Cultural Background for Learning Spanish in Buenos Aires: Argentine History Part IV of IV

The most recent period to examine when considering the cultural background of Argentina is the period that began around 1880 and continues to this day. If you gain an understanding of this more modern period of history, it will help you to have more of an appreciation for the entire region when you attend Spanish immersion school in Buenos Aires. While many people who learn Spanish in Argentina know little about the region's history, if you take the time to learn more it will give your entire experience added depth.

Some important milestones took place in the late part of the 19th century. For example, Argentina and Chile's border disputes resolved through a series of treaties. However, the Long Depression set back Argentina's quickly growing economy. The country's GDP fell quickly by 11% just between 1890-1891 alone.

The next major incident concerning Argentine politics occurred when radicals began to control the government. In the election that took place in 1916 only 745,000 people were allowed to vote even though the population was 7.5 million. In 1918 there was a student movement that began at the University of Cordoba. This turned into the University Reform that actually ended up spreading throughout South America.

Due to the Radicals, Argentina remained neutral during WW1. They ended up even exporting goods and issuing credit to Europe. In 1922, the radical leadership ended when an aristocrat named Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear defeated Yrigoyen. There was a great deal of left-wing activism in the 1920's.

The years between 1930-1943 are considered the Infamous Decade. While Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world in 1929, the Crash of 1929 and Depression ended all of this. Part of the reason this time period was called the Infamous Decade is that there was fraud in elections, and corruption was rampant in the government.

The Revolution of 43 occurred from 1943-1946. During these years, the G.O.U. Grupo de Oficiales Unidos demanded that President Catillo designed. Many say that this was the end of the Infamous Decade. One of the members of the GOU Ramirez took power and stopped supporting the axis powers.

Many are familiar with Juan Peron who became president and started peronism. His wife Eva Peron is also very familiar, especially due to the movie and musical Evita. Juan Peron started a foreign policy that was isolationist and expanded government spending- leading to inflation. He was deposed by the Catholic Church in 1955 and went into exile.

More recently, in 1966-1973, the Revolucion Argentina took place. The goal was to start a new political and social order that opposed democracy that was too liberal as well as communism. As a result, the military took on a stronger role. Peron returned to power in 1973. People hoped that this change would calm things down, as the left was starting up various underground movements. However, Peron's return only created violence between left-wing and right-wing peronism.

Since about 1983, Argentina has returned to democracy. Currently, President Kirchner is in office and the economy has strongly rebounded under his control. Another piece of good news is under the Kirchner administration, the foreign debt of the country has been restructured.

When you attend a Spanish immersion school in Buenos Aires, this is a great opportunity to learn more about the country's modern political scene. Take time to talk to locals and listen in on conversations. You can understand more about history and politics when you learn Spanish in Argentina than you ever could have from a book.

ECELA Buenos Aires lets you learn Spanish in Argentina year round. The standard course is 20 hours per week with many opportunities to study the national and local cultures as attend the Spanish immersion school in Buenos Aires.

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The Argentine Gaucho

According to legend, the first Gauchos were the few settlers who stayed behind when Pedro de Mendoza's first settlement on the site of Buenos Aires was abandoned in 1541. By the time the Spaniards returned to re-establish the city in 1580, the remnants of the first settlement had become wild, primitive loners, who lived in the saddle, slept rough, and were intimately acquainted with the land on which they roamed. The first written, factual reports of gauchos are from the turn of the seventeenth century, only a few years later, so there may be a seed of truth in the legend, however conditions were no less hard in the early days of the second settlement, and it's just as likely that within a few years some of the colonists had taken off to forage from the land rather than chance their survival in Buenos Aires itself. In 1620, there were enough of them that the Buenos Aires authorities were discussing them with concern.

At some point, a code of behaviour, akin perhaps to honour among thieves, developed between these vagabond horsemen, and the culture and the character of the gaucho was born. It was during the independence wars though at the turn of the nineteenth century that the gauchos gained a measure of social acceptance and began to play a part in the new Argentine national identity. Shortly after independence had been declared in Buenos Aires, colonies still loyal to the Spanish crown in Peru sent troops to put down what they saw as a treasonous rebellion, and it was only by the ingenious tactic of General Guemes of Salta of persuading local gauchos to form a regiment and fight for him that the loyalists were defeated; the gaucho's knowledge of the local terrain and guerrilla raids enabled them to outwit the better trained and more experienced soldiers.

Following this acceptance, and as large cattle ranches were established in the interior of the country during the first half of the nineteenth century (which again required the gaucho's knowledge of local terrain to round up the freely grazing cattle), the gaucho became an admired, romantic figure, both free of the constraints of and useful to society. So admired in fact that when gauchos began to be press-ganged into military service, Argentines felt that an injustice was being done, in abusing and corroding an important part of the national character. This sentiment was best expressed in what has become Argentina's national epic poem, The Gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández, published in 1872. This work also served to crystallise the romantic image and notion of the gaucho in its modern, recognisable form, that which subsequently became famous throughout the world.

Integral to this archetypal image of the gaucho is the hard, wild, lone horseman, who works as a seasonal hired hand on cattle ranches, wears chaps, a wide brimmed hat and a poncho, and is armed with a knife and a boleadora (a device consisting of 3 hard leather balls attached to leather cords that are tied at one end, that can be used like a lasso and hurled at running animals to wrap round their neck to get them to stop). The gaucho spurns society's conventions, roasts fresh meat over an open fire, and while hospitable to travellers is quick to rise and defend his pride if he is provoked. A throwback and tribute to primitive man, if you like.

Today, gauchos have experienced something of a revival of fortune since their late nineteenth and early twentieth century decline, and not just for the benefit of tourism. Throughout Argentina (and in neighbouring Uruguay and Chile) they can be found working on farms, and if anything they more confident today in their culture and identity than in centuries past. Their work is generally well paid (their knowledge of the land along with their horse skills are still valuable assets), though seasonal, so they typically blow their wages between jobs on gambling, drinking and wanton women in the towns before returning to the saddle.

The gaucho tradition is celebrated by a national holiday, the Dia de tradicion, celebrated on José Hernández' birthday of 10th November. One town, San Antonio de Areco, celebrates with a competition of horsemanship and gaucho skills. In Salta, on Guemes Day in June thousands of gauchos descend on the city from the surrounding countryside to revel through the night before parading through the city in their maroon ponchos.

Aside from The Gaucho Martín Fierro, there are numerous representations and references to gauchos in the arts, a recent example being the film Aballay, a man without fear by Fernando Spiner, which tells the story of a gaucho who kills someone and then spends the rest of his life on the run, and which has been selected to represent Argentina in the competition for the 2012 Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Hugo Lesser is an Anglo-Chilean-Peruvian based in Salta in north west Argentina. He is the founder of Estados, which sells beautiful, handmade, Argentine leather goods.

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