Argentina. History and Culture

by Luis Rumbaut

Native Peoples
The first Spaniards to arrive in what is now Argentina found the land already occupied. Some of the indigenous peoples were nomadic; others were settled farmers and potters. Among the latter were, to the northwest, near Bolivia, the Daguita, who had held off the expanding Incas, and, to the south, the Guaraní. They put up fierce resistance to the Spanish incursions and delayed the inevitable conquest. The first Spaniard to claim the land, Juan de Solis, was killed in 1516, and attempts to found Buenos Aires failed until 1580. According to the Argentine Association for Native Peoples, there are now 15 different tribes living in the country, more than 200,000 peoples in all: Matacos, Choroti, Toba, Mocovi, Pilaga, Guaraní, Diaguita, Mapuche, Teleulche, and Teleulche Mapuchizados. In addition, other tribes live in Argentina who are not indigenous to the area, such as the Chulupi, who came from Paraguay; the Chane, who came from Amazonia and were taken as slaves by the Guarani; the Collas or Kollas, the descendants of local peoples who intermarried with peoples from Bolivia; and other groups from Bolivia who speak Aymara and Quechua. Some point out that the Mapuches/Araucanos came from what is now Chile. The history of Argentina as a nation largely excludes the indigenous peoples. In 1853, the country’s first republican constitution provided that “Congress shall assure the security of the nation’s frontiers, keep peace with the Indians, and convert them to Catholicism.” Not until 1994, with the end of the latest military dictatorship, did a new constitution establish a different approach. Article 75, part 17, calls on the nation specifically to recognize the pre-existence, ethnically and culturally, of the indigenous Argentines; guarantee respect for their identity and their right to a bilingual and intercultural education; recognize the native communities as entities in law and the community ownership of the lands which they have traditionally occupied; and organize the donation of other land which is suitable and of sufficient size for human development.

Independence and its Aftermath
Spanish mercantilism forbade commerce between the port of Buenos Aires and other countries, while Spain paid more attention to Peru with its fabulous wealth. Buenos Aires residents took to smuggling. In 1776, when the thirteen British colonies in North America were declaring their independence, Buenos Aires became the capital of the new Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, which consisted of present-day Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In 1806 and 1807, the British attacked the city, but the bonaerenses held them off, without help from the Viceroy. When later, the French captured the Spanish king, the Argentines refused to support the new monarch, Napoleon’s brother, Joseph. The unpopular Viceroyalty took local control directly. After years of struggle beginning in 1810, the Argentines, needing neither the Crown nor the Viceroyalty, declared their independence in 1816. José de San Martín, crossing the Andes, captured Lima. This, and the victories of Simón Bolívar farther north, spelled the end of the Spanish colony in America.

The close of the century after independence marked the explosive growth of Buenos Aires — where almost a third of the nation’s 36 million people live — following a massive migration from Europe, especially from Italy. The Basque and Irish came to control sheep herding, Germans and Italians became farmers, and the British made large investments, notably in the railroads. A nation of immigrants, Argentina is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. There is a strong Anglo-Argentine presence, and smaller communities of Japanese and Syrians (former president Carlos Saúl Menem and his ex-wife, Zulema Fátima Yoma, come from Syrian families; Menem is the son of Saúl Menem and Muhibe Akil, both immigrants). Argentina hosts residents from neighboring Paraguay and Uruguay, and before the collapse of the economy, drew also Chilean, Peruvian, and Bolivian immigrants. Descendants of the African slaves and freedmen are few in number today.
Independence exposed the disparities in economic production and distribution of wealth within the country. Somewhat as in the U.S., the early constitutional debates took place between the Federalists, largely conservative ranchers from the provinces, and the Unitarists, who, favoring a strong central government, hailed mainly from the capital city and province. The dispute led to civil war and anarchy, until the election in 1829 of Federalist General Juan Manuel de Rosas as governor of Buenos Aires Province. He became the first of a number of military dictators; Federalists and Unitarists battled on for decades more.

In the 1860s, the Unitarists came to power with the presidency of Bartolomé Mitre. Representing, according to the slogan of the day, “Civilization versus Barbarism,” Mitre looked to Europe, rather than inland to the provinces. No less than his predecessors, he ruled by force, but he opened the economy to foreign investors and made the first concessions to foreign capital to build railroads. England, investing in factories, utility companies, and railroads, in short order became the principal force in Argentine rails, which fanned out from the port; the better to facilitate the movement of goods for export, rather than to serve local needs. (The railroads were to be nationalized in 1948). Wealth and property became concentrated in fewer hands, and farmers began leaving the land to look for work in the cities. Free-trade Argentina became subservient to Britain’s economy.

