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Misery, Pain and Death: Tuberculosis in Nineteenth Century Buenos Aires*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Vera Blinn Reber*
Affiliation:
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Extract

      Dijo anoche, su canto de muerte
      la Canción de la tos en tu percho
      y, al mojarse en las notas rojizas
      mostró flores de sangre el pañuelo.

Pulmonary tuberculosis substantially influenced societal attitudes and Argentine life style in the nineteenth century. Because tuberculosis was socially defined, how Porteños viewed the tubercular depended on conceptions of the disease, as well as popular and medical views of contagion and cure. Illness did not isolate individuals from society or even from familiar faces and responsibilities. Class, gender, age, attitudes on contagion, and approaches to treatment influenced the choices available to men, women, and children.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2000

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the following individuals for their comments on various drafts of this article: David Godshalk, Laura Klein, John Offner, Simon Sibelman, Donald Stevens, and Bradley Stiles.

References

1 Vera Blinn Reber translated from the Carriego, Spanish Evaristo, “Bajo la angustia,” Misas herejes (Buenos Aires: Casa de Evaristo Carriego, 1993), pp. 111112.Google Scholar

“I heard last night your song of death,
the song of the cough in your chest
and of the dampness in the handkerchief
of the ruby stain showing flowers of blood.”

2 Until the late nineteenth century pulmonary tuberculosis or TB was known as phthisis or consumption. The best recent scholarship is being done on tuberculosis in the United States. See for example Bates, Barbara, Bargaining for Life: A Social History of Tuberculosis, 1876–1938 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Feldberg, Georgina D., Disease and Class: Tuberculosis and the Shaping of Modern North American Society (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995);Google Scholar Rothman, Sheila M., Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History (New York: Basic Books, 1994);Google Scholar Ott, Katherine, Fevered Lives: Tuberculosis in American Culture since 1870 (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a general discussion and useful bibliography on tuberculosis see Johnston, William D., “Tuberculosis,” The Cambridge World History of Human Disease, Kiple, Kenneth F., ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 1059–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Argentine newspapers while detailing epidemics ignored chronic disease such as tuberculosis. Until 1996 little had been published on tuberculosis in Buenos Aries. In that year Diego Armus published articles dealing with Argentine public health policies; see for example, Salud y anarquía: la tuberculosis en el discurso libertario argentino, 1870–1940,” in Salud, cultura y sociedad en América Latina, Cueto, Marcos, ed. (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1996), pp. 111133;Google Scholar and “La idea del verde en la ciudad moderna: Buenos Aires, 1870–1940, Entrepasados (Buenos Aires) 5:10 (1996), pp. 9–22. Also in 1996 he completed a well-researched dissertation, “The Years of Tuberculosis: Buenos Aires, 1870–1950” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1996), which Duke University Press plans to publish. For additional sources on tuberculosis in Buenos Aires see Recalde, Héctor, La Salud de los trabajadores en Buenos Aires (1870–1910), Buenos Aires: Grupo Editor Universitario, 1997, pp. 203–46Google Scholar and my article, “Blood, Coughs, and Fever: Tuberculosis and the Working Class of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1885–1915,” Social History of Medicine 12:1 (April 1999), pp. 73–100.

3 Stowe, Steven M., “Seeing Themselves at Work: Physicians and the Case Narrative in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American South,” The American Historical Review 101:1 (February 1996), pp. 4179 uses case narratives to examine physicians and their views of medicine.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

4 Published statistical information is unreliable because the category tuberculosis often included only those with pulmonary tuberculosis, and frequently children under fifteen were excluded. Because physicians were uncertain of their diagnosis until the patient was near death and even then they might list other causes of death the tubercular were under counted in the early part of the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1891 the government of the City of Buenos Aires began publishing Anuario estadístico de la ciudad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Impr. Cia. Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco) which included statistical information for as early as 1869.

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17 Ibid. 29 June 1839, p. 4.

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24 Cowper to Derby, London, 7 July 1875, Public Record Office, London, Foreign Office section, (hereafter PRO/FO), 6/330; Griffith to Aberdeen, Buenos Aires, 16 October 1843, PRO/FO 6/91; Bridgett to Granville, Buenos Aires, 13 August 1873, PRO/FO 6/316; British Packet and Argentine News, 2 May 1835, p. 1; “The Story of the British Hospital,” Buenos Aires Herald, Diamond Jubilee Ed., pp. 24–26.

25 “British Medical Dispensary,” British Packet and Argentine News, 8 July 1848, pp. 1–2.

