Ruins of the New Argentina

Healey Mark A. Healey

Description

In January 1944, an earthquake reduced the province of San Juan, Argentina, to rubble, leaving perhaps ten thousand dead and one hundred thousand homeless. In The Ruins of the New Argentina, Mark A. Healey argues that the disaster and the massive rebuilding project that followed transformed not only the province but also the nation. The earthquake was a shattering and galvanizing experience, an indictment of the old social order and an invitation to transform it. From the nation's capital, an obscure colonel in a recently installed military regime launched a relief campaign and rapidly commissioned plans to rebuild the province, especially its capital city. The campaign was a rousing success, launching the public career of its director, Juan Domingo Peron, who would soon found a movement, reach the presidency, and transform the politics and social structure of the country. Dreaming and building the new city became the landmark project for a generation of modernist architects and planners, as well as an enduring challenge and controversy for local residents and the Peronist state. By exploring the struggle to rebuild, Healey shows how this destroyed province played a crucial role in forging, testing, and ultimately limiting the Peronist project of transforming the nation.

Sujets

• Histoire
• América del Sur
• Argentina
• South America
• History of the Americas
• Argentine

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 09 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822393597
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

THE RUINS OF THE NEW ARGENTINA

MARK A. HEALEY

THE RUINS OF THE NEW ARGENTINA

Peronism and The Remaking of San Juan ater The 1944 EarThquake

Duke UniversiTy Press Durham and London 2011

∫2011 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Designed by Heather Hensley

Typeset in Adobe Garamond Premier Pro by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

per magdalena. t’estimo tant.

CONTENTS

illustrations

acknowledgments acronyms introduction

PART 1

REVELATIONS AMONG THE RUINS, EARLY 1944

1. ‘‘Rooted Vines and Uprooted Men’’: The World Wine Made 2. In a Broken Place

3. ‘‘The Measure of Our National Solidarity’’: The Aid Campaign and the Rise of Perón

PART 2

THE CORNERSTONE OF THE NEW ARGENTINA, EARLY 1944

4. Utopias in the Dust: Architects’ Visions for the New City 5. The Superstition of Adobe and the Certainty of Concrete 6. Looking for Order among the Ruins

PART 3

FROM LEADING CASE TO EXEMPLARY FAILURE, MID1944 TO MID1946

7. Diverging Paths of Reform: Architects, Labor, and the Reconstruction Council 8. The Revolt of the Engineers: Protest and the Professions in 1945 9. ‘‘San Juan Is Still Waiting’’: Rebuilding and the Election of 1946

ix xi xv 1

25 51

66

87 106 124

159 183 204

PART 4

‘‘RUBBLE OR NO RUBBLE, WE WANT PERÓN,’’ 1946 –1962

10. Against the ‘‘Sovereignty of Experts’’: Rebuilding on Local Terms, 1946–1947 11. ‘‘The Pacification of Spirits’’: Peronism in One Province, 1947–1955 12. The ‘‘Bulldozer Kid’’ and the Rebuilt City, 1955–1962

Final Reckonings Appendix: Government Spending in San Juan

notes bibliography index

viii

Contents

225 238 267 291 299

301 357 379

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures 1. Vineyard in San Juan, 1930s 2. Del Bono winery, San Juan, 1940 3. Downtown San Juan viewed from the northwest, late 1930s 4. Plaza 25 de Mayo, north side, late 1930s 5. Del Bono family, ca. 1940 6. Del Bono building, San Juan, late 1930s 7. Plaza 25 de Mayo, west side, late 1930s 8. Federico Cantoni, ca. 1925 9. Cantoni brothers with their mother, ca. 1930 10. Conservative leaders after overthrowing Cantoni, February 1934 11. City center, January 1944 12. Interior of church, January 1944 13. Inside the four avenues, January 1944 14. Outside the four avenues, January 1944 15. Searching for bodies, January 1944 16. Leaving San Juan, January 1944 17. San Juan orphans in Buenos Aires, January 1944 18. Evacuation by train, January 1944 19. Government o≈cials in San Juan, January 1944 20. Perón meeting San Juan train in Buenos Aires, January 1944 21. Perón, July 1944 22. Perón and Pistarini, 1944 23. Sargento Cabral barrio, outside Buenos Aires, 1937

3 28 32 36 37 38 39 41 42 45 52 53 57 58 59 62 63 64 70 75 78 82 83