From Peronism to Neo-liberalism
Elected presidents and military governments succeeded each other thereafter. Overshadowing all, without doubt, was Juan Perón. He rose from army colonel to elected president of the nation — following an army coup — in 1946. Together with his wife, Evita, he mobilized the working class with his populist dictums while appealing to nationalist conservatives. His government defended local industry and sought to recover lost economic power and independence. Re-elected, he was overthrown by the army in 1955 and went into exile. He was elected again in 1973, but died a year later, leaving the government to his third wife, Isabel. After three years, she was deposed in yet another military coup, this time to make way for the notorious regime of the death squads, the disappeared, and the stolen children, in a time of tortures, opponents thrown alive from helicopters into the sea, and a tragic war with England over the Malvinas. The defeat of the armed forces in that war, and the lack of effective leadership from the Junta, contributed to the Junta finally stepping aside for civilian government again. Perón’s legacy continued on both the left and the right, but the first government elected after the dictatorship was that of Raúl Alfonsín and the Radical Party. The successor government of Carlos Menem, while titularly Peronist, had little to do with that movement’s former policies. It and the center-left Alliance that followed it, under Fernando de la Rúa, aligned with neo-liberal economics and tied the peso to the U.S. dollar, a system that collapsed in December 2001, leaving Argentina with a succession of short-term presidents and a situation bordering on anarchy. The current president, Eduardo Duhalde, has tried to satisfy the demands of the common people, the banks, European corporations, and the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Various explanations have been given for the meltdown of the Argentine economy. Some say that it was due to overspending by the provinces or to corruption in government or to a widespread unwillingness to pay taxes; others point to IMF guidance and requirements and to the neo-liberal model itself. All might agree on one thing, however: Argentines who lived through a period of hyper-inflation not long ago wanted desperately not to relive that experience. In part as a means to ensure this, the government established by law parity between the peso and the U.S. dollar, requiring that all pesos issued be backed up by dollars in reserve. After privatization produced an inflow of hard currency, and while economic trends were favorable, Argentina maintained parity, eliminated inflation, and achieved stability. When various factors ceased to be favorable, however, it became impossible for Argentina to live up to the standard it had set, while refusing to devalue the currency. In order to make payments, it had to seek new loans, and then more loans to pay the interest on the latter, until it all collapsed in a downward spiral. Now, over half the population lives in poverty.
A study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C., concluded that corruption and overspending did not cause the economic implosion. Instead, it stated that from 1993 to 2000, interest payments on the government debt tripled, while spending for salaries, government programs and operations remained essentially flat. Argentina was bound to follow interest-rate hikes in the U.S. beginning in 1994. Then, from that year until 1999, devaluations in Mexico, Asia, Russia, and Brazil drove Argentina’s debt service from $2.9 billion in 1993 to $9.7 billion in 2000. Argentina decided not to devalue, but to seek additional money to maintain parity.

According to economist Mark Weisbrot, who conducted the study along with economist Dean Baker, if debt payments are not counted, the country’s accounts are balanced, and Argentina is running both a budget surplus and a trade surplus. Argentina is seeking some $10 billion in new loans from the IMF, mainly to pay off the accumulated debts. The IMF and the U.S., however, are looking for further structural changes in the economy — i.e., a deepening of neo-liberal reforms. Shortly before leaving for the March 2002 Monterrey conference, both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized the Argentine government and stated that there would be no new loans unless it cut spending. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz maintains, to the contrary, that to do so would only undermine economic recovery. Some Argentines now believe that the U.S. is not interested in a recovery of Argentina and, by extension, a strengthening of Mercosur, but would rather avoid competition from a potentially powerful economic alliance in the South.

Argentina’s response is being watched carefully by neighboring nations, who themselves are experiencing the effects of their own neo-liberal policies: the takeover of national wealth-producing institutions by foreign corporations, the loss of national sovereignty, and a growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots.

Folk Music
The eighth-largest country in the world, Argentina is home to the Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas. It stretches from the warm northern provinces, near Brazil and the Amazonia, to the freezing Antarctic lands of Tierra del Fuego. In between, it holds the vast expanse of the fertile pampas, flanked by the Andes to the West and the Atlantic to the East. Its European-style capital, Buenos Aires, is among the great cities of the world. Argentina, in a way, has been larger than life, historically leading Latin America in the consumption of beef, as well as the production of books. Not surprisingly, the center of national cultural life has been Buenos Aires, with a sophisticated production of music, theater, and literature, and world-renowned personalities like writer Jorge Luis Borges. Much of its folk culture, on the other hand, derives from the provinces, where indigenous instruments and rhythms have left their mark. (See Music & Instruments this issue pp. 5 & 8).

The best-known composer and performer of the music of the countryside is Atahualpa Yupanqui (See Our Composers this issue p.7). He sang of the countryside and its people in popular styles such as milonga, zamba, and chacarera, as well as canción norteña and vidala. (See Music & Instuments this issue pp. 5 & 8).
Other leading interpreters of Argentine folk music include Mercedes Sosa, Horacio Guaraní, Los Chalchaleros, Eduardo Falú, and Ariel Ramírez. Mercedes Sosa, sometimes called the Voice of America — nothing to do with the radio station — and the Voice of the Earth, has performed in the Washington area several times, always to a sold-out house. Singing in a powerful contralto, she accompanies herself on bombo, in traditional dress. She was forced to leave Argentina during the dictatorship, and remains an icon for both her music and the popular causes she represents. Among the songs most associated with her are Gracias a la vida and Solo le pido a Dios. She has collaborated with leading Brazilian and Cuban performers. Born just weeks after the death of Carlos Gardel, she said not long ago that one of her dreams was to sing with Carlos Santana.