Brown J.C. A Brief History of Argentina

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and bust, chronic unemployment, political violence, and sharp class

antagonisms. This is the Argentine Riddle.

What is wrong with Argentina? Argentina has a population that ranks

among the most educated and skilled in Latin America, and its citizens

have made major contributions to the world. Illiteracy scarcely exists

among even the poor and working-class citizens, and Argentina’s middle

class historically has been large and politically engaged. Moreover, the

humid and temperate Pampas are among the largest and most fertile

plains areas in the world. With a topsoil running 50 feet deep in some

places, the Pampas easily support rich grazing for cattle and sheep and

produce bountiful harvests of wheat, corn, soybeans, and sunﬂower

seeds. The interior provinces foster hundreds of world-class vineyards,

fruit farms, sugar plantations, a timber industry, and cultivation of

the famous yerba leaves from which Argentines love to brew the tea

known as mate. Today’s wine connoisseurs have recognized malbec from

Mendoza to be among the great varietal wines of the world. The country’s

second-largest city, Córdoba, has spawned industrial development with

its metallurgical and automobile industries; its third-largest city, Rosario,

dominates a vibrant river shipping industry that connects Atlantic com-

merce to seven Argentine provinces, Paraguay, and parts of southern

Brazil. Argentina has cooperated with neighboring countries to develop

the hydroelectric potential of the many rivers of the Paraná River basin,

most notably near the Iguazú (Iguaçu in Brazil) Falls. In the south, the

Patagonian region attracts tourists fascinated by the natural beauty of

Andean lakes, the whales and walruses of the Chubut coastline, the

glaciers of Ushuaia, and the ski slopes of Bariloche. Walt Disney gained

inspiration for his movie Bambi in Patagonia’s mountain forests, and U.S.

president Dwight Eisenhower delighted in playing on the world-famous

golf course at the Hotel Nahuel Huapi. Tragically, the majestic glaciers of

the Tierra del Fuego are melting at an alarming rate.

The national capital, Buenos Aires, remains one of the great cultural

centers of the Americas. Gracious boulevards intersect the elegant

downtown shopping districts and are lined with imposing public

buildings such as the Casa Rosada (“Pink House,” the national palace),

the neo-Hellenistic congressional building, and the great opera hall of

the Teatro Colón. Barrio Norte, the most prestigious neighborhood of

Buenos Aires, features many residential palaces that rival those found in

Paris’s Faubourg St.-Germain and London’s Knightsbridge.

Argentina has always been politically inﬂuential beyond its borders,

as evident in the following pages. The streak of independence and indi-

vidualism that runs through the nation may be traced to the struggle

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARGENTINA

between the indigenous peoples and the Spanish settlers to dominate

the Pampas. Argentina’s reputation for wealth and power began in the

late colonial period, when nearly the entire colony partook in the export

of silver and hides. The nation became one of the ﬁrst in Latin America

to shake off the colonial yoke of imperial Spain, spreading the libera-

tion movement to neighboring countries as well. In the 19th century, it

prospered in the promotion of agricultural exports, technological mod-

ernization, and European immigration (some historians claim that ﬁrst-

generation Italian immigrants fared better in Argentina at the turn of the

20th century than in the United States). Latin Americans have consis-

tently looked to Argentines such as the liberator José de San Martín and

presidents Hipólito Yrigoyen and Juan Domingo Perón for ideological

inspiration and political models. Although controversial, Evita Perón

and Ernesto “Che” Guevara continue to inspire. Argentina can also

boast having had the ﬁrst female head of state in the Americas.

In addition to the natural resources and the rich urban and political

culture of Argentina, one must also recognize the accomplishments of

individual Argentine citizens. During the past two centuries, thousands

of Argentine singers and dancers helped develop the distinctive musi-

cal genre of tango; singer and actor Carlos Gardel spread the Argentine

tango to Europe and elsewhere in the 1930s. Argentine citizens have

been awarded ﬁve Nobel Prizes, more than any other Latin American

nation. In medicine, Bernardo Houssay received a Nobel in 1917, and

César Milstein, in 1984. Luis Federico Leloir earned the Nobel Prize

in chemistry in 1970. The foreign minister Carlos Saavedra Lamas won

Argentina’s ﬁrst Nobel Peace Prize in 1936 after successfully negotiat-

ing a peace accord between Bolivia and Paraguay that ended the bloody

Chaco War. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel won this same prize in 1980 for his

work on behalf of human rights. In literature, Argentina has given the

world its most enigmatic literary ﬁgure, Jorge Luis Borges. There are few

epic poems equal to El gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández, and few

romantic novels compare to Don Segundo Sombra by Ricardo Güiraldes.

