 1908, pp. 67-70, quoted n CarlosEscude,Elfracaso elproyectorgentino,. 38.71 Regardinghis point, HalperinDonghi sees RamosMejiaas a transitionaligurebetweenSarmiento, holoathedheideaof nationalistducation,ndRicardoRojas,who championedt. ',Paraquda inmigraci6n?',p.482-3.


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642 JeaneH. DeLaneyGeneration of 1898, and in particular from Miguel Unamuno and AngelGanivet,72 who themselves exhibited the twin influences of Germanidealism and scientific determinism.7" Indeed, many of concepts central toArgentine cultural nationalism - including the idea of a national characterwith its 'irreducible nucleus' and 'racial ideal', the view that this racialcharacter is shaped by geographical influences, the belief that nationsstruggling against their inner character inevitably flounder, and thehistoricist notion that all nations have a unique destiny - could have beenlifted wholesale from the pages of Ganivet's Ideariumespaiiol(1897) andUnamuno's En tornoal casticismo(i902). These ideas in turn have beentraced to the influence of nineteenth-century Spanish Krausism, amovement emerging directly from early nineteenth-century GermanRomanticism."7 Also influential, as noted above, were the writings ofNicaraguan poet Ruben Dario and Uruguayan essayist Jose EnriqueRod6, who both helped popularise the notion of a Latin or Hispanic raceendowed with a unique, highly idealistic sensibility and possessing animportant historical mission.

Why these concepts were appealing is another story, for ideas from anysource have an impact only if they speak to the anxieties and tensions ofthe period. As noted earlier, Argentina's extraordinarily rapid economicgrowth, coupled with the impact of massive immigration, helped create anintellectual and emotional climate favorable to Romantic notions. Againstthe onslaught of these often disturbing changes, the view of Argentinaas a unique people bound by language, shared historical memories,descent and religion struggling to maintain their collective identityhad obvious appeal. But as suggested above, another reason for theappeal of the Romantic view of nationhood is that, in significant ways,this vision complemented ideas that had gained currency during the era ofpositivism. While positivists such as Bunge and Ramos Mejia shared anunderstanding of Argentine identity that ultimately remained rootedwithin the liberal tradition, the ideas about historical change, collective72 On the influenceof the SpanishGeneration f 1898 on earlytwentieth-centuryArgentineultural ationalism,eeGilvez,El solar e araza,pp.12-13, CardenasndPay'i,Elprimer acionalismo,p. Izo-I ; Rock,Authoritarianrgentina,. 48;Sarlo ndAltamirano,LaArgentina elcentenario,' p.74-5.n On the nfluencef scientificeterminismn theGenerationf 1898,andespeciallyhe

impact f French ositivistHippolyteTaine himselfnfluencedyGermandealism),seeRamsden,Ther189MovementnSpain.74 As ElenaM. de Jongh-Rossel asargued,manyof theconceptsdentifiedwiththisGenerationuchas'intrahistory'nd heexistencef anunderlyinger spaholadbeenarticulatedarlierby Spanish ollowersof GermanphilosopherCarl Christian .Krause, thinkerwho wasverymucha partof theRomanticradition.OnthispointseeJongh-Rossel, l krausismoyageneracidnel1898IValencia, 985).Alsoveryusefulis DoloresG6mezMolleda,Losreformadorese aEspaiacontemprineaMadrid, 966).


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina 643character and the organic nature of society that they and other positivistsespoused helped to pave the way for the Romantic vision of nationhoodcelebrated by the cultural nationalists.

