Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. Emilio Ravignani
The Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr. Emilio Ravignani” is a biannual journal of history that reflects the best results of historiographical research work in Latin America, as well as Latin Americanist works from other regions of the world. Its purpose is to constitute a means of communication between the authors and the specialized academic public to which it is addressed; but it also aspires to reach a wider audience, hoping to enrich the contributions and debates of Latin American historiography. The Boletín publishes two issues per year (January-June and July-December). The publication in paper format has been carried out since 1922, and in digital form since 2011.
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires
The copyright is transferred to the Boletín, but the authors may retrieve them and reproduce their work in other media or formats by means of a written request to the Editorial Committee. In such cases, the Boletín will be cited as the first publication of the work. The works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of their authorship and initial publication in this journal. Also, by written request to the Editorial Committee of the Boletín, the authors may separately establish additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (for example, placing it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication here. No commercial uses are allowed.
Presentación al dossier Comunicar la historia. Balances, desafíos, perspectivas
Presentation to the dossier: Communicating the Story. Assessments, challenges, perspectives
Copyright (c) 2025 Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. Emilio Ravignani
Lila Caimari, Lía Guillermina Oliveto, Alejandro Pautasso, Mario Etchechury Barrera, Juan Pedro Navarro Martínez, Magalí Pérez, Sabrina Asquini, Gianfranco Calzini, Germán Soprano.
The publication of Civilización. Historia de un concepto by José Emilio Burucúa marks a turning in Argentine historiography. Not only is this an unprecedented historical research for our scientific field, but, by inverting the usual conditions in which the idea of otherness is understood, the author forges a new concept of civilisation and, at the same time, offers a vast panorama of its conceptual itinerary through the most diverse cultural areas. However, this work also aims to take a political and intellectual stance on a phenomenon that has always been very sensitive to his historiography. After a brief comparative exercise with the English historian Eileen Power’s conception of the High Middle Ages and her political militancy before the outbreak of the Total War, we will try to find some points in common with Burucúa’s work and other differences in order to analyse the way in which the author dialogues with different historiographical traditions.
“Audible History”: Historical Podcasts in the Communication of Academic Knowledge
Podcasts have become an especially valuable tool for historians seeking to engage broader publics with their scholarly work. This article examines the formats and functions of historical podcasts produced by academic historians in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Argentina. A key focus of this analysis is how these podcasts negotiate the tension between accessibility and entertainment on the one hand, and the communication of complex, methodologically rigorous interpretations of the past on the other.
Popularization of history in museums and “common sense” about Argentina's past
This paper explores how the popularization of history in museums, based on recent historiographic contributions, coexists with the historical ideas held by their visitors. The analysis is based on the author's experience in conveying content about the Revolution of Independence at the Museo del Cabildo de Buenos Aires and the Museo Histórico Nacional (Argentina). The paper discusses the presence of a “revisionist common sense”, as posited by some historians, and proposes the primacy among the publics of a “patriotic common sense,” developed in elementary school.
This essay examines various aspects of communication in history, considered as part of the production of historical knowledge and the education of its audience. It initially argues for the suitability of the term “communication” instead of “dissemination”. It then points out some general problems –the historian as communicator, the public, the role of the editor– and concludes with a reference to two very different historians with unique capacities for communication: Félix Luna and José Luis Romero.
Interstices of economic policy during the Alfonsín government: the controversial vision of Bernardo Grinspun on the economy between 1985-1989
Economics and economic history studies that dealt with the years of Raúl Alfonsín’s government (1983-1989) gave less importance to the vision, interpretation and controversies raised by the first Minister of Economy Bernardo Grinspun (1983-1985). Especially, and taking into account his economic failure, compared to the studies and testimonies of collaborators and officials of his successor in the Ministry of Economy, Juan Sourrouille (1985-1989). The article analyzes Grinspun’s vision of economic policies while he served as Secretary of Economic Planning, focusing on the debates raised and the alternatives and proposals for economic policy. The sources studied were speeches, official documents and bibliography of Grinspun, as well as press and public statistics and testimonies about the period. We sustain that analyzing Grinspun’s vision of the economy and economic policy allows us to understand the tension between the economic visions within the ruling party and the alternative proposals that the former Minister formulated to face the economic problems of the period. In particular, highlighting his postulates on the need for financial reform as a driving force to recover growth and reduce inflation levels.
Doña Pituca. Experience, subjectivity and politics through a worker's autobiography
The aim of this article is to analyze the autobiography of ‘Pituca’, a worker born in the north of the province of Córdoba in the early 1930s. That manuscript, dated 1990 and to which we were able to gain access in the context of a series of interviews, provided privileged entrance to issues of great interest for the understanding of an individual trajectory inseparable from the class conditions that made it possible. Following this premise, this article focuses on three of the central cores that structure it: the representation of her rural origins, the remembrance of a daily life directly linked to domestic service in the city of Córdoba, and the reconstruction of the process of politicization that led to the early identification of this female worker with Peronism. In a transversal way, it attends to the narrative modulations and strategies associated with a style of writing that continually reflects, also, its class markers.
