Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:51:30.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Farm Workers and the Myth of Export-Led Development in Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Carl Solberg
Carl Solberg*
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The highly visible change which took place in Argentina during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries fascinated contemporary observers of the republic. The millions of immigrants, the formation of a large urban middle class, and the growth of the great metropolis of Buenos Aires all seemed to indicate that Argentina rapidly was emerging as a modern, developed nation. Equally impressive to foreign observers was Argentina's apparently booming economy, which was based on a flourishing export trade. With only brief interruptions, exports, nearly entirely composed of agricultural and cattle products, had risen from 22 million gold pesos in 1862 to 519 million in 1913. To produce the exports, total area under cultivation rose from 580,000 hectares in 1872 to 24.1 million in 1913.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , October 1974 , pp. 121 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ernesto Tornquist & Cía., Limitada, El desarrollo económico de la República Argentina en los últimos cincuenta años (Buenos Aires: Ernesto Tornquist & Cía., Limitada, 1920), pp. 20, 134. The value of the paper peso during periods of convertibility was 44 per cent of the gold peso or about U.S. $.42.

2 See, for example, Díaz Alejandro, Carlos F., Essays on the Economic History of the Argentine Republic (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970), pp. 1–66.Google Scholar

3 In his memoirs, essayist Carulla, Juan E. discusses the contribution these and other literary figures made to the formation of the myth. Al filo del medio siglo (Paraná: Editorial Llanura, 1951), p. 93.Google Scholar

4 Winsberg, Morton D., Modern Cattle Breeds in Argentina: Origins, Diffusion and Change (Lawrence: The University of Kansas, Center of Latin American Studies, 1968), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

5 For analysis of the economic and social situation of the gaucho population prior to displacement, see Germani, Gino, Política y sociedad en una época de transición: De la sociedad tradicional a la sociedad de masas (Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidos, 1965), pp. 200–201;Google Scholar and Álvarez, Juan, Ensayo sobre la historia de Santa Fe (Buenos Aires: Establecimiento Tipográfico E. Malena, 1910), p. 355.Google Scholar

6 Hernández, José, Instrucción del estanciero (1881), (Buenos Aires: Peña, del Giudice, Editores, 1953), p. 398.Google Scholar For analysis of the eviction of the gaucho population, see Martínez Estrada, Ezequiel, Muerte y transfiguración de Martín Fierro (1948), Second edition, 2 Vols. (México and Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1958), II, p. 322;Google Scholar and Schneider, Samuel, Proyección histórica del gaucho (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Procyon, 1962), p. 95.Google Scholar

7 For analysis of the 1876 and 1884 land legislation, on paper and in practice, see Scobie, James R., Revolution on the Pampas: A Social History of Argentine Wheat, 1860-1910 (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1964), pp. 116–117.Google Scholar The quote is on p. 116. Also see the standard work on Argentine land policy, Ángel Cárcano, Miguel, Evolución histórica del régimen de la tierra pública, 1810–1916, Second edition (Buenos Aires: Librería “La Facultad,” Juan Roldán y Ca., 1925), pp. 201, 204, 238.Google Scholar

8 Scobie, , Revolution on the Pampas, pp. 117–118;Google Scholar Margulis, Mario, Migración y marginalidad en la sociedad argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidos, 1968), pp. 41–42.Google Scholar

9 La Prensa, August 15, 1904, p. 3; Tello, Eugenio, Resúmen histórico, geográfico estadístico y demográfico de Chubut (Buenos Aires, privately published, 1896), p. 79;Google Scholar Basaldua, F. de, Pasado-presente-porvenir del territorio nacional de Misiones (La Plata, privately published, 1901), p. 204.Google Scholar

10 For the terms and operation of the Buenos Aires province Ejido Law of November 3, 1870, see Allende, Andrés R., “La Provincia de Buenos Aires de 1862 a 1930,” in Argentine Republic, Academia Nacional de la Historia, Historia argentina contemporánea, 1862–1930, 4 Vols. (Buenos Aires: Librería “El Ateneo” Editorial, 1965–1967), IV, p. 21.Google Scholar

