Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Antagonismo, legitimidad y poder político en Córdoba, 1877–1880

2018; Duke University Press; Volume: 98; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-4377117

1527-1900

Carlos S. Dimas,

History and Politics in Latin America

The latter half of the nineteenth century witnessed on all levels of Argentine society significant strides toward a centralized state. Earlier studies of the era routinely assessed change by examining high-level political circles based in Buenos Aires. In the last decades, however, scholars in and outside Argentina have begun to examine the period from the perspective of the provinces, detailing their role in building the oligarchic conservative state under the Partido Autonomista Nacional (PAN). Laura Cucchi's work contributes to this approach, focused on decentering Argentine history, through a detailed political history of Córdoba during the 1870s. The study focuses on the work of Cordoban autonomists under Governor Antonio del Viso and his minister of government Miguel Juárez Celman in consolidating support in the province for the presidential candidacy of Julio A. Roca, who served as president from 1880 to 1886.Cucchi's work centers around three interrelated arguments. First, she asserts that the consolidation of political parties at the national level had to be completed through resolutions, coalitions, and direct conflict within the provinces. In Córdoba, the political spectrum was divided between nationalists and autonomists, with the latter split among former Federalists and students from the National University of Córdoba. Cucchi shows that the university was instrumental in bringing together elites from the provinces. There, political clubs and newspapers were formed to support candidates, gain political positions, mobilize voters, and contribute to the National Guard in neutralizing any resistance. The author argues that an important facet of these activities was a political culture that was more nationally minded, as opposed to the localism that dominated among previous generations. Upon gaining the governor's house, the autonomists set out to place loyalists in power at the national level. Cucchi's close reading of private correspondence, political pamphlets, and debates in the provincial legislature permits her to show that the power of Córdoba's autonomists was based on cultivating support among midlevel politicians within and outside the province and on striking deals with important political figures in the rural regions.A key player in Córdoba's political circles was Miguel Juárez Celman, who served as minister of government, governor, and eventually president. The historiography on Juárez Celman is not extensive. Barring some biographical works, analyses of him often focus on the collapse of his presidency. This has bred a body of work centered on the turmoil that he generated within the PAN, his personal fallout with Roca, and his general mismanagement of the national economy as a case study for examining the pitfalls of nineteenth-century liberalism. Few have assessed Juárez Celman's early political years in Córdoba. This leads to the second argument of Cucchi's work. Cucchi asserts, quite convincingly, that Juárez Celman was the keystone to the PAN's consolidation. Through his personal contacts, the future president coordinated with governors, political bosses, and elites throughout the interior to standardize the PAN's platform across provincial borders. In doing so, Juárez Celman established Córdoba as mediator between provincial and national political actors. By doing this, Cucchi claims that the 1860s and 1870s were politically active decades for provincial elites at the local and national level toward the consolidation of the PAN, the third argument of her work. Moving away from the literature's emphasis on political discord and personalist politics around prominent figures such as Bartolomé Mitre, Roca, and others, Cucchi shows that the eventual split between Juárez Celman and other sectors of the PAN was based on disagreements over the party platform, not personal allegiances, that stemmed from the PAN's decentralized structure. Although the PAN was based in Buenos Aires, it was born in the interior. The structure established during the party's formation favored province-based political clubs that were given significant levels of autonomy, in the hope of garnering support in the party's early years.Antagonismo, legitimidad y poder político en Córdoba will be a welcome addition to the library of specialists on Argentina, nineteenth-century Latin America, and political culture. Graduate students will especially benefit from a close reading of this work. Cucchi's detailed breakdown of provincial power structures, the PAN, and voter mobilization provides a clear road map of Argentine politics at both the national and provincial level. Moreover, the footnotes on primary and secondary actors contain detailed biographies and suggested additional readings. In particular, scholars at all levels will benefit from Cucchi's impressive collection of documents consulted in various archives.