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31 Báguena Cervellera, José María, La tuberculosis y su historia (Barcelona: Fundación Uriach 1838, D. L., 1992), p. 35.Google Scholar

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33 El Americano (Buenos Aires), 22 October 1819, p. 3; Ibid., 17 October 1819, pp. 7–8; Ibid., 19 November 1819, p 1.

34 Authentic and Interesting Description of the City, p. 11 ; Diario Comercial y Telégrafo Literario y Político (Buenos Aires), 9 September 1828, p. 4.

35 Piñeiro, , Tisis tubrculosa, p. 31;Google Scholar Wilde, José Antonio, Importancia del aceite de hígado de bacalao especialmente en la tisis pulmonar, M.D. diss., Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Mayo, 1858);Google Scholar Pérez, Eugenio, Opúculo sobre la tisis pulmonar, M.D. diss., Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Caja del Estado, 1843), p. 57.Google Scholar

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41 Urquiola, Cesáreo, Higiene de Buenos Aires, M.D. diss., Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: El Censor, 1891), p. 27;Google Scholar “La disinfección pública en la tuberculosis,” Revista de la Tuberculosis 1:8 (January 1902), pp. 283–284.

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46 Klappenbach, , “Tuberculosis pulmonar,” pp. 225236.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., pp. 231–233.

48 “Mortalidad por enfermedades infecciosas,” Anales del Departamento Nacional de Higiene 2:25 (1 July 1896), pp. 403–410 and 425–428; Ibid., 6:27 (16 July 1896), pp. 494–497; Ibid., 6:30 (8 August 1896), pp. 522–524; Ibid., 6:34 (8 September 1896), pp. 610–612 and 721–722; Ibid., 6:42 (8 November 1896), pp. 800–801 and 862–866; Ibid., 7:1, 2 (1 and 8 January 1897), pp. 21–23; Ibid., 7:5, 6 (1 and 8 February 1897), pp. 86–89.

49 Matorras, Fenelón, Tisis tuberculosis y neumomica, M.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Imprenta á Vapor de la Nación, 1878), pp. 8788.Google Scholar

50 “Carta de un tuberculoso curado en las sierras de Córdoba,” La Lucha Antituberculosa 5:1 (June 1905), pp. 7–8.

51 British Packet and Argentine News, 16 October 1841, p. 4 and Varela, Florencio D., Auto-Biografía de D. Florencio Varela (Montevideo: Imprenta del Comercio del Plata, 1848), p 13.Google Scholar

52 See the twelve cases discussed by Matorras, , Tisis tuberculosis, pp. 87107.Google Scholar

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55 Castels, Rodriguez, “Apuntes,” p. 129.Google Scholar

56 González, José D., “Climatología: a las sierras cordobesas: y el proyectado sanatorium para tuberculosis,” Semana Médica 1:30 (9 August 1894), p. 225;Google Scholar Tornú, Enrique, Sierras de Córdoba (Buenos Aires: Tip. y Encuademación de Juan Schurer-Stolle y Cía, 1901), p. 23;Google Scholar Azárez, , “Historia de la climatoterapia,” p. 419.Google Scholar

57 González, , “Climatología,” pp. 225226.Google Scholar

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59 Santas, Manuel, Tratamiento racional de la tuberculosis en la Republic Argentina, M.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Mariano Moreno, 1898), pp. 5488.Google Scholar

60 “Carta de un tuberculoso curado,” p. 10.

61 Ott, , Fevered Lives, pp. 15052 Google Scholar, for an excellent discussion of reasons for sanatoriums.

62 de Coni, Gabriela de L., “El barrio de las ramas,” Alianza de Higiene Social 7 (1907–1908), p. 80.Google Scholar

63 Mazzeo, Victoria, Migración internacional en la ciudad de Buenos Aires 1855–1980 (Buenos Aires: Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 1988), p. 3,Google Scholar provides the total and foreign populations for the city of Buenos Aires for various years from 1855 to 1914.

64 Scobie, James R., Buenos Aires: Plaza to Suburb, 1870–1919 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 135–42;Google Scholar Patroni, Adrián, Los trabajadores en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Litografía y Encuademación 1897), pp. 116118 and 127–129;Google Scholar Gutiérrez, Leandro H., “La Mala Vida,” José Luis Romero and Luis Alberto Romero, Buenos Aires historia de cuatro siglos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Abril, 1983)2, pp. 8589.Google Scholar

65 Calculations were based on data provide by Aires, Buenos, City, Statistical Year-Book of the City of Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Impr. Cia., Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco, 1910), pp. 20 and 121–24;Google Scholar Mazzeo, , Migración internacional, p. 19.Google Scholar

66 Velásquez, Jacinto, “Mortalidad por tuberculosis, 1909,” Alianza de Higiene Social, 9 (1909), pp. 1011;Google Scholar Gache, Samuel, La tuberculose dans la République Argentine (Buenos Aires: Augustin Etcheparebarda, 1899), pp. 14891450,Google Scholar in examining the 1896 deaths by parishes notes that the most densely populated had the largest number of cases of tuberculosis; Balvanera had 70 and San Cristóbal had 71, while the wealthiest ones such as Cathedral Norte had 8 and Cathedral Sud had 5, but Gache did not adjust for the size of total population in each district.

