Synopses & Reviews
Excessively European, refreshingly European, not as European as it looks, struggling to overcome a delusion that it is European. Argentinain all its complexityhas often been obscured by variations of the "like Europe and not like the rest of Latin America" cliché. The Argentina Reader deliberately breaks from that viewpoint. This essential introduction to Argentina's history, culture, and society provides a richer, more comprehensive look at one of the most paradoxical of Latin American nations: a nation that used to be among the richest in the world, with the largest middle class in Latin America, yet one that entered the twenty-first century with its economy in shambles and its citizenry seething with frustration.
This diverse collection brings together songs, articles, comic strips, scholarly essays, poems, and short stories. Most pieces are by Argentines. More than forty of the texts have never before appeared in English. The Argentina Reader contains photographs from Argentina's National Archives and images of artwork by some of the country's most talented painters and sculptors. Many selections deal with the history of indigenous Argentines, workers, women, blacks, and other groups often ignored in descriptions of the country. At the same time, the book includes excerpts by or about such major political figures as José San Martin and Juan Perón. Pieces from literary and social figures virtually unknown in the United States appear alongside those by more well-known writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Ricardo Piglia, and Julio Cortázar
The Argentina Reader covers the Spanish colonial regime; the years of nation-building following Argentina's independence from Spain in 1810; and the sweeping progress of economic growth and cultural change that made Argentina, by the turn of the twentieth century, the most modern country in Latin America. The bulk of the collection focuses on the twentieth century: on the popular movements that enabled Peronism and the revolutionary dreams of the 1960s and 1970s; on the dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 and the accompanying culture of terror and resistance; and, finally, on the contradictory and disconcerting tendencies unleashed by the principles of neoliberalism and the new global economy. The book also includes a list of suggestions for further reading
The Argentina Reader is an invaluable resource for those interested in learning about Argentine history and culture, whether in the classroom or in preparation for travel in Argentina
Review
"Impossible to find a better introduction to the labyrinth, enigma and delight that is Argentina, from the first sightings to the latest curses. Splendid and indispensable!" Ariel Dorfman
Review
"From Eurocentric cosmopolitan Buenos Aires to gauchos on the last frontier, these readings have a powerful collective impact. The volume complements the recent Culture and Customs of Argentina to provide a comprehensive view of this complex nation of some 37 million people. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries." Boyd Childress, Library Journal
Synopsis
An interdisciplinary anthology that includes many primary materials never before published in English.
About the Author
Gabriela Nouzeilles is Assistant Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University
Graciela Montaldo is Professor of Languages and Literatures at the Universidad Simón Bolívar
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- General Introduction
- I. At the Margins of the Empire
- The Deeds of Elal / Anonymous
- Going Wild / Ulderico Schmidt
- Monsters in Patagonia / Antonio Pigafetta
- Women Captives / Ruy Diaz de Guzman
- The Jesuit Mission / Father Strobel
- A Gaucho Sings the Victories of the Empire / Juan Baltasar Maciel
- The First British Invasion / Mariquita Sanchez de Thompson
- II. To Build a Nation
- The Revolution / Tulio Halperin Donghi
- The Landowners' Petition / Mariano Moreno
- The Good Citizen / Jose de San Martin
- Women in the Fatherland / Juana Manuela Gorriti
- The Caudillo's Order / Juan Manuel de Rosas
- Civilization or Barbarism? / Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
- Rosas and Washington / Pedro de Angelis
- The Black Girl / Anonymous
- Immigration as a Means of Progress / Juan Bautista Alberdi
- III. Frontiers
- The Slaughterhouse / Esteban Echeverria
- Wars of Extermination / Charles Darwin
- The Triple Alliance / Captain Francisco Seeber
- One Hundred Leagues of Trench / Alfred Ebelot
- Gauchos in and out of the State / Jose Hernandez
- An Expedition to the Ranquel Indians / Lucio V. Mansilla
- Letter to the President / Chief Manuel Namuncura
- IV. Splendor and the Fin de Siecle
- The Foundation of the National State / David Vinas
- The Paris of South America / James Scobie
- The Modern Crowd / Jose Maria Ramos Mejia
- Making It in America / Oreste Sola
- The Jewish Gauchos / Alberto Gerchunoff
- The Birth of Tango / Simon Collier
- Bourgeois Snakes / Jose Ingenieros
- Argentina as Latin American Avant-Garde / Ruben Dario
- National Identity in a Cosmopolitan Society / Leopoldo Lugones
- V. Modern Times
- Simon Radowitzky / Osvaldo Bayer
- The Union Civica Radical / David Rock
- Poems to be Read on a Trolley Car / Oliviero Girondo
- Modern Women / Alfonsina Storni
- X-Ray of the Pampa / Ezequiel Martinez Estrada
- Soccer and Popular Joy / Roberto Arlt
- Cambalache/ Enrique Santos Discepolo
- VI. Populism and New Nationalism
- Peron and the People / Daniel James
- Saint Evita / Tomas Eloy Martinez
- Ramona's Revenge / Lino Palacio
- Funes, the Memorious / Jorge Luis Borges
- Victorian Fathers / Victoria Ocampo
- The Foreign Gaze / Witold Gombrowicz
- Village on the River / Juan L. Ortiz
- House Taken Over / Julio Cortazar
- Operation Massacre / Rodolfo Walsh
- VII. Revolutionary Dreams
- The Latin American Revolution according to "Che" / Ernesto "Che" Guevara
- Are We All Neurotic? / Anonymous
- Tucuman Is Burning / Maria Teresa Gramuglio and Nicolas Rosa
- The Cordobazo / Agustin Tosco
- The Words of Silence / Alejandra Pizarnik
- The Muleteer / Atahualpa Yupanqui
- Montoneros: Soldiers of Peron / Richard Gillespie
- Antirevolutionary Peronism / Juan Domingo Peron
- VIII. State Violence
- Modernization and Military Coups / Guillermo O'Donnell
- Artificial Respiration / Ricardo Piglia
- The Madwoman at the Plaza de Mayo / Hebe de Bonafina and Matilde Sanchez
- Never Again / National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons
- Still Harboring / Juan Gelman
- In a State of Memory / Tunana Mercado
- Corpses / Nestor Perlongher
- War in the South Atlantic / Graciela Speranza and Fernando Cittadini
- IX. Democracy and Neoliberalism
- Teaching the Republic / Raul Alfonsin
- Living with Inflation / Osvaldo Soriano
- Menem: A New Style in Politics / Vicente Palermo and Marcos Novaro
- The Journalist as the People's Detective / Horacio Gonzalez
- Roadblocks, Detours, and Crossroads / Rodolfo Rabanal
- X. Argentina in the Age of Globalization: New Citizenships and the
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- Politics of Memory
- We Are All Cursed / Javier Auyero
- Soccer and Masculinity / Eduardo Archetti
- Amerindian Rights / State Law of Indigenous Rights
- Feminist Awakenings / Marcela Nari
- The Children of Death / Maria Moreno and Marta Dillon
- Active Memory / Laura Ginsberg
- Infinity / Cesar Aira
- Postmodern Forgetfulness / Beatriz Sarlo
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Acknowledgment of Copyrights
- Index