Conquest(s) of the Desert

Abstract

The historical concept of the “desert” is both cultural and geographic in Argentina, connecting nineteenth-century territorial conquest to twentieth-century public works projects. Between 1936 and 1940, the architect Francisco Salamone constructed a series of roads, plazas, municipal headquarters, slaughterhouses, and cemeteries. These buildings and infrastructure projects highlight the necessary relationship between settler colonialism and changing labor patterns in the South American nation’s uneasy transition into global capitalism. This paper synthesizes a range of historiography and analyzes visual material, including photographs, architectural drawings, and cartographic documents, to demonstrate the powerful connection between architectural production, cultural erasure, and economic change in Argentina.

Keywords:

• Argentina
• historiography
• public works projects
• materials
• architecture

Notes

1 In Sarmiento’s original, idiosyncratic, and rationalized Spanish: “El mal que aqueja a la República Arjentina es la estension: el desierto la rodea por todas partes [sic].” Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Facundo: civilización y barbarie [Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism], 1st. ed., Biblioteca de clásicos argentinos; vol. 2 (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Estrada, 1940), 1.

2 Also beyond the scope of this paper, the notion of “civilization and barbarism” was a recurring theme in Argentine political thought. Sources abound, but in the context of the Conquest of the Desert, see Andrés Bonatti, Una guerra infame: la verdadera historia de la Conquista del Desierto [An Infamous War: The True History of the Conquest of the Desert], 1st ed. (Buenos Aires: Edhasa, 2015), 20–22.

3 Oscar Terán, Historia de las ideas en la argentina: diez lecciones iniciales, 1810–1980 [History of Ideas in Argentina: Ten Initial Lessons, 1810–1980], Biblioteca básica de historia (Buenos Aires, Argentina) (Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Argentina, 2008), 65–91.

4 The River Plate or Río de la Plata is the wide estuary separating the Argentine Republic from the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and also refers to the region that encompasses the two national capitals, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. By desert, in the geographic sense, I refer to an area with comparatively low average precipitation. While Argentina does have areas of geographical desert, this is not the sense in which it was used in nineteenth-century discourse. Beyond Sarmiento, the term has been used by important historians such as Tulio Halperín Donghi. See Tulio Halperín Donghi, Una nación para el desierto argentino [A Nation for the Argentine Desert], Ed. definitiva/rev. by T. Halperin Donghi., Colección de historia argentina (Buenos Aires: Prometeo Libros, 2005).

5 What is today the modern nation state of Argentina was essentially a colonial backwater from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century that served primarily as an entrepôt between silver-rich Spanish Peru and the European metropole. Without the capital and resources of Peru or Mexico, and lacking substantial Indigenous military allies, Spanish control of the temperate territory came later than in other parts of the Americas. See Juan Garavaglia, “The Crises and Transformations of Invaded Societies: The La Plata Basin (1535–1650),” in The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas: Volume 3: South America, ed. Frank Salomon and Stuart B. Schwartz, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 1–58, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521630764.002.

6 Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Writing Past Colonialism Series (New York: Cassell, 1999); Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Research 8:4 (December 1, 2006): 387–409, https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240.

7 Sai Englert, “Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession,” Antipode 52:6 (2020): 1647–66, https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12659.

8 Garavaglia, “The Crises and Transformations,” 1.

9 Garavaglia, “The Crises and Transformations,” 1.

10 Bonatti, Una guerra infame, 192.

11 For a full account of the creation of the elite, ruling class in Argentina see Tulio Halperín Donghi, Revolución y guerra: Formación de una élite dirigente en la argentina criolla [Revolution and War: The Formation of a Ruling Elite in Creole Argentina], 1st ed. (in Spanish). (Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Argentina, 1972).

12 The Sociedad Rural represented the interests of those elites who owned estancias, or large estates of land. These estancieros were in conflict with the overwhelmingly urban working classes. See Bonatti, Una guerra infame, 18–19; Robert J. Alexander, A History of Organized Labor in Argentina (London: Praeger, 2003), 51–52.

13 For a discussion of the relationship between the Pampa and modernist architecture in the 1940s see Ana María León, Modernity for the Masses: Antonio Bonet’s Dreams for Buenos Aires. First edition. Lateral Exchanges. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021, 77–128, in particular 77–80.

14 Ana María León and Andrew Herscher, “At the Border of Decolonization,” e-flux Architecture, The Settler Colonial Project, May 2020, https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/at-the-border/325762/at-the-border-of-decolonization/; Ana María León, “Plains and Pampa: Decolonizing ‘America,’” Harvard Design Magazine, accessed February 3, 2023, https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/48/plains-and-pampa-decolonizing-america.

15 Both maps, and their representation of the Pampa, allowed the crucial aspect of Argentina’s capitalist economy—land—to be seen and reconstructed as a series of fields, first as a site of a battle, then as one for construction and movement of goods, people, and capital. See Susan Buck-Morss, “Envisioning Capital: Political Economy on Display,” Critical Inquiry 21:2 (1995): 441.

16 Peter H. Smith, Politics and Beef in Argentina: Patterns of Conflict and Change (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), 33.

