Beneath the Facade of Wealth: Buenos Aires in the 1890s: an Analysis of Theodore Child’s “The Spanish-American Republics” (1891)
By Cameron Parsons

Writing in 1890 for the New York-based Harper’s Magazine, travel journalist Theodore Child ventured south of the equator to the Republic of Argentina in order to document for his American readers “the slow and mysterious task of creating civilization” (Child, v). He arrived in the country at a crucial moment in the nation’s development. After more than sixty years of post-independence history marked by internal fragmentation, near constant political upheaval, and stagnant economic development, Argentina had by the time of his writings entered upon an era of profound growth that was reshaping the look, feel, and character of the nation. Fueled by an influx of much needed labor and capital from Europe and benefitting from recent territorial consolidation under liberal political rule, Argentina was rapidly integrating into the mercantilist world economy on the strength of exports of meat and grain from its fertile pampas regions. Economic growth rates soared to five percent per year while imports of finished goods from Europe dramatically increased (MLA, 250). This contributed to a newfound prosperity that accrued in the hands of Argentina’s landed and political elite, and to a subsequent “great movement of development and modernization” in the capital city of Buenos Aires. (Child, vi)

However, to the skeptical eye of Northern observers such as Child, the “rapid transformation” of the region was nonetheless “curious” and “disheartening” (Child, vi). With a tone of condescension, Child describes the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires as one that fancies itself an equal counterpart of European or American cities—on-par in terms of civility and civilization—when it has, in reality, only a achieved the status of a “less successful counterfeit” (Child, 294). Indeed, he proclaims that Argentines have sought to “imitate” Europe “in all that concerns civilization” (Child, 275). They have used their newfound wealth to build a capital with a “markedly European aspect”; to purchase all the goods of “art or of luxury that London, Paris, Milan produce”; to develop newspapers which “aspire to become the Harper’s Weekly or the Graphic of South America”; and to promote commercial areas that can rival those of “Paris’ Magasins du Louvre” (Child, 275, 277, 278). However, as the author sees it, with all these ventures the Argentines had succeeded only in crafting an elegant façade that soon falls away to reveal a true lack of cultural refinement that no amount of money can hide.

Nowhere is this made clearer than in his observations of the public amusements of Argentinean society. Beginning with his description of the Argentineans’ importation of horseracing from Europe, Child praises their construction of “picturesquely-situated tracks and tastefully-designed tribune” and for their investments in “well-stocked racing stables” (Child, 294). He immediately senses the wealth and the extravagance in the design of the hippodromes, and expects to find a matching level of “civility, elegance, and fashion” in the character of those who attend (Ibid). However, as was typical of his experiences with Buenos Aires, beneath the pervasive materiality, the rough gaucho culture of Argentinean society remains:

In the tribune of the members of the Jockey Club…what men! How coarse and brutal in their manner! How gross and unclean in their language, how aggressively vulgar, how utterly lacking in refinement of any kind! For this rough horde of human beings, the only interest that the races offered was the betting…. In such a rough crowd as this there is no place for honest women (Child, 295).

Even though the men who attend such events flaunt their newfound wealth and status—the “rich young creoles” wearing “light colored cravats and enormous diamond pins” and taking every care possible to “make themselves conspicuous”—ultimately, these are the acts of an Argentine nouveau-riche desperately attempting to recreate a European high-society they know little to nothing about (Child, 298, 299). As Childs sees it, the “culture of Buenos Ayres [sic] is not yet sufficiently developed to appreciate” such activities[1] (Child, 298). In the capital city, the only culture that exists is one of “coarse and brutal materialism…. There seems to be no poetry, no sentiment,” only “the ostentatious display of wealth in the grossest manifestation of vulgar luxury” (Child 304).

Understanding Childs’ Perspective:

One immediately senses certain contempt in Child’s writing. But where does this critical tone come from? Why does Child spend so much of this chapter on the Argentine capital deploring not only the acts and mannerisms of its citizens in public, but more importantly, their haughty displays of opulence?

Certainly, one could easily attribute this to his sense of American superiority in comparison to Southern neighbors that he sees as still developing. According to Child, the Argentines desperately need to assert their relative place in the world. As he says, the Argentines “boast of their capital, of its rapid progress, and the luxury of life at Buenos Ayres. This pride and self-congratulation is largely justified, but nevertheless, the reality falls far below the descriptions that are current” (Child, 262).

However, reading this travelogue one gets the sense that his general contempt is motivated more by his sense of America’s superiority over Europe, and his frustration that the Argentines had chosen to emulate Paris, Milan, and London over New York, Washington, or Boston. Writing at a point in history when the United States had truly entered upon the world stage and begun to project its political, economic, and cultural power, Child likely believes that the age of European preponderance has come to a close and that the United States represents the future in all regards. He frequently references the achievements of the United States. He reminds his audience that it was the American Constitution that the government of Argentina chose to use as the basis for the Republic. He reports that the accumulation of wealth in Buenos Aires is rivaled by no other city, “except those of North America.” He praises the values of Americans and their country where “moral and intellectual improvement are uppermost in the thoughts and works of innumerable patriotic citizens” (Child, 312). However, despite these praiseworthy qualities of the United States, Argentines continue “too look up to the French,” and “imitate them when they become rich enough” (Child 275). In doing so, from Child’s perspective they slight the United States, and perhaps delay their progress towards true civilization and cultural refinement.

Moreover, his disdain for the Argentine capital and its residents’ European ostentation may also be found in his economic concerns. In continuously seeking to emulate the Europeans by using their newfound wealth to buy “rich fancy articles and objets de luxe” almost exclusively from European markets, the Argentines have bypassed “the gold silver smiths’ art, the weaving of rich stuffs…the making of fine furniture” of Northern manufactures and their products of “real artistic merit” that are far superior to the “poor, vulgar, and commonplace articles [from Europe] that the Argentines have received in exchange for their dollars” (Child, 279). In doing so, they have “neglect[ed] an excellent and willing market” to the north, and denied American producers their share of the wealth that he finds so prominently, and perhaps frustratingly, on display in and around the capital city. Of course, his clear feelings of the injury and injustice being done to the United States fail to take into account the natural economic and sociological connection between Europe and Argentina that was forged by the arrival of nearly four and a half million Europeans to Argentina in the century following independence (Scobie, 33). Nevertheless, the conspicuous displays of wealth serve as a constant reminder of all that the American economy is currently being deprived. To explain the phenomenon, he therefore resorts to condemning the consumers, telling his American audience that the “culture of the Argentines” is simply “too limited” to appreciate the objects of “delicate taste” that refined Americans are currently producing (Child, 279).

Bibliography:

Child, Theodore, Spanish-American Republics (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1891), 261-342.

Skidmore, Thomas, Modern Latin America (New York: Oxford UP, 2005).