Culturalnationalismandpositivist sociologyPositivism in Argentina was notably eclectic.75 But although Argentinepositivists never defined a single, coherent philosophy, they did share ageneral faith in science and the belief that the scientific method could beapplied to the study of human societies. Society itself they saw as anevolving organism that passed through set, pre-determined stages ofdevelopment. These stages were predictable and the same for all societies,but positivists believed the progress of individual societies along this pathdiffered. To gain a deeper understanding of a given society, it wasnecessary to eschew theory and all a priori knowledge in favour of eitherdirect observation or the search for objective historical facts. Equippedwith empirical evidence, Argentine positivists believed it would bepossible to ascertain the underlying laws that governed a society'sparticular development, and then to devise political institutions and socialpolicies appropriate to its particular needs.76But not all Argentine positivists saw the scientific method as the onlysource of knowledge. Some were also critical of positivism's overweeningemphasis on empiricism, arguing that ideas and religious beliefs were alsoimportant historical forces." Carlos Baires, for example, apparently cameunder the sway of German intellectual currents and developed anunderstanding of nationhood that seems Romantically-inspired.78 Writingin 1898, a full decade before Rojas' Restauracionnacionalistaappeared,Baires theorised about the existence of a 'national soul' or spirit thatdeveloped according to multiple influences such as the 'raza madre',climate, geography and culture."79A similar intellectual hybridism canbe seen in the ideas of Jose Ingenieros (1877-1925), who, while acontemporary of the cultural nationalists, occupied a notable spot inArgentina's positivist pantheon. Especially in his early years, Ingenieros75 HobartSpalding,Sociology n Argentina', . 51.76 For a good syntheticdiscussion f positivismn LatinAmerica, ee CharlesHale,'Politicaland Social deas n LatinAmerica, 870-1930,'n LeslieBethell ed.),The

Cambridgeistory f LatinAmericaNew York, I986),vol. 4, esp. pp. 382-96.ForArgentine ositivism,Terain, idantelectualnelBuenosires,provideshemostrecentandsophisticatednalysis.Also helpfulare various ssays n Hugo Biagini ed.),ElmovimientoositivistargentinoBuenosAires,I985).77 Spalding,Sociology n Argentina', . sI.For a morerecent, ndfullerdiscussion ftheidealistic lements f Argentine ositivism,ee Terin's Vida ntelectualnelBuenosAires,esp.chapterhree. 78Terin, Vida ntelectualnelBuenosires,p. 5I.79CarlosBaires,El espiritu acional,'Revista acional,ol. 25 (April1898),pp.251-8.


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644 JeaneH. DeLaneyembraced he Spencerian iew thatbiologicallaws ruledhumanexistence,and he saw human progress as the result of natural selection.80Later,however,he moved toward dealism.Whileneverentirelyabandoning hescientific approach, Ingenieros began to write of nations as 'races',which he defined as 'homogeneous societ[ies]' comprisedof individualssharing a 'spiritual and social unity' that distinguished them fromother nations.81Although he continued to differ from the culturalnationalists n many respects,he once expressedto Rojashis own 'ardentfaith' that 'cultural mixture would give our country its own soul,transforming t into a true homeland[patria].82Thatmanypositivistseasilyslippedtoward ideas that we identifywithcultural nationalism suggests important affinities between the twomovements.83One key similaritywas the assumptionthatArgentinawasa unique society with its own distinctive institutions and collectivepsychology.84Whileculturalnationalistsandtheirsympathisersrequentlyportrayedthe positivist Generationof 188o as avid Europeanisersandpositivismas an imported, cosmopolitan deology, positivism- especiallythe version promotedby HerbertSpencer actuallyencouraged Argen-tines to focus on the unique qualities of their own society. Spencer'stheorythat all societiesevolve in distinctive fashionaccordingto uniqueenvironmentaland racial actors,and his keen interest n the comparativestudy of political systems, customs and ethnic traits, helped latenineteenth-centuryLatin Americansturn their attentionto the peculiari-ties of their own nations.8 While reaching very different conclusions,80 See for examplehis i908 essay 'Sociologia argentina(De la sociologia como ciencianatural),' reprinted in Jose Ingenieros, Antimperialismo nacion,ed. Oscar Terain(Buenos Aires, 1979),PP. 259-70.81 Jose Ingenieros,'La formaci6nde una razaargentina,'RevistadeFilosofia,vol. I, zndSemester,I915, P. 466. It should be noted that Ingenieroscontinuedto use the term'race' to denote a biological category, and indeed uses it in this second sense in thesamearticle.82 Ingenieros to Rojas, Buenos Aires, March 30, 1914, Archives of the Museo Ricardo

