A Brief History of Argentina - Travelsur

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARGENTINA
These are the reasons why massive European immigration beginning
in the late 19th century changed social relationships and entrenched
behaviors so little. Argentine landowners and businessmen favored
gringos, or foreigners, over the criollo workers, although they tended to
exploit the immigrant house girl and day worker as if they were mestizo
or black. As soon as the upwardly mobile newcomers gained modest
wealth, education, and family respectability, they adopted these same
existing attitudes toward labor and color. Thus, the old animosities and
resentments between unequal layers of the social hierarchy survived
into the 20th century. One need only cite the working class’s allure for
union militancy and the pro-descamisado rhetoric of Juan Domingo
Perón to understand how desperately those who worked with their
hands, whether criollo or gringo, desired respect and dignity.
Argentine society of late has gained even greater heterogeneity and
diversity. The present economic troubles have impelled the best and
brightest of the middle class to emigrate, while mestizo laborers from
Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile have formed the new wave of
immigration. The diversity and divisiveness of the social order, aided
and abetted by continuing discrimination, reinforce the other historical
predator stalking the nation—the authoritarian impulse.
Impunity
Violence and corruption have a long history in Argentina because those
who use force and graft in public life have not been punished. They have
been rewarded! These conditions originated, once again, with European
settlement. The evolution of the multiracial social order demanded
stringent social controls. Those early settlers obtaining grants of Indian
labor had to discipline their minions and show them new systems of
work. In time, those born into the language and culture learned how
to avoid work, except for the wandering gauchos who wanted to earn
a few pesos. Slavery added new requirements to the agenda of social
control. Every landowner, every employer, every shopkeeper, and every
respectable patrona had to monitor the behavior of their employees.
Everyone of substance feared a breach of discipline by the popular
classes, because the latter greatly outnumbered the former. To recognize
the disruptive potential of the disgruntled working classes, the elites
had only to survey the pillage wrought by the popular rebellion of José
Gervasio Artigas during the struggle for independence.
Authoritarianism began with the elites of the colonial period and the
19th century, but in the 20th century, the middle class has also embraced
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