Alpargatas contra libros: El escritor y las masas en la literatura del primer peronismo (1945-1955) by Javier de Navascués

Abstract

Reviewed by: Alpargatas contra libros: El escritor y las masas en la literatura del primer peronismo (1945-1955) by Javier de Navascués Justin Read de Navascués, Javier. Alpargatas contra libros: El escritor y las masas en la literatura del primer peronismo (1945-1955). Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2017. 237 pp. The title of this book derives from a slogan attributed to the descamisados—the poor and working-class protesters who occupied the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on October 17, 1943. In the week prior to that date, Juan Domingo Perón resigned his posts as Vice President, Secretary of War, and Minister of Labor, and was then arrested on spurious charges by his political enemies. This spurred massive street protests in the capital that culminated in front of the Casa Rosada, organized under the auspices of Perón's core institutional ally, the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT). Famously dipping their bare feet into the fountain on the Plaza de Mayo and shouting slogans such as "¡Alpargatas sí! ¡Libros no!" the descamisados succeeded in obtaining Perón's release after four days of incarceration. The event marked the decline of the oligarchical order—both in the right-wing flank of the military and the traditional liberal elite—giving way to the nationalist populism of peronismo. The initial phase of peronismo lasted from Perón's ascent to the presidency until the coup d'etat of 1955 that sent him into exile until 1973. In this well-appointed study of this "primer peronismo," Javier de Navascués effectively critiques the slogan "alpargatas sí, libros no" not merely as the epitome of a social movement, but as a central fault-line dividing Argentinean literature from its national and political culture. Although the phrase is still widely associated with the descamisados, at the time it crystallized the worst fears of the traditional lettered elite. Although the cry of the protesting masses was one for social justice for most elite literati, elites feared the masses were a heathen "horde" actively opposed to the very notion of education. Given the overt anti-intellectualism of many peronistas of that time, this reaction may be unsurprising. On the other hand, the rise of Perón marks a key moment in which Latin American literature ceased to promote nation-building, and instead became its antithesis. (Even vanguardismo in Latin America promoted national pride, in stark contrast to European and Anglo-American avant-gardes.) The literature of the primer peronismo tends to be utterly cynical and dismissive. The single most famous work of the era, "La fiesta del Monstruo," co-written by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares (under the pseudonym H. Bustos Domecq), depicts common peronistas as an ignorant, blood-thirsty mob who stone a Jew to death. Whatever the case may be, the era is perhaps the least-studied in Argentine literary history, paling in comparison to periods before (modernismo, vanguardismo) and after ("Boom," dictatorship). It seems that both pro- and anti-peronistas were more interested in producing propaganda than great literature. Alpargatas contra libros seeks to correct this circumstance in its way, not by championing literature of the primer peronismo necessarily, but by detailing the often difficult choices faced by intellectuals and writers. As analyzed in the first chapter, peronismo abruptly re-defined key concepts like "masa" and "pueblo." The liberalism that marked oligarchical politics from the end of the Rosas dictatorship [End Page 418] in 1851 through to the dictatorial "Década Infame" of the 1930s envisioned the progressive elimination of the "masses." To wit, through public education and literacy, individuals would be inculcated with Argentinean identity, and all the individual liberties therein as free citizens of the nation. In practice, of course, such ideals of citizenship were seldom if ever attained, but they are unmistakably present in Argentine letters from Echeverría to Güiraldes and Martínez Estrada (however critical these authors were of their contemporary societies). The repeated illiberal coups of the Década Infame, the corrupt governments ushered in by them, and the economic crises of the Great Depression all gave lie to liberalism tout court. Perón opportunistically theorized that the "masas" as a collective could...