Oppression and Otherness: The Lasting Effects of Colonization on Argentina

Introduction

The fabric of any given country is woven with layers of its history, people, and culture. In the case of many countries today, colonialism has played a significant role in shaping the literal design of a country’s figurative fabric. “Colonialism is that form of intergroup domination in which settlers in significant number migrate permanently to the colony from the colonizing power; while domination is the control by individuals or groups over the territory and/or the behavior of other individuals or groups” (Horvath, 1972). Argentina is an example of a country that has colonization deeply engrained in its history.

Research has explored many levels and degrees of colonization; Type 2 colonization refers to assimilation being the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized. In this type, the colonizers act as a “donor” culture and the individuals who are colonized make up a “host” culture, with a significant amount of cultural transfer occurring between donor and host (Horvath, 1972). Such is the case of the relationship between the Spanish colonizing Argentina dating as far back as the early 1500s when Juan Diaz de Solis led the first Spanish expedition to the southernmost part of South America.

There are many factors within the culture of Argentina that have been shaped by roots of colonization. I was able to witness these firsthand through a two-week study abroad experience in Buenos Aires from July 23 to August 7, 2017. While I expected the course to be completely focused on education and advocacy, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the course would be so much more, particularly because of the multilayered history of politics, activism, and colonization within the country and how having such a history can affect so many parts of society, for example, its education system and advocacy practices.

This synthesis paper tackles the effects of colonization on Argentina and my observations and analyses around the various manifestations of this occurrence that I had witnessed after experiencing the sights, sounds, tastes, and people of Argentina. After providing a brief historical context, I will list several examples of colonization effects and provide connections to themes that include: loss of identity, cultural appropriation, ideological reproduction, self-efficacy and resilience.

Historical Context

In 1580, Juan Diaz de Solis led the first Spanish expedition to the southernmost part of South America, which later came to be known as Argentina. He was tasked with discovering a river passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The landmass was overtaken by the Spanish, and for many years, Argentina remained “a land of isolated settlements, autonomist townsmen, nomad gauchos, relatively docile employees of estancieros, unconquered Indians, minimal economic and political development, and no sense of national destiny.” In the early 1800s, independence from Spain became a popular topic among people for a few reasons, which included the exclusion of Creoles from important positions in both church and government, and economic restrictions that limited trade with nations other than Spain. Finally, on May 25, 1810, the colony declared its freedom from Spain by swearing allegiance to a group of wealthy porteños, landowners, and merchants that became known as the Primera Junta (Shumway, 1991). However, it was not until July 9, 1816 that independence from Spain was formally declared through the meeting of the Congress of Tucuman.

The years that followed Argentina’s independence saw the eventual rise of individuals as leaders. An intensive social mobilization established a potentially powerful urban lower class. In the early 1940s, leaders of this sector sought to promote urban mass interests through established and constitutional political institutions. Prior to 1943, these leaders (who were mostly Socialists) were heavily blocked and the institutions through which they pressed their demands, particularly the national Congress, were devitalized and discredited. Most notably, these socially mobilized groups sought political participation, but were not given access to power. The inevitable result was frustration. A man named Juan Peron emerged to advocate for urban lower-class groups and Peronism swept the nation with its tenets of social justice, economic independence, and political sovereignty (Smith, 1969).

Threatened by the power of the people, the military took charge of the country in 1976 to eradicate the growth of revolutionist forces. From this time until 1983, the military captured, detained, and assassinated an alleged total of roughly 30,000 civilians in clandestine detention centers -- students, teachers, journalists, organizers -- who were using their voices and their power to take back their country. They are known as the desaparecidos or “the disappeared.”

Effects of Colonization

Argentina has indeed had its fair share of instances that have challenged its ability to be a true democracy and self-governing nation: from the Spanish colonization all the way to the inhumane military operation of stifling the voices of people throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. Interestingly, there are many examples of the effects of colonization that I either witnessed and/or studied about during my time in Argentina: (1) the influence of the aristocracy; (2) the racism and discrimination towards Afro-Argentines and dark-skinned people; (3) the establishment of Catholicism as a dominant religion; (4) the architecture in the city of Buenos Aires; (5) the graffiti within places like La Boca; and of course the shift of various communities to self-governance in response to the political regulations placed on the masses during the late twentieth century, as evidenced by the rise of (6) recovered factories and (7) cooperatives.

The Argentine Aristocracy (Theme: Ideological Reproduction)

In the early 1920s, as industrialization swept through Argentina in cities like Cordoba, all power was contained in the hands of the city’s aristocracy. Cordoba’s aristocracy paved the way for the formation of the bourgeoisie (Scobie, 1977). Grandeur and opulence became characteristics of this sector of high society. Borrowing from their previous colonizers and adopting what they observed to be markers of wealth and power, the Argentine aristocracy began to embody their idea of what it meant to be successful and to maintain status: jewelry and fashion, joining together of influential families through marriage, lavish social gatherings, pursuing excellence in literacy, etc. As the aristocracy grew, so did the disparity between the haves and the have nots. This led to a popular working class revolt in 1969 in Cordoba known as The Cordobazo (Brennan and Gordillo, 1994). This rising inequality mirrored the relationship between the Spanish colonizers and the porteños prior to Argentina’s declaration of independence. In a reversal of roles, the wealthy aristocracy that came to be (who no doubt were born of oppressed people) now found themselves playing the role of the oppressors. The revolt that led to Argentina’s independence may have also served as an inspiration to the organizers of The Cordobazo, knowing that the power of the people can be harnessed and organized as a force for political and social change.

