Criollismo, lower-class experience and politics: the gaucho as a subversive emblem

Abstract

This paper argues against the usual interpretation of the phenomenon of “popular criollismo” in Argentina as a short-lived expression of the tensions and conflicts brought about by a process of “modernization”. By analyzing gaucho dime novels, the songs of the payadores and gauchesque theatre plays, it is argued that “popular criollismo” should be considered instead as a more perdurable phenomenon that served to channel social criticism against the ruling elites, class differences and ethnic-racial hierarchies. More importantly, it also played a major role in the process of ethnogenesis, i. e., the definition of a sense of group distinctivity among the heterogeneous multitude that inhabited the Argentinean land in the late 19^th century.