67 Bunge, Augusto, Contribución al estudio de la tuberculosis de las serosas, M.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, (Buenos Aires: Revista Nacional, Casa Editora, 1900), p. 29.Google Scholar

68 Iglesia, Rafael E.J., “La vivienda opulenta en Buenos Aires: 1880–1900 hechos y testimonios,” Jornadas de historia de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, vol. 1, La vivienda en Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Municipalidad de Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 1985), pp. 137139;Google Scholar Gache, Samuel, Les logements ouvriers à Buenos Ayres (Paris: G. Steinheil, 1900), pp. 8387.Google Scholar

69 Yujnovsky, Oscar, “Del conventillo a la villa miseria,” José Luis Romero and Luis Alberto Romero, Buenos Aires de historia de cuatro siglos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Abril, 1898), 2, p. 453.Google Scholar

70 Yujnovsky, , “Del Conventillo,” p. 453;Google Scholar Patroni, , Los trabajadores en Argentina, p. 130 Google Scholar; Alsina, Juan A., El obrero en la República Argentina (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Calle de Mexico, 1905), pp. 225229 Google Scholar notes the rent and size of rooms in various Parishes in 1904.

71 Scobie, , Buenos Aires: Plaza to Suburb, pp. 153–55;Google Scholar Rawson, Guillermo, “Estudio sobre las casa de inquilinato de Buenos Aires,” La Mutualidad 42:414 (January 1941), pp. 46;Google Scholar Gutaman, Margarita and Hardoy, Jorge E., Buenos Aires: historia urbana del area metropolitana (Madrid: Mapfie, D.L., 1992), pp. 110111 and 134.Google Scholar

72 Statistics for 1883 and 1904, Martínez, Censo general de la ciudad de Buenos Aires 1904, pp. CXXIII, 121–122 and 131; statistics 1919 in Yujnovsky, , “Del conventillo,” p. 453.Google Scholar

73 “Carta de un tuberculoso curado,” p. 8.

74 Bunge, Augusto, “La conquistas de la higiene social: los peligros de la industria: II El ambiente del trabajo,” Departamento Nacional de Higiene 16:6 (June 1909), pp. 243270;Google Scholar Ginenez, , Consideraciones de higiene, p. 4264;Google Scholar “Liga argentina contra la tuberculosis,” Revista de la Tuberculosis 1:6 (November 1901), p. 217.

75 Gache, Samuel, “Profilaxia antituberculosa en Buenos Aires,” La Semana Médica 10:42 (15 October 1903), pp. 977984;Google Scholar Guy, Both, “Lower-class Families,” pp. 298303 Google Scholar and Crider, , “Modernization and Human Welfare,” pp. 173–79,Google Scholar emphasize that the public health officials sought to promote public order by the control of the poor. Although I agree with this interpretation, I note that Diego Armus in “Utopías Urbans, Utopías Médicas,” a paper presented at the 1995 LASA Conference, views the public hygienist Emilio Coni, as a Utopian.

76 See Cereseto, Pedro L., “Historia de curanderos en la Provincia de Buenos Aires,” Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires 61 (1983), pp. 485500,Google Scholar for a discussion of nineteenth century healers; Saggese, Domingo, Yerbas Medicinales Argentinas, 10th ed. (Rosario: Antognazzi & Cia., 1959),Google Scholar includes herbs found in Argentina which were used for the treatment of tuberculosis. Little research has been published on popular conceptions of disease and cure in nineteenth century Argentina. However, given the limits of medical knowledge and the few physicians in the early part of the century, healers must have provided medical care to the poor.

77 Coni, Emilio, Higiene social, asistencia y previsión social: Buenos Aires caritativo y previsor (Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Emilio Spinelli, 1918), pp. 432434;Google Scholar Coni, Emilio R., “The Antituberculous Campaign in Latin America,” Medical Record (New York), 2 May 1903, p. 693;Google Scholar “Dispensary Dr. Enrique Tornú,” La Lucha Antituberculosa 2:1 (June 1902), pp. 12–14; “La Asistencia de tuberculosos pobres, Alianza de Higiene Social, 7 (1907–1908), p. 195.