Invisible markets and “fearless people”: bandits and smugglers between the Spanish and Portuguese empires in late colonial Río de la Plata
This work uses primary sources to provide an insight of the people, commodities, and geography of land smuggling in some regions of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata located between the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire in the late decades of Spanish rule (1780-1805). For the first time in the territories studied in this paper, the results offer quantitative information on the occupational profile of the people accused of being smugglers, their nationality and origin, as well as the cargoes they trafficked, and geo-referenced information on the spaces where they moved. It aims to document on two facts of historical interest: the social status of the subjects involved in illegal border trafficking and the spatiality of the phenomenon.
Between Justice and Reason of State: Vacant See, Patronage, and Frontier
The present article explores the political dynamic in the district of the royal court of justice of Charcas or Real Audiencia de Charcas during the period in which Perú did not have a viceroy between 1606 and 1607, re-assessing and expanding on Bridikhina’s (2015) suggestion that the tribunal benefitted from such periods. During these twenty-two months and amidst legal discussions with the royal court of justice in Lima and the Consejo de Indias, the Audiencia in Charcas took over the government of its district, monopolising the distribution of rewards, accelerating the transformation of the east of Charcas into a territory of the Catholic Monarchy through an expedition to support a group of Chiriguanaes. Some contemporaries deemed the period as of “bad government”. However, the exceptional circumstances enabled Audiencia members to take on additional duties, based on a rhetoric of “reason of state”, prioritising a government run with support from their political clients, aligned with the local elite, as a more pragmatical manner to run the district. Without an “alter-ego” of Phillip III in Peru, the Audiencia in Charcas thought of itself as the best suited institution to make the monarch present in its jurisdiction.
Raquel Gil Montero, Mario Graña Taborelli, María Macarena Ferreiro, Dení Trejo Barajas, María Elena Barral, María de Lourdes Ghidoli, Andrés Bisso, María Noel Álvarez.
The political-economic crises and the problem of Argentine industrialization in the sixties
This article attempts to contribute to the debate on the historical evolution of the Argentine manufacturing industry based on the impact that the crises had on it. To do so, it studies the relationship between the crisis stage of 1959-1963 and the period of industrial boom that occurred between 1963 and 1975. This crisis arouse when the industry sought to expand its place in the economy, when the strong military presence assumed the surveillance of the post-Peronist State and when a labor movement strengthened by the same industrial growth sought to defend the achievements of the past and to influence both the business world and public life. Under these conditions, institutions could not provide a safe channel for growth. Although the experiences of the constitutional government of Illia and the regime of the Argentine Revolution knew how to give impetus to the upward movement initiated by Frondizi in 1958, the industrial boom of the 1960s would ultimately prove to be intense and renovating, but at the same time a precarious phenomenon.
State, roads and tourism in Tucumán (1932- 1943)
The objective of this article is to analyze the role of the National Road Directorate (DNV) and the Provincial Road Directorate of Tucumán (DPVT) in the production of tourist spaces in said province during the years 1932-1943. It is proposed that The actions of the national State were not comprehensive, which is why the DNV as an expert agency left loopholes in the execution of roads for tourist purposes, abandoning or not executing planning and/or projections proposed in Tucumán. In the absence of this, the DPVT would take over by erecting road infrastructure in spaces considered by public opinion and state actors to be tourist attractions par excellence, namely, the San Javier mountains and especially the Calchaquíes Valleys. Thus, it is proposed not only to examine a barely addressed subnational space, but also to investigate road traffic from an analytical scale that is little considered. To carry out this investigation, descriptive reports from the DNV and DPVT departments and other official documents such as regulations and written press of national and provincial level were listened to.
Historians and archives: initiatives and training around the management of documentary heritage
The concern in the historiographic field for archives has been gaining strength in recent decades, with the emergence of new technologies and the implementation of public policies aimed at the conservation of documentary heritage, among other factors. However, the participation of historians in this area has not been studied systematically. This paper begins an exploration on this topic based on two issues: the initiatives related to the conservation and access to documentary heritage and the content related to archives and documentary heritage in historians’ training throughout the country. My central argument is that despite the enormous efforts in the historiographic field to rescue, preserve and make available different documentary collections, the training to undertake these tasks is far from being satisfactory.
Dal Riachuelo allo Stretto di Magellano. The Royal Consulate of Italy in La Plata (Argentina) between Fascist Rhetoric and Structural Problems
Fascist foreign policy was characterized both by rhetoric aimed at revitalizing Italian identity abroad and by a series of measures designed to strengthen the ties between Italian emigrants and their homeland. However, Italian diplomats faced not only their routine administrative duties but also new responsibilities and challenges –territorial, disciplinary, and budgetary– that jeopardized this intended mission. This article delves into the case of the Royal Italian Consulate in La Plata –one of the largest Italian consular jurisdictions in the world– to shed light on how these principles were hindered and compromised in a specific geographic context.