17 Smith, Politics and Beef, 1.

18 Smith, Politics and Beef, 13.

19 Aldo Ferrer, The Argentine Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 135.

20 Jairus Banaji, Theory and History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2010), 333.

21 The Roca-Runciman Treaty of 1933 was the subject of much debate and negotiation. See Smith, Politics and Beef, 142–44.

22 Approximately 3,330,000 (mostly European) immigrants arrived in Argentina between 1857 and 1914, with the government establishing universal, obligatory male suffrage in 1912. Ferrer, The Argentine Economy, 89.

23 For more on the specific conditions that led to the coup and corruption in Buenos Aires and nationally see María Dolores Béjar, El régimen fraudulento: la política en la provincia de Buenos Aires, 1930–1943, [The Fraudulent Regime: Politics in the Province of Buenos Aires, 1930–1943] Colección Historia y Cultura (Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores Argentina, 2005); David Rock, Authoritarian Argentina: The Nationalist Movement, Its History, and Its Impact (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

24 Béjar, El régimen fraudulento, 151–52.

25 The Province of Buenos Aires is separate from the National Capital of Buenos Aires, though they are historically related and geographically nested. For a comprehensive account of many of these works, see René Longoni and Juan Carlos Molteni, Francisco Salamone: sus obras municipales y la identidad bonaerense [Francisco Salamone: His Municipal Work and the Identity of Buenos Aires], Serie cuarta: Estudios sobre la historia y la geografía histórica de la Provincia de Buenos Aires 12 (La Plata: Provincia de Buenos Aires, Instituto Cultural, Dirección Provincial de Patrimonio Cultural, Archivo Histórico “Dr. Ricardo Levene,” 2004).

26 The number of articles about Salamone in the popular press in Argentina is notable, with articles appearing over the past few years in La Nación, Clarín, and other mainstream newspapers. A bourgeoning tourist trade has developed, with a “Salamone Route” being promoted as a way to see the circuit of work of this “enigmatic” Argentine architect as part of an experience. See for example Pierre Dumas, “La ruta Salamone: un viaje por la enigmática obra del gran arquitecto [“The Salamone Route: A Journey Through the Enigmatic Work of the Great Architect”],” La Nacion, January 6, 2019, https://www.lanacion.com.ar/turismo/viajes/la-ruta-del-futurismo-bonaerense-nid2208006/. In fact, two of the primary scholars of Salomone, both practicing architects and professors at the University of La Plata, Argentina, first published their research through a university press and later published it in a series, Masters of Argentine Architecture, produced by the nation’s largest newspaper. See René Longoni and Juan Carlos Molteni, Francisco Salamone, Maestros de la arquitectura argentina 5 (Buenos Aires: ARQ: Diarios de arquitectura de Clarín, 2014).

27 Alexander, A History of Organized Labor, 51.

28 Ramón Gutiérrez, Arquitectura y urbanismo en Iberoamérica [Architecture and Urbanism in Ibero-America], Manuales Arte Cátedra (Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1983), 25.

29 In the original Spanish: “Representáis la economía y la producción, que quiere decir Capital y Trabajo, fuerzas antagónicas y contrapuestas, fuentes máximas y únicas de la riqueza pública y privada, generadoras del engrandecimiento y el progreso de los pueblos, que conviven hoy en la paz social y en la tranquilidad de los espíritus.” Manuel A. Fresco, Cómo encaré la política obrera durante mi gobierno. Directivas del poder ejecutivo. Nueva legislación del trabajo. Acción del Departamento del ramo. 1936–1946 [How I Confronted Labor Politics During My Government. Executive Power Directives. New Labor Legislation. Actions by the Branch Department, 1936–1946], vol. 1 (La Plata, 1940), v.

30 Béjar, El régimen fraudulento, 160. For a discussion of the reclamation of territory in Fascist Italy, see Paolo Gruppuso, “In-between Solidity and Fluidity: The Reclaimed Marshlands of Agro Pontino,” Theory, Culture & Society 39:2 (March 1, 2022): 53–73, https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211038669.

31 Rock, Authoritarian Argentina, 115–116. For the connection between Fresco, Salamone, and Mussolini, see Alberto Bellucci and Theodore McNabney, “Monumental Deco in the Pampas: The Urban Art of Francisco Salamone,” The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 18 (1992): 91, https://doi.org/10.2307/1504091.

32 For more on the década infame, as it is known in Spanish, see Béjar, El régimen fraudulento, 143.

33 This included engineers José Licciardi, Oscar López Méndez, Rodolfo Migone, Luis Constantine, among many others. See Longoni and Molteni, Francisco Salamone, 52.

34 Silvia Arango, Ciudad y arquitectura: seis generaciones que construyeron la américa latina [City and Architecture: Six Generations that Constructed Latin America], Arte universal (Mexico City, Mexico) (México, D.F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2012), 207.

35 This is my interpretation of Arango, who emphasizes that architects began to see themselves as “public servants,” albeit for regimes whose relationship to the public was often one of outright repression, fraud, and violence. Arango, Ciudad y arquitecture, 211–12.

