Racial Ideas and Social Reform: Argentina, 1890-1916

Author(s): Eduardo A. Zimmermann

Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 23-46
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2515946
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HistoricalReviet 72: 1
HispaniicAtmze-icatn
Copyright(C 1992 by Duke Uniiversitv
Press
ccc ool8-2168/92/$1.50

Racial Ideas and Social Reform:

Argentina,1890-1916
EDUARDO

E C E NT

A. ZIMMERMANN

ofLatinAmerica
has evinced
historiography

a growing interestin the various ways racial ideas affected the political, social, and cultural development
of the new nations. This paper addresses the particular connection between racial thought and the emergence of a social reformmovement in
Argentinaat the turn of the century.The idea of race provided a common
language and a "scientific"foundationfora wide varietyof discourses connected to the Argentine social question-problems such as public health,
criminology, immigration control, anarchism, and labor militancy that
were the consequences of urbanization and industrialization.In this context, race transcended all ideological boundaries and, as we shall see, was
adopted as a key term by intellectuals and politicians of all persuasions.
Ideas that later became symbols of reactionarypolitics, such as the intrinsic superiorityof certain racial groups over others or the need for a
scientificregulation of racial purity,were at that time considered to be
progressive notions, accepted by liberal reformersand socialists both in
Argentinaand in the countrieswhere many of these doctrines originated.'

The authorwishesto thankin particularNancyStepan,EstebanThomsen,and two anonymous readersfromthe HAHR amonga long listofcolleaguesand friendswho contributed
theirsuggestionsand criticisms.
1. For relevanthistoriography,
a recentcollectionofessayseditedby RichardGraham,
The Idea of Race in Latin America,1870-1940 (Austin:Univ. of Texas Press, 1990), provides a usefulbibliography.
See also CharlesA. Hale, "Politicaland Social Ideas in Latin
America,1870-1930," in The CambridgeHistoryofLatinAmerica,Leslie Bethell,ed. (New
York:CambridgeUniv. Press, 1986), IV, 367-441. This paper is part of a largerworkon
the emergenceof a social reformmovementamongthe liberalelitesin Argentina,18981916. I have used the termliberalreformer
to describethosewho,whilein agreementwith
the basic ideologicaltenetsofthe rulingliberal-conservative
order,advocateda moreactive
role forthe statein the solutionof the social questionand were williing,in some cases, to

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24

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Historiansof the Argentinesocial questionhave tended to identify

racismas an aristocratic
prejudice,disguisedas nationalismand used by
theelitesto represssocialunrestorjustifyclassprivileges.2
This approach
neglectsthecrucialrolethatintellectuals
and professionals
associatedwith
the scientificdevelopmentof social policies played in the politicaldebate ofthe earlytwentieth
century.These liberalreformers
and socialists
shareda modern,secularoutlooktowardthe socialquestion,whichthey
wantedto solveaccordingto thelatestdevelopments
in thesocialsciences.
Amongthesegroups,theidea ofa scientific
regulationofracialpuritywas
seen as part of a new set of statefunctions
directedtowardsolvingthe
socialquestion,ratherthanas a foundation
foraristocratic
nationalism
and
xenophobicattitudes.
A large numberof specializedjournalsdedicatedto theseissues provided a forumfor these new intellectualcurrents.Discussions in the
ArgentineCongressrevealedtheimpactoftheseideas on policydebates,
while judicial decisions also reflectedthe influenceof racial theories,
mainlythroughthe doctrinesof the Italianschoolof criminology
led by
Cesare Lombrosoand EnricoFerri.
The conceptof race was farfromclearlydefined.To some reformers
it could implythe distinction
betweendifferent
ethniccategoriesand the
establishment
of a hierarchyof "superior"and "inferior"
races. This distinction,in turn,was based sometimeson biologicalfactorsand sometimes
on geographical,historical,and culturalfactors.It was notuncommonto
confuserace withnationality,
or to linkbiologicaland culturalfeatures
of different
racial groupsas inseparable.It has been suggestedthatthe
or historicalfactorsdeterquestionofwhetherbiological,environmental,
minedcertainracialdistinctions
is "secondary."3
In thecase ofArgentina,
thatquestioncan be helpfulin perceivingimportant
in politidifferences
cal and ideologicalalignments.
Whatcharacterized
the approachofmany
liberalsocialreformers
was theirconcentration
on heredityand biological
cooperatewiththe ArgentineSocialistpartyin elaboratinga moderateprogram.On the
see Hale, "Politicaland Social Ideas."
prevailingprinciplesof liberalismand conservatism
On the Socialistpartyand itsattitudestowardliberalsocialreformsee RichardWalter,The
Socialist Party of Argentina, 1890-1930 (Austin:Univ. ofTexas Press, 1977). Daniel Pick
which(oftenby readingbackwardsfromthe
has arguedagainst"the comforting
mythology
1930Sand the War) allies them[ideas of racialdegeneration]exclusivelywiththe intellectual worldofthe farRight."Faces of Degeneration:A European Disorder,c. 1848-c. 1918
(Cambridge:CambridgeUniv.Press, 1989),30.
and Nationalism:Argentinaand Chile,
2. See forinstanceCarl Solberg,Immigration
1890-1914 (Austin:Univ. of Texas Press, 1970); Sandra McGee Deutsch, Counterrevolutionin Argentina,1900-1932: The ArgentinaPatrioticLeague (Lincoln:Univ.of Nebraska
Press, 1986).

3. Alan Knight,"Racism,Revolution,and Indigenismo:Mexico, 1910-1940,"in Graham, Idea ofRace in LatinAmerica,93.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

25

determinism,
whichtheytookto be advancedtoolsof scientific
analysis
and policy.On the otherhand, nationalistconservativewriterssuch as
RicardoRojas and Manuel Gdlvez,who held a stronglynegativeview of
the effectsof the country'smodernization
on its spirituallife,tended to
concentrateon the culturalincompatibilities
of certain"races" and the
ArgentineIndo-Hispanicheritage,disregarding
themodern,progressive,
and "scientific"
approachoftheliberalintelligentsia.4
Othercommentators
used "race"to describethebiologicalconstitution
ofthe population,therebyplayingan important
partin the origination
of
specificsocial legislationaimed at the preservation
of public healthand
hygiene;these were seen as fundamental
elementsin the fightagainst
racialdegeneration.
For thisstudyI have chosenno particular
definition
ofrace but instead
have acceptedwhatevermeaningthespecificactorsusingit intendedit to
have, thusconcentrating
moreon the different
"images"ofrace and their
effecton certainsocial issuesthanon the appropriateness
ofanyparticular interpretation
of the concept. Argentinereformers
were influenced
by manydifferent
racialdiscourses.Duringthe second halfof the nineteenthcenturythe prestigeofDarwinismprovideda commonfoundation
to a wide varietyofschoolsand movements,
and thecombination
ofracial
ideas withsocialreformmovements
became a commonfeatureofWestern
politicalthoughtand actionat the turnof the century.As StefanCollini
has pointedout,therewas "an almostfrenetic
searchforguidancein social
action,guidancewhichat the mostfundamental
level itwas feltthatonly
the laws ofsocial developmentcould provide.Hence the appeal of Social
Darwinisttheorizing....
Race, writesElie Halevy,had become the
keystoneofthe currentsociologicalsystems.
Varietiesof Racial Thought
The mostcommoncombinationof racialand social ideas was, of course,
Social Darwinism.One of the problemsSocial Darwinismposes is the
4. On the originsofArgentine
nationalism,
see David Rock,"IntellectualPrecursorsof
ConservativeNationalismin Argentina,1900-27,"HAHR 67:2 (May 1987), 271-300. To a
largeextent,the nationalist
attackon liberalcosmopolitanism
and modernization
was partof
the moregeneralantipositivist
reactionofearlytwentieth-century
LatinAmerica.Cf. Hale,
"Politicaland Social Ideas," 414-22.
5. On conceptsofrace, cf. NancyStepan,The Idea of Race in Science:Great Britain
1800-1z960 (London: Macmillan,1982), xii. For thequotation,see StefanCollini,Liberalism
and Sociology:L. T. Hobhouseand PoliticalArgumentin England 1880-1914 (Cambridge:
CambridgeUniv. Press, 1979), i88; Elie Hal6vy,A Historyof the EnglishPeople in the
NineteenthCentury,vol. 5, Imperialismand the Rise of Labour, 1895-1905 (New York:
Barnes& Noble, 1961), 53.

