Book Review

Caribbean and Latin America

The regions of Argentina have attracted few historians. Their literature consists of a few landmark studies and works lacking context and interconnections that have been largely ignored. Scholars have preferred to work in glamorous and comfortable Buenos Aires, where the archives are accessible and better maintained. Regional histories are much stronger in Mexico and in other Latin American nations, partly because of their greater ethnographic and cultural variety, than in Argentina. Largely populated by Europeans, the Argentine pampas developed forms of capitalist agriculture that commanded only limited interest among Latin American specialists. Scholars viewed the Argentine interior north and west of Córdoba as a backwater, whose predominantly mestizo societies could be studied more interestingly and profitably in other parts of Latin America.	1
Neglect of the regions left Argentine historiography unbalanced and impoverished. The focus on Buenos Aires encouraged a view of Argentina as a nation of European immigrants and neglected the role of the Hispanic population. Particularly before 1900, provincial, creole Argentina exerted decisive influence on Buenos Aires and on national development, while provincial societies exemplified many of the country's basic qualities. A recent study by Ariel de la Fuente, for example, on the western province of La Rioja in the mid-nineteenth century provides an illuminating reinterpretation of the ubiquitous phenomenon of caudillismo. John Lynch's recent study of the 1872 "Tata Dios" uprising in Tandil, province of Buenos Aires, describes an outburst of xenophobia linked to creole folk religion and millenarianism. The political history of nineteenth-century Argentina is unintelligible without reference to the regions and the outer provinces. In the early nineteenth century, the provinces impaired the authority of Buenos Aires and long obstructed the formation of a national union. In the twentieth century, the influence of the provinces resurfaced at critical junctures. In the late 1920s, the province of Mendoza helped set the stage for the military coup of September 1930. In the mid-1950s, agitation in Córdoba paved the way for the overthrow of Juan Perón. In 1969–1972, provincial revolts became a first stage toward the formation of the military tyranny of 1976–1982. Most recently, the need to subsidize the impoverished interior contributed to the financial and political collapse of 2001.	2
As the main editor of this volume, James P. Brennan reiterates the case for histories of Argentina from a regional perspective. The collection provides some good examples of Argentine regional history while illustrating some of its current problems. The best of seven articles is by Joan Supplee on the politics of Mendoza province, 1890–1912. The high quality of the article stems from the author's ability to relate provincial and national affairs, and to recognize the critical importance of patronage. In examining Mendoza politics, Supplee emphasizes the importance of water, irrigation investment, and railroad routing as instruments of control. She illustrates the way family rivalries affected provincial public expenditure. With economic growth and social change, however, "By 1912, control of water, guns and money no longer guaranteed electoral success" (p. 66).	. . .