El criollismo en las luchas por la definición del origen y el color del ethnos argentino, 1945-1955

Abstract

This paper analyses a peculiar use of the criollista discourse among peronists between 1945 and 1955. In his classic study of that discourse, Adolfo Prieto argued that its remarkable expansion in the late 19th century was the consequence of three concurring factors. The fading gaucho world appealed (firstly) to the criollo lower classes, as an expression of nostalgia for the past in the face of anxieties brought about as part of the experience of modernization; (secondly) for new immigrants, it was a way to feel part of the nation by identifying with a symbol of national authenticity; and (thirdly) for the elites, it was a way to claim precedence by excluding the rebellious newcomers from the nation. It is the contention of this paper that, contrary to Prieto’s assumption, the criollista discourse continued to play a key role in Argentinean culture after the 1920s and well into the 1950s. This endurance is explained by the fact that it served a fourth function: criollismo continued to be attractive, at least in part, because it was one of the channels through which popular culture managed to allude to the ethnic heterogeneity of the Argentinean people (its non-white and mestizo components in particular), who were longtime denied by the dominant discourses of the nation. Although the “official” peronist discourses did not openly challenge the idea of a white-European nation, criollismo was an arena in which it was subtly undermined.