Rojas.s3 The blurring of positivism and Romanticism also occurred in Spain, but in a differentorder. Towards the end of the century, Spanish followers of Krausism adopted

positivist approaches in their attempt to define more rigorously the Spanish collectivecharacter.See chapternine of G6mez Molleda, Los reformadores.84 For a discussion of Argentine positivists and their efforts to understand he unique

nature of Argentine society, see Hugo Biagini, 'Acerca del caricter nacional,' in Elmovimientopositivistaargentina, p. 21-37; also see Hobart Spalding, 'Sociology inArgentina', pp. 50-59 and Terain,Vida intelectualn el BuenosAires.85 Hale,'PoliticalandSocialIdeas n LatinAmerica',p. 397.Foradiscussionof Spencer'sinfluence in Argentina during this period, see Marcel Monserrat, 'La mentalidadevolucionista: una ideologia del progreso,' in Gustavo Ferrariand Ezequiel Gallo

(eds.), La Argentina del ochenta al centenario Buenos Aires, 1980), pp. 785-8I11, esp.PP. 795, 814 (endnote 23).


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina645Argentine positivists attempted to employ the scientific method tounearth the historical, environmental and racial basis of the collectivepsychology of their people.

The tendencyto view differencesbetweenpeoples andnationsin racialtermswasanotherkeylegacyof positivism.Race becamea centralelementin Argentinetheorisingabout nationalcharacteranddestiny. Present-dayscholars have often associated positivism with turn-of-the-centuryscientificracismandthe view of raceasa biological category.Race withinthis understanding s definedby inheritedphysicalmarkerssuch as skincolour, phenotype and hair type, which in turn are presumed to beaccompaniedby a given set of mental andemotionalcharacteristics."86utpositivists, as the example of Josd Ingenieros indicates, also oftenemployed an understanding of race that was more historical thanbiological, and that reappearsas a central element in the culturalnationalists'concept of nationhood. Rooted in Romantichistoriographyand philology, and bolsteredby theories of environmentaldeterminismand Lamarckian deas concerning the inheritedness of acquiredcharac-teristics,race within this traditionis equatedwith nationality,which inturn denotes a psychologically homogenous group of people with acommon origin, sharedlanguage, and collective mental and emotionalqualities."87Key herewas the influenceof Frenchpositivist HippolyteTaine,whoselife-long concern with the determinants of individual and collectivepsychology drew on both English positivism and German idealism.88Accordingto Taine, eachnationalitypossessed an underlying'elementalmoralstate' or collective psychology that sprangfrom the interactionof'race, milieu and moment'."9 Taine's environmental and racial de-terminismis clearly seen in the writings of the previously mentionedCarlos Bunge, who attemptedto explain the 'vices and modalities' ofHispanicAmericanpolitical life by analysingthe collective psychologyof the Hispanic American race."9According to Bunge, this collectives6 For discussions of the biologicalconceptof race in earlytwentieth-centuryArgentina,see Eduardo Zimmermann, 'Racial Ideas and Social Reform: Argentina, 89o-I9 i6,'and Nancy Stepan, 'The Hourof Eugenics':Race,Gender nd Nation in Latin America(Ithaca, NY, and London, i991), esp. chapters four and five.87 On the twin sources of racial theorising in Europe and Latin American, see Hale's

discussion in 'Political and Social Ideas in Latin America,' pp. 396-409. On theinfluence of Lamarckian theories see Stepan,' The Hour of Eugenics', esp. chapter three.88 In the words of H. Ramsden, Taine sought '(n)either English positivism nor Germanidealism, ... but a fusion of the two, The1898 Movementn Spain, p. 67. For more on thedual nature of Taine's thought see D. G. Charlton, Positivist Thoughtn Franceduring heSecondEmpire, 18y2-r87o (New York, I959), esp. chapter seven.89 Hale, 'Political and Social Ideas,' p. 398.9o Carlos O. Bunge, Nuestra America [1903] (Buenos Aires, 1905), and ed., pp. 3, 7.


