LA CUARTA FUNCIÓN DEL CRIOLLISMO Y LAS LUCHAS POR LA DEFINICIÓN DEL ORIGEN Y EL COLOR DEL ETHNOS ARGENTINO (DESDE LAS PRIMERAS NOVELAS GAUCHESCAS HASTA C. 1940)

Abstract

In his classic study of the “criollista” discourse in Argentina, Adolfo Prieto argued that its remarkable expansion in the late 19th century was the consequence of three concurring reasons. The fading gaucho world was appealing (firstly) for the criollo lower classes, as an expression of nostalgia and of the anxieties brought about as part of the experience of modernization; (secondly) for the immigrants, as an easy way to feel part of the nation by identifying with a symbol of national authenticity and, (thirdly) for the elites, as a way to claim precedence and legitimacy for themselves by excluding the rebellious newcomers from the nation. It is the contention of this article that popular criollismo played a fourth function, which should be listed alongside the three already mentioned. Criollismo was appealing, at least in part, because it was one of the channels through which local culture managed to allude to the ethnic heterogeneity of the Argentinean people (its non-white and mestizo components in particular), longtime denied by the dominant discourses of the nation.