Racism and Discrimination Against Afro-Argentines (Theme: Loss of Identity)

Argentina has a history that also includes participation in the African slave trade. Buenos Aires was a major hub for slave importation, and throughout the nineteenth century, Africans and their Afro-Argentine descendants comprised significant percentages of the city’s population, as well as that of other regions in Argentina. Over the years, the study of Afro-Argentines has been neglected, with this being fueled by the complex racial ideology in Argentina that claims the country is not only white, but indeed fundamentally European. In Identidades secretas: La negritud argentina, Alejandro Solomianski discusses the Argentine construction of whiteness as being rooted in Social Darwinism, dictating that the Indian and African elements of the population be pushed to the margins (Cottrol, 2007).

The racism and discrimination that exists against Afro-Argentines is an effect of colonization. The social construct of one race having power over another is embedded here. As a result, Argentine society has a tendency to subscribe to European ideologies and embrace European identity, almost in an attempt to align itself with power. However, in the process, the country fails to acknowledge and respect the presence of African and indigenous roots as part of their society and history.

When I was in Argentina, we were told that most Argentines who are light-skinned and white-passing are very quick to claim European heritage over Latin-American or South-American. This act paints a portrait of the lasting effects of colonization on the self-perception of people as a whole, and how people come to believe it is desirable to be more like the oppressor because being so is synonymous with power and status.

The Rise and Influence of Catholicism (Theme: Ideological Reproduction)

The most primary motivation for Spanish colonization of the Americas and other indigenous areas was to spread the Catholic faith. In Argentina, the Catholic Church was constitutionally established. The successes of the church were a product of government efforts that sought the support of church elites in the consolidation of power. Pious people in positions of power sought out prominent and public role for the church, advocating that it was an institution that was necessary to maintain social order within the country and one of the primary means of spreading historic cultural values. As one bishop was recorded stating, “To be Argentine is to be Catholic” (Burdick, 1995). The church embraced social activism as a way to restore the prestige lost in the political and economic state of the early twentieth century. Social Catholicism could not compete with the hype of politicians and unions in gaining the allegiance of the working class. The Catholic Church then retreated to education and parish life as its primary way of promoting cohesion among Argentines (Liebscher, 1988).

To this day, Catholicism is still the dominant religion in Argentina. Roughly 92% of the population is Catholic, but less than 20% regularly practice their faith (CIA, 2014). This was also echoed by our translator and our tour guide during our time in Argentina, stating that a majority of Catholics are non-practicing. On the contrary, Judaism has a significant presence in the country. We were told that the Jewish population in Argentina is the largest in Latin America, and the world’s seventh largest outside Israel. Despite this large presence, Jews still face discrimination and antisemitism in Argentina (Dulfano, 1969), as evidenced by the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 (the original site of which we were able to visit during a walking tour). Catholicism within Argentina is an effect of colonization, as it continues to be retained as an ideology that promotes social order and values. However, it is apparent that the purpose it serves today is more of a historical and permanent relation to European roots.

Architecture in Buenos Aires (Theme: Cultural Appropriation; Ideological Reproduction)

Buenos Aires is one of the most picturesque places I have visited. Throughout our walking tour, we were told to draw our attention to the similarities between the buildings in Buenos Aires to structures we might find in European countries like Spain, Italy, and France. It is understandable that buildings which were originally constructed during the period of the Jesuits would look European. The architecture style is characterized by the presence of moldings as doorframes, iron used for window bars, and white walls with deep niches for windows and doors. In most old buildings, only the carpets offer a pop of color since wall tiles did not exist in Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Architecture, 2016). However, even the contemporary buildings borrow inspiration from European styles. Through architecture, Argentina was able to create an environment for itself that reinforced Europeanness and that dictated how they wanted to be perceived by the rest of the world.

The architecture in Buenos Aires is another effect of colonization. Directly, colonizers erected structures using techniques and styles they had carried with them to Buenos Aires. By doing so, colonizers indirectly established this European architectural style as the standard of quality. They built a country that reminds Argentines of their colonized past with buildings that both conjure up history and retain the idea of their otherness inside their own country. Dwellings and buildings have an important role in the self-perception of a society. Inhabiting or encountering these structures daily creates one’s philosophy on the dichotomy between possessions and social class. Buildings and structures are a constant reminder of how where you live (or where you don’t live) can significantly affect how you see yourself and how others see you, in relation to success and potential.

Graffiti in La Boca (Themes: Cultural Appropriation; Self-Efficacy and Resilience)

As part of our visit to Buenos Aires, we took part in a walking tour of a neighborhood called La Boca, which is historically a low-income area shaped mostly by immigrants to Argentina who arrived through its ports during the mid-1800s. La Boca is characterized by its vibrantly painted buildings and homes. The neighborhood is teeming with graffiti and murals with messaging and art themes that are mostly political and radical.

Our tour guide mentioned that graffiti was first seen by Argentine travelers when they would visit other parts of the world, and it gained popularity during the military rule of the 1970s and 1980s primarily in places like La Boca, where people took to the streets and utilized graffiti (stencils, spraypaint, signatures, etchings, wall paintings, murals, and installations) to display their disdain over the political strife in the country. During that time, so much of the aims of the government were around silencing and erasing, that graffiti served as a way for people to represent and restore memories in time and space, as well as a way to transform trauma into artwork (Kaipainen, 2007).

One of the largest murals we saw in La Boca was one that spanned two walls of a building, depicting various images representing an uprising, including several desaparecidos and also several Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (an association of Argentine mothers whose children were “the disappeared”). What was interesting about this mural was the incorporation of Mexican-style imagery, making the people in the mural almost appear indigenous. We were informed by our tour guide that almost 100 years ago, a socially and politically motivated art movement was born in Mexico and quickly spread throughout Latin America, which explained the connection between the mural and Mexican-style imagery (Graffitimundo, 2009).

The graffiti in La Boca is connected to colonization. The colonization-related themes of being oppressed and seeking liberty are ones reflected within the graffiti and artwork. Just as uprisings in Argentina’s past had been, graffiti was a machine for people to express dissatisfaction and organize silently through a visual art form that could reach the masses. Additionally, the incorporation of Mexican-style imagery in murals ties back to a theme of cultural appropriation that relates to colonization.

Recovered Factories - IMPA (Theme: Self-Efficacy and Resilience)

Following the financial crisis of 2001 in Argentina, many factories became bankrupt, and factory workers had to win the right in court to take over possession of the property and machines in order to still be able to make a living (Kennard, 2016). Workers in recovered factories took more pride in the results of their work, and were more inclined to work longer hours and increase productivity and profits. There was also a sense of control and empowerment that developed within the factories, ultimately giving the workers dignity as well. This movement is an important counter-response to globalization, as the workers demanded the right to work and were unwilling to allow capitalist values to overpower their emphasis on quality of life (Arem, 2008).

One of the most impactful sites we visited was IMPA - a recovered factory that creates toothpaste tubes and other products from aluminum. In fact, IMPA prides itself on being recognized as the first recovered factory after having been occupied in 1998. Outside of the factory is a mural with these words: culture, work, resistance, education. These four words embody the spirit of IMPA and other recovered factories like it. The connection between recovered factories and colonization lies not so much in the former’s replication of the latter, but in its denouncement of it by creating an opposing strategy: one that transformed the oppressed into the liberated.

Cooperatives - La Juanita (Theme: Self-Efficacy and Resilience)

A cooperative (co-op) is an association that is autonomous and formed voluntarily to meet the economic, social, and cultural needs of its members through a jointly owned, democratically controlled enterprise. Co-ops are created by a combination of economic interests or labors with the goal of mutually benefiting its members and adhering to the idea that profit is a means and not an end (Anderson and Herr, 2007). Co-ops emerged in Argentina as a direct grassroots response by workers and communities to the economic and political crisis of the late 1990s. These newer co-ops tended not to have strong links to older co-op movements; they involved practices of stronger horizontalized labor processes and decision-making structures in comparison to older co-op experiences in the region; and they had strong connections with surrounding communities and social movements (Larrabure, 2011).

While in Argentina, we visited the La Juanita co-op located in La Matanza. It was fascinating to witness firsthand how a community functions autonomously with very minimal government involvement. The co-op had several components to it, namely a primary school, a bakery, a clothing and tailoring business, a bank, a technology learning center, a continuing education program, a career services department, and even a call center. The co-op leverages the skills of all its members, whether or not they are professionals. Like recovered factories, the co-op structure is a manifestation of anti-colonization ideology. La Juanita is proof of what happens when people no longer wish to subscribe to the model of being governed by outside entities (in this case, the government). Their organizing and autonomy are a direct antithesis to the tenets of colonization.

Conclusion

I arrived in Argentina expecting only to learn about education and advocacy; however, I learned so much more. I came to realize that parts of Argentine society (including education) are significantly impacted by the layers of colonization that exist within the country. The “Type 2” colonization mentioned earlier in this paper that refers to assimilation being the relationship between the donor culture and the host culture (Horvath, 1972) has indeed manifested itself in Argentina through the various examples discussed: the influence of the aristocracy; the racism and discrimination towards Afro-Argentines and dark-skinned people; the establishment of Catholicism as a dominant religion; the architecture in the city of Buenos Aires; the graffiti within places like La Boca; and finally the shift of various communities to self-governance by the rise of recovered factories and cooperatives. As a result of colonization and the subsequent oppressive and othering effects towards Argentina, the country has been shaped by themes of loss of identity, cultural appropriation, ideological reproduction, as well as self-efficacy and resilience.

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