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646 JeaneH. DeLaneypsychologywas the productof the three constituent'races' (the Spanish,Indian and Negro) and the geographicconditions that shapedthem. Ofparticular nterest is Bunge's lengthy discussion of the formationof theSpanishnationalcharacter,which he believed to be deeplyflawed.Spain'sprogress, Bunge argued, had been stymied by its people's excessivearrogance.Tracingthis flaw to Spain'svulnerability o foreigninvasionsdue to its geographicposition,he arguedthat this 'geographicfatalityhadimposed on Spaniardsa psychicatality'.91This flaw, deeply rooted inhistory,had becomean indeliblepartof Spaniards'nationalcharacter, ndunfortunatelyhad been transmitted o their Americandescendants.Rojas' mystical concept of telluric forces that supposedly shapedtheArgentine race certainlywent beyond Bunge's more straight-forwardenvironmental determinism, but the similarities between the twoapproacheswere in many ways more profound than their differences.92Whatis importantherewas the positivist notion, constantlyreiteratedbyBunge, that each nationalcommunity(or in the caseof HispanicAmerica,a family of nationalcommunities)possessed a clearlyidentifiableset ofhistorically and geographically rooted psychological traits that bothdistinguished t from othernations and determined ts futurepossibilities.Another importantsimilaritybetween positivists and cultural nation-alists was the belief that societies were natural organisms rather thancreations of autonomous,free-thinking ndividuals.Because both gener-ations of thinkers saw the nation or society as the product of history,race and environment,they considered it to be a naturalratherthan aninvented solidarity,and thus relativelyimpervious to humanagency orwill.93This determinismunderlay he positivists'belief that while societywas steadily evolving toward a higher state, the process should occurincrementally.Reform, rather than revolution, was the key,94and theimpactof humanagencyon social evolution was considered imited. Whateducated elites could do to promote this evolution was study theirsociety scientifically,then develop political institutionsand educationalpracticesappropriate o nationalrealities.91 Ibid.,p. I6.92 Interestingly, Rojas initially sought to ground his theory of an emerging Argentinerace shaped by telluric forces by appealing to Taine's theory of geographic determinism

(La restauracionnacionalista,p. 68). He was later to dismiss Taine as too mechanical(interview with Ricardo Rojas by 'Silvano' in Atldntida (Nov. I5, 1923), n.p.9' See Hale, 'Political and Social Ideas,' pp. 369, 383. On organicism in the thought ofArgentine positivists and the influence of Gustave Le Bon's concept of the crowd seeBotana and Gallo, De la repAiblicaosible, pp. 69-70oand Terin, Vida intelectual nel BuenosAires, esp. chapters two and three.

04 In C. O. Bunge's words: 'What will be the treatment [of Hispanic America's ills]?Without a doubt, the best, the only remedy is [to improve] the general culture ... Ina word, Evolution, not Revolution!', Nuestra America, pp. 5-6.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina647Culturalnationalistsembraceda similarformof determinism,believingthat Argentina's development was essentially governed by underlyingforces or processes.As we have seen, Rojassaw the telluricforces of theArgentine soil as the principal shaperof Argentine personality,and asthe primarydeterminant of the nation's future."5For others, such asGailvez, he determiningforce shapingthe Argentinenation was ethnic.Gailvez,it will be recalled,believed the Spanish characterformed thebedrock of the nationalpersonality,which would - despite the impactof immigration forever form the core of the Argentine essence. Forculturalnationalists,regardlessof theirparticular mphasison the relativeimportance of environmental or ethnic determinism,national destiny

seemed to be more the product of autonomous forces than of humanagency.At first glance this argument appears undercut by the culturalnationalists' well known celebrationof the talents of exceptionalmen,amongwhose ranks heycountedthemselves."96hesemen,theybelieved,should form a new elite to promote the twin causes of idealism andnationalism.Sucha belief suggests a faithboth in humanagencyand thepower of ideas in shaping history. A closer look, however, reveals adifferentstory. As noted above, the culturalnationalistssaw Argentina'sproblemas one of alienation from its true characterand deviation fromits historical trajectory. Accordingly, what was needed were not menof action or ideas to reshape the national destiny, but individuals ofheightened aesthetic sensibilities who could grasp the hidden essenceof the national race, the continuity of its underlying traditionsand itsdestiny. Like the positivist belief that men, using the scientificmethod,could grasp the hidden laws governing Argentine development, theculturalnationalists believed that certainindividuals- by virtue of theirintuitive powers and heightened sensitivity- could see beyond surfacephenomenato understand he occult forces shapingthe nation, and thushelp guide it back to its true course."979 Rojas' fundamental determinism comes through even as he urged the federalgovernment to take concrete steps to promote a more cohesive sense of nationalitythrough patriotic education. While these measures were needed, he suggested theywould playa secondaryrole in consolidating he Argentinenation.Moreimportant,hebelieved, were the telluric forces of the Argentine territory. See for example, his