36 María Jimena Cruz, “Paisajes de La Modernidad En La Provincia de Buenso Aires: La Obra Del Arquitecto Francisco Salamone (1936–1940) [“Landscapes of Modernity in the Province of Buenos Aires: The Work of Architect Francisco Salamone (1936–1940)”],” Revista de Arqueología Histórica Argentina y Latinoamericana 7 (2013): 67–87. 72.

37 Further research on the details of Salamone’s relationship with Fresco and the various intermediaries involved in the projects is needed to fully appreciate the production of the work. For treatment of historic urbanization in Britain, see Linda Clarke, Building Capitalism: Historical Change and the Labour Process in the Production of Built Environment, Routledge Revivals (Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2011).

38 Longoni and Molteni, Francisco Salamone, 131–33.

39 Longoni and Molteni, Francisco Salamone, 35.

40 Longoni and Molteni, Francisco Salamone, 34–35.

41 Not only did Salmone offer a form of total design and project management—from the street to the plaza, to the building, to the interior fixtures—but he offered design services and turn-key products with a 5 percent down payment from the municipality. Whether the funds were immediately available or not, municipalities could begin designing with Salamone today and pay at a later date. He charged comparatively high fees for the time—10 percent of the total project cost—but often elected officials and local bosses signed on, given the lower initial deposit. Graciela María Viñuales, “La Trayectoria de Salamone [“The Trajectory of Francisco Salamone”],” in Francisco Salamone En La Provincia de Buenos Aires: Obra y Patrimonio, 1936-1940 [Francisco Salamone in the Province of Buenos Aires: Work and Heritage (1936–1940)], ed. Felicidad París Benito and Alejandro Novacovsky (Mar del Plata: CEDODAL Mar del Plata: Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, 2011), 64–65.

42 Viñuales, “La Trayectoria de Salamone,” 64–65.

43 Smith, Politics and Beef, 17.

44 The paving material for most streets was granite, which in large part arrived as ballast used in European ships used to transport cereals. William Ewing, Construction Materials and Machinery in Argentina and Bolivia, Spec. Agents Series No. 188 (Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1920), 50.

45 By the late 1930s, estancieros were building some of the first skyscrapers in the country, attempting to convert rural, agricultural capital into urban real estate capital. Roy Hora, The Landowners of the Argentine Pampas: A Social and Political History, 1860–1945, Oxford Historical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 200–201.

46 Bellucci and McNabney, “Monumental Deco in the Pampas,” 102.

47 Béjar, El régimen fraudulento, 151.

48 Sérgio Ferro, “Concrete As Weapon,” trans. Alice Fiuza and Silke Kapp, Harvard Design Magazine, No Sweat, 46 (Fall/Winter 2018): (insert) 8–33.

49 Michael Osman, “The Managerial Aesthetics of Concrete,” Perspecta 45 (2012): 67–76.

50 Ewing, Construction Materials and Machinery in Argentina and Bolivia, 64.

51 Sérgio Ferro, “Dessin/Chantier: An Introduction,” in Industries of Architecture, ed. Katie Lloyd Thomas, Tilo Amhoff, and Nick Beech, 1st ed, vol. 11, Critiques: Critical Studies in Architectural Humanities (Oxon: Routledge, 2016).

52 Ewing, Construction Materials and Machinery in Argentina and Bolivia, 68.

53 Norberto Galasso and Alfredo Luis Ferraresi, Historia de los trabajadores argentinos, 1857–2018 [History of Argentine Workers, 1857–2018], 1st ed. (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Colihue, 2018), 77–76; Alexander, A History of Organized Labor, 64.

54 Alexander, A History of Organized Labor, 65.

55 María González Pendás, “Fifty Cents a Foot, 14,500 Buckets: Concrete Numbers and the Illusory Shells of Mexican Economy,” Grey Room 71 (June 1, 2018): 14–39, https://doi.org/10.1162/grey_a_00240.

56 Much more work is to be done to understand just how this burst of activity between 1936 and 1940 was carried out. Original documents are only now being discovered, which will surely lead to further research. Just in April of 2023 a box of 25 original plans and other documents was discovered in a municipal headquarters storage facility in the province of Buenos Aires. “Encontraron 25 planos originales del arquitecto Salamone en Azul. Ocurrió durante una revisión del Archivo Municipal [“Twenty-Five Original Plans Found by the Architect Salamone in Azul. It Happened During a Review of the Municipal Archive”],” Página/12, April 14, 2023, sec. Cultura, https://www.pagina12.com.ar/540597-encontraron-25-planos-originales-del-arquitecto-salamone-en-.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dante Furioso

Dante Furioso is an architect and PhD student in the History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton University, where he was a Lassen Fellow in the Program in Latin American Studies between 2021 and 2022. He holds an MArch from the Yale School of Architecture, where he was an editor of Perspecta, a BA in History from Wesleyan University, and studied at the University of Buenos Aires between 2005 and 2006. Focusing on histories of architectural production in the long nineteenth century, his research concerns the relationship between colonization, industrialization, construction labor, and the emergence of design practice across the Americas.