68 pages • 2 hours read
Lawrence ThorntonImagining Argentina
Lawrence ThorntonFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Sociopolitical Context: Argentina’s Dirty War (1976-1983)
The term “Dirty War” describes the reign of the Argentine junta, a military dictatorship characterized by its sudden seizure of power and violent oppression of left-wing dissidents. The Dirty War technically began in 1976, but its inception reflects a decades-long revolution in Argentine politics. In 1946, Juan Perón was elected as Argentina’s 35th president, ushering in a new era of leftist government. Together with his second wife, Eva, Perón tackled labor reform, centering union advocacy and expanding social protections for the working class. These class-conscious and state-oriented values eventually coalesced into Peronism, a left-leaning populist ideology still common in Argentine politics today (Alcoba, Natalie. “A Divided Legacy Marks 50 Years Since Perón’s Return to Argentina.” Al Jazeera, 20 June 2023).
In mid-1974, Perón died, leaving as successor his third wife, Isabel Perón, who quickly assumed the presidency. However, Isabel Perón’s tenure proved short-lived: In 1976, the Argentine military seized power, displacing Perón and installing a right-wing authoritarian government. The coup was orchestrated through Operation Condor, a Cold War-era insurgency program that supplanted South American leftist governments at the urging of the CIA. Jorge Rafael Videla, a senior military commander, quickly established himself as Argentina’s de facto president.
Not long after its inception, the junta drastically reorganized the Argentine government, closing the national legislature and banning trade unions to better affirm control. In the wake of leftist protests, the junta established the Process of National Reorganization, a military-led program that sought to identify, censor, and neutralize political opponents. As part of this campaign, the junta opened over 300 detention centers, targeting students, activists, writers, artists, and many others suspected of left-wing radicalism. Using this network of detention centers, the junta disappeared thousands of individuals, arbitrarily detaining them as they were questioned, tortured, and eventually murdered. Any children born to detainees were abducted by the state and later placed with random, usually military-associated families.
As affected families grieved, protests erupted across the country. A group of bereaved mothers, calling themselves the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, organized weekly vigils in Buenos Aires’s Plaza de Mayo, directly opposite the presidential residence. As domestic opposition and international concern grew, Videla stepped down, and by 1983, Argentina had restored its democratic government.
In December 1983, the newly-elected government established the National Commissions on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), collecting evidence on the junta’s policy of oppression. Since the war’s end, over 900 government officials have been tried for their crimes (Blakemore, Erin. “30,000 People Were ‘Disappeared’ in Argentina’s Dirty War. These Women Never Stopped Looking.” History, 24 Aug. 2023).
Historical Context: The Legacy of Nazism in Argentina
Diplomatic relations between Argentina and Germany extend over a century, reflecting a complex history of trade, immigration, and ideological spread. By the early 1930s, Argentina had amassed a significant population of ethnic Germans, some of whom formed concentrated communities of Nazi sympathizers. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, President Juan Perón, conscious of these domestic tensions, maintained Argentina’s neutrality.
Following the collapse of the Third Reich, SS personnel hurried to escape the inevitable referendum on their crimes against humanity. Perón, sensing this eagerness, finessed covert escape routes via Spanish and Italian ports. Much like the US—who had similarly smuggled Nazi scientists and engineers through the implementation of Operation Paperclip—Argentina aimed to co-opt Nazi technology for its own innovation. One such fugitive was Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking SS officer who had logistically engineered the Holocaust. Eichmann lived in Argentina for about a decade, until Israeli intelligence officials discovered his location and swiftly removed him to Israel for trial. After a lengthy trial, Eichmann was sentenced to death and eventually hanged in June 1962 (Klein, Christopher. “How South America Became a Nazi Haven.” History, 27 July 2023).
Despite this later association with Nazi fugitives, Argentina has long been celebrated for its robust Jewish community. In the late 19th century, spurred to leave Europe in the interest of economic opportunity, many Jewish people gravitated toward Argentina, further diversifying its cosmopolitan reputation. In the 1930s, as the Nazi Party tightened its control on German politics, more and more Jewish people sought refuge in Argentina. Following the Reich’s collapse and the war’s end, many Jewish people—displaced, orphaned, or having their livelihood destroyed—again turned toward South America. However, though some Jewish people were successful in their immigration, Argentina ultimately closed its borders against Jewish refugees (“Argentina Jewish Virtual History Tour.” Jewish Virtual Library).
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