comment that the European immigrant was ultimately insignificant. What wasimportantwere his descendants, hat have 'the common matrix mposedupon them bythe American environment.' La restauracido'acionalista,pp. 136-7.96 On this tendency for early-twentieth-century intellectuals to exalt their own status, seeAltamirano and Sarlo, 'La Argentina del centenario,' esp. pp. 77-88.97 On special role of the writer/artist as 'soldiers' in the new nationalist struggle, seeRojas' speech given at a banquet honoring him on his return from Europe in I908,published in Nosostros (vol. 3, year a: 13-14, Aug.-Sept. 1908), pp. i 26-7. On his own


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648 JeaneH. DeLaneyAs has been shown, throughout the nineteenthcentury, both in theearlierRomanticand laterpositivistera,the ideaof the nationasa unique,organic community formed an ever-present thread running through

Argentine thought. But acknowledgingantecedentsshould not blind usto important ntellectualshifts in the earlytwentiethcentury.One of themost significant was the cultural nationalists' insistence that nationaldistinctivenessshould be celebratedandencouraged,not deplored.Whenmembersof the Generationof 1837 and their positivist heirs98soughtto understand the uniqueness of their national society, they did so inthe manner of a physicianseeking to diagnose a patient'smalady.Formost nineteenth-century ntellectuals,the drive toward collective self-understanding ound its impulse in the desire to remedyperceivedcol-lective character laws that prevented Argentinafrom joining the ranksof civilized nations. While acknowledging that all peoples developedaccordingto particularconditions, neithergenerationof thinkers couldwrench itself away from the assumptionthat Argentinesshould attemptto remake the nation in the image of Europe or the United States.99Culturalnationalists, in contrast, championeda vision of history thatcelebratednational and culturaluniquenessand believedhumanityto beenrichedby differences, husseeing Argentinedistinctiveness n apositivelight.Politicalimplicationsf romanticnderstandingsf nationhoodWhat did this championing of the Romantic ideal of nationhood andhistorymeanin politicalterms? Are the ideas of the culturalnationalistsimportantbecausethey formed the firststepdown a paththatwould leadto right-wingnationalism,andultimately as somewould have it - to thehorrorsof the 'Dirty War'?These questions,of course,return us to oneof theoriginal problemsset forth in the openingsection: can both Gailvez

abilities to grasp the 'true essence of our collective being,' see his comments inEurindia,pp. xII5-6. Leopoldo Lugones, whose views on nationhood were verysimilar o those of the culturalnationalists,alsopromotedthe idea of the writeror poetas critical to the nation's destiny. On this point, see Gramuglio, 'Literaturaynacionalismo',p. 9.98 As Nod Jitrikhasnoted, the positivist Generationof 188owasthe 'organic realisation'of the previous generation. El mundo del ochenta(Buenos Aires, I98z), p. 2o. Thesimilarities between the ideas of the Generation of 1837 and later positivist thinkers ledArgentine philosopher Alejandro Korn to argue that Argentine positivism was of'autochthonous origin'. Hale, 'Political and Social Ideas,' note 38.

99 In Hale's words, while 'Latin American positivists recognized that their society hadunique features ... the limitations of evolutionary theory forced them to view thatsociety as inferior on a unilinear scale of civilization.' Hale, 'Political and Social Ideasin Latin America, 1870-1930,' p. 413.


