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Sowing “Seeds of Goodness” in Depression-Era Chile: Politics, the “Social Question,” and the Labor Ministry's Cultural Extension Department*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
A contributor to La Lei, the journalistic mouthpiece of Chile's reformist Radical Party, attended a peculiar cultural event on a mild spring evening in 1909 that evidently made quite an impression. Workers with their spouses and children, all donning their best suits and dresses, had gathered in one of the capital's dance halls to enjoy what the onlooker grasped as an evening of “aesthetic enjoyment without ostentation.” As the writer noted, “For three hours I was enchanted by the order, by the discretion, by the culture of the dancers. [The cultured worker] is a natural friend of order, he does not let himself be convinced by high-sounding words, nor does he accept subversive ideas; the revolutionary preaching of the Utopians and those without spirits repulse him. He loves tranquillity and has a profound respect for republican laws. A man of this nature is not only a pillar of our democracy but also an unceasing producer of wealth and social well being.” What the writer recognized as “culture” evidently was conducive to the perpetuation of liberal democracy, the defense of the economic order, and the preservation of social peace during the so-called Parliamentary Republic (1891-1925). Indeed, if workers were culturally educated, if they properly understood, imitated, and enjoyed a “mainstream” culture, they would be less apt to engage in disruptive political endeavors, or so it was suggested in La Lei.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2003
Footnotes
*
I wish to thank Tulio Halperín-Donghi, Arnold J. Bauer, James Cane-Carrasco, Alexandra Kindell, Claudio Robles-Ortiz, Hamilton Cravens, and the journal's anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions that propelled this article's evolution.
References
1 La Lei (Santiago), September 16, 1909. The newspaper was founded in June 1894 by Radical Party activist Juan Agustín Palazuelos and was published daily until March 1910.
2 Studies on society, economy, and politics during the Parliamentary Republic include González, Julio Heise, Historia de Chile. El período parlamentario, 1861–1925, 2 Vols. (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1971–82);Google Scholar Pinto Lagarrigue, Fernando, Balmaceday los gobiernos seudo-parlamentarios (Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1991);Google Scholar and Correa, Gonzalo Vial, Historia de Chile, 1891–1973, 3 Vols. (Santiago: Editorial Santillana, 1981–86).Google Scholar
3 On the working class and social question, see Serón, Jorge Barría, El movimiento obrero en Chile (Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Técnica del Estado, 1972)Google Scholar and Los movimientos sociales en Chile desde 1910 hasta 1926 (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1960); Jobet, Julio César, Luis Emilio Recabarren: Los orígenes del movimiento obrero y del socialismo chilenos (Santiago: Prensa Latinoamericana, 1955);Google Scholar DeShazo, Peter, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902–1926 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983);Google Scholar Lagarrigue, Luis, La cuestión social (Santiago: Ercilla, 1895);Google Scholar Morris, James O., Elites, Intellectuals, and Concensus: A Study of the Social Question and the Industrial Labor Relations System in Chile (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966);Google Scholar Gazmuri, Cristián, Testimonios de una crisis: Chile, 1900–1925 (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1979);Google Scholar Sergio, Grez T, La cuestión social en Chile: Ideas y debates precursores,1804–1902 (Santiago: Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, 1995);Google Scholar Bravo, Arturo Olavarria, La cuestión social en Chile: Los partidos políticos chilenos frente a la cuestión social (Santiago: Imprenta Penitenciaría, 1953);Google Scholar Necochea, Hernán Ramírez, Historia del movimiento obrero en Chile, 2nd ed. (Santiago: Ediciones Literatura Americana Reunida, 1986);Google Scholar and Gonzáles, Tomás Ríos, La cuestión social (Santiago: Imprenta Universitaria, 1917).Google Scholar
4 The economy already had been teetering before the turbulent 1930s as nitrate production—the country's top economic sector between the War of the Pacific (1879–84) and World War 1 —moved steadily from Chile's northern desert to the laboratories of European and U.S. chemical manufacturers. Copper, the export successor to nitrates, fared poorly in the severely contracted, if not collapsed. Depression-era international marketplace for raw materials. On the issue of the Great Depression, see Monteón, Michael, Chile and the Great Depression: The Politics of Underdevelopment, 1927–1948 (Tempe: Center for Latin American Studies Press, Arizona State University, 1998).Google Scholar
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6 The Radical Party coalesced in the middle of the nineteenth century as a “radical” offshoot of the Liberal Party. By the turn of the century, it was a strong force behind secularization, social, cultural, and economic reforms, and was an important member of varying political coalitions during the Parliamentary Republic. Radicals later led the Popular Front to victory in December 1938. On the Radical Party, consult Covarrubias, Jaime García, El Partido Radical y la clase media en Chile, 1888–1938 (Madrid: Michay, 1986);Google Scholar Rondanelli, Julio Sepúlveda, Los radicales ante la historia (Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1993);Google Scholar and Barr-Melej, Patrick, Reforming Chile: Cultural Politics, Nationalism, and the Rise of the Middle Class (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).Google Scholar
7 Martínez's, Gatica works include the novel El amor de Juan Nadal (Santiago: Editorial Pacífico, 1928)Google Scholar and Ensayos sobre la literatura Hispanoamericana (Santiago: Editorial Andes, 1930).