11 Cárcano, , Evolución histórica del régimen de la tierra pública, pp. 325–326;Google Scholar Oddone, Jacinto, La burguesía terrateniente argentina, Third edition (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Populares Argentinas, 1956), p. 119.Google Scholar

12 In the present essay, the pampa provinces, often also termed the “littoral” provinces, include Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba, and Corrientes. Not all portions of the latter two provinces, however, fall geographically or economically within the pampa region. For discrimination against Argentines in early colonization contracts, see Gori, Gastón, El indio, el criollo, el gringo en las colonias del oeste santafesino (Santa Fe: Librería Colmegna, 1947), pp. 8–10;Google Scholar and Ledesma, H. Garcia, Lisandro de la Torre y la pampa gringa (Buenos Aires: Editorial Indoamerica, 1954), p. 15.Google Scholar For the Córdoba legislation, which also exempted immigrant colonists from provincial taxes for five years, see the perceptive analysis of colonization policy prepared by federal government inspector Wilcken, Guillermo in Argentine Republic, Comisión Central de Inmigración, Las colonias. Informe sobre el estado actual de las colonias agrícolas de la República Argentina presentado a la Comisión Central de Inmigración por el Inspector de ellas Guillermo Wilcken, 1872 (Buenos Aires: Imp., lit. y fundición de tipos a vapor de la Sociedad Anónima, 1873), pp. 242–243.Google Scholar

13 Carulla, , Al filo del medio siglo, p. 18;Google Scholar Hernández, , Instrucción del estanciero, pp. 399–401;Google Scholar Álvarez, , Ensayo sobre la historia de Santa Fe, pp. 362–363.Google Scholar

14 Córdoba historian Efraín U. Bischoff discusses police expulsion of Argentine occupants to make way for Italian settlers of Colonia Caroya in 1871. See … Y ellos forjaron un pueblo (Historia de Colonia Caroya), (Córdoba: Comisión Ejecutiva del 90° Aniversario de Colonia Caroya, 1968), pp. 65, 72–73. Santa Fe Governor Simón de Irondo (18711874) led a short-lived attempt to establish colonies of native-born Argentines. See Gianello, Leoncio, “Santa Fe (1862–1930),” in Argentine Republic, Academia Nacional de la Historia, Historia argentina contemporánea, 4, p. 151.Google Scholar

15 González, Joaquín V., Obras completas, 25 Vols. (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Mercatali, 1935–1937), 11, p. 395;Google Scholar Ayarragaray, Lucas, La anarquía argentina y el caudillismo (1904), Second edition (Buenos Aires: J. Lajouane & Cía., 1925), p. 244.Google Scholar

16 Germani, , Política y sociedad en una época de transición, pp. 180–181.Google Scholar

17 Lacking experience in carrying out colonization projects, the Córdoba legislature had donated land for the colony to the federal government. Bischoff, … Y ellos forjaron un pueblo, p. 77.

18 Scobie, , Revolution on the Pampas, p. 123.Google Scholar The author does not specify whether these were paper or gold pesos.

19 Argentine Republic, Comisión Central de Inmigracion, Las colonias, pp. 277, 280, 313, and passim. For careful evaluation of the scope and quality of Wilcken’s work, see , Gori, Gastón, Ha pasado la nostalgia (Santa Fe: Librería y Editorial Colmegna, 1950), pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

20 Gibson, Herbert, The Land We Live On (Buenos Aires: R. Grant & Co., Printers, 1914), p. 16.Google Scholar Also see Jefferson, Mark, Peopling the Argentine Pampa (New York: American Geographic Society, 1926), pp. 57–58.Google Scholar

21 Quoted in Gori, Gastón, Vagos y mal entretenidos: Aporte al tema hernandino, Second edition (Santa Fe: Librería y Editorial Colmegna, 1965), p. 46.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., p. 57.