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26

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wide varietyof interpretations

to which it has been subjected. Probably the most extendedview is its identification
with the doctrinesof
HerbertSpencer,undoubtedlyone ofthe mostinfluential
thinkersofthe
nineteenthcentury.His doctrine,in its mostextremeversion,implieda
in the processof selection
"scientific"
condemnationof any intervention
operatingin societyas rigorously
as in the naturalworld.This credo was
fervently
adopted and disseminatedin the UnitedStatesby economists
likeWilliamGrahamSumnerand businessmenlikeAndrewCarnegieand
JohnD. Rockefeller.6
The Spencerianinterpretation,
however,was by no means the only
one. As Michael Freeden has shownin thecase ofthe EnglishNew LibdoctrinesthatupheldSpencer's
erals,thesamebiologicaland evolutionary
schemewere used as an argument
forstateintervention
in socialand ecoof difnomicmatters,significantly
abettingthe ideologicalconformation
ferentcurrentsofsocial reform."ReformDarwinism"claimedthatsocial
were the genuinerequisites
solidarityand mutualaid, not competition,
forprogressin humanevolution.7
Otherreformers
linkedthe Spencerianinterpretation
to the struggle
between groups, not individuals,givingbirthto a mixtureof racialism,nationalism,and imperialexpansionism,
as exemplified
by Theodore
Rooseveltand JosephChamberlainwiththeirideals of Anglo-SaxonimThis"exterperialismand theUnionoftheTeutonicPeoples,respectively.
nal" Social Darwinismalso emphasizedsocial reformand the elimination
of "internal"competitionas a meansofachievinga standardof "national
thatwouldensurevictoryin thestruggleagainstothergroups.8
efficiency"
"VarietiesofSocial Darwinism, in
6. On Social Darwinismcf.GertrudeHimmelfarb,
herVictorianMinids(Londonand New York:Knopf,1968),314-32; RobertM. Young,"MalThe CommonContextofBiologicaland Social Theory,"Past and
thusand the Evolutionists:
Present43 (May 1969), 109-41; R. J. Halliday,"Social Darwinism:A Definition,"Victorian
Studies 14:4 (June 1971), 389-405; James Allen Rogers, "Darwinism and Social Darwinism,"

Journalof the Historyof Ideas 33:2 (April-June1967), 265-80. On Spencer's U.S. advoSocial DarwinisininAmericanThought(Boston:Beacon Press,
cates,cf.RichardHofstadter,
1955),5i-66; RobertC. Bannister,Social Darwinism:Scienceand Mythin Anglo-American
Social Thought (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1979), 97-113; Sidney Fine, Laissez Faire

and the General WelfareState:A Studyof Conflictin AmericanThought1865-1 90o (Ann

Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1956), 43-46, 79-91.

7. On the New Liberals,see Michael Freeden, "Biologicaland EvolutionaryRoots of

the New Liberalismin England,"PoliticalTheory4:4 (Nov. 1976); "Eugenicsand ProgresThe HistoricalJournal22:3 (1979); and The
sive Thought:A Studyin IdeologicalAffinity,"
New Liberalism:An Ideologyof Social Reform(Oxford:ClarendonPress, 1986), 76-116.
See also Collini,Liberalismand Sociology,171-208. On "ReformDarwinism"see Rogers,
"Darwinismand Social Darwinism,"267.
8. On Rooseveltand Chamberlain,see Hal6vy,HistoryoftheEnglishPeople,V, 41-68.
On "external"Social Darwinism,cf.BernardSemmel,Imperialand Social Reform:English
Social-ImperialThought1895-1914(Cambridge:HarvardUniv. Press, 1960), 29-44; G. R.
A Studyin BritishPoliticsand PoliticalThought,
Searle, The Questfor NationalEfficiency:

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

27

Still others saw the main threat to national interestsin the deterioration of the physical health and racial purityof the population, and sought
the remedy in eugenics, the selective breeding of the population favoring
the fitand discouraging the unfitin order to improvehuman stock. George
Bernard Shaw summarized this position in his play Man and Superman
(1903), claiming that "the socialization of the selective breeding of man"
was "the only fundamental and possible socialism."9 The connection between the eugenics movement and social imperialism was established by
Karl Pearson, one of the leading eugenicists, in his definitionof "the scientificview of a nation":
an organized whole, kept up to a high pitch of internal efficiencyby
ensuring that its numbers are substantiallyrecruited fromthe better
stocks, and kept to a high pitch ofexternalefficiencyby contest, chiefly
by way of war with inferiorraces, and with equal races by the struggle
fortrade routes and forthe sources ofraw materialand offood supply.'o
In addition to absorbing these Anglo-Saxon intellectual currents, Argentine intellectuals, like so many others in Latin America, looked to
France for guidance. The neo-Lamarckian concept of heredity and descent put forthby French scientists,with its emphasis on the inheritance
of acquired characteristics, and the theory of degeneration espoused by
Morel provided furtherexamples of the fusion of biological and social
thought. As Nancy Stepan shows in her book on Latin American eugenics, the neo-Lamarckians' "soft"theoryof inheritance, which allowed for
environmentalfactorsin the hereditaryprocess, suited perfectlythe Latin
American progressives' optimismabout the reformof social conditions and
the development of the sanitation sciences as means to racial improvement. On the other hand, neo-Lamarckianism could also justifythe view
that race was inevitablydegenerating because of a poor environmentand
the influence of "racial poisons," such as alcohol, venereal diseases, and
harsh working conditions."
of social reformin
1899-1914 (Oxford:Blackwell,1971), 62-63. For similarinterpretations

France, cf. JudithF. Stone, The Searchfor Social Peace: ReformLegislationin France,
1890-1914 (Albany:StateUniv.ofNew YorkPress,1985),46.
9. On eugenics,cf. G. R. Searle, Eugenicsand Politicsin Britain,19oo-g914 (Leyden:
Nordhoff,
1976),20-44; NancyStepan,The Idea of Race in Science, 111-39. GeorgeBernard
Shaw, Man and Superman:A Comedyand a Philosophy:DefinitiveText(Harmondsworth

and Baltimore: Penguin, 1946, reprint 1976), 245.

io. KarlPearson,NationalLifefromtheStandpointofScience(1901), quotedby Searle,

Eugenicsand Politics,36.
ii. On the Frenchintellectual
currentssee RobertA. Nye,Crime,Madness,and Politicsin ModernFrance:The MedicalConceptofNationalDecline(Princeton:PrincetonUniv.
Press, 1984),97-131. On "racialpoisons"see NancyStepan,"The Hour ofEugenics":Latin
chap. 3. I
Americaand the Movementfor Racial Improvement,
1918-1 940 (forthcoming),
ofherbook.
am verygrateful
to the authorforallowingme to read the manuscript

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| HAHR I FEBRUARY

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Finally, the Italian school of criminology,with its identificationof

crime as a biological pathology and its definitionof a typical "criminal
man" based on anatomical features, also contributed to the Argentine
concern with racial degeneration.
This concern became a preoccupation during what is generally regarded as the country's "age of progress," producing a curious tension
between the notions of progress and decline-a tension which, as Daniel
Pick has shown, was also an importantpart of European cultural life at the
turn of the century.12 In Argentina,this tension is partlyexplained in that
the very idea of progress had been based on a strong racial component:
progress had been identifiedwith the preponderance of the "right" races
in the Argentinepopulation.