Argentine universities still turn out renowned scientists, physicians,

economists, engineers, architects, and social scientists. Many teach and

practice in Spain, France, England, the United States, and Mexico.

Nor do the Argentines lag behind in sports. The golfer Angel Cabrera

shocked the world by winning the Masters Tournament in Augusta,

Georgia. Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto won basketball champion-

ships at the Olympics and with the San Antonio Spurs. Guillermo Vilas

and Gabriela Sabatini have scored big in the world of professional ten-

nis, each winning the U.S. Open championship. Juan Martín del Potro

INTRODUCTION: THE ARGENTINE RIDDLE

won the men’s championship of the U.S. Open tennis tournament in

2009 by defeating the number-one player in the world. Everyone also

knows Argentines for their prowess in soccer. Since 1978, the Argentine

national team has won the World Cup twice, ranking just behind the

Brazilian and Italian teams. Fans called Diego Maradona “the Magician”

for his inspired play and knack of scoring, as in the miraculous “Hand of

God” goal on the way to winning the 1986 World Cup in Mexico City.

Though less well known, Argentina’s polo players dominate the world’s

professional circuit. No doubt this tradition of horsemanship derives

directly from the famous gauchos (cowboys) of the Pampas. Ten of the

world’s top 12 polo players are Argentine born and bred, and the coun-

try’s horse ranches also turn out the ﬁnest Thoroughbred polo ponies.

When the top two domestic teams face off each November in the ﬁnal

of the Argentine Cup at Palermo Park, most of each team’s four players

hold the coveted and rare 10-goal handicap. All eight are also native

born. Many consider the daring Adolfo Cambiaso to be “the Magician”

of polo.

All these achievements, and Argentines still feel disappointed. They

know their country can do better than the 20 percent unemploy-

ment, shrinking middle class, and leaders seemingly more intent on

looting the treasury than gov-

erning the nation. The follow-

ing pages will explore both the

accomplishments and failures in

the historical formation of the

Argentine nation. The text will

quote directly from the assess-

ments of the country’s greatest

statesmen and writers as well as

of people on the street. A Brief

History of Argentina will also sug-

gest an answer to the Argentine

Riddle—though not a remedy,

which is left to the Argentines

themselves.

The answer to “What is wrong

with Argentina?” lies in the coin-

cidence of political power and

economic privilege. It is a society

suffused with prejudice and rigid

class structures. In many ways,

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARGENTINA

xii

Argentinean Adolfo Cambiaso, in the foreground,

taking a nearside stroke, is the world’s pre-

mier polo player. He is shown here during the

2001 Argentine Open tournament.

(Alex Pacheco Photo)

this South American nation has never overcome its colonial heritage of

racism, social discrimination, and political arrogance. Those who assumed

governance of the newly independent nation in the 19th century contin-

ued to use violence to maintain social order and to divide up wealth.

True enough, economic growth and European immigration transformed

the country at the turn of the 20th century, yet the political culture and

social conventions remained remarkably unaffected. Immigrants adopted

traditional Argentine values in far greater measure than they nurtured

new ones.

These conditions persisted into the 21st century. The democratic

reforms of Yrigoyen and Perón introduced elements of social justice to

a discriminatory society, but they never succeeded in establishing a ﬁrm

institutional underpinning for reform against a violent opposition, often

aided by the military. Therefore, the old problems of discrimination and

privilege re-emerged in every succeeding period of economic growth.

What resulted was a violent challenge by leftist guerrillas in the 1970s,

followed by a far more violent Dirty War waged by a military govern-

ment. The return of democratic elections in 1983 brought little relief

to Argentines. Four of the ﬁve elected presidents began their terms in a

mood of national euphoria and ended with great disillusionment. Two of

these presidents did not remain in ofﬁce to the end of their terms.