Porteño freedman, black editor and frontier merchant in Santa Fe: the trajectory of Sandalio Escuti y Quiroga (1815-1872)
The article traces the life trajectory of Sandalio Escuti y Quiroga, black editor of the newspaper La Raza Africana o sea El Demócrata Negro, which was published in Buenos Aires in 1858. It aims to analyze the Afro-descendants’ forms of political participation and integration as citizens during the central decades of the 19th century. In order to do this, it interweaves the traces left in newspapers, parish books, censuses, magazine lists, legal proceedings, and other governmental documentation of the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. Firstly, based on the reconstruction of this individual’s life, it demonstrates that afrodescendants identified as a collective through shared experiences of militia and military participation, in addition to their common ancestry and color. Secondly, it highlights that after the Rosas regime was overthrown, some Afrodescendants circulated through different spaces, joining the political groups that were being reconfigured. They participated in armed forces and the press, which allowed them to raise complaints and discuss the meaning of republican equality. Lastly, it presents evidence of the integration of Afro- descendants from various backgrounds into different local communities during the period of national consolidation and their opportunities for social mobility.
Homenaje - José Murilo de Carvalho (1939-2023)
Alexander Betancourt Mendieta, Historia, ciudad e ideas. La obra de José Luis Romero. México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2001. 198 pp.
Copyright (c) 2004 Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. Emilio Ravignani
Fernando J. Devoto, Nacionalismo, fascismo y tradicionalismo en la Argentina moderna. Una historia, Buenos Aires, Siglo Veintiuno de Argentina Editores, 2002, XXVII, 306 pp.
Federico Finchelstein, Fascismo, liturgia e imaginario. El mito del general Uriburu y la Argentina nacionalista. Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2002. 159 pp.
Gardenia Vidal y Pablo Vagliente (comps.), Por la señal de la cruz. Estudios sobre Iglesia Católica y sociedad en Córdoba, s. XVII-XX, Córdoba, Ferreyra editor, 2001. 221 pp.
María Alejandra Irigoin y Roberto Schmit (eds.), La desintegración de la economía colonial. Comercio y moneda en el interior del espacio colonial. 1800-1860. Buenos Aires, Editorial Biblos, 2003. 336 pp.
Gabriela Tio Vallejo, Antiguo Régimen y Liberalismo. Tucumán, 1770-1830. Tucumán, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, 2001 (Cuadernos de HUMANITAS). 403 pp.
Las viejas cuestiones: empresariado nacional, reforma del Estado y liberalismo en el Brasil en la década del setenta
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ideological assumptions, the political motivations and the organizational bases of the opposition of the large Brazilian entrepreneurs to State interventionism and their defense of economic liberalism. Taking as an illustrative case the "campaign against nationalization", led by important sectors of the Brazilian bourgeoisie in the Seventies, I intend to clarify both its conservative action and its "instrumental liberalism", hidden under a critical discourse of the form ("authoritarian") and of the function ("interventionist") of the dictatorial State.
El Partido Peronista en Mar del Plata: articulación horizontal y articulación vertical, 1945-1955
This article analyzes the development of the Peronist Party in the province of Buenos Aires, between 1945-1955. From the examination of historical development of local agency in Mar del Plata, this work tries to analyze the forms of entailment between, on the one hand, the local party and the agencies of superior levels, and the relations with institutions and groups of the community, by the other. The local scale can throw light on dimensions of the political practices in the party organization.
De los recursos de fuerza, o de las transformaciones de la Iglesia y del Estado argentinos en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX
On the study of the relations between Church and State on the second half of the nineteenth century usually prevails the idea that the liberal State was absolutely hostile to the Church. But in this article we will show that at this time the State even guaranteed the freedom of the Church. In order to explain this, we have chosen the study of the ecclesiastical justice and the relations between ecclesiastical and civil tribunals. Civil tribunals, far for attempting to ecclesiastical ones, most of the time respected their decisions. We will find the explanation of this dilemma on the peculiarities of the relations between Church and State in Argentina.
Construir poder y dividir poderes. Buenos Aires durante la “feliz experiencia” rivadaviana
This article deals with the debate on the division of powers that took place in the State of Buenos Aires between 1821 and 1825. The alternatives that arose around the construction of the executive and legislative powers respectively during this period enable the analysis of how the balances of power were planned and the role the new political mechanisms played in them. This study is based on the interrelation of political languages, institutional norms and human actions.
Ignacio Klich (compilador): Sobre nazis y nazismo en la cultura argentina. Hispamérica C/o Latin American Studies Center,University of Maryland, EE. UU. de A., 2002, 252 pp.
Copyright (c) 2005 Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. Emilio Ravignani
Fernando Devoto, Historia de la inmigración en la Argentina, Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos Aires, 2002, 527 pp.
Alejandro Cattaruzza y Alejandro Eujanian, Políticas de la historia, Argentina 1860-1960, Alianza Editorial, Madrid-Buenos Aires, 2003, 265 pp.