Racial Ideas and the IdeologyofProgress

A belief in the cultural and biological superiorityof certain European
peoples was not uncommon in regions of recent settlement. Australia,
Canada, and the United States saw their immigrationpolicies shaped to
a large extent by this belief, and by the turn of the century "it was still
possible forintelligent,humane, and sensitivepeople to believe that Europeans enjoyed an intrinsic,biologically transmittedsuperiorityover nonEuropeans." 13 In Latin America, with importantvariationsfromcountry
to country regarding the value of mestizaje and the whitening ideal, this
belief was also generally accepted.'
In late nineteenth-centuryArgentina,the combinationofdiverse social
interpretations of Darwinian biology and the optimism derived from
Spencer's widely accepted law of progress provided an intellectual foundation forthe period ofexpansion, creatinga true "ideology ofprogress." 15
Pick, Faces ofDegeneration,11-27.
13. A. T. Yarwoodand M. J. Knowling,Race Relationsin Australia:A History(North
Ryde, N. S.W., 1982), 235. See also M. A. Jones,AmericanImmigration
(Chicago: Univ.
of Chicago Press, 1960); Donald Avery,"Dangerous Foreigners":European Immigrant
Workersand Labour Radicalismin Canada 1896-1932 (Toronto:McClelland & Stewart,
1979); and HowardPalmer,PatternsofPrejudice:A HistoryofNativisminAlberta(Toronto:
McClelland& Stewart,1982).
14. See the essaysby Alan Knight,ThomasSkidmore,and AlineHelg on Mexico, Brazil, Argentina,and Cuba, respectively,
in Graham,Idea of Race in Latin America; also
Charles A. Hale, The Transformation
of Liberalismin Late Nineteenth-Century
Mexico
(Princeton:PrincetonUniv. Press, 1989), 219-44; Aline Helg, "Los intelectualesfrentea
la cuesti6nracial en el decenio de 1920: Colombia entreM6xico y Argentina,"Estudios
Sociales 4 (Mar. 1989), 38-53; ThomasSkidmore,Black intoWhite:Race and Nationality
in BrazilianThought(New York:OxfordUniv.Press, 1974), 53-64; NancyStepan,Hour of
Eugenics,chap. 5.
15. Cf. Marcelo Monserrat,"La mentalidadevolucionista:
una ideologiadel progreso,"
in La Argentinadel ochentaal centenario,ed. GustavoFerrariand Ezequiel Gallo (Buenos
12.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

29

But these expectationsof unlimitedmaterialprogress,fueledlargelyby

thespectaculareconomicgrowthoftheperiod,wereparalleledbya growingconcernfortherelativebackwardness
ofthecountry's
politicalculture.
Intellectuals,politicians,and statesmenconnectedbothto the racialcompositionof the population,in whatcan be describedas the "optimistic"
and "pessimistic"racialinterpretations
ofthecountry's
future.
Among the pessimists,European intellectualswere an important
source of inspiration.Gustav Le Bon, in The Psychologyof Peoplesprobablythe most influential
workof racialtheoryin Latin Americahad spelled out "the reasonswhyit is impossibleforan inferiorpeople
to adopt a superiorcivilization."The "inevitableanarchyof the Spanish
Americanrepublics"was due, accordingto Le Bon, to "themerefactthat
the race is different
and lacks the qualitiespossessed by the people of
the United States.1.6..
In Argentina,Lucas Ayarragaray,
a physician
who,likemanyofhiscolleagues,combinedhisprofession
withintellectual
and politicalactivities,wroteextensively
on the problemofrace, closely
followingthe argumentsput forwardby Le Bon. Argentina's
politicaldeficiencieswere ultimately
due to "thehereditary
constitution,"
and had to
be treatedas a problemof"biologicalpsychology."
Withoutimproving
the
racialcompositionofthecountrywithEuropeanimmigrants,
he stated,it
wouldbe impossibleto adaptWesterninstitutions,
because thesehad developed "amidsthomogeneously
superiorpopulations"while Argentina's
had a "degenerativepropensity."17
ManyArgentineintellectuals
choseto putmoreemphasison thebenefitsthatEuropean immigration
had alreadygranted.Thus,CarlosOctavio
in ethnic
to the difference
Bunge, in NuestraAmerica(1903), attributed
compositionthe strugglesbetweenBuenosAires(European)and the interior(Indian and mestizo)-Buenos Airesbenefiting
fromthe factthat
its Indian populationhad been devastatedby alcohol,smallpox,and tuits ethnicelements."GabrielCarrasco,in his
berculosis,thus"purifying
to thereportofthesecondnationalcensus(1895),statedthat
commentary
in thelocal population,"Germanic,
althoughthe Latinrace predominated
Aires: EditorialSudamericana,1980), 785-818; JulioOrioneand FernandoA. Rocchi, "El
Darwinismoen la Argentina,"
Todo es Historia226 (Apr.1986),8-28.
i6. Gustave Le Bon, The Psychologyof Peoples (London: Unwin, 1899), trans. of
Les lois psychologiquesde levolutiondes peuples (Paris, 1894). Quotationsfrompp. 13852. Hale makes the claim forthe significanceof Le Bon's workin "Politicaland Social
Ideas," 398.
17. Lucas Ayarragaray,
La anarquia argentinay el caudillismo(Buenos Aires: F. Laetnicaargentinay sus problemas,"Archivosde Psijouane, 1904), 2, 276; "La constituci6n
Archivos... ) (1912), 22-42, also publishedin bookform
quiatriay Crirninologia
(hereafter
(BuenosAires:Lajouane, 1910); "La mestizaci6nde las razasen Americay sus consecuencias
Revistade Filosofia2:1 (1916), 21-41.
degenerativas,"

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Anglo-Saxon,
and Scandinavianracescontribute
The
to itsimprovement."
resultwould be "a new and beautifulwhiterace producedby the contact
of all European nationsfecundatedon Americansoil." Otherschose to
emphasizethe morepracticalaspectsof thisbeneficialinfluence:"From
the fusionof the Latin geniuswiththe Anglo-Saxonenergyhas issued a
new product,extremelycapable in business,fullof practicalsense, and
veryopen to progress. . . ."18
JoaquinV. Gonzailez,one ofthe mostinfluential
voices in the debate
on the social question,also wroteextensively
on race. Althoughhe suphe believed thatArgentinahad "the
ported regulationof immigration,
enormousadvantageofnothavinginferior
ethnicelementsin herpopulation,"thisbeing the factorthatexplainedheradvantageoverotherLatin
Americannations.19
Similarly,EstanislaoZeballos, an influential
politician and foreignaffairs
remarkedin 1906thatArgentina,
minister,
among
all the Spanish Americannations,had been "the one to go forwardthe
mostrapidlyand withthegreatestuniformity,"
because thecountryhad a
homogeneouspopulation"consistingofpure-bloodedEuropeansor mes20
tizosproducedby thecrossingofmorethanthreecenturies."
That same year,the BuenosAiresHerald reproduceda conversation
betweenthe Argentinerepresentative
in Washington,
Dr. GarciaMerou,
and the U.S. president,TheodoreRoosevelt,in whichbothagreed in attributing
to the "purityoftheblood" and the"superiority
ofthe race" the
success ofArgentinain Latin America.The indiscretion
ofthe Argentine
Ministryof ForeignAffairs
in makingthisconversation
public (partsofit
were denied by the U.S. representative
in BuenosAires)was, according
to a Britishdiplomat,an exampleof"theinbornvanityoftheArgentines."
Britishdiplomats,however,werenotexemptfromsomedegreeofvanity:
theydid not disguise theirpride in reportingthatBritishinfluencein
Argentinaextendedto the biologicalfield."Our influenceis steadilyimprovingthe race, thehabitsofthought,and thecharacterofthe Stateand
its inhabitants."21
i8. Carlos OctavioBunge,NuestraAmnrica.Ensayode psicologiasocial (BuenosAires:
Vaccaro, 1918), 157-63. Gabriel Carrasco,in SegundoCenso de la Repiblica Argentina
(Buenos Aires, 1898), II, xlv,xlviii.AlbertB. Martinezand Maurice Lewandowski,The
Argentinein theTwentiethCentury(London:Unwin,1911), 65.
19. JoaquinV. Gonzalez, "El juicio del siglo,"La Naci6n,May25, 1910,p. 13, and "El
censo nacionaly la constituci6n,"
sec. io: "El problemade las razas,"Obras completasde
JoaquinV. Gonzailez(hereafter
OCJVG),25 vols. (BuenosAires:ImprentaMercantil,1935),
XI, 392-97.
20. EstanislaoZeballos, The Rise and GrowthoftheArgentine
Constitution,
lectulreto
the St. Andrew'sDebating Society,BuenosAires,Sept. 29, 1906, publishedas a pamphlet
(BuenosAires:AlbionPrintingPress, 1906), 29.
to Sir EdwardGrey,Apr.20, 1906,
21. BuenosAiresHerald,Apr.20, 1906; F. Harford
London:PublicRecordOffice(hereafter
PRO), FO 371/5.W. Haggardto Sir EdwardGrey,
Dec. i6, 1906, PRO, FO 371/194.

