Arturo Jauretche
Encyclopedia
Arturo Martín Jauretche (Lincoln, Buenos Aires, November 13, 1901 – Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, May 25, 1974) was an Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 writer, politician, and philosopher.

Early years

Jauretche spent his childhood and adolescence in the city of Lincoln before moving to Buenos Aires. He sympathized with the new model of social integration promoted by the Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...

 and allied himself with the radical faction of Hipólito Yrigoyen
Hipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Irigoyen Alem was twice President of Argentina . His activism became the prime impetus behind the obtainment of universal suffrage in Argentina in 1912...

, the so-called personalistas. He was influenced by the poet and Tango
Tango (dance)
Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....

 lyricist Homero Manzi
Homero Manzi
Homero Nicolás Manzioni Prestera, better known as Homero Manzi was an Argentine Tango lyricist, author of various famous tangos....

, whose working-class appeal struck Jauretche, himself of rural origin, as a positive political strategy.

In 1928, when Yrigoyen assumed his second mandate following the interlude of Marcelo T. de Alvear, Jauretche was appointed to the civil service, though it was not long before the Argentine army unseated Yrigoyen in a coup, setting off the Década Infame
Infamous Decade
The Infamous Decade in Argentina is the name given to the period of time that started in 1930 with the coup d'état against President Hipólito Yrigoyen by José Félix Uriburu...

. Jauretche joined the armed struggle against the coup, and subsequently opposed the regime with intense political action. In 1933, in the province of Corrientes
Corrientes Province
Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:...

, he took part in a failed uprising led by Colonels Francisco Bosch and Gregorio Pomar.

Jauretche was imprisoned for his role in the uprising. In prison, he wrote a poetic account of the episode in the gauchesque style, titling the work Paso de los Libres. It was published in 1934 with a prologue by Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

, with whom Jauretche differed markedly in political matters.

FORJA

Jauretche's clash with Alvear
Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear
Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Pacheco , better known as Marcelo T. de Alvear was an Argentine politician and President of Argentina from October 12, 1922 to October 12, 1928.-Biography:...

's leading faction quickly radicalized him. When Alvear decided in 1934 to abandon the UCR's policy of abstentionism, a significant portion of the left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 split from the party. Along with Manzi, Luis Dellepiane, Gabriel del Mazo, Manuel Ortíz Pereyra and others, Jauretche founded FORJA (an acronym for Fuerza de Orientación Radical de la Joven Argentina), which pursued a democratic nationalist ideology equally opposed to conservative nationalism and to the economic liberal policies of Agustín P. Justo. Marginalized by the partisan political system, FORJA expressed its positions mainly through street demonstrations and self-published literature known as Cuadernos de FORJA, or FORJA Notebooks.

In them, FORJA criticized the government's measures, beginning with the Roca-Runciman Treaty
Roca-Runciman Treaty
The Roca-Runciman Treaty was a commercial agreement between Argentina and Great Britain signed in London by the Vice President of Argentina, Julio Argentino Roca, Jr., and the president of the British Board of Trade, Sir Walter Runciman, the British envoy....

. They argued that the Central Bank had been founded to solidify British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 control of the Argentine monetary and financial system, and that the Transport Corporation had been established to allow British railways to operate without competition. FORJA opposed the breaking off of relations with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, on the basis that the Soviet bloc was a major potential market for Argentine agricultural exports. They alleged that Justo's government had abused the policy of federal intervention
Federal intervention
Federal intervention is an attribution of the federal government of Argentina, by which it takes control of a province in certain extreme cases. Intervention is declared by the President with the assent of the National Congress...

 to punish provinces where anti-government parties had enjoyed electoral success, and blamed Justo for dropping wages and rising unemployment. One of FORJA's fundamental principles was the maintenance of Argentine neutrality in the run-up to the Second World War, and it was the only party to adopt this position.

Around 1940 Jauretche broke with Dellepiane and del Mazo, who realigned themselves with the UCR. FORJA became further radicalized, and shifted towards more nationalistic positions. Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz
Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz
Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz was an Argentine writer, journalist, essayist and poet, friend of Arturo Jauretche and Homero Manzi, and loosely associated with the political group Fuerza de Orientación Radical de la Joven Argentina .Scalabrini Ortiz was born in Corrientes, the son of the naturalist Pedro...

, who had always shared a similar ideology, affiliated himself with the party, and along with Jauretche formed a double leadership. He departed in 1943, leaving Jauretche in control. He vehemently opposed the government of Ramón Castillo
Ramón Castillo
Ramón S. Castillo Barrionuevo was a conservative Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from June 27, 1942 to June 4, 1943...

. Although he was skeptical of the motives of the coup that unseated Castillo, his firm neutrality with regard to the war led him to welcome the government of Pedro Pablo Ramírez
Pedro Pablo Ramírez
General Pedro Pablo Ramírez was de facto President of Argentina from June 7, 1943 to February 24, 1944. He was the founder and leader of the Guardia Nacional, Argentina's Fascist militia....

. When the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos unseated Ramírez after he severed relations with the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, Jauretche allied himself with the up and coming Colonel Juan Domingo Perón.

Perón's government

Though he was always critical of it, Jauretche supported Peronism
Peronism
Peronism , or Justicialism , is an Argentine political movement based on the programmes associated with former President Juan Perón and his second wife, Eva Perón...

 after October 17, 1945. With the support of Domingo Mercante
Domingo Mercante
Domingo Mercante was an Argentine military officer and prominent Peronist political figure.-Life and times:...

, governor of Buenos Aires Province, he was named president of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires
Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires
The Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires is a publicly-owned Argentine bank and the second-largest in the nation, by value of assets and deposits.-History:...

 in 1946. He would hold the position until 1951, when Mercante's falling out with Perón led Jauretche to abandon it.

Opposition to Aramburu and exile

Jauretche did not return to the public scene until 1955, when the Revolución Libertadora
Revolución Libertadora
The Revolución Libertadora was a military uprising that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on September 16, 1955.-History:...

 led to Perón's ouster. Having been out of government for a few years meant that, for once, he was able to avoid political persecution. He founded the periodical El Líder and the weekly El '45 to defend what he called "the ten years of popular government", and to excoriate the political, economic, and social activities of the de facto regime. In 1956 he published the essay El Plan Prebisch: retorno al coloniaje ("The Prebisch Plan: a return to colonialism"), refuting the report written by Raúl Prebisch
Raúl Prebisch
Raúl Prebisch was an Argentine economist known for his contribution to structuralist economics, in particular the Singer–Prebisch thesis that formed the basis of economic dependency theory. He is sometimes considered to be a neo-Marxist though this label is misleading...

, secretary of the Economic Commission of Latin America, at the behest of Pedro Eugenio Aramburu
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu
Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Silveti was an Argentine Army General. Born in Río Cuarto, Córdoba on May 21, 1903. He was a major figure behind the military coup against Juan Perón in 1955. He became de facto president of Argentina from November 13, 1955 to May 1, 1958...

. The harshness of his opposition led him to be exiled to Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

.

There in 1957 he published Los profetas del odio (The prophets of hate), a polemical study of class relations in Argentina since the rise of Peronism. In it he criticized various conceptions of Argentine political history which had enjoyed favor, in particular that of Ezequiel Martínez Estrada
Ezequiel Martínez Estrada
Ezequiel Martínez Estrada was an Argentine writer, poet, essayist, and literary critic. An admired biographer and critic, he was often political in his writings, and was a confirmed anti-Peronist...

. Estrada had previously subjected Argentine history to a bio-sociological analysis in his Radiografía de la pampa, which resembled Sarmiento's
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history...

 Facundo, in its suggestion that the Argentine geography had imposed upon its inhabitants a life disconnected from the flow of history. In his subsequent work ¿Qué es esto? he presented a devastating critique of Peronism, in which he portrayed Perón as a "snake charmer" whose political movement had instigated the "low passions of the populace", corruption, and "pornocracy". Jauretche criticized these allusions as the prejudices of a middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 sensibility irritated by the eruption of new participants in a political environment which had been exclusively run by the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

 since the generación del '80. Although bourgeois material interests had been advanced by the development of a dense layer of consumers, they nevertheless remained reticent towards the habits of the working classes, a "myopia" which Jauretche would criticize frequently. He also challenged, in a friendly letter to the scientist and writer Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato , was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America"...

, the notion that the middle classes had embraced Peronism out of resentment towards the wealthy:

Jauretche's proposal was one of integration, whereby the common interest of the bourgeoisie and proletariat would be served by the development of a solid national economy. This position, which was difficult to reconcile with the populism of Peronism, attracted the enmity both of economic liberals and the justicialist leadership. In Los profetas del odio, Jauretche identified the chief enemies of national development as the liberal and cosmopolitan intelligentsia, whose fascination with European culture led them to apply European solutions uncritically to Argentine problems, without consideration for historical differences and the continents' distinct places in the international community.

Jauretche and revisionism

Jauretche combined his own interpretation of contemporary reality with the nascent techniques of historical revisionism
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...

. Although revisionist authors had been advocating a reinterpretation of Argentine history — in opposition to the canonical vision of Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...

 and Sarmiento which had represented the nation's development in terms of a clash between civilization and barbarism — since at least the 1930s, it was not until the Revolución Libertadora that major parallels began to be drawn between Perón and Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...

