La Nuestra: Football and National Identity in Argentina 1913–1978
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La Nuestra: Football and National Identity in Argentina 1913–1978 Mark Antony Orton Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities December 2020 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the University’s requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy De Montfort University Leicester Declaration To the best of my knowledge I confirm that the work in this thesis is my original work undertaken for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities, De Montfort University. I confirm that no material of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or qualification at any other university. I also declare that parts of this thesis have been submitted for publications and conferences. 2 Contents Declaration …………………………………………………………………………………..2 Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………...5 List of Illustrations and Tables …………………………………………………………….6 List of Abbreviations ………………………………………………………………………..7 Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………8 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………...9 Research Questions ………………………………………………………………………10 Historiography ……………………………………………………………………………..11 Sport and National Identity ……………………………………………………………….11 Migration, Assimilation and the Construction of Argentine Identity ………………….14 Football Style as a Projection of Argentine Identity ……………………………………16 Race, Ethnicity and the Role of the Interior in Argentine Identity …………………….19 Football and Politics in Argentina ………………………………………………………..21 Methodology and Sources ………………………………………………………………..23 Chapter Structure ………………………………………………………………………….26 Chapter 1: ‘The Virile English Game’: Football and Identity Construction in Argentina until 1913 ……………………………………………………………………..29 The Third British ‘Invasion’ of Argentina ………………………………………………...30 The Arrival of Football and its Early Diffusion in Argentina …………………………...34 Mens sana in corpore sano: Football and School Sport in Argentina ……………….39 Loco for Football: The Role of the Railways in Argentina’s Diffusion of Football …..46 Crisol de Razas: Football, Immigration and National Identity Construction in Argentina at the turn of the Twentieth Century ………………………………………....................56 La Nuestra and the Myth of the Criollo Rebirth: Conceptualizing Changing Notions of National Identity in Argentina …………………………………………………………….69 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………79 Chapter 2: Quién Somos? (Who are We?): 1914–1930 ……………………………81 La Italianización de la Argentina: Football and Dual Identity in Argentina ………….82 Rimpatriati: Italo-Argentines in Italian Football …………………………………………90 Race and the Representation of Blacks and Afro-Argentines in Argentine Football .97 Chacareros e Indios: Challenging the Outsider Status of the Interior ……………...104 3 International Projection and Transnational Exchanges in Argentine Football …….113 ‘Ants and Cicadas’: Argentine Football and the Uruguayan ‘Other’ …………….....122 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………..128 Chapter 3: Political Football: The Age of Decline? 1931–1958 ………………...130 The Introduction of Professionalism and la década infame …………………………131 Argentine Football’s ‘Golden Age’? ……………………………………………………137 A ‘New Argentina’: Peronism and Football ……………………………………………144 The Players’ Strike of 1948–49 ………………………………………………………...150 International Isolation ……………………………………………………………………158 The ‘Disaster of Sweden’ ……………………………………………………………….165 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………..171 Chapter 4: The Age of Revolution 1959–1978 …………………………………….173 Revolutions: The Battle for Argentina’s Footballing Identity ………………………...175 Vendepatrias: Migration and National Identity in Argentina …………………………191 Estudiantes de la Plata: Iconoclasts …………………………………………………...196 ‘Fomenting National Integration’: Football and the Incorporation of the Interior into the Argentine Mainstream ……………………………………………………………………203 ‘25 Million Argentines will Play for the World Cup’: Mundial ’78 and Argentine Identity ……………………………………………………………………………………………...208 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………..225 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………229 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………….242 4 Abstract Focusing on the period between 1913 when the game was considered to have become ‘Argentinized’ from British influence and 1978 when Argentina hosted and won the World Cup, this thesis examines how men’s football became so ingrained within Argentine society that it became a key cultural signifier of national identity in the country. Acting as an agent for integration in a country transformed by massive European migration at the turn of the twentieth century, football became a mirror for economic, political and social developments in Argentina throughout the century and represented competing discourses surrounding national identity. Drawing on newspaper and magazine sources, and archival documents from football clubs and institutions, as well as governmental records, this thesis examines how football was used to contextualize discourses surrounding national identity. By juxtaposing these discourses against a historic investigation of socio-economic, cultural and political events in Argentine society more broadly, it challenges hegemonic ideas surrounding the use of football in this way particularly in respect of the so-called ‘criollo rebirth’ of the sport in 1913. Explorations of national identity through football in Argentina have hitherto been heavily influenced by nationalist, revisionist notions in terms of incorporating immigrants into a new Argentine ‘race’ that was white and Europeanized. Within this historiography, there is no room for any positive role for the British pioneers of the sport in Argentina who are perceived as neo-colonial, nor any recognition of dual identity within immigrant communities. Meanwhile, Argentina’s pre-existing Afro-Argentine and indigenous communities are conspicuous by their absence from discourses about national identity, as is the interior of the country when talking of Argentina as a whole. By challenging existing interpretations and filling gaps in the literature, this thesis adds to the existing knowledge by showing how football was an important cultural element for immigrants of all backgrounds to come together with the existing Argentine population without losing sight of their original national identities. It also shows how football provided a route for previously under-represented sectors of society to impact upon the national discourse, especially blacks, mestizos and the young. Football was therefore a reliable guide to understanding wider processes of political, cultural and socio-economic transformation affecting all Argentines. 5 List of Illustrations and Tables Illustrations Page Figure 1.1: Advertisement for Ferro Carril del Sud highlighting Routes ………………..50 Figure 2.1: Cover of Il Calcio highlighting Genoa’s 1923 tour to Argentina ……………89 Figure 2.2: Three Generations of the Da Graca family at Los Andes ...………………102 Figure 2.3: Ernesto Picot on the cover of El Gráfico ……………………………………103 Figure 2.4: 1928 Campeonato Finalists: Santiago del Estero and Paraná …………..110 Figure 4.1: ‘The Dollars Against Argentina’ …………………………………………......193 Tables Table 1.1: Net Immigration to Argentina 1857-1914 by Nationality …………………….57 Table 2.1: Percentage of Italo-Argentine Players in Argentine National Team by Year ………………………………………………………………………………………………….87 Table 2.2: Italo-Argentines in the Italian National Team 1914-1935 ……………………92 Table 2.3: Foreign Touring Teams to Argentina 1920–1929 …………………………..115 Table 3.1 Number of Players Earning the Maximum Wage in Argentina in 1948 by Club …………………………………………………………………………………………..157 Table 4.1: National Team Debutants 1959–1978 ……………………………………….207 6 List of Abbreviations Abbreviation: Full Title: AAAF Asociación Amateur Argentino de Football AAFAP Asociación Argentina de Football (Amateur y Profesionales) AAFL Argentine Association Football League AAF Asociación Argentino de Football AAmF Asociación Amateur de Football AFA Asociación del Football Argentino (1934–1946) AFA Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (1946–present) BAEHS Buenos Aires English High School EAM Ente Autárquico Mundial ’78 ERP Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo FAA Futbolistas Argentinos Agremiados FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association GAA Gaelic Athletic Association GOU Grupo de Oficiales Unidos PFA Professional Footballers’ Association UCR Unión Cívica Radical 7 Acknowledgements There are numerous people who I would like to thank for bringing this project to a successful conclusion. Primarily, I would like to thank my PhD supervisor Matt Taylor for his patience, forbearance when things got tough and constructive feedback, and whose guidance led this thesis to fruition. Grateful thanks are also due to my second supervisor, Martin Polley, whose detailed feedback on the numerous drafts kept the focus of the thesis strictly on track, as well as for maintaining confidence when I doubted myself. I would also like to thank scholars, both in the UK and Argentina such as Pierre Lanfranchi, Julio Frydenberg, Rodrigo Bunster and Rodrigo Daskal for giving me the benefit of their thoughts on the direction my research was taking and for making suggestions about areas to investigate. I am thankful to all the staff who have assisted me at libraries and archives on both sides of the Atlantic. In particular, I am grateful too for the hours of assistance and interest in the project on the part of Rodrigo Spiess at the TEA archive in Buenos Aires, and to Carolina Rossi Romero at Museo River Plate and Bernardo Bertelloni at Vélez Sarsfield for enabling me to