8 Ministerio del Trabajo (Ministry of Labor, hereafter cited as MT), Providencias, Archivo del Siglo XX (Archive of the Twentieth century, hereafter ASXX), Santiago. Vol. 3, No number (1934).
9 There are few accounts of the Socialist Republic. Of note are Ojeda, Carlos Charlin, Del avión rojo a la República Socialista (Santiago: Quimantú;, 1972)Google Scholar and Vallejo, Jorge Grove, Descorriendo el Velo: Episodio de los doce días de la República Socialista (Valparaíso: Imprenta “Aurora de Chile,” 1933).Google Scholar
10 The decree appeared in the government's Diario Oficial edition of September 17, 1932 (no. 16,378) and is reproduced in Contraloria República, General de la, Secretaria General, Recopilación de los decretos-leyes dictados en 1932, por órden numérico, con índices por número, Ministerios y materias (Santiago: Imprenta Nascimento, 1933), pp. 396–97.Google Scholar The same general principles also are outlined in Trabajo, Ministerio del, “El Departamento de Extensión Cultural del Ministerio del Trabajo, 1932,” (Santiago: n.p., 1932).Google Scholar
11 Contraloria General de la República, Recopilación de los decretos-leyes dictados en 1932, p. 399.
12 MT, Decretos, ASXX. Vol. 12, No. 162 (1932).
13 La Nación (Santiago), Dec. 23, 1934. This newspaper was a journalistic voice of the Alessandri government.
14 On rural labor and unionization during the first half of the twentieth century, see, for example, Bauer, Arnold J., Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975);Google Scholar Loveman, Brian, Struggle in the Countryside: Politics and Rural Labor in Chile, 1919–1973 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976);Google Scholar and Wright, Thomas, Landowners and Reform in Chile: The Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982).Google Scholar
15 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 3, No number (1934).
16 Trabajo, Ministerio del, Departamento de Extensión Cultural, “Síntesis expositiva de su estructura, organización y labor desarrollada desde Junio de 1932 hasta el 31 de Diciembre de 1935,” (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos Gutenberg, 1936), p. 9.Google Scholar
17 Tomás, Gatica Martínez, “Los caminos de la cultura” (Santiago: Imprenta “El Esfuerzo,” 1933), p. 11.Google Scholar
18 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 3, No number (1934).
19 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 3, No. 204 (1934).
20 Brunet's, literary works include Montaña adentro (Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1991).Google Scholar This example of criollismo (or literary “Creolism”) first appeared in 1923.
21 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No. 135 (1934). Klubock's, Thomas Miller Contested Communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile's El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904–1951 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999) is a recent and rather interesting examination of El Teniente's working class.Google Scholar
22 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No. 38 (1935).
24 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No number (1935).
25 In the southern provinces, the tour also stopped in Chillán, Talca, Osorno, Temuco, Valdivia, Concepción, and Los Angeles. La Hora (Santiago) June 26, 1935.
26 Thorough examinations of the politics and economics of nitrate production include Blakemore, Harold, British Nitrates and Chilean Politics, 1886–1896: Balmaceda and North (London: Athlone Press for the Institute of Latin American Studies, 1974)Google Scholar and Monteón, Michael, Chile in the Nitrate Era (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982).Google Scholar
27 The city of Antofagasta's population swelled from 13,500 in 1897 to 33,000 in 1907. Correa, Vial, Historia de Chile, 1891–1973, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Santiago: Editorial Santillana, 1981), p. 12.Google Scholar
28 See Jobet, , Luis Emilio Recabarren: Los orígenes del movimiento obrero y del socialismo chilenos.Google Scholar Also consult Recabarren, , Obras selectas de Luis Emilio Recabarren (Santiago: Quimantú, 1971)Google Scholar and Devés, Eduardo and Cruzat, Ximena (eds.), Recabarren: Escritos de prensa, 4 vols (Santiago: Nuestra América and Terranova, 1985–87).Google Scholar
29 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol.2, No number (1935). The northern swing also boasted the musical works of Bach, Chopin, and Liszt, among others, played by the classical pianist Elba Fuentes. Trabajo, Ministerio del, Departamento de Extensión Cultural, “Misión oficial a la zona norte” (Santiago: Casa Amarilla, 1935), p. 1.Google Scholar
30 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No number (1935).