23 Chávez, Fermín, José Hernández: Periodista, político y poeta (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Culturales Argentinos, 1959), pp. 107–109;Google Scholar Gori, , Vagos y mal entretenidos, pp. 46, 70;Google Scholar Estrada, Martínez, Muerte y transfiguración de Martin Fierro, 2, pp. 107–108.Google Scholar

24 Gori, , Vagos y mal entretenidos, pp. 46,70 and passim.Google Scholar

25 Letter of Sarmiento to Domingo de Oro, June 17, 1887, quoted in Chávez, , José Hernandez, p. 16 Google Scholar. Also see Gálvez, Manuel, José Hernández, Second edition (Buenos Aires: Editorial Huemul, S.A., 1945), p. 21.Google Scholar

26 The terms negro and indio were scornful when used by Europeans to denote persons of mixed Spanish-Indian ancestry. See Gschwind, Juan Jorge, Historia de San Carlos (Rosario: Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 1958), p. 274;Google Scholar and Ledesma, García, Lisandro de la Torre y la pampa gringa, p. 35.Google Scholar

27 Beloqui, R. Gorraiz , Tandil a través de un siglo (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos de J. Héctor Matero, 1958), p. 75.Google Scholar As late as 1914 the 37.3 per cent of the population which was foreign born composed 53.6 per cent of the owners of real estate. Ibid., p. 122. For an account of Danish immigration to the area, see the memoirs of Juan Fugl, who, although he never became a citizen, was a prosperous farmer and powerful local political figure. Abriendo surcos: Memorias de Juan Fugl, 1811-1900, trans. Lars Baekhój (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Altamira, 1959), pp. 32,100,117,120.

28 The massacre is described in Beloqui, Gorraiz, Tandil a través de un siglo, pp. 94–104;Google Scholar and in Fugl, , Abriendo surcos, pp. 141–143.Google Scholar Conflict between Argentines and immigrants in Santa Fe province is discussed in Gallo, Ezequiel, “Conflictos socio-políticos en las colonias agrícolas de Santa Fe (1870-1880),” (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Telia, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, 1973), pp. 17–28.Google Scholar

29 M.G. and Mulhall, E.T., Handbook of the River Plate Comprising the Argentine Republic, Uruguay and Paraguay, Sixth edition (Buenos Aires: M.G. and E.T. Mulhall, Standard Court; and London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1892), p. 320;Google Scholar Beloqui, Gorraiz, Tandil a través de un siglo, p. 93.Google Scholar

30 The provincial statistics, among other things, counted as literate over 12,000 students who allegedly were educated “at home.” Bianco, José, Los problemas del analfabetismo (Buenos Aires: G. Mendesky e hijo, Editores, 1909), pp. 43–46, 50, 169-170.Google Scholar The quote is on p. 165.

31 Mulhall, , Handbook of the River Plate Comprising the Argentine Republic, Uruguay and Paraguay, pp. 377, 390.Google Scholar

32 Cárcano, Ramón J., 800.000 analfabetos. Aldeas escolares (Buenos Aires: Roldán-Editor, 1933), pp. 9–13.Google Scholar The quoted passage is on p. 9.

33 Argentine Republic, Presidencia de la Nación, Ministerio de Asuntos Técnicos, IV Censo general de la nación, 2 Vols. (Buenos Aires; Dirección Nacional del Servicio Estadístico, 1947), I, p. 22; Taylor, Carl C., Rural Life in Argentina (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948), p. 318.Google Scholar In October, 1973, Minister of Education Taiana announced that 8.6 per cent of the Argentine population remained illiterate and 42 per cent semi-literate. La Razón (Buenos Aires), October 30, 1973, p. 7.

34 Weinberg, Daniel, “La enseñanza técnica industrial en la Argentina, 1936–1965,” (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Telia, Centro de Investigaciones Económicas, 1967), p. 9.Google Scholar For the comparison with Canada, see Bunge, Alejandro E., The Cost of Living in the Argentine Republic: Wages and Output (Buenos Aires, n.p. 1928), p. 23.Google Scholar

35 Levilier, H.M., “Las escuelas vocacionales en Norte América,” Boletín de la Unión Industrial Argentina, 32 (February 15, 1919), pp. 5–13.Google Scholar Also “Escuelas industriales,” Ibid., XXXI (December 15, 1917), pp. 1–3; and Bunge, >Alejandro E., Las industrias del norte (Buenos Aires: privately published, 1922), pp. 153–158.Google Scholar

36 Argentine Republic, Cámara de Diputados, Diario de sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (July 6, 1922), p. 421.

37 Massé, Juan Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, Second edition (Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 1968), p. 290.Google Scholar The title of the first edition, published in 1904, was Informe sobre el estado de las clases obreras en el interior de la república. On immigrant predominance in urban occupations, consult Scobie, James R., “Buenos Aires as a Commercial-Bureaucratic City, 1880–1910: Characteristics of a City's Orientation,” The American Historical Review, 77 (October, 1972), pp. 1058–1059.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Germani, Gino, “La movilidad social en la Argentina,” in Lipset, Seymour Martin and Bendix, Reinhard (eds.), Movilidad social en la sociedad industrial (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1963), pp. 320–327;Google Scholar Solberg, Carl, Immigration and Nationalism: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914 (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1970), p. 61.Google Scholar

39 For the nationality of farmers in the pampas region, see Bagú, Sergio, Evolución histórica de la estratificación social en la Argentina (Caracas: Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1969), pp. 125–126.Google Scholar

40 Jefferson, an accurate observer, believed the actual number of golondrinas was much less than 30,000, a frequent estimate. “A good deal of the talk about them is fantastic and without foundations,” he added. Jefferson, , Peopling the Argentine Pampa, p. 183.Google Scholar

41 Massé, Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, p. 93.Google Scholar

42 Raña, Eduardo S., Investigación agrícola en la República Argentina. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Informe presentado por Eduardo S. Raña (Buenos Aires: Imprenta de M. Biedma É Hijo, 1904), p. 108;Google Scholar Gori, Gastón, El pan nuestro: Panorama social de las regiones cerealistas argentinas (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Galatea—Nueva Visión, 1958), p. 100;Google Scholar Pagés, Pedro T., Defensa de la producción agropecuaria (La Plata: Universidad Nacional de la Plata, 1928), p. 50.Google Scholar

43 Germani, Gino, Estructura social de la Argentina: Analisis estadístico (Buenos Aires: Editorial Raigal, 1955), p. 166.Google Scholar Also see Taylor, , Rural Life in Argentina, p. 329.Google Scholar The 1937 rural census, according to Ballesteros, Marto A., “Argentine Agriculture 1908-1954: A Study in Growth and Decline,” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1958), p. 82,Google Scholar understated the number of temporary workers because it was taken in midwinter when few of them were employed.

44 Alejandro, Díaz, Essays on the Economic History of the Argentine Republic, p. 57.Google Scholar

45 Argentine Republic, Ministerio del Interior, La desocupación de los obreros en la República Argentina (Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, 1915), pp. 44–48.

46 Miatello, Hugo, La chacra santafecina en 1905 (Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco, 1905), p. 67;Google Scholar Massé, Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, p. 112.Google Scholar Bialet Massé was Professor of Legislación Industrial y Agrícola at the University of Córdoba. Commissioned by Minister of the Interior Joaquín V. González to prepare this report on mass living and working conditions, he travelled much of the interior and pampa provinces in painstaking research and observation. The work remains a key source for the social history of the period.

47 Gori, , El pan nuestro, pp. 97–100.Google Scholar

48 Williams, John H., Argentine International Trade Under Inconvertible Paper Money, 1880–1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920), p. 197 Google Scholar. Also see Ferrer, Aldo, La economía argentina: Las etapas de su desarrollo y problemas actuales, Second edition (México and Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1965), pp. 136–137.Google Scholar

49 Tardati, José Rodríguez, “Los trabajadores del campo,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas, 26 (June, 1926), p. 386;Google Scholar La Vanguardia, December 31,1919, p. 5. For further analysis of rural wages, see Mardoña, W.B. (h.), La miseria en el campo (Buenos Aires, n.p., 1925), pp. 41–45;Google Scholar and Estabrook, Leon M., Agricultural Survey of South America: Argentina and Paraguay (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1926), p. 67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 United States, Department of State, Argentine Decimal File 835.5017/7, Messersmith to Secretary of State (February 23, 1929); 835.52/43, Messersmith to Secretary of State (February 23, 1929).

51 For arguments of landowners opposed to minimum wages for rural workers, see Pueyrredón, Carlos A., “El salario mínimo para los trabajadores rurales,” Boletín de Servicios de la Asociación de Trabajo, 10 (January 20, 1929), p. 26.Google Scholar

52 Weil, Felix J., Argentine Riddle (New York: The John Day Company, 1944), p. 82.Google Scholar For activities of F.O.RA. in rural areas, see its newspaper La Protesta, November 19,1919, p. 3; and December 18,1919, p. 2. Also see La Prensa, December 22,1918, p. 8,

53 An interesting discussion of the work of the “rural brigades” is found in “Colaboración eficaz de la Bolsa de Cereales en la Obra Pacificadora de la Liga Patriótica Argentina,” in Buenos Aires (City), de Cereales, Bolsa, Memoria e informe de la Comisión Directiva presentada en la Asamblea del 28 de abril de 1921. Ejercicio 1920-1921 (Buenos Aires: Imp. y Lit. C. Girard, 1921), pp. 112–113.Google Scholar Also see La Protesta, December 28, 1919, p. 3; and February 1, 1920, pp. 1-2. For an overview of rural strikes in this period, see Solberg, Carl, “Rural Unrest and Agrarian Policy in Argentina, 1912–1930,” Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, 13 (January, 1971), pp. 18–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Reyes, Cipriano, Yo hice el 17 de octubre (Buenos Aires: GS Editorial, 1973), pp. 57–58, 91–92.Google Scholar For a thorough analysis of corruption in urban areas, see Rock, David, “Machine Politics in Buenos Aires and the Argentine Radical Party, 1912-1930,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 4 (November, 1972), pp. 233–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 Massé, Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, p. 108.Google Scholar The contract is reprinted in the valuable collection of documents edited by Spalding, Hobart, La clase trabajadora argentina (Documentos para su historia—1890/1912), (Buenos Aires: Editorial Galerna, 1970), pp. 244–245.Google Scholar

56 Gori, , El pan nuestro, p. 97;Google Scholar Massé, Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, p. 481.Google Scholar

57 Mulhall, , Handbook of the River Plate Comprising the Argentine Republic, Uruguay and Paraguay, pp. 346, 353, 369, and passim.Google Scholar The 1895 census data is reported in Jefferson, , Peopling the Argentine Pampa, p. 27.Google Scholar Also see Germani, , Estructura social de la Argentina: Analisis estadístico, p. 166.Google Scholar

58 Maradoña, , La miseria en el campo, p. 47;Google Scholar Massé, Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, p. 424.Google Scholar

59 In the federal capital, the illegitimacy rate was 114 per 1000 live births. For statistics on illegitimacy rates by province, see Taylor, , Rural Life in Argentina, p. 334.Google Scholar Economist Bunge, Alejandro E., in his work Una nueva Argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Guillermo Kraft Ltda., 1944), pp. 167–170,Google Scholar admits that the illegitimacy rate was high and rising but argues that the statistics were inflated because in rural areas, many children were born in stable homes but, out of isolation and ignorance, were never legally recognized. Bunge overlooks the fact that migrant workers seldom constituted permanent homes.

60 Taylor, , Rural Life in Argentina, p. 336;Google Scholar Miatello, , La chacra santafecina en 1905, p. 67.Google Scholar

61 Drier, Katherine S., Five Months in the Argentine: From a Woman's Point of View (New York: Frederic Fairchild Sherman, 1920), pp. 18–21.Google Scholar

62 Massé, Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, p. 424.Google Scholar