78 “Liga argentina contra tuberculosis,” Alianza de Higiene Social 9: 8,9 (January and February 1910), pp. 229-232 provides specific data on the medical consultations, office visits, prescriptions, food distributions, and sputum analysis between 1902–1909.

79 Coni, Emilio R., “Presente de Liga Argentina contra la tuberculosis,” Alianza de Higiene Social 7 (31 January 1908), pp. 357358;Google Scholar “Liga Argentina contra la tuberculosis,” p. 233, provide the nationality and professions of those in 1907 in the Dispensary Doctor Rawson and for 1909 by professions for all dispensaries.

80 “Sanatorio municipal Doctor Tornú,” Lucha Antituberculosa 4:12 (12 May 1905), pp. 533–535; Coni, Emilio R., “La lucha antituberculosa en la República Argentina,” La Lucha Antituberculosa 5: 4–9 (1905), pp. 166180 Google Scholar provides a detailed schedule of a patient’s activities; Martínez, , Censo General, pp. 319320;Google Scholar Coni, Emilio R., “La campaña contra la tuberculosis en la República Argentina,” La Semana Médica 16:40 (7 October 1909), pp. 13981399.Google Scholar

81 Gaché, , “La lucha antituberculosa,” pp. 222;Google Scholar Castells, Horacio Rodríguez, “75 Aniversario,” Revista Argentina de Tuberculosis y Enfermedades Pulmonares 37: 1–4 (1976), pp. 39.Google Scholar

82 The League against Tuberculosis recognized that it was not identifying all the tubercular; “Profilaxis antituberculosa en Buenos Aires,” La Lucha Antituberculosa 3:4 and 5 (September/October 1903), p. 104.

83 Terán, José D., Pre-Tuberculosos: Contribución a su estudio, M.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Arsenio Guidi Buffarmi, 1905), pp. 6166.Google Scholar

84 Ibid., pp. 91–96.

85 Alfaro, Gregorio Aráoz, La tuberculosis infantil en la República Argentina, relación presentada al 2nd congreso médico Latino-Americano (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Libreria y Casa Editora de A. Etchepareborda, 1904), p. 22.Google Scholar

86 To date little has been done on the life of children in nineteenth-century Buenos Aires with the exception of the work of Guy, Donna J., “The Pan American Child Congresses, 1916–1942: Pan American child reform, and the welfare state in Latin America,” Journal of Family History 23:3 (July 1998), pp. 272291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar AGN, has in Tribunales Civil (TC) cases dealing with the custody of minor children which provide information on their lives; see the following: Leonardo Benítez con Basilea Martínez sobre menores, B–1; El menor Don José Mariano Buchardo se nombrimiento de curado, B–1; Doña Paula Ballon contra Doña María Martínez sobre una menor, B–35; Don Feliz Bacariza solicitando nombrar tutor y curador en 1829, B–l2; Doña Villanueva con Germán González, V–W–47. retención de menor.

87 Argentina, República, Album histórico de la sociedad de beneficencia de la capital Argentina, 1823–1910 (Buenos Aires: Lit. A. Bianche, 1910), discuses the various institutions. Bernardino Rivadavia founded The Sociedad de Beneficencia in 1823 with the responsibility of administering the charity hospitals formerly run by religious orders.Google Scholar

88 Alsina, , El Obrero, pp. 137–38.Google Scholar

89 It is difficult to estimate the percentage of tubercular deaths in the Casa de Expositos because the total number of children varied drastically in any given year as children died or left. For example, on December 31, 1905 there were 1633 children in the Casa de Expósitos, but there had been 3613 different children there during the same year; Sociedad de Beneficencia de la Capital, Memoria de año 1905 (Buenos Aires: Imprenta, Litografía y Encuademación G. Kraft, 1906), pp. 48 and 88. Early in the century 50 percent of the children were dying within three years of arrival. Although only vague descriptions of the cause of death was indicated, the depictions suggest tuberculosis deaths; see Libro quinto de filiación de la Casa de Expósitos, año, 1809; Sisto, Genaro, “La escuela preventiva de mar para niños débiles y su importancia en la profilaxis antituberculosa,” La Semana Médica 26:11 (13 March 1919), p. 267,Google Scholar suggested that in 1918, 66 percent of the children in the Casa Expositos were tubercular.