. When Aramburu's supporters declared the coup against Perón "a new Caseros
Battle of Caseros
The Battle of Caseros was fought near the town of Caseros, more precisely between the present-day train stations of Caseros and Palomar in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on 3 February 1852, between the Army of Buenos Aires commanded by Juan Manuel de Rosas...

", the revisionists rose to the challenge, portraying Caseros as the beginning of a historical disaster that the government of Rosas had kept at bay through a policy that united the interests of disparate social classes.

In previous decades, when the national identity had been based on the simultaneous opposition to British capital and European immigration, historical revisionism had been allied with the conservative nationalism of the creole aristocracy. The upper classes soon came to adopt a liberal economic and social outlook, and the work of Jauretche and the Forjistas proved pivotal in realigning historical revisionism with populism, taking in the struggle the labor movement and the montonera tradition. In Perón's government, this spirit of reform was stifled by pragmatic considerations, a situation predicted by José María Rosa
José María Rosa
José María Rosa , also lnown as "Pepe Rosa", was an Argentine historian, one of the most notable of the Argentine nationalist revisionist historians.-Biography:...

 and others. Subsequently the politicization of historical interpretation would become more evident, in keeping with the profound cultural and political radicalization that characterized the period.

In 1959 Jauretche published National Policy and Historical Revisionism, in which he elaborated on his own place at the center of the deeply divided revisionist movement, speaking as much about the grass-roots movement he made possible as about actual historical questions. Though he painted a fairly sympathetic portrait of Rosas, described as the only "possible synthesis" of the problems facing his time, Jauretche was fairly critical of the federal caudillos of the interior; in this analysis, Jauretche distinguished himself from the position of Jorge Abelardo Ramos, Rodolfo Puiggrós, and Rodolfo Ortega Peña, who were at the time critical of Rosas's ideology, which they understood as an attenuated version of Porteño centralism, and deeply fearful of the atavistic foundations of traditional nationalism, in which they perceived no small similarities with Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

. In the struggle between revisionism and anti-revisionism, which in a large part was a division between left and right, Jauretche left no doubt as to his allegiance with the former.

Meanwhile, in pursuit of whatever means would most quickly bring about the end of the Revolución Libertadora, Jauretche broke with Perón one last time and endorsed the candidacy of Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi Ercoli was the President of Argentina between May 1, 1958, and March 29, 1962, for the Intransigent Radical Civic Union.-Early life:Frondizi was born in Paso de los Libres, Corrientes Province...

, whereas Peronists adopted abstentionism
Abstentionism
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself...

, the technique traditionally used by the Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...

. Nevertheless, after Frondizi's election, Jauretche was severely critical of his development program and his pursuit of foreign investment, particularly with respect to petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

. In 1961, during a bitterly contested election in which the Peronist vote was divided among various candidates, Jauretche endorsed the socialist
Socialist Party (Argentina)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in Argentina. The history of socialism in Argentina began in the 1890s, when a group of people, notably Juan B. Justo, expressed the need for a greater social focus....

 Alfredo Palacios
Alfredo Palacios
Alfredo Lorenzo Palacios was an Argentine socialist politician.Palacios was born in Buenos Aires, and studied law at Universidad de Buenos Aires, after graduation he became a lawyer and taught at the university until becoming a dean.In 1902, he was elected to the Buenos Aires' legislature, and in...

.

Writing

When his political career was cut short, Jauretche returned to literature. During the 1960s he published frequently and prolifically, contributing to journals and periodicals as well as releasing highly successful collections of essays. In 1962 he published Forja y la Década Infame, two years later Filo, contrafilo y punta, and in 1966 El medio pelo en la sociedad Argentina, a probing inquisition of the role of the middle class which immediately elicited a strong reaction. A supporter of the Confederación General del Trabajo de los Argentinos, he took part in the syndicate's Comisión de Afirmación Nacional.

Works

  • 1934: El Paso de los Libres. Prologue by Jorge Luis Borges. Republished in 1960 with a prologue by Jorge Abelardo Ramos.
  • 1956: El Plan Prebisch: retorno al coloniaje.
  • 1957: Los profetas del Odio y la Yapa.
  • 1958: Ejército y Política.
  • 1959: Política Nacional y Revisionismo Histórico.
  • 1960: Prosas de Hacha y Tiza.
  • 1962: Forja y la Década Infame.
  • 1964: Filo, Contrafilo y Punta.
  • 1966: El Medio Pelo en la Sociedad Argentina.
  • 1968: Manual de Zonceras Argentinas.
  • 1969: Mano a Mano entre Nosotros.

External links

Basta de zonceras - Año jauretchano
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