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RACIAL IDEAS

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REFORM

31

It is interesting
to note thatthosewho reactedagainstthe mostextremeracistinterpretations
also based theirargumentson racial terms,
thusreflecting
the extentto whichracialcategoriespredominatedin the
intellectualoutlookofthisperiod.22AgustinAlvarez,forinstance,founding vice presidentof the University
of La Plata and one of the mostrespected liberalintellectualsof his age, rejectedthe pervadinginfluence
in the analysisofArgentineinstitutions.
In his
ofbiologicaldeterminism
Transformacion
de las razas en Ame'rica (1908), Alvarezattributedthe
politicaland institutional
backwardnessof Latin Americato culturalfactorssuchas theundisputeddomination
oftheCatholicchurch,and stated
was thekeyto genuineracialimprovement:
thata culturaltransformation
"Una raza de hombresno se mejoradurablemente
por la cruza con otras
ya mejoradas,como los ganados,sinopor la mejorade sus propiasideas,
sentimientosy costumbres. , , ," 23

former
PresidentCarlosPellegriniquestionedthe
Similarly,
Argentine
exaggeratedinterpretations
inspiredby Le Bon. Lamenting"the superficialand incompleteexaminationof the facts"upon whichLe Bon had
based his analysis,Pellegriniaccused the Frenchwriterofusing"a number of inaccurateand prejudicedfacts,whichhave been gatheredfrom
the writingsof a dyspepticand ill-tempered
journalist."24
Pellegrinidenied any fundamental
distinction
betweenAnglo-Saxonand Latin races;
he believedin "theunityofthe humanrace,"whichled
on the contrary,
himto an optimisticconclusionaboutthefutureofArgentina:
The hazards of life,in the courseof centuries,havingdispersedthe
the earth,it has formed,underthe influprimitiverace throughout
ence of circumstances,
new types,whichin the course of timehave
metand mingled,to formnew crossesin theirturn,whichas a matter
offactare onlymodalitiesofa commonprimitive
race .... Thus this
Republicpossessesall the requisiteconditionsofbecoming,withthe
passage oftime,one ofthegreatestnationsoftheearth.25
Race, therefore,pervadedboth pessimisticand optimisticvisionsof
theArgentinefuture,and itsinfluencewentbeyondideologicaland political divisions.Socialistintellectuals
and politicianssharedmanyofthe asI am indebtedto NancyStepanforcallingmyattenition
to thisparadox.
"A human race cannotbe genuinelyimprovedby its fusionwithan alreadyimproved race, as if it were cattle,but by the betterment
of its own ideas, sentiments,and
customs....
de las razas en America(Barcelona:
AgustinAlvarez,La transformnaci6n
Granada, 1906), 153, 156.
24.
Carlos Pellegrini,Introduction
to Martinezand Lewandowski,TheArgentinein the
TwentiethCentury,xliii-xliv.The sourceused by Le Bon thatirritatedPellegriniso much
was TheodoreChild, The SpanishAmericanRepublics(New York:Harper,1891), trans.of
Les republiqueshispano-americaines
(Paris,1891).
25.
Pellegrini,Introduction,
li-lii.
22.

23.

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sumptions
oftheevolutionist-racialist
approachexpoundedbyliberalsand
conservatives.
Leading Argentinesocialistsreflectedin theirpronouncementsthe importanceof the principlesof Darwinismand biologyin the
conformation
of theirparticularbrandof socialism.AlfredoPalacios,the
firstsocialistcongressmanelected in Latin America,made in one of his
firstinterventions
in the Chamberof Deputies a particularinterpretation of the interactionof Darwinismand socialism.Socialism,he said,
wanted"equalityat the startingpoint,so that,accordingto the rules of
Darwiniantheory,the fittest
shallprevailand become the best." JuanB.
Justo,founderof the Socialistparty,did not go thatfar,but began his
book Teoriay practicade la historia(1gog) witha chapteron "thebiological bases ofhistory."Justoput fortha biologicalinterpretation
ofhuman
historybased on Malthusianand Darwinianideas, but rejectedthe idea
whichhe considered"a defenseofprivilegein scienofa racialhierarchy,
tificgarb."AugustoBunge, socialistdiputadoand a leadingforcein the
DepartamentoNacionalde Higiene,similarly
claimedthathumanethics
shouldbe based on biology.UnlikeJusto,he did condemncoloredraces
as anthropologically
and morallyinferior
to Caucasians.26
JoseIngenieros,anothersocialistwriterand one ofthemostinfluential
Latin Americanintellectuals
ofthisperiod,revealedhowfarthenew evolutionaryideas, and theprincipleofthestruggleforlifein particular,
had
thenew outlookwhenhe declaredthe republicantrilogy
gone in forming
. . . scientifiquement
of"liberte,egalite,fraternite
absurde:Le determinismenie la liberte,la biologienie l'egalite,et le principede la luttepour la
tousles etresvivants,nielafraternite."27Ingenievie, auquel sontsoumnis
roswas also one oftheforemost
advocatesofracialinterpretations
ofsocial
ofthewhiterace,he said, made inevitablein
phenomena.The superiority
the Americasthe progressivesubstitution
of the indigenousraces, as exwhiterace."28He playedan
emplifiedby the emergenceofan "Argentine
importantpart in the fusionof biology,psychiatry,
and criminology
that
characterizedthe emergentArgentine
fieldoflegal medicine.
26. Palacios' speech is recordedin the Diario de sesionesde la Ciinara de Diputados
(hereafterDSCD), 1904, I, 465. JuanB. Justo,Teoria y practica de la historia,ist ed.
(Buenos Aires:Lotitoy Barberis,1909; 2nd ed. 1915), 13-52. AugustoBunge, "Los fundamentosbiol6gicosde la moral,"Revistade Filosofia1:2 (1915),69-83; idem., El cultode la
vida (BuenosAires:Perrotti,1915),171-72.
". . . determinism
27.
denies liberty,biologydeniesequality,and the principleof the
strugglefor life,rulingall livingbeings,deniesfraternity."
JoseIngenieros,La legislation
du travaildans la republiqueargentine(Paris:Cornely,1906), x, emphasisadded. See also
RicaurteSoler,El positivismo
argentino(BuenosAires:Paid6s, 1968), 167-97.
28. Ingenieros,"La formaci6n
de una raza argentina,"
Revistade Filosofta1:2 (1915),
464-83. On the idea of a distinct"Argentinerace," see also Wenceslao Tello, "La raza
argentina,"
Atlfintida
8 (1912), 37-40, and NorbertoPifiero,"Nacionalismoy raza," Revista
Argentinade CienciasPoliticas4 (1912), 261-64.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

