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Copyright by Emma Elizabeth Whittington 2018 The Thesis Committee for Emma Elizabeth Whittington Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: “READ THIS AND PASS IT ON”: A History of Mimeographed Resistance to the Uruguayan Dictatorship APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Ann Twinam, Supervisor Ciaran Trace “READ THIS AND PASS IT ON”: A History of Mimeographed Resistance to the Uruguayan Dictatorship by Emma Elizabeth Whittington Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degrees of Master of Science in Information Studies and Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Dedication This project is dedicated to Uruguay’s closely intertwined movimientos syndical and estudiantil, both of which have profoundly shaped the contours of political action and discourse within the country. Acknowledgements This master’s thesis would not have been possible without the support of a number of individuals and organizations. The Tinker Foundation and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies provided me with the financial support necessary to conduct fieldwork in Montevideo in July and August 2017. While there, a number of scholars, historians, and political activists welcomed me into their workplaces and homes, generously providing their recollections of mimeograph production in the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, I thank Francisco Sanguiñedo, Carlos Zubillaga, Jorge Voituret, Vicente Cremanti, and multiple afiliados of the PIT-CNT who allowed me to interview them. Thanks also to the tremendous team of archivists who helped me conduct my research, going out of their way to ensure I had access to the documents I needed: Mónica Pagola, Vania Markarian, and Sandra Pintos all come to mind, though many others have worked to ensure the long-term preservation of these documents. Finally, I thank my host in Montevideo, Gonzalo, for opening his home to me and for sharing wine, food, and a tranquil space to think. v Abstract “READ THIS AND PASS IT ON”: A History of Mimeographed Resistance to the Uruguayan Dictatorship Emma Elizabeth Whittington, M.A./M.S.I.S. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Ann Twinam Scholars have paid scant attention to the mimeograph’s role in influencing social change, despite the fact that such media have long allowed counter-narratives a space for expression. This dual degree Master’s thesis explicitly addresses this gap in historical literature by using a case study to explore how mass duplication technologies have enabled flyers and leaflets to make serious interventions into dominant political narratives. Specifically, the case study examines how, during the 1960s and 1970s, Uruguayan leftist protestors used mimeograph machines to produce a large corpus of political propaganda that harshly criticized the country’s authoritarian rule. Not only did these missives sharply critique the country’s leadership, but they also diffused otherwise-censored news, organized increasing-illegal demonstrations, and promoted solidarity efforts that consolidated the Left into a cohesive political project. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to Topic and Aims .............................................1 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1 POSITION IN THE FIELD ..................................................................................3 WHY URUGUAY? ............................................................................................4 LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................................9 Chapter 2 Methodology ...............................................................................10 ARCHIVAL RESEARCH ..................................................................................10 IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS ..............................................................................12 Chapter 3 A Climate of Contestation ......................................................16 AN ECONOMY IN RUIN .................................................................................16 THE SYNDICATES ALIGN THEMSELVES .......................................................17 THE STUDENT MOVEMENT GAINS SPEED ...................................................20 PROTEST IN THE STREETS ............................................................................25 US AND URUGUAYAN LEADERSHIP WATCH CLOSELY ...............................29 Chapter 4 A Frenzy of Flyers .....................................................................31 FLYERS TAKE FLIGHT ..................................................................................32 THE POWER OF THE VOLANTE: A GENRE STUDY .......................................35 VOLANTE PRODUCTION METHODS: OFFSET PRINTING .............................38 VOLANTE PRODUCTION METHODS: MIMEOGRAPH MACHINES ................39 Chapter 5 The Decline of Democracy ......................................................45 GESTIDO BECOMES PRESIDENT ...................................................................45 PACHECO TAKES OVER ...............................................................................48 THE RAID ON THE UNIVERSITY AND THE ASSASSINATION OF LIBER ARCE51 THINGS GO FROM BAD TO WORSE ..............................................................55 A RIGGED ELECTION USHERS IN A DICTATOR ...........................................58 vii Chapter 6 The Mimeograph in the Midst .............................................64 THE GOLPE DE ESTADO ...............................................................................64 RESISTING AFTER THE GOLPE .....................................................................65 WHAT’S NEXT? FUTURE AVENUES OF INVESTIGATION ..............................68 Bibliography .....................................................................................................70 viii Chapter 1: Introduction to Topic and Aims INTRODUCTION This dual degree masters thesis focuses on the material dimensions of popular resistance and the technological processes that facilitate them. Specifically, this project examines how, in late 60s and early 70s Uruguay, student activists and labor unions leveraged their access to mass duplication technologies to resist the country’s turn towards authoritarianism and its eventual dictatorship, which officially began June 27, 1973. In the years leading up to and including the dictatorship, flyers, posters, and other ephemeral documentation produced using mass duplication technologies such as mimeograph machines played a key role in denouncing state sponsored violence, diffusing news, and organizing protests against the brutal regimes of Jorge Pacheco Areco and, later, Juan Manuel Bordaberry. As armed forces installed increasingly repressive measures — including shuttering major news outlets — such amateur documentation took on critically important dimensions. This project argues that duplication technologies played a key role in facilitating Uruguayan resistance to authoritarianism, offering this case study as a means of drawing larger conclusions about the ways in which print modalities can inform a society’s ability to intervene in dominant political narratives. Key is the socio-technological component of this history — the role that mimeograph machines played during the 60s and 70s.1 To that end, primary research questions include: How do print modalities inform a movement’s ability to intervene in a dominant political narrative? How, in times of great political censorship and repression, can action be mobilized, and discourse framed, through access to technology? In posing 1 The mimeograph machine, developed in the 19th century, operated as a precursor to the Xerox-style photocopiers that today dominate print reproduction markets. 1 these questions, this research hopes to expand scholarly understanding of how Latin American print culture has operated during periods of intense repression and political turmoil. The story of mimeograph production opens with Chapter 3, “A Climate of Contestation.” This chapter sets the scene by providing background information on the structural factors that lead to the gradual deterioration of political and economic stability within Uruguay. It then establishes a strong precedent for active political protest within the country, focusing on key examples of how successful protest efforts engendered real change in the country. Chapter 4, “A Frenzy of Flyers,” introduces flyers as a critical mode of political protest used widely by protestors on all sides of the political spectrum. It then considers flyer production from a technological standpoint, showing how access to specific print techniques like offset and mimeograph facilitated a particularly potent form of political intervention. Chapter 5, “The Fall of Democracy,” characterizes the use of political protest flyers during the nation’s slow descent towards dictatorship. In the years leading up to the official 1973 “Golpe de Estado,” a series of events transformed Uruguay from a nation where protest could be performed visible in the street to a nation where expressing dissent could have deadly consequences. In this hostile atmosphere in which official news sources were increasingly shuttered, access to discrete, do-it-yourself forms of protest proved critical. “The Mimeograph in the Midst,” the sixth and final chapter, discusses underground