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From Martín Fierro to Peronism: A Century of Argentine Social Protest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Peter Winn
Peter Winn*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York, New York
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Extract

At first glance, nothing could be stranger than a paper discussing the relationship between Martín Fierro and peronism. It is not just the disparity of genres. The gulf of history that separates their worlds and styles appears to be unbridgeable. Martín Fierro is emblematic of the gaucho, the endless pampa, man alone, the pastoral economy, individualism and the search for personal transcendence. Peronismo, on the other hand, calls up images of the factory worker, the city, mass society, the industrial economy, corporatist idealogy and the struggle for collective salvation.

Despite these differences, however, Martín Fierro and peronismo are in both clear and complex ways of the same lineage and an analysis of their relationship illuminates both generations—and a century of Argentine social protest. The world's of Martín Fierro and peronismo may be different, but the line of descent that joins them is as clear as that which leads from Fierro's pampa milonga to the tango of porteño peronismo and as complex as that which runs from the singer in the pulpería to the orator in the Plaza de Mayo.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , July 1978 , pp. 89 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1978 

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References

1 The milonga, a popular musical form of nineteenth century Argentina, was the ancestor of the tango. It appears frequently in Martín Fierro. (See, for example, José Hernández, La Ida de Martín Fierro, Canto V, Stanza 4.)

2 For an illuminating essay on the social content of the tango, which relates Martín Fierro to the tangos of the Perón era, see Canton, Dario, “El mundo de los tangos de Gardel,” Revista Latinoamericana de Sociología (1968), 341–62.Google Scholar

3 For the some suggestive analyses of the social base of peronismo, see Smith, Peter H., “The Social Basis of Peronism,” Hispanic American Historical Review (February 1972), 55–73 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Little, Walter, “Electoral Aspects of Peronism, 1946–1954,” Unpublished paper of the Department of Politics, University of Glasgow (1972)Google Scholar; and Kirkpatrick, Jeanne, Leader and Vanguard in Mass Society: A Study of Peronist Argentina (Cambridge and London, 1971), Chaps. 4 and 5.Google Scholar

4 Hernández, , Ida, 12, 12.Google Scholar I am indebted to Joseph Barager for calling my attention to the political use made of this stanza by the Peronists.

5 ibid., IV, 4.

6 Hernández to José Zoilo Miguens, undated letter published as a preface to the first edition of La Ida in 1872, asking his sponsorship of the poem, because “conoce bién todos los abusos y todas las desgracias de que es víctima esa clase desheredada de nuestro país.” ( Hernández, , La Gloria de Martín Fierro, Reproducción facsimilar de la primera edición (Buenos Aires, 1945), p. 27.Google Scholar

7 See for example, Hernández, Ida, VI, 9.

8 Hernández, , La Vuelta de Martín Fieno, 1, 16.Google Scholar By an extension of this argument, their opponents are themselves denied nationality and thus legitimacy and end by being dismissed as neo-colonial agents of foreign penetration. In 1867, in words that could have been spoken a century later by Perón, Hernández rejected Sarmiento’s presidential candidacy, on the grounds that: “Es un pecado mortal … una razón de rechazo para una candidatura, el tener simpatías en el exterior.” (Hernández en El Eco de Corrientes, quoted in Gálvez, Manuel, José Hernández (Buenos Aires, 1945), p. 49.Google Scholar

9 Borges, Jorge Luis, Ficciones (Buenos Aires, 1956), pp. 159–62.Google Scholar

10 Hernández, , Ida, 5, 9–16.Google Scholar

11 ibid., VI, 7.

12 ibid., IX, 12.

13 For the critical comments of Miguel de Unamuno on Martín Fierro, see La Ilustración Hispano-Americana (Madrid, 1899), Volume II, p. 44. For an interesting account of the early critical reception of Martín Fierro in Argentina and Europe, see the essay of Quintana, Raúl in Gloria, pp. 107–30.Google Scholar

14 Hernández, , Vuelta, 1, 11–14.Google Scholar