Continuity and Change: National Identity in Twenty-First-Century Argentine Culture
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Continuity and Change: National Identity in Twenty-First-Century Argentine Culture By Steven Benjamin Wenz Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Spanish and Portuguese August, 2016 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Earl E. Fitz, Ph. D. Edward H. Friedman, Ph. D. Ruth Hill, Ph. D. Jane Landers, Ph. D. To my grandmothers, Beatrice and Dorothy, for their encouragement and love ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The most rewarding aspect of completing a dissertation is the opportunity to express my gratitude to all those who made this project possible and who supported me along the way. My parents, Dale and Sandra, and my grandmothers, Beatrice and Dorothy, guided me from the very beginning. I am also profoundly grateful to my professors at Case Western Reserve University, whose generosity and dedication led me to pursue a graduate degree. I owe special thanks to Florin Berindeanu, Gabriela Copertari, Linda Ehrlich, Christopher Flint, Jorge Marturano, and Heather Meakin. At Vanderbilt, the entire faculty of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese helped me to grow as a scholar. I would like to thank in particular Christina Karageorgou, who recruited me to the doctoral program, and Cathy Jrade, whose courses helped me to refine my ideas into what would become this dissertation. My greatest debt is to the members of my committee, not only for their time and expertise, but also for having taken such a personal interest in my endeavors. “Coach” Earl Fitz is a world-class mentor and a dear friend, without whose guidance this project would have stalled at numerous points. I also wish to thank Julianne Fitz for her valuable advice on writing a dissertation and on the academic world in general. I am equally fortunate to have worked with Edward Friedman, whom, without any doubt, literary theorists ought to have in mind whenever they speak of the “ideal reader.” Ruth Hill inspired me to approach my topic from new perspectives, and I thank her also for her generous feedback at various stages of the process. Jane Landers helped me to remove my most egregious historiographical errors and was a constant iii source of wisdom and kindness. Any remaining errors in the pages that follow are, of course, mine alone. This dissertation would likewise have been impossible without the administrative and financial support that I received from Vanderbilt University. A Summer Research Award from the College of Arts and Science allowed me to travel to Argentina and conduct the fieldwork that would lead to Chapter 5. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities named me the Joe and Mary Harper Dissertation Fellow in my final year, providing me with the opportunity to learn from scholars in a variety of disciplines. I am grateful to Mona Frederick, Joy Ramirez, and Terry Tripp for all of their support during my time as a fellow. The Vanderbilt Center for Second Language Studies also played a crucial role in my academic development, and I would like to thank Todd Hughes, Virginia Scott, and Felekech Tigabu for their friendship over the years. I also wish to thank the staff of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library, the backbone of scholarship at our University, in particular Clifford Anderson and Paula Covington. In Argentina, Susana Otero welcomed me into her home and encouraged my interest in national literature and history. The Calpanchay and Salva families shared their love of the Northwest, its people, and its culture. I am particularly indebted to Azucena Salva and Leopoldo Salva, without whom Chapter 5 would not exist. I also owe thanks to the staff of the Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno in Buenos Aires, where several pages of this project took shape. Finally, I wish to express my profound gratitude to Sonia Vanesa Calpanchay, my favorite Argentine historian, for her patience and love. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii Introduction: Change and Continuity ...............................................................................................1 Chapter I. National Identity in Argentina: A Historical Overview ...........................................................18 II. The “Long Argentine Crisis”: Continuity with the Past in Two Recent Novels ......................74 The “Long Argentine Crisis”: 1976 as a Key to the Present .....................................................76 No Antidote for the Crisis: Veneno and the Impossibility of Redemption ................................81 El Espíritu: From Oblivion to Four Decades of Resistance ......................................................99 Final Comparisons ...................................................................................................................117 III. The Nation Takes the Field: Soccer and Argentine National Identity ...................................125 Soccer and National Identity ....................................................................................................127 Soccer and Argentine National Identity ...................................................................................135 “Argentinos”: A Middle-Class Perspective on Soccer and the Nation ....................................147 La pareja del Mundial: Middle-Class Idealism and Nostalgia ................................................163 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................177 IV. Africa, Latin America, and Beyond: Argentine National Identity in Two Works by Washington Cucurto ....................................................................................................................179 “Negros” in Argentina: Past and Present .................................................................................180 Washington Cucurto: Self-Projection and Critical Reception .................................................190 1810: The Reinvention of National Identity ............................................................................195 The National Community Expands: Hasta quitarle Panamá a los yankis ..............................227 V. The Ambiguous Place of Indigenous Peoples in Argentine National Identity: the Case of Salta Province ..........................................................................................................................242 The Northwest, the Indigenous in Argentine National Identity, and the Place of Salta ..........245 National and Provincial Government Tourism Publications: Continuity and Change in the Portrayal of the Indigenous ................................................................................................261 Portrayals of Salta Province in a Government-Sponsored Literary Anthology .......................277 Conclusions ..............................................................................................................................299 v Conclusion: Re-founding the Nation ...........................................................................................301 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................308 vi INTRODUCTION: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY This dissertation studies the representation of national identity in twenty-first- century Argentine culture. I examine how and to what extent the 2001 economic and political crisis, often understood as a turning point in the country’s history, has affected discussions of Argentina’s role in the world and of what it means to be Argentine. Through a study of texts produced during the period from 2003 to 2014, I argue that both change and continuity have characterized the representation of national identity over the last decade. New interpretations of the country’s identity, which flourished in the climate of self-reflection that followed the crisis, exist alongside conceptions of the nation that have their roots in the nineteenth century. My analysis centers on socioeconomic and “racial” identification. I contend that, although the 2001 collapse undermined the notion of Argentina as “Europe in South America,” highlighting the country’s structural and cultural connections with the rest of the subcontinent, the long-standing notion of a stable, middle-class Argentina retains its symbolic power. In similar fashion, I find that, although the events of 2001 opened up a space for historically marginalized groups, such as Afro-Argentines and indigenous peoples, to demand increased visibility in the national imagined community, the Eurocentric view of Argentina remains prevalent. I reach these conclusions by examining multiple forms of media and different spheres of society: novels and short stories by the contemporary authors Ariel Bermani, Patricio Pron, and Washington Cucurto; television commercials and promotional videos for the Argentine national soccer team; and tourist industry materials and a literary anthology from the Northwest region of Argentina, strongly associated with indigenous heritage. 1 It may seem misguided or anachronistic, in 2016, to dedicate a study to the question of national identity, particularly when that study attempts to justify, rather than to deconstruct,