33

Race, Crime, and the Social Question

In the prevailingintellectualclimate,the problemsposed by the emerging Argentinesocialquestionwere inevitably
associatedwithracialideas.
In 1908, a Britishobserverstatedthatlaborunrestwas the resultoflabor
being "recruitedfromthe lower class of immigrants,
and from a race
notremarkable
for stability,"
an interpretation
thatwas widelysharedby
Argentineintellectuals
and politicians.These trendswerealso reflectedin
literature,withnovelslike Eugenio Cambaceres'En la sangre (1887) or
Martel'sBolsa (1890), whichdisplayedmarkedracialprejudicesin
Juliain
The numberofItalians
theirtreatment
of Italianand Jewishimmigrants.
and Spaniardsarrestedby the police forcriminaloffensesand anarchist
activismduringthefirstyearsofthiscenturyreinforced
thepopularbelief
in the intrinsic
"criminaltendencies"ofLatinimmigrants.29
schoolofcriminology
Here, theroleplayedbytheItalianpositivist
deservescarefulconsideration.
The distinctive
featureofthisschool,which
had its firstdeclarationofprinciplesin Lombroso'sCriminalMan (1876),
was the treatmentof crimeas a biologicalpathologyto be studiedempirically,discardingthe metaphysicalnotionsof freewill or individual
responsibility
and theclassicaltradition
ofcriminallaw associatedwiththe
worksof Beccaria and Bentham.Criminals,not crime,were, according
to Lombroso,the properobject of study.He thusdevelopeda detailed
accountofanatomicalstigmatathatcharacterized
the typicaluomo delinquente.These features,includinga largejaw, a low and narrowforehead,
and large ears, helped to identify
for
thosewho had an innateproclivity
crime. Once theywere identified,theirpunishmenthad nothingto do
withtheirindividualresponsibility-their
criminaltendencyhavingbeen
biologicallydetermined-but was insteada necessarymeasureof social
protection.30

were adoptedby
In Argentina,theprinciplesofpositivist
criminology
juristsand hygienistsconcernedwithproblemsof criminality
and social
unrest.The late i88os saw the foundingofthe Sociedad de Antropologia
Juridicaby JoseMaria Ramos Mejia (directorof the AsistenciaPuiblica),
29.
The Britonis N. L. Watson,The Argentineas a Market(Manchester:Manchester
Univ.Press,1908), 12-15, emphasisadded. On ItaliansandJews,cf.Tulio Halperin-Donghi,
y aceleraci6ndel procesomod"%Para que la inmigraci6n?
Ideologiay politicainmigratoria
ernizador:el caso argentino(1810-1914),"Jahrbuchfur Geschichtevon Staat, Wirtschaft
und Gesellschaftlateinamerikas13 (1976), 468-72; and GladysOnega, La inmigraci6nen
la literaturaargentina(BuenosAires,1979). On Latin"criminaltendencies,"see JuliaKirk
Blackwelderand LymanL. Johnson,"ChangingCriminalPatternsin BuenosAires, 18901914, JournalofLatinAmericanStudies14:2 (Nov. 1982),359-80.
30. StephenJayGould, The Mismeasureof Man (New York:Norton,1981), 122-42;
Italy(Atlantic
JohnA. Davis, Conflictand Control:Law and Order in Nitneteenth-Century
Highlands,NJ: HumanitiesPress, 1988),326-38.

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Jose Nicolas Matienzo(laterof the Departmentof Labor), and Rodolfo

Rivarola(laterdirectorof the RevistaArgentinade Ciencias Politicas),
amongothers.Luis Maria Drago's Hombresde presa (i888) and Antonio
Dellepiane's Causas del delito(1892) were the firstworksof Argentine
juristswho adhered to the new school.31The publicationof a scientific
journal, CriminalogiaModerna, in 1898 markedthe beginningof the
school'sexpansion.The journal,foundedin BuenosAiresby PietroGori,
an Italianlawyerwho sympathized
withpeacefulanarchism,listedamong
its collaboratorsthe leadingItaliancriminologists
(Lombroso,Ferri,Raffaele Garofalo,Napoleone Colajanni) and united many of the leading
Argentinecriminologists:
Dellepiane, Drago, Rivarola,Osvaldo Pifiero,
the
JuanVucetich(whodevelopedfingerprinting
as a meansofperfecting
identification
ofcriminals),and Ingenieros.
anthropometric
adhered to the basic tenetsof the Italian
Argentinecriminologists
school and receivedencouragement
and supportfromits leaders. Lombroso translatedand wrote a prologuefor Drago's book and for Cornelio Moyano Gacituia'sDelincuencia argentinaante algunas cifras y
in Argentina.In 1902 Ingenieros
teorias(1905); Ferrilecturedextensively
foundedthe Archivosde Psiquiatriay Criminologia,a journalthatcontinueduntil 1913,when it was succeeded by the Revistade Criminologia, Psiquiatriay MedicinaLegal as a meetinggroundforcriminologists,
alienists,and hygienists
concernedwiththesocialquestion.In 1907 PresidentFigueroaAlcortaappointedIngenierosdirectorofthe newlycreated
Institutode Criminologia,
whichbecame the institutional
locationofthe
school.32In 1908, in the prologueto La mala vida en Buenos Aires, by
anothermemberoftheinstitute,
Eusebio Gomez,Ingenierossummarized
some of the new school'smaintenets.Criminalsignoredthattheywere
thevictimsofa complexdeterminism,
based on bothheredityand milieu,
"espiritusque sobrellevanla fatalidadde herenciasenfermizaso sufren
la carcomainexorablede las miseriasambientes."Ethical considerations
were oflittleuse in treatingtheseindividuals;crimehad to be seen as an
abnormalexpressionoftheprinciplesofthe struggleforlife.33
Followingthe teachingsof theirItaliancolleagues,Argentinecriminologistsreplaced the principlesof freewill and moralresponsibility
of
the classical school withthe idea of "social defense"as the justification
forpunishment.They also extendedthisapproachto the problemof anpositivistaargentino,ed.
31. Cf. Enrique Mari,"El marcojuridico,"in El movimniento
H. Biagini(BuenosAires:EditorialBelgrano,1985), 186-87.
32. Archivos ... (1907), 257-63.
the inexorabledetepathologyor suffering
33. "Spiritsmarkedby a fatalhereditary
JoseIngenieros,Pr6logoto Eusebio G6mez, La
riorationof theirmiserableenvironment."
mala vida en BuenosAires(BuenosAires:EditorialRoldan,1908),5-15.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

35

archism.Lombrosohad arguedthatthefeaturesthatcharacterizedinnate
criminalscould also be foundin anarchists.The assassinationsof several
European heads ofstateduringthe 189os had generatedseriousconcern
about the lack of proper"social defense."Franciscode Veyga,professor
of legal medicineat the University
of BuenosAires,describedthe problem ofanarchismas an issue ofsocialdefensethatwas completelyoutside
the social question;the social questionwas a complexproblemdestined
to be solved by politicalmeans,while "la delincuenciaanarquista"was
"a problemof social hygieneto be dealt withby the police exclusively."
Anarchistswere consideredpsychologically
proneto "emotionalcrisis,"
whichcould lead them-as in theassassination
attemptagainstPresident
Quintana-to an "abnormalspiritualcondition."As fortheirphysicalfeatures,deformedears were seen as "an evidentsignof degeneration."In
SimonRadowitzky,
who killedPolice ChiefRamonL. Falconin 1gog, "an
excessivedevelopmentofthe inferior
jaw, a depressionin his forehead,a
were takento reveal"thestigmaofcriminality."34
lightfacialasymmetry"
The extremebiologicaldeterminism
ofLombrosowas highlydisputed,
whoplaced muchmoreemphasison
particularly
by Frenchcriminologists,
the environmental
The old deinterpretation
oftheoriginsofcriminality.
bate aboutthe roleofheredityand environment
in theoriginsofcrimereappeared amongArgentine
A leadingItaliancriminologist,
criminologists.
the
Napoleone Colajanni,writingin CriminalogiaModerna,contradicted
exaggeratedclaimsthathad been made about the deterministic
powers
of race on the originsofcrime.He arguedagainstboththe possibilityof
scientifically
on humans
establishingthe effectof race and environment
and the idea ofa fixedracialhierarchy.35
34. On the Europeanassassinations,
see Daniel Pick,"The Faces ofAnarchy:Lombroso
and the PoliticsofCriminalScience in Post-Unification
Italy,"HistoryWorkshop21 (Spring
1986), 68. QuotationsfromFranciscode Veygain "Anarquismoy anarquistas;estudio de
antropologiacriminal,"
Analesdel DepartamentoNacionalde Higiene20 (Sept. 1897),43755; "Delito politico:el anarquistaSalvadorPlanas Virellaque atent6contrala vida del PreArchivos...
sidenteDr. ManuelQuintanael 11 de agostode 1905. Estudiom6dico-legal,"
(1906), 513-48; and C. Bernaldode Quir6s,"Psicologiadel crimenanarquista,"
Archivos. . .
(1913), 122-26. On physicalfeatures,"Documentos:autopsiadel anarquistaMateo Morral
(m6dicosforensesdel Cuerpo Consultivode Madrid),"Archivos. . . (1907), 108-9. On
Radowitzky,
see "Alegatodel AgenteFiscal, Dr. ManuelBeltran,en Radovizky,Sim6n.Por
homicidioen las personasde Ram6nL. Falc6ny AlbertoLartigau.Dic. 31, 10og. Buenos
Aires,ArchivoGeneralde la Naci6n,TribunalCriminal,leg. no. 5, 1872-1909, p. 172.
35. For the ideas of othermembersof the Italianschool,see FrancisA. Allen, "Raffaele Garofalo,"and ThorstenSellin,"Enrico Ferri,"both in Pioneersin Criminology,
ed.
HermannMannheim(London: Stevens,1960). For a comparisonofthe Italianand French
schools of criminology
and an accountof theirconfrontations,
see Nye, Crime, Madness,
and Politics,and Ruth Harris,Murdersand Madness: Medicine,Law, and Societyin the
Fin de Siecle (New York:OxfordUniv. Press, 1989), 80-124. Napoleone Colajanni'sessay
is titled"Raza y delito,"CriminalogiaModerna 12 (Oct. 1899),350-53. Colajannihad ar-

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A. ZIMMEERMANN

Argentinecriminologists,however, pointed to the correlationbetween

immigrationand increasing criminalityas a proof of the connection between race and crime. Although they did not ignore economic and geographic factors,they saw criminal tendencies as inevitablytransmittedby
heredity,thereby creating a permanent danger to society. They expected
this danger to be attenuated somewhat by the benign influence of "Saxon
immigration,"but mainly by a policy of immigrationcontrol. An article
by the Cuban criminologistFernando Ortiz published in Archivos de Psiquiatria y Crirninologia (1907) revealed the extent of the agreement on
the issue of immigrationand crime (although Latin immigrationwas not
the problem in this case): the black and yellow races, stated Ortiz, had
a strongerproclivitytoward crime because "their primitiveand barbaric
psyches lack the altruisticelement" possessed by the white race.36
The claims for immigrationcontrol went beyond the issue of crime,
and the concept of "inferiorraces" was extended to non-Latin immigrants.
Russian Jews, for instance, were considered a "physiologically degenerated race" and "a moral and economic danger," given their practice of
usury. Many also attributedthe wave of labor unrest during the "Semana
Tragica" of January 1919 to the influence of Russian-Jewishimmigrants
and their support of "maximalismo." 37 The preferenceforEuropean immibetweencrimeand physicaldegeneracyestablishedby
gued in Italyagainstthe correlation
othermembersofthe school.Cf. Davis, Conflictand Control,337. In thisarticle,Colajanni
Paul Topinardas one ofhis sources,showingthe growing
quoted the Frenchanthropologist
influenceofthe Frenchapproachwithinthe Italianschool.
connection,see C. MoyanoGacit6a, "La delincuencia
36. On the immigration-crime
argentinaante algunascifrasy teorias,"Archivos. . . (1905), 162-81;G6mez, La mala vida,
29-30;
Miguel A. Lancelotti,"La criminalidaden Buenos Aires 1885 a 1910. Al margen
de la estadistica,"RevistaArgentinade Ciencias Politicas4 (1912). See also Carl Solberg,
and Chile, 1890-1914," HAHR 49:2
"Immigration
and UrbanSocial Problemsin Argentina
(May 1969), 221. On economicand otherfactors,cf.Lancelotti,"El factorecon6micoen la
producci6ndel delito,"CriminalogiaModerna 16 (Feb. 1900), 495-500; MoyanoGacit6a,
Archivos. .. (19o6), 487-99. On
"Las influenciasmesol6gicasen la criminalidad
argentina,"
RevistaNacional25 (1898),401-2,
heredity,see Lancelotti,"La herenciaen la criminalidad,"
and 26 (1898), 375; Ricardodel Campo, "La herenciadel delito,"CriminalogiaModerna
control,see MoyanoGacit6a, "La delincuenciaargentina,"
13-14 (1899). On immigration
en BuenosAires,"RevistaArgentinade CienciasPoliticas
178; E. de Cires, "La inmigraci6n
Boletindel Museo
4 (1912), 735-46; FranciscoStach,"La defensasocial y la inmigraci6n,"
desde el punto
Social Argentino5:55-56 (1916),361-89. FernandoOrtiz,"La inmigraci6n
Archivos. . . (1907), 332-40. On FernandoOrtiz and racial and
de vista criminol6gico,"
criminologicalideas in Cuba, see Aline Helg, "Race in Argentinaand Cuba, 1880-1930:
Theory,Policies, and PopularReaction,"in Graham,Idea of Race in Latin America,52ofthewhiterace in humanevolutionby an
53. For similarargumentsabout the superiority
Argentinewriter,see Ram6nMelgar,"El tipo vencedoren la especie humana,"Revistade
Filosofia1:1 (1915),431-41.
37. Carlos Urienand Ezio Colombo,La repuiblica argentinaen zg9o, 2 vols. (Buenos
Aires: Maucci, 1910), I, 18o-81; Sandra McGee Deutsch, "The ArgentineRightand the
Jews,1919-1933,"JournalofLatinAmericanStudies18:1 (May 1986), 113-34.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

37

gration,sanctionedbythe 1853constitution,
appearsto havehad practical
consequencesin at least one instance.In 1912, answeringa requestfrom
the Britishministerin BuenosAires,the Ministryof ForeignAffairs
denied thebenefitsgrantedbytheLey de Inmigracion
(e.g., accommodation
on the groundsthat,
to 59 Sikhimmigrants
at the Hotel de Inmigrantes)
giventheirorigin,theywere notcoveredby theconstitutional
clause.38
The urban concentration
of the newcomers,particularlyin Buenos
Aires,was also a cause foralarm.In 1895, 59 percentof the immigrants
were livingin urbancenters;in 1914thepercentagehad grownto almost
70, while 57.3 percentof the whole populationwas urban,accordingto
the nationalcensus.39Lucas Ayarragaray
saw theexcessiveurbanconcentrationas the main cause of the Argentinesocial question;a "scientific"
selectionand distribution
ofimmigration
in orderto avoidthatconcentrationwas the onlysolutionto the new problems.The alternativewas the
appearanceof"thecriminaltype"or,as itwas describedin Congress,the
"'modernurban monster,"engenderedby the populatedindustrialcities
of Europe and transplanted
to Argentinaas a consequenceof too-liberal
immigrationpolicies.40

The 1876 Ley de Inmigracion

tool for
was consideredan insufficient
the achievementof saferimmigration
controls.The law prohibitedentry
froma contagiousdisease, thoseunable to work,the
to personssuffering
demented,beggars,criminals,and thoseover6o yearsof age unaccompanied by theirfamilies.Enforcement
of the law appears to have been
lenient.Between November1907and June1910, forinstance,of662, 170
immigrants
arrivingin Argentinaonly65 were excluded in accordance
withthe law.4'
When immigration
restrictions
were finallyenacted, as in the 1902
Ley de Residenciaand the 1910 Ley de DefensaSocial,manycriticscalled
forcomplementary
sociallegislationon issuessuchas workingconditions,
hygiene,and housing.42
Theirargumentsdiffered
accordingto theirpar38. R. Towerto Sir EdwardGrey,Feb. 9, 1912., PRO, FO 118/308.
39. TercerCenso Nacional,I, p. 123.
40. Lucas Ayarragaray,
"Socialismoargentino
y legislaci6nobrera(1912)," in Cuestiones
y problemasargentinoscontemporaneos, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: L. J. Rosso, 1937), I, 30.
DSCD, 1910, I, 6o.
41. Memoriadel Ministeriode AgriculturaNoviembre1go7-Abril 1910 (BuenosAires,
1910), 185-89. On the exclusionofbeggarscf. "Orden del Dia 4 de Abrilde 1896,"Ordenanzas generalesde la policia de BuenosAires z88o-iz907(CapitalFederal,1908),204.
42. These laws were passed duringpeaks ofanarchistactivism,and theirgoal was the
exclusionof anarchists,not of immigrants
on racialmotives,althoughthe languageof race
continuedto be presentin theanalysisofanarchists
as biologicallydegenerated.On the Ley
de Residenciacf. Iaacov Oved, "El trasfondo
hist6ricode la ley 4144 de residencia,"DesarrolloEcon6mico61 (1976), 123-50;Carlos SanchezViamonte,Biografiade una ley antiargentina.La ley4144 (BuenosAires:Nuevas EdicionesArgentinas,1956), 17-63. Argentina