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Twentieth-Centuryrgentina649and Rojas, who pursued very differentpolitical paths, be consideredprecursors to the more xenophobic, authoritarian Liga Patri6ticaArgentinaand the right-wingnationalists?As noted above, the anti-democraticcontent of Gailvez'sthought iseasily detected, and his support of the 1930 militarycoup was fully inkeepingwith the ideas expressedin his writings. Indeed, by the time ofthe coup, Gailvezhad become so deeply alarmedby what he saw as theill effects of massive immigrationand cosmopolitanismthat he openlyrepudiatedArgentina's liberal political institutions and called for theestablishmentof a corporatistregime. Cosmopolitaninfluencesand thelure of easy wealth, the author proclaimed, had led to the loss oftraditionalArgentine values such as heroism and self-sacrifice.100t wasnow time, he affirmed, o 'correct, demolish, erase,purifyor destroyallthose customs or tendencies hatcorrespond o anunhealthy, mpoverish-ed or insignificant concept of life'.1'1 Gilvez believed that such a taskcouldnot be accomplishedwithin the frameworkof the 1853 Constitution,which, he affirmed,had 'never correspondedwith our modalities'.102Although Gailvezdid not openlyembracefascismuntil 1930,his beliefthat the Constitution nhibited the defenseof loargentinoppearsearlyonin his writings.In his 191onovel El diariodeGabrielQuiroga,or example,Gailvezsuggests that threats to the Argentine way of being requireddrastic,even unconstitutionalmeasures.Employing the literarydevice ofa fictionaldiarist named Quiroga who serves as the author'salter ego,Gilvez/Quiroga expressed dismay over the activities of ProtestantsinArgentinaand recommendedharshmeasures.Individualswho practiceda religion [or sect] otherthanCatholicism,he proclaimed,threatened henationalpersonalityby 'introduc[ing] into our collective modality, theseedsof spiritual[andthus national]disintegration'l""Given the dangersfacingthe nation, the fictionaldiaristargued,it would be best to expelall'apostles' of foreign religions and internationalsocial doctrines. Whilesuch actionsmight conflictwith the Argentinelaw, he concludedthat theprotectionof Argentine nationalitymust come first.104In advocatingthe violation of the Constitution,Gailvezmakesa cleardistinction between the Argentinenation- identifiedas an ethnoculturalcommunitydefined by its Catholic,Hispanic origins- and the politicalinstitutionsof the state.This distinction reflectsthe Romantic dea of thenation as a 'pre-politicalessence' or historically-rooted olk communitywhose existenceprecedesthe establishmentof the stateapparatus.Whilethe organisation of a state ultimately becomes necessary in order to100 Manuel Gilvez, Este pueblonecesita .. (Buenos Aires, i934), p. 31.101 Ibid., p. 37. 102 Ibid., p. I14.103 Gilvez, El diario de GabrielQurioga, pp. 67-8. 104 Ibid., p. 68.


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65 JeaneH. DeLaneyprotect the folk communityand its territory,collective identityremainsbased on the uniquequalitiesof the folk, not upon political nstitutionsorprinciples.1'"Such a vision, of course, contrasts sharply with liberalunderstandings f thenation that view political nstitutionsasconstitutiveof, and integral to, nationhood.1'6 Gailvez did not see the liberalConstitution of 1853 as partand parcelof Argentineidentity.Indeed,hebelievedthat under certaincircumstances,t posed adanger o the nation'ssurvival when it preventedthe state fromtakingactionagainstthreats oArgentines'collective character.The willingness to jettison individual rights in order to protect thegreater interests of the nation is another element of Gailvez'thoughttraceable o Romanticism.Whilethe basis of thenation is the 'people', theterm is understood as an ethnic community constitutedgraduallyovertime andgainingthe statusof a folk throughsharedhistoricalexperiences,common language, religion and attachment to a particularterritory.Within this vision of nationhood,the individualderiveshis or heridentityfrom the collectivity.7"'This means,of course, that individualrightsandliberties can easily be abridgedwhen the greaterinterests of the folk areat stake.10sn advocatingfascism,Gilvez forthrightlyacknowledged histrade-off. n a fasciststate,he acknowledged, ibertyand individualrightswould suffer,but the 'good of thecountryand its inhabitants'must beputfirst. 'This is sad,' he recognised,'... but it is necessary or the salvationof the peoples [pueblos].. The individual is no longer the fundamentalthing, but ratherthe collective, or better the State that representsandcontainsthe individual.'09As with Gailvez,Rojas'politicalbeliefs very clearlybore the marks ofRomanticism.But in hiscase,this influencewould be lessstraight orwardand more attenuated.Drawn simultaneouslytoward Argentina'sliberalheritage and Romantic understandingsof nationhood, Rojas was alsocaught between two definitionsof argentinidadith potentiallydivergentpolitical implications.But unlike Gailvez,who believed that Argentina'sliberaltraditionsthreatenedthe survival of a putative nationalessence,Rojasnever acknowledgeda conflict. Indeed, as he asserted n Eurindia,105 As John Hutchinson has noted, within the Romantic understandingof nation, thestate and its constituentpolitical institutionsare often viewed as 'accidental' to thenation. Hutchinson, 'Moral Innovators and the Politics of Regeneration: The

Distinctive Role of CulturalNationalistsin Nation-Building,' Ethnicity ndNational-ism,ed. Anthony Smith(New York, 1992), p. 103. On this point see also Brubaker,CitiZenshipndNationhood, . 9.

o06 In Hobsbawm's succinct formulation: 'state = nation = people'. Hobsbawm, Nationsand Nationalism inces7Ao,p. zz2.107 Lepsius, 'The Nation and Nationalism in Germany', p. 49.10s Ibid., p. 50. As Lepsius notes, these interests are invariably interpreted by the rulingelite. 109 Gilvez, Este pueblonecesita .., pp. 89-90.


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Twentieth-CenturyArgentina 651the nation's democratic institutions were necessary for the continuedevolution of the raZa argentina.110This double attraction to liberalism and Romanticism produced anongoing tension between Rojas' pro-democracy rhetoric and his generallack of interest - at least in his earlier years - in political life of the nation.His dismissive attitude toward politics comes through, for example, in thewriter's long standing refusal to participate in electoral politics. As Rojasnoted in a 1911 interview, he had voted only twice in his life: once for acandidate who was defeated through electoral fraud, the second timebecause he was required to serve as a poll observer. At that moment, henoted, he had cast his ballot for a socialist candidate as a cynical gesture.111

But besides cynicism, evidence suggests that Rojas' decision to remainaloof from politics had roots in his belief that political institutions andpractices were largely irrelevant to the real life of the nation. Here thewriter's views on the electoral reform bill, contained in the 1911 La Nacidninterview, are revealing. Rather than criticising the proposed reformdirectly, Rojas expressed scepticism about any attempt to regulatecollective behaviour that did not take into account local 'topographicalconditions'. Returning to his favourite theme of the telluric forces of theland, he argued that the 'soil [or national territory], was the physical baseof the political structure,' inevitably shaping the collective consciousness.Argentina had found it difficult to develop appropriate laws and politicalinstitutions, Rojas maintained, because legislators had ignored the nation'sunderlying geographic conditions, wasting their time reading foreignpolitical tracts instead of 'condensing the cosmic unconsciousness of oursoil into the social consciousness' of Argentine society.112

Rojas' scepticism about the reform bill and his call for attention to whathe saw as the underlying determinants of Argentine reality make clearhis view that political life, rather than being central to Argentine identity,was essentially epiphenomenal. Dismissing elections and legislation asrelatively unimportant, Rojas believed what really counted were thehidden processes shaping the nation's character and destiny, such as theblood of Argentina's indigenous peoples that he believed flowed like a'subterranean river' in the depths of the Argentine race.11aThis hiddenhistory, or 'intrahistory' as he called it, was more 'essential' than the'external' or observable historical events produced by human agency.114Clearly then, within Rojas' vision, political events are part of this external110Rojas, Eurindia,p. 134.111Rojas, 'Cuestiones electorales,'La Nacidn,Sept. io, 191112 All quotations from Rojas, 'Cuestiones electorales,' La Nacidn, Sept. i o, 191 I.113 Rojas, Los gauchescos,p. 134.114 For more of Rojas'explanationof external,visible history versus intrahistory ee hisEurindia,pp. I77-9.


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652 JeaneH. DeLaneyhistory:existing on a superficialevel: they reflected,ratherthanshaped,the essential life of the nation. This view is also evident in one of Rojas'other rare pre-193o references to politics. In Restauracidnacionalista(1909), he describes the I890 rebellion against the ruling PAN as theobservablemanifestationof the country'sunderlyingmoral crisis, itselfrooted in 'intrahistoricalcauses. 115Another aspect of Rojas' politicaloutlook that appears nfluencedbyRomanticism was his grave doubt about the capacityof the Argentinepeople for self-governance. Rojas believed that suffrage should beextendedonly to individualswho were 'suitable' and possesseda certainlevel of culture. It was impossibleto believe, he arguedthat 'those whoare illiterate, incapable and unaware (inconsientes)'ould participateinshaping the public destiny. Achieving democracywould be a gradualprocess and for the moment Argentina needed a group of 'selectedelectors' to choose its political leaders.116Thereis, of course,nothing particularlyRomanticaboutthe belief thatthe Argentinemasses were ill-preparedor active citizenshipand that thejourneytoward truly democratic nstitutions would be a long one. Sucha view underlayJuan BautistaAlberdi's idea of the 'reptiblicaosible'andwas embraced n a more extremeformby the Generationof 1880.In someways then, Rojas' ideas about Argentine democracydiffered little fromthose of othermembersof his socialclass.However, the role he assignedto the masses in creatingArgentina'sunique identity is distinctive,andit is here that his Romantic inclinations are evident. For Rojas, theArgentinemasses weremuchmore(andin animportantsense,muchless)than potential citizens: they served, he believed, as the avatarsof thenational soul. In keepingwith the Romantic idea of society as a natural,internallydiverseorganismcomprisedof sub-organismsulfillingdifferentroles,"11Rojas argued that argentinidadas the product of the comp-lementaryefforts of both the popularclasses and the educatedelite. Thecreole masses, he believed, embodied the indigenous or autochthonousspirit, while the latter embodied the more rational, cosmopolitanEuropeanelement. When discussing Argentina'sbreak from Spain,forexample,he praised he role of the 'gauchos,Indians,mestizos andslaves'who answered the call for independence,and who 'invaded the citiescarryingthe (democratic)spirit of the countryside'.It was the educated15 Rojas, La restauracidnnacionalista,pp. o09-o0.116 Rojas, 'Cuestiones electorales,' La Nacidn, Sept. 11, 19I1. In a speech given that sameyear, he proclaimed that the 'destiny of nations, even democracies, depends - and will

depend for a long time - on their directive minorities.' Speech contained in LosArquetipos, vol. II of Obras de Ricardo Rojas (Buenos Aires, I922), pp. I 2-3.'17 On the Romantic view of supposed internal diversity of society, see Hutchinson,'Moral Innovators', p. 1o0.


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Twentieth-CenturyArgentina 653elite, however, whose task it was to interpretthis inchoate spiritand totransformthese crudepassionsinto the new nationalideal.118Similarly,Rojastouted the importanceof folklore, traditionalmusic and dances asexpressive of the 'soul of the people,'"19but saw these as the 'rawmaterial' that educatedclasses would use to createan original,and moreerudite,nationalliterature.120Such a view of the masses as the embodimentof the nationalsoul didlend a somewhat popular tincture to what was, in the context of thereformist currents of the time, a conservativepolitical position. And itcould be argued that in exalting the Argentine folk as avatars ofargentinidad, ojas dignified the common people by granting them acentral role in the historical evolution of the nation. He was, however,unwilling to grantthese same individualsthe statusof full, participatingcitizens. Instead, for Rojas, the masses or folk served as passive- andunthinking- vessels of an indefinablespiritor essence.The anti-egalitarian and even anti-democratic potential of thisorganicist,corporatistvision is obvious.121While not leading inevitablyto authoritarianism, y celebrating he internaldiversitiesof societiesandthe supposedly complementary functions of distinctive groups, theRomanticvision of nationhood does tend to devalue the ideals of legalequality and active citizenship. Thus despite his continual support fordemocracy (a support that would strengthen after the 1930 coup),122118Rojas,Losgauchescos,. 448.119 Rojas, Comments n Santiagodel Estero upon publicationof his book, Elpals de lasselvas.Commentspublishedwithout title in Ideas,5:23-24 (March-April1905), p. 345.120 Rojas, Losgauchescos,p. z55-6.121 Rojashimself admittedhis anti-liberal nclinations. His politicalideas,he noted, were'a bit harmful to the

delaney- imagining ser argentino

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