In this regard, the observation of the 19th-century constitutional

architect about his countrymen seems timeless. “Liberty was in their

hearts,” said Juan Bautista Alberdi, “but the old bondage was neverthe-

less perpetuated in their habits and, moreover, they were not united

among themselves” (Alberdi 1877, 46–47).

xiii

INTRODUCTION: THE ARGENTINE RIDDLE

Ancient Argentina

and the European

Encounter

f Argentines today take pride in their individuality and indepen-

dence, they would do well to credit the indigenous inhabitants of

the land, as well as the ﬁrst Spanish settlers. Only a minority of the

native peoples of the region ever submitted to the outside authority of

the far-reaching Inca Empire based in present-day Peru, and for those

few the submission cost little in terms of loss of autonomy and transfer

of wealth. Indeed, the pre-Columbian peoples of the region now called

the Southern Cone—the lands that form a cone shape descending to

the tip of South America, consisting of the modern-day countries of

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay—had little wealth compared

to the well-known civilizations of the Inca of Peru and the Aztec of

Mexico. This relative poverty guaranteed their independence for many

millennia.

The area that became modern-day Argentina covers a large and

diverse section of the Southern Cone, stretching nearly half the length

of the South American continent, from the tropic of Capricorn all the

way to the southern tip. To the north and northeast are the modern

nations of Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay; to the west and northwest,

Chile and Bolivia. A line of high Andean mountains runs down the

western side of Argentina and has historically presented a formidable

barrier to travel and commerce. The land descends east from the

mountains through a region of foothills and eventually to a large ﬂat

area of fertile plains known as the Pampas. To the north of these plains

is a semiarid region called the Gran Chaco, bordered on the east and

northeast by a great river basin comprising several large rivers and the

estuary of the Río de la Plata. A long Atlantic coastline leads down the

eastern edge of Argentina to the Patagonian region

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARGENTINA

ANCIENT ARGENTINA AND THE EUROPEAN ENCOUNTER

The original inhabitants of the region that became modern Argentina

were either agriculturists who had to supplement their diets with hunt-

ing and gathering or nomadic peoples who subsisted entirely on hunt-

ing and gathering. They may have numbered almost 1 million people

in 1492, when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean.

They lived dispersed over an area that now supports 41 million

Argentines. Today one might wonder why these indigenous peoples

were so impoverished when they inhabited a land of such rich and

now-proven agricultural potential. The answer lies in their lack of

technological sophistication. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the

native inhabitants used only Stone Age technology. Their chiseled

rock tools and their chief agricultural implement, the wooden dig-

ging stick, could not cut the deep roots of the Pampas grasses or clear

the land to cultivate crops. Instead, they carried on agriculture only

in the softer valley soils of the Andean highlands, today Argentina’s

northwestern provinces. The prairies remained rich only in animals

and birds for the hunt. The ancients did not have tempered metals,

draft animals, or the wheel. For that matter, they did not suffer from

the diseases that ravaged Europe, Asia, and Africa and so had no

immunity to them.

These early inhabitants did not form a cultural or ethnic whole.

There existed many separate language groupings and dozens of

ethnic and cultural differences, giving rise to intensive political

decentralization. In each region of the Southern Cone, one cultural

and ethnic group might have predominated, but it always had to

share—unwillingly for the most part—the fringes of its territory

with smaller groups of different cultures and ethnic identities. They

Estimated Population of Indigenous Peoples

of the Southern Cone, 1492

Location Estimated Population

Argentina 900,000

Paraguay–Uruguay–southern Brazil 1,055,000

Chile 1,000,000

Total 2,955,000

Source: Denevan, William M., ed. The Native Population of the Americas in 1492. 2d ed.

(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), p. xxvii.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARGENTINA

observed basic political and religious loyalties at the village or clan

level. These peoples recognized only their local leaders and disputed

with arms territory and resources even with other groups of the same

culture and language. Every male hunter or cultivator also became a

warrior. Every female subordinated herself to the rigid requirements

of group survival and maintenance of the warrior male. Some groups

enlarged their territories while others retreated to the poorer lands to

form a complex and ﬂuid map of ethnic and linguistic diversity across

southern South America.