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ticularideologicalor politicalviews. Racial ideas neverthelessprovided

a commonlanguagein whichto expressthese proposalsand an aura of
Some
scientific
prestigethatgavethemgreaterintellectualrespectability.
advocateswantedto complementthe principleofcompetitionpostulated
of Social Darwinismwiththe ideals of
by the Spencerianinterpretation
solidarityand cooperation:"Theredoes existanothertie,"wroteJoseD.
Others,echoBianchiin 1899,"themutualhelp in thestruggleforlife."43
and ReformDarwinfornationalefficiency
ing the European movements
witha nationalinterestin thephysicalhealth
ism,connectedsocialreform
of the population.Social reformwas to be foundednot on an appeal to
principlesofsocialjusticeor on individualneedsbuton thenationalinterest in preventingracial degenerationthroughthe physicaldecay of the
population.The claim was that"the economicpower and psychological
strengthof
structure
ofthenationsdependuponthepsycho-physiological
theircomponents."4This concernfoundits strongestexpressionin two
areas: publichygieneand laborlegislation.
Hygiene,Labor Legislation,and
the NationalInterestin Racial Strength
The neo-Lamarckiantheoryofhereditythatemphasizedthe inheritance
ofacquiredcharacteristics
thefusionof"nature"and "nurture"
facilitated
in the discussionof social policies.This fusionimplieda combinationof
as the targetsfor
programsaimed at heredityandthe socialenvironment
could advoracial improvement.In this context,just as criminologists
cate the exclusionofundesiredimmigrants,
couldjustifymany
hygienists
of theirproposalsforsocial legislation:it was in the nationalinterestto
publichealthand racialpurity.These proposals
preserveand strengthen
coveredlabor legislationto avoid the effectsofharshworkingconditions
the provisionof medical and
on the workers'hereditaryconstitutions;
welfareservices,justifiedwithsimilararguments;and public campaigns
against"racialpoisons"likealcoholismand venerealdiseases.
exThe secondhalfofthe nineteenth
centurywitnessedan important
pansionof stateactionin hygieneand publichealth.The creationof the
Consejo de Higiene Puiblicain 1852 (laterthe DepartamentoNacionalde
agreementsin 1894withItaly,and in 1902 withthe United
had subscribedto international
States and 15 otherLatin Americannations,to promotecooperationin the repressionof
anarchism.
43. Jos6D. Bianchi,"Cuesti6nsocial,"La escuelapositiva(1899),quoted by Leopoldo
Mind(Norman:Univ.ofOklahomaPress, 1963),227.
Zea, The LatinAnwerican
44. FedericoFigueroa,Las huelgasen la republicaargentinay el modode combatirlas
(BuenosAires:J.Tragant,1906),244-45.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

39

Higiene) and the Asistencia Pu'blica de Buenos Aires in 1883 was followed
by the extension of theirpowers of inspection and controlafterthe terrible
epidemics of 1871 and i88i. Hygienists like Eduardo Wilde and Emilio
Coni did not hesitate to expand the concept of public health to include
"the physical and moral welfare of the population."45
With the emergence of the social question in the early twentiethcentury,hygieniststook up social issues. Here was an opportunityto improve
the racial composition of the countrythrougha series of positive reforms
that would overcome the negative aspects of heredity. Augusto Bunge, a
socialist leader who, as mentioned, exemplifiedthe social-biological outlook, called, fromhis post in the Departamento Nacional de Higiene, for
improved hygienic conditions in the workplace as a means of preserving
the racial strength of the population. Bunge produced numerous statistical records on the hygienic conditions, or, as he put it, "the conditions
of physiological welfare," in differentindustries. He was very critical of
general conditions, calling for "a collective social effort"to overcome the
existing shortcomings. He extended this analysis to the problem of alcoholism, which he considered the most serious consequence of the social
question. As a socialist, he attributedthis problem to the capitalist organization of society.46The laws of heredity,Bunge asserted, condemned to
physical degradation, crime, madness, and ultimatelyracial degeneration
those who carried the stigma of alcoholism. In typical neo-Lamarckian
fashion, Bunge saw alcoholism as a culturally acquired phenomenon (a
consequence of the alienation induced by the capitalist system) that was
then transmittedgenetically,followingthe laws of heredity.47
and HumanWelfare:The AsistenciaP6blica and
45. ErnestA. Crider,"Modernization
BuenosAires,1883-1910" (Ph.D. diss., Ohio StateUniversity,
1976),26-go; CarlosEscud6,
"Health in Buenos Aires in the Second Half of the NineteenthCentury,"in Social Welfare, 1850-1950: Australia,Argentina,and Canada Compared,ed. D.C.M. Platt(London:
Macmillan,1989),60-70. For the evolutionofpublichygienelegislationduringthe period
see also Nicolas Lozano, "La higienep6blica en la Argentina,"
Anales del Departamento
Nacional de Higiene20 (1913),991-1079. On Wilde and Coni see HectorRecalde, Higiene
ptiblicay secularizaci6n(BuenosAires:CentroEditorialde Am6ricaLatina, 1989), 17.
46. AugustoBunge,"El trabajoindustrialen BuenosAires,"Anales del Departamnento
Nacional de Higiene11 (1904), 339-64, 387-410,435-50; "La secci6nde higienesocial. Sus
objectivosy sus primerosresultados,"Anales del Departamnento
Nacional de Higiene 18:1
(1911), 99-116. The Socialistpartyactivelycampaignedagainstalcoholism.Cf. "El alcoholismo,"La Vanguardia,Sept. 2, 1g9o; Donald F. Weinstein,
JuanB. Justoy su epoca (Buenos
Aires:Fundaci6nJuanB. Justo,1978),99.
47. AugustoBunge, "El alcoholismoy sus proyeccionessociales,"Archivos... (1905),
667-94. For examplesofthe campaignagainstalcoholismmountedby hygienists
and criminologistssee also Miguel A. Lancelotti,"Alcoholismoy delito.(Contribuci6n
al estudiode
las causas de la delincuencia),"Archivos. . . (190o),415-45; VictorDelfino,"Alcoholismoy
descendencia,"Revistade Criminologia2 (1915),579-84; BelisarioJ. Montero,"Notas para
la lucha contrael alcoholismo,"Archivos. . . (1905), 594-99; GermanAnschutz,"Breve
contribuci6n
a la lucha contrael alcoholismoen la rep6blicaargentina,"
Anales del Departa-

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At theotherend ofthepoliticalspectrum,CarlosPellegrinidisplayed
a similaroutlookwhile consideringJoaquinV. Gonzailez'projectfor a
laborcode. Pellegrinipraisedsomeofitsproposals-such as Sundayrest
or regulationoffemaleand childlabor-because theyaimed notat a particulargroupbut at "the benefitof the race, to avoid its weaknessand
degeneration."BelisarioRoldain,a conservative
diputado,discussinghis
projectforinsuranceon workaccidentsin 1902, emphasizedthe importanceofsociallegislationbecause itwas "a timeoftrueethnicrevolution,
ofa racialtransformation."48
Workingconditionsforwomenand childrenwere an issue centralto
racialconcerns:"thefewerproletarian
womenthereare, the strongerour
race and our social morality.'"49
Duringthe debate on the law regulating
workingconditionsforwomenand children(Ley 5291), AntonioPifiero,
one of the diputadoswho supportedthe bill, explainedthatthe goal of
labor legislationwas "a commongoal of social, hygienic,and biological
preservation,to maintainour capitalof collectivelife,avoidingits degeneration,and ensuringits normaldevelopmentand evolutionin the
future." 50

AlfredoPalacios, the socialistdiputadowho promotedmanyof these

projectsin Congress,also focusedon racialpreservation.During debate
on the bill establishingSundayrest(Ley 4661), he warnedthe chamber
aboutworkplacestrainand itsendproduct,
"a sickorganismthatwillineviwithan obviousdetriment
tablylead to degeneration,
to thespecies ...."
In his proposalsforan eight-hour
workday,whichhe presentedto Congress in 1906 and 1915, he again insistedthathe was followingscientificallyestablishedprinciples,"whichwill guide us to a physicallyand
psychologically
superiorspecies."Otheradvocatescalled formilitary
conscriptionas a necessaryremedyto physicaldeterioration;
its attendant
stimulantto the
vigorousphysicalexercisewas consideredan important
moraland intellectualhealthoftheLatinrace,seen as laggingbehindthe
Anglo-Saxonsin thisarea.5'
mentoNacional de Higiene20 (1913),

909-21;

AlfredoL. Palacios,"Medios e instituciones

adecuadas para combatir el alcoholismo," Revista de Criminologia 1 (1914), 334-41.

48. Pellegrini 1846-1906. Obras. 5 vols., ed. A. Rivero Astengo (Buenos Aires, 1941),

II, 6oi. BelisarioRoldan,"Accidentesde Trabajo,"in DiscursosCompletos(Buenos Aires:

EditorialSopena Argentina,1929), 77.
49. Elvira V. L6pez, "La mujer y la ensefianza industrial," Estudios 1 (1901), 390-99;

Enrique Feinman,"Medicina social. La defensade la maternidadobreray la legislaci6n

argentina," Revista Argentina de Ciencias Politicas 11 (1915), 449-58.

50. DSCD 1906, I, 803-9.
51. DSCD 1904, II, 476-616, and Jos6 Pannettieri, Las primnerasleyes obreras (Buenos
Aires: Centro Editorial de America Latina, 1984), 29. DSCD 1915, I, 515. Oll illilitary
service,see R. E. Cranwell,"El serviciomilitarobligator-io,"
Estudios1 (1901), 69-78.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

41

Manuel Ugarte,anotherprominentmemberof the Socialistparty,

choseto emphasizetheconnectionbetweenpublichealthand thenational
interestthrougha combinationof racialism,nationalism,and social reforstateregulationofworking
form.For instance,he based his argument
the stockfromphysical
hoursand conditionson the need for"preserving
thatwill determineour
degenerationand bringingup stronggenerations
taxationas a means
victory."Ugartefavoredthe imposition
ofprogressive
necessarysocialreforms:sacrifices
ofredistributing
wealthand financing
of
made bythe"wealthyclasses"werejustifiedbecause "theinterweaving
all the different
interestsis the purestsourceofnationalenergy."If proUgarteasserted,"it
gressivetaxationwas justifiedin timesofemergency,
is onlyfairthatwe use it in our socialwar againstpauperismand degeneracy,whichimplythepermanentdefeatoftherace."Again,the solution
of the social question is for Ugarteinextricably
linked to the national
interest:
in the nationalproblem.
The labor questioncannotbringdisinterest
[ventajascorporaVictoryofour countryand advantageousattributes
tivas] are vasos comunicantes. . . . A nationstrengthensitselfin
proportionto thewelfareaccordedto itsworkingclasses;but thesein
turncan onlyachievethatwelfareiftheycontribute
to theprogressof
theircountry.52
Concernwiththephysicaldegeneration
oftheracewas one ofthecentralthemesoftheeugenicsmovement,
currents
anotheroftheintellectual
promotingthe connectionbetweenbiologicaltheoriesand social reform
at the turnofthe century.
Eugenics in Argentina
In termsof politicalresults,the Britishmovementforeugenicswas not
very successful.Its only victorycame in 1913 withthe passing of the
Mental DeficiencyAct.53In the UnitedStates,by contrast,i6 statesby
sterilization
ofcer1917 had passed legislationmandating
thecompulsory
taincategoriesofpersonsdesignatedas "hereditarily
unfit."Mostofthose
or ignoreduntil
lawswere eventuallyrepealed,declaredunconstitutional,
the 1920S, when the movementcampaignedmore effectively.
In Latin
America,althoughthese ideas had drawninterestsince the earlytwenti52.
Manuel Ugarte,El porvenirde la AmericaLatina (Valencia:F. Sempere, 1g9o),
278-79; 280-81; 286-87; also idem., "Cuesti6nsocial y cuesti6nnacional(1912)," in La
naci6n latinoamericana,ed. NorbertoGalasso (Caracas: BibliotecaAyacucho,1978), 199202.

53. Stepan,Idea ofRace in Science,121.

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eth century,"the hour of eugenics" arrived only afterWorld War I when

the firsteugenics societies began.54
In Argentina, as we have seen, the emergence of the social question
at the turn of the centurywas connected to a wide varietyof racial interpretations, and eugenics provided scientificargumentsforpeople searching for rational answers to the new problem. In the Argentine anarchist
movement, debate raged over the meritsof the rational control of human
procreation. Some advocates justified the theory of neo-Malthusianism,
as the idea was known, because it followed "the law of evolution of the
species": "If man improves other animal species, why shouldn't he improve his own?" Others opposed the idea because it went against "the laws
of nature"; but generally it was defended as a rational means of advancing
social change or praised as wise guidance forthe "rationaland limited procreation of workerswho want to avoid the horrorsof hunger, prostitution,
and crime."55
Among criminologistsit was not unusual to discuss the merits of "an
artificialselection, more efficientand quicker than natural selection, to be
realized through the sterilizationof degenerate individuals."56An Argentine jurist concluded that Galton (founder of the eugenics movement in
England) and Darwin had proved that the influence of heredity was inescapable in human beings and animals alike. Social life, therefore, required elimination of those criminal types that through heredity could
"infect" society and cause its moral and physical degeneration. Others rejected this as extreme, defending the human organism's rightto integrity
as an inseparable part of the rightto life. Catholic writerscondemned this
"alleged social science" as "depraved and homicidal." But for those who
supported eugenics, only "ridiculous sentimentalityor a lyricalliberalism"
could oppose the compulsive sterilizationof the degenerados.57
laws. KennethM. Lud54. By 1931, 30 stateshad at some timepassed sterilization
merer,Geneticsand AmericanSociety.A HistoricalAppraisal (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins
Univ.Press,1972), 87. On NorthAmericaneugenicssee also MarkHaller,Eugenics:Hereditarian Attitudesin AmericanThought(New Brunswick:RutgersUniv. Press, 1963), and
Daniel J.Kevles,In theName ofEugenics:Geneticsand theUses ofHumanHeredity(New
York:Knopf,1985). On the societies,NancyStepan,Hour ofEugenics,chap. 2.
La Protesta,Jan.
55. The theorywas justifiedby AurelioRuiz, "Neo-malthusianismo,"
11, 1907; opposed in La Protesta,Jan. 16, 1907; defendedby Manuel M. Boyant,"Es
social?" La Procomo precipitantede la transformaci6n
admisibleel neo-malthusianismo
La Protesta,Mar. 28, 10og;
testa,Jan. 12, 90og, and JuanBiere,"Malthuso neo-Malthus?"
and praised in "Palinodia eterna,"El Rebelde, Jan. 1, 1907. See also Elvira V. L6pez,
Boletindel Museo Social Argentino21 (1913),313-23.
"Eugenismo,"
de los degenera56. AngeloZucarelli,"Necesidady mediosde impedirla reproducci6n
dos,"Archivos... (1902), 227-34. Also,the reviewofA. Pefialoza,Prevenci6neugenicade
la criminalidaden el Peru (Lima, 1916),inRevistade Criminalogia(1916),750.
see JuanAngel Martinez,"Encuesta sobre
57. On criminaltypes as an "infection,"
organizaci6nde la justiciapenal," CriminologiaModerna20 (10oo), 614-16. On the right
to integrity,
BenjaminT. Solