The Public Sphere, Public Space, and the Private Domain in Buenos Aires
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Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 10-27-2011 Disease and Hygiene in the Construction of a Nation: The Public pheS re, Public Space, and the Private Domain in Buenos Aires, 1871-1910 Kindon T. Meik Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI11120805 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Meik, Kindon T., "Disease and Hygiene in the Construction of a Nation: The ubP lic Sphere, Public Space, and the Private Domain in Buenos Aires, 1871-1910" (2011). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 547. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/547 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida DISEASE AND HYGIENE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NATION: THE PUBLIC SPHERE, PUBLIC SPACE, AND THE PRIVATE DOMAIN IN BUENOS AIRES, 1871-1910 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY by Kindon Thomas Meik 2011 To: Dean Kenneth G. Furton College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation, written by Kindon Thomas Meik, and entitled Disease and Hygiene in the Construction of a Nation: The Public Sphere, Public Space, and the Private Domain in Buenos Aires, 1871-1910, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Noble David Cook _______________________________________ Patricia L. Price _______________________________________ Victor M. Uribe-Uran _______________________________________ Mark D. Szuchman, Major Professor Date of Defense: October 27, 2011 The dissertation of Kindon Thomas Meik is approved. _______________________________________ Dean Kenneth G. Furton College of Arts and Sciences _______________________________________ Dean Lakshmi N. Reddi University Graduate School Florida International University, 2011 ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my children Riley, Morgan, Alice, Abbi, Grant, and Ava. Most important, this work is dedicated to my wife and best friend, Angie. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The ideas developed in the present work originated from the various reading assignments and discussions associated with the courses taught by N. David Cook, Sherry Johnson, Patricia Price, Mark Szuchman, and Victor Uribe at Florida International University. I am indebted to their instruction and benefited from the encouragement they provided. Without question, the completion of the dissertation would not have been possible without the continual patience and guidance of Dr. Szuchman. He has been a benevolent mentor and a wise teacher. A special thank you is necessary for the librarians of the Biblioteca Municipal de Buenos Aires who provided invaluable help in locating pertinent information and primary sources. Similarly, the faculty and inter-library loan staff at California State University Bakersfield were likewise supportive and made it possible to secure needed texts and other documents. Finally, I wish to recognize my wife, Angie, who sees my potential and overlooks my weaknesses. Her many sacrifices as a result of my endeavors will always be appreciated. iv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION DISEASE AND HYGIENE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NATION: THE PUBLIC SPHERE, PUBLIC SPACE, AND THE PRIVATE DOMAIN IN BUENOS AIRES, 1871-1910 by Kindon Thomas Meik Florida International University, 2011 Miami, Florida Professor Mark D. Szuchman, Major Professor The maturation of the public sphere in Argentina during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a critical element in the nation-building process and the overall development of the modern state. Within the context of this evolution, the discourse of disease generated intense debates that subsequently influenced policies that transformed the public spaces of Buenos Aires and facilitated state intervention within the private domains of the city’s inhabitants. Under the banner of hygiene and public health, municipal officials thus Europeanized the nation’s capital through the construction of parks and plazas and likewise utilized the press to garner support for the initiatives that would remedy the unsanitary conditions and practices of the city. Despite promises to the contrary, the improvements to the public spaces of Buenos Aires primarily benefited the porteño elite while the efforts to root out disease often targeted working-class neighborhoods. The model that reformed the public space of Buenos Aires, including its socially differentiated application of aesthetic order and public health policies, was ultimately employed throughout the Argentine Republic as the consolidated political elite rolled out its national program of material and social development. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………. 1 2. YELLOW FEVER AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE …………………………….. 12 The Theoretical Nature of the Public Sphere ....................................................... 13 Disease and Hygiene in Buenos Aires ................................................................. 23 The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1871.................................................................... 30 The Porteño Press and the Comisión de la Salud Pública ................................... 48 3. METAPHORS AND PUBLIC SPACE ………………………………………... 68 Metaphors of the Body, Metaphors of Civilization ............................................. 73 The Parque 3 de Febrero and the Jardín Zoologico ............................................. 84 4. GUARDIANS OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE PRIVATE DOMAIN..100 The Higienistas and the Dirección General de la Asistencia Pública ................ 103 Smallpox and the Conventillo ............................................................................ 115 5. CONCLUSIONS...…………………………………………………………….. 132 LIST OF REFERENCES ………………………………………………………......... 143 VITA ……………………………………………………………………………….... 166 vi CHAPTER 1 Introduction The evolution of the public sphere in Argentina following independence was a fundamental aspect of the nation-building process and therefore a critical component in the transition from nascent republic to modern state. Accordingly, the public sphere constitutes an essential element of historical understanding especially when juxtaposed with the equally relevant constructs of public space and the private domain. The convergence of the public sphere, public space, and the private domain establishes a useful analytical lens with which it is possible to observe that changes in one simultaneously influenced the others and consequently altered the dynamics of state-society relations. Nowhere was this more evident than in the discourse of disease and public health prevalent during Argentina’s famed belle époque period that spanned the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Within the context of modernization, this study will analyze the transformation of the public sphere in Buenos Aires between 1871 and 1910. In doing so, special attention will be given to the rhetoric of hygiene and progress that prompted a reconfiguration of the city’s public spaces and led to the creation of institutions that encroached upon the private lives of porteños. The theoretical framework of the public sphere is found in the writings of the German philosophers, Reinhart Kossellek and Jürgen Habermas.1 In their respective studies, Koselleck ——————————— 1. Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenisis of Modern Society (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988); Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Formation of the Public 1 and Habermas argued that the formation and development of the public sphere in England, France, and Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a result of the changing relationship between civil society and the state. Of particular interest was the increased consumption of printed material by a bourgeois reading public and the creation of an “interacting body of citizens engaged in rational-critical discourse.”2 Within this “network of communication,” the public “generated its own ‘universal’ moral standards through the communicative process, and eventually applied those standards critically to the state and its policies.”3 In short, the public sphere created a forum in which individuals could meet and discuss issues of public interest and formulate collective responses to the policies of the ruling elite. Intrinsically linked to the development of the public sphere was the appearance of new forms of sociability and the appropriation of physical spaces in which people could “gather, use their reason, and ultimately mold ‘public opinion.’”4 In many ways, these spaces—cafés, plazas, marketplaces, lodges, and other settings—became the physical embodiment of the public sphere. In this regards, The urban milieu offers an intriguing site for the historian interested in exploring changing relations of power, class, conflict, opposing visions of the future, breakdowns ——————————————————————————————————— Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Thomas Burger (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989). 2. Craig Calhoun, “Civil Society of Public