31 “Reglamento del Consejo Obrero de la Cooperación al Departamento de Extensión Cultural del Ministerio del Trabajo, cuya aprobación se concluyó el 6 de Mayo de 1935” (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos Arruffo, 1937), p. 1. The council met every 15 days and its members were officially requested to address each other as either “compañero” or “camarada.”
32 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No number (1938).
33 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No number (1938); Primer Congreso Nacional de Cultura Obrera. Celebrado en los días 26, 27 y 28 de noviembre de 1937: Conclusiones y anexos (Santiago: Imprenta Arruffo, 1937).
34 Trabajo, Ministerio del, Departamento de Extensión Cultural, “Proyecto de ley: Reestructuración del Departamento de Extensión Cultural del Ministerio del Trabajo. Estudio y antecedentes presentados al Ministro del Trabajo por el director de la Extensión Cultural” (Santiago: Zig-Zag, 1937), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar
35 For the Popular Front, see, for instance, Drake, Paul, Socialism and Populism in Chile, 1932–1952 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978),Google Scholar Rosemblatt, Karin Alejandra, Gendered Compromises: Political Cultures and the State in Chile, 1920–1950 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000),Google Scholar and Stevenson, John Reese, The Chilean Popular Front (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1942).Google Scholar
36 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 1, No. 3 (1939). D'Halmar’s examples of fiction include Juana Lucero (Santiago: Imprenta Litografía y Encuademación Turín, 1902), La lámpara en el molino (Santiago: Imprenta New York, 1914), and La sombra del humo en el espejo (Madrid: Editorial Internacional, 1924).
37 Archival documents are incomplete, thus making impossible any confident verification of Gatica Martínez's calculation. More than likely, his figure is inflated because in Santiago, for example, a worker easily could have attended numerous department events over a relatively short period of time, and thus the worker would have been counted more than once.
38 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 1, No. 3 (1939).
39 Huasos (and, to some extent, huasas) were considered by many as national folk symbols and examples of chilenidad (Chileanness) by the 1930s. They were particularly celebrated during the early years of the Popular Front, which were immersed in populist and nationalist imagery propagated by the state. On the symbolic and discursive importance of huasos in Chilean nationalism and urban politics in the early twentieth century, see Barr-Melej, Reforming Chile. Also consult Pernet, Corinne A., “The Popular Front and Folklore: Chilean Cultural Institutions, Nationalism, and Pan-Americanism, 1936–1948,” in Konig, Hans-Joachim and Rinke, Stefan (eds.), ‘Norte Americanización’ of Latin America? Culture, Nation, and Gender in Inter-American Relations (Stuttgart: Heinz Verlag, forthcoming).Google Scholar
40 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 1, No. 3 (1939).
41 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No. 32 (1940).
42 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No. 126 (1940).
43 La Nación, June 2 and 4, 1940; La Opinión (Santiago), June 6, 1940; La Hora, June 7, 1940. Founded in 1935, La Hora was the Radical Party's primary representative in the press after La Lei's closure.
44 MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No. 181 (1940); La Hora, June 22 and 26, 1940. Unfortunately, assiduous searches for the texts of these and other Extension presentations, including radio broadcasts, were ultimately unsuccessful.
45 MT, Departamento de Extensión Cultural, “Chile” (Santiago: Imprenta La Ilustración, 2000); MT, Providencias, ASXX, Vol. 2, No. 106 (1941).
46 Consult Pernet, “The Popular Front and Folklore.”
47 There were, of course, groups outside the Extension who pointed to culture when citing the social question's origin, dynamics, and possible solutions. The Catholic Church, for example, essentially argued a cultural point when citing religion as the most important contributor to national harmony in times of social, economic, and political turbulence. Discussions of the Catholic Church's response to the social question are found in Morris, Elites, Intellectuals, and Concensus and Barr-Melej, Reforming Chile.