90 Anzorean, Antonio D’Angelo, Tuberculosis de la primera infancia, M.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Imp. Bossio & Bigiani, 1917);Google Scholar Sisto, , “La escuela preventiva,” pp. 264266.Google Scholar

91 Alfaro, Gregorio Aráoz, “Sur la tuberculosa infantil a Buenos Ayres particulièrement sur ses formes difuses,” Anales del Círculo Médico Argentino 26:5 (31 May 1903), p. 172.Google Scholar

92 Borkowski, José M., “Tuberculosis en el escolar,” M.D. diss., (Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, 1919), pp. 1626.Google Scholar

93 A variety of sources discuss the problem of diagnosis in children; Sisto, , “La escuela preventiva,” pp. 264266;Google Scholar Garrahan, Juan P., and Pico, Octavio M., “La escuela para niños débiles en la profilaxis antituberculosa los niños débiles,” La Semana Médica 27:23 (20 May 1920), pp. 698699;Google Scholar Alfaro, Aráoz, “Sur la tuberculosa infantil,” pp. 179186;Google Scholar Alfaro, Gregorio Aráoz, “Tuberculosis difusa de los niños,” Revista de la Sociedad Médica Argentina 3:14 (March/April 1894), p. 159161.Google Scholar

94 Coni, , Higiene Social, p. 440;Google Scholar Gache, Samuel and Muñiz, Juan A., “Mutualidad Escolar,” La Lucha Antituberculosa 5:8 (January 1906), pp. 270271.Google Scholar

95 Guy, Donna J., “Emilio and Gabriela Coni: Reformers, Public Health and Working Women,” The Human Tradition in Latin America: the Nineteenth Century, Ewell, Judith and Beezley, William H., eds. (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1989), pp. 232248.Google Scholar

96 “Inspección escolar en la República Argentina, Uruguay, Chile y Brasil,” Alianza de Higiene Social, 9: 7 (December. 1909), pp. 218–219; Raimondi, Silvio, Profilaxia de la Tuberculosis, M.D. diss., Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Las Ciencias, 1915).Google Scholar

97 Borkowski, , “Tuberculosis en el escolara,” pp. 77;Google Scholar Garrahan, and Pico, , “La escuela para niños débiles,” pp. 699701;Google Scholar “Escuelas para niños débiles,” Alianza de Higiene Social 9:7 (December 1909), pp. 198–199; Coni, Emilio R., “La lucha antituberculosa en la América Latina,” Alianza de Higiene Social 9:3,4 (August/September 1909), p. 78.Google Scholar

98 The Consejo Nacional de Educación established the first summer camp at Mar del Plata in 1895; the Liga Argentina contra la Tuberculosis established a second at Claypole in 1902. The Association of Damas Escuelas y Patronas established a third at Pirín in 1907 and a fourth in Bella Vista in 1909; Coni, , “La Lucha antituberculosa,” p. 76;Google Scholar Coni, Emilio R., “Colonia de vacaciones de Bella Vista,” Alianza de Higiene Social 9:7 (December 1909), p. 195.Google Scholar

99 “Sanatorio marítimo de Mar del Plata,” Revista de la Tuberculosis 1:8 (January 1902), p. 288, for statistical information but the entire article describes the institution.

100 Coni, Emilio, “La assistance de niños enfermos en Buenos Aires,” Revista de Higiene Infantil 1 (1892), pp. 597598.Google Scholar

101 Alsina, , El obrero en la República, p. 138.Google Scholar

102 “La tuberculosis como enfermedad popular: causas; medios de prevenirla y curarla,” La Revista de la Tuberculosis 1:3 (August 1901), p. 82.

103 Fiorino, Alfonso R., “Evaristo Carriego, ‘E1 Poeta del suburbio’ y la tuberculosis,” Revista Argentina de Tuberculosis. Enfermedades Pulmonares y Salud Publica 48:1 (1986), p. 74;Google Scholar Gabriel, José, Evaristo Carriego (Buenos Aires: Agencia Sudamericans de Libros, 1921), pp. 712.Google Scholar Carriego first wrote for Protesta, which was a daily newspaper of ideas before becoming an anarchist paper. He also published his writing in Caras y Caretas, Papel y Tinta, Ideas y Figuras, Nosotros and Ladron Conocido.

104 Three poems are particularly useful for a description of those dying of tuberculosis: “Bajo la angustia, Misas Herejas, 111–112; “Residuo de fábrica,” and “De invierno,” quoted in Fiorino, , “Evaristo Carriego,” p. 75.Google Scholar For discussion of his verses as tangos see Francisco García Jiménez, Estampas de Tango (Buenos Aires, 1958), pp. 85–86.

105 Borges, Jorge Luis, Evaristo Carriego, (New York: E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1984), pp. 6061.Google Scholar