Argentina: Legend and History

THE material of which this textbook is composed must be so new to the vast majority of both teachers and students of Spanish in this country, that the need of an introduction has been deemed imperative by the editors.

Americans have of late been growing more and more alive to the urgent necessity of gaining a better knowledge of the vast continent and the peoples to the south of them. Argentina, as the most prosperous of the South American republics, has claimed no small share of this newly awakened interest. It is hoped that this book will aid in promoting and strengthening this interest, and that this introduction, in its turn, will be of aid in elucidating and furnishing a proper background for the material herein presented.

If we wish to understand Argentina, we must begin first of all by familiarizing ourselves with one pivotal sentiment that has permeated and controlled every aspect of Argentine life and development since colonial days. This sentiment is an exalted and haughty patriotism, so intense, indeed, that the tone with which an Argentine says “Soy argentino”, is no whit less assertive and proud than that in which citizens of ancient Rome were wont to say “Civis Romanus sum”.

Whatever the origin of this sentiment, the evidences of it are irrefutable. Argentina has to-day about nine million inhabitants: of these, fully two thirds are of recent foreign origin, mainly Italian and Spanish, and to a much smaller extent, English, French, and German. Argentina, in other words, has relatively a much larger population of recent foreign extraction than the United States. Nevertheless, the hyphen does not exist in Argentina; and the terms Italo-Argentine, Hispano-Argentine, Franco-Argentine, etc., are entirely unknown. The jealous and uncompromising patriotism of the Argentine makes hyphenated national designations impossible. If we turn from the evidence of purely popular sentiment to the more sober and more controlled evidence of literature, we find the same thing. Take away from the literature of Argentina the theme of patriotism, and you have taken away its most distinctive and its greatest life-giving element. It has been said, and justly, that the Italian literature of the nineteenth century centered entirely about the theme of Italian unification, voicing during the first half of the century the aspirations of her great men for a united Italy, and during the second half intoning the pæan of joy at the accomplishment of those aspirations. The same may be said of Argentine literature. The names of the great leaders of her immortal Revolution, both against the mother country and later against the internalcaudillo tyrants—the most important of whom was Rosas—and the deeds that they performed, recur again and again through the pages of her men of letters, whatever be the form of literature they engage in, narrative, dramatic, or poetic.

It is for this reason that for the proper understanding of the Argentine temperament, as evidenced by her literature as well as by her popular ideals, the knowledge of her political history, beginning with the time of the English invasions in 1806 (when the latent nationalism of the then Viceroyalty of the Plata first manifested itself in action), is a requisite of prime importance.

Until the year 1776, Argentina had been but a negligible part of the Spanish possessions in South America, being a dependency of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Despite, however, the short-sighted commercial policy of Spain, which forbade the colonies from trading with any European country, save the mother country, and then by restricted routes and through specific Spanish ports, Buenos Aires, towards the end of the eighteenth century, had far outstripped all other colonial cities with the exception of Lima. By royal decree, therefore, on the 8th of August, 1776, the Viceroyalty of the Plata River was established with Buenos Aires as its capital. It included what is to-day Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and the province of Rio Grande, belonging now to Brazil.