Unlike the other authors discussed here, the Franciscan friar Francisco de Paula Castañeda (1776–1832) is remembered in Argentine independence history. The ‘sacerdote, periodista, polemista’ was a colourful character whose independent critical voice thunders out from the many satirical pamphlets he published. Yet little in-depth literary research has been undertaken on his writings. Existing textual studies, such as those by Josefina Ludmer (2000) and Nicolás Lucero (2003), regard and discuss Castañeda's literary style as a precursor to gaucho literature. Other critics have noted Castañeda's foregrounding of women's voices: ‘Cada periódico suyo es una casa de fantasmas. Fantasmas casi invariablemente, del sexo femenino.’ Although this female presence has been interpreted in a number of ways, most readings ignore the contradictions of gender history and rush to label Castañeda with the present-day terms ‘feminist’ or ‘anti-feminist’. These perfunctory readings and claims have not been substantiated by textual evidence and have also largely disregarded the many straightforward political and cultural references in Castañeda's publications. A further limitation of research on Castañeda has been the tendency to see his writing as a cultural oddity rather than acknowledging the existence of the satirical pamphlet tradition.

This chapter will examine the two periodical publications by Castañeda for which he created fictitious female editors: Doña María Retazos (1821–23) and La Matrona Comentadora (1821–22). Close textual analysis will bring to light some of the themes in Castañeda's work which have been ignored or over-simplified. In particular this chapter will challenge the way critics have read his representations of gender. Emphasising his response to the political and cultural transition of the 1820s, it will show that Castañeda's female editorial personae cannot be regarded as either opposing or supporting a greater public role for women; Castañeda's aim was to lampoon prominent public men by equating them to women, and therefore the incidence of female characters in his work is primarily metaphorical.

Francisco de Paula Castañeda

Born in Buenos Aires in 1776, the son of a Spanish businessman and a Creole mother, Castañeda entered Franciscan monastic life at the age of eleven. He studied philosophy in the Real Colegio de San Carlos from 1789 to 1791. In 1798 he was ordained and sent to Córdoba to study. Castañeda was a key figure in the Independence movement beginning with the English Invasions.