What the indigenous inhabitants of the Southern Cone had accom-

plished in terms of establishing their lives of group autonomy on the

land would determine how the ﬁrst Spaniards established their hold

of the region. Unlike Mexico and Peru, each of which fell within a

few decades of Spanish arrival, it took the better part of the 300-year

colonial period for Europeans to become established in the Southern

Cone; after all, there was no empire to conquer in Argentina and

certainly no wealth had existed to sustain a large population of

Europeans. Therefore, the Spaniards had to settle the region through

a long series of small conquests over the indigenous inhabitants, all

the while developing a European-style commercial and agricultural

base. They had to painstakingly defeat nearly each and every decen-

tralized group in piecemeal fashion. The defeat of no one clan group

resulted in the submission of their indigenous neighbors. Even then,

several important native groups continued their successful resistance

for nearly 400 years following the arrival of the ﬁrst European. A

summary survey of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Southern Cone

will suggest the reasons that individualism and independence have

become so entrenched in Argentine society.

The Agriculturists of Northern Argentina

Scholars believe that the Americas remained uninhabited by humans

until a drop in the level of the Paciﬁc Ocean uncovered a land bridge

from Asia where the Aleutian Islands of Alaska are presently located.

Commencing approximately 50,000 years ago, several Asian peoples

of different origins and ethnic backgrounds migrated in successive

waves across the Bering land bridge. Subsequently, the sea levels rose

and covered the land, leading the migrants to develop culture and

technologies wholly separate from those of the so-called Old World

of Asia, Europe, and Africa. By 13,000

b.c. these migratory hunter-

gatherers had moved through the Darién jungles of Panama and

ANCIENT ARGENTINA AND THE EUROPEAN ENCOUNTER

established encampments on the Peruvian coast and in Chile. Separate

peoples crossed the Andes, slowly occupying the Amazon Basin, from

which they moved north and settled the Caribbean Islands. Farther

south, the migrants fanned out thinly over the Pampas and Patagonia

of present-day Argentina. In the time of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt,

approximately 1,000

b.c., the Mesoamericans of lowland Mexico were

developing agriculture around the cultivation of maize or corn. The

ﬁsher peoples of coastal Peru adopted the cultivation of maize, while

the highland Andeans of Peru subsequently perfected the cultivation

of several varieties of potato. These hearty Andean peoples also nur-

tured the only domestic livestock known in the Americas, the llamas

and alpacas. Some of these Andean developments reached the peoples

of Chile and northwest Argentina. Indigenous inﬂuences from the

area of modern-day Brazil, in the meantime, had spread into the area

of modern-day Paraguay. There the Guaraní cultivated cassava (also

known as yuca or manioc) as their basic food product. The rest of

the indigenous peoples of the lower Paraná River basin, the Pampas,

and Patagonia remained hunters of game and gatherers of fruits and

berries. (See map on page 11.)

The Diaguita

The peoples of northwest Argentina, particularly in the Salta and Jujuy

regions, reﬂected the Andean culture they shared with the Inca peoples

of highland Peru. Our knowledge of them comes from the evidence of

early archaeological sites and the information gathered by the earliest

Spanish priests and settlers.

The Diaguita were agriculturists who used the digging stick as their

principal tool and cultivated corn, beans, and peppers. Potatoes did

not grow well in the lower altitudes. Similarly, they herded llamas and

alpacas as sources of protein and of wool for making clothing. The

Diaguita lived in houses of stone masonry like other highland peoples.

They arranged their modest family-sized dwellings along the streams

and ﬁelds with pathways between them. They did not build great cities,

as were found elsewhere among the various pre-Columbian peoples of

the Andes.

The early inhabitants of northwest Argentina shared a semiarid land-

scape dominated by high plateaus suitable for grazing, valleys suitable

for tilling, and mountain peaks that rose above the snowline. Snowmelt

represented the zone’s water resource that these peoples harnessed for

irrigation. The original peoples made coiled basketry, wove ponchos