The New Cultural History of Peronism

Power and Identity in Mid-Twentieth-Century Argentina

Bibliographic Data

ID2778271
AuthorsGregory Hammond (Austin Peay State University of Clarksville, TN, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume91
Issue4
Pages725-726
Publication date2011-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-1416864
OpenAlexW2028673037
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Peronism, as scholars of Argentina’s most profound political movement readily acknowledge, is one of the most thoroughly examined topics in Latin American history. Scholars have been fascinated not only by the enduring legacy of Juan and Evita Perón in Argentina, but also the manner in which Peronism seems to embody some deeper character of all of Latin America. Peronism signifies more than changes in the “rules of the game” in the economic and political sense, but also in the way we talk about the game and understand the players — in a word, culture. While the study of cultural history has gained respectability over the years, the cultural history of political movements, especially Peronism, has been relatively neglected. The new collection edited by Matthew Karush and Oscar Chamosa takes an important step toward closing that scholarly gap, bringing together a diverse array of topics in an intellectually unified work.In the introductory essay, the editors place the collection firmly within the historiography of Peronism, highlighting the work of Daniel James, Marcela Gené, and Mariano Ben Plotkin (who wrote the conclusion) as particularly important for their own approach. The editors and contributors take seriously the need to move away from the traditional focus on structuralism, the national government, and Juan and Evita themselves in order to explore how the target audience for Peronism received, responded to, and shaped the overarching message of that movement. This effort, reflected in Karush’s contribution to the volume, requires a greater recognition of Peronism as a national movement, not just one focused on Buenos Aires, and serves to highlight the extent to which Peronism inserted itself into almost every aspect of daily life. Through careful research and imaginative analysis, the authors succeed in expanding the scope and sophistication of our understanding of Peronism and its legacy.Given the expansive nature of the new cultural approach, the compilation format is particularly appropriate for this subject, and the individual essays provide distinct, yet mutually supportive, views of the uses of culture in Peronism. Natalia Milanesio leads off with a discussion of the term “cabecita negra” used to describe someone of Native American heritage, the use of which served to distinguish Peronists from anti-Peronists in much the same way as the word “descamisado.” For Perón’s opponents, these terms served not only to denigrate, but also to define the masses that rallied around him throughout his presidency. Milanesio shows how the use of this language reflected the fears of anti-Peronists and how, in later years, scholars made assumptions about Perón’s supporters based on these prejudices. Peronists, however, embraced these terms of upper-class disdain as a way to signify their “authentic” national character. However, as Milanesio and subsequent authors in the book demonstrate, that does not mean that Peronists, whether of the leadership or the rank and file, were immune from racial or class anxiety. Diana Lenton’s piece on the 1946 Malón de la Paz is a fitting follow-up to Milanesio, as Lenton describes the controversy surrounding a march to Buenos Aires undertaken by Kolla Indians in an effort to win back land taken from them by previous governments. This incident reflected both the willingness of Argentines to embrace the social justice rhetoric of Peronism and the discomfort Peronist officials felt with those who did not follow the proper channels in requesting such justice. In the end, many of the marchers were forcibly removed from the city, though the government did eventually fulfill their requests in 1949.The tension between official rhetoric and popular action continues throughout the following essays. In their efforts to define national culture, Peronists throughout the nation turned to the past while simultaneously seeking to mark their present experience as a break with the past. Oscar Chamosa skillfully expresses this contradiction in his investigation of the folklore movement. This movement had roots dating back to the 1870s and received official support from the governments that immediately preceded Perón, yet Peronists embraced folklore as authentically national culture. While Chamosa highlights this official co-optation, he also makes plain that culture can only be partially promoted or contained by official means. Ultimately, no government can make a cultural product genuinely popular, yet every political movement seeks to be connected to the populace through such products in order to establish their own authenticity and legitimacy.The remaining chapters discuss the various means by which Peronism tried to foster such legitimacy through a diverse array of artistic and cultural expressions. Anahi Ballent examines the Eva Perón Foundation’s use of architecture; Mirta Lobato, María Damilakou, and Lizel Tornay discuss the personification of Peronist values in the form of beauty pageants; Eduardo Elena investigates the effort to convey Peronism through literature and fashion; and César Seveso neatly brings the endeavor to a close by discussing the emotional impact of the effort to either purge or preserve Peronism after the Liberating Revolution of 1955. Each piece stands as an excellent addition to the scholarship of this era; together, they provide any reader with a revealing insight into the actions the Peronists took to make sure that they would have a lasting legacy in every facet of Argentine life

Aesthetics · Art · Historiography · Humanities · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Argentine historical studies · Borges, Kipling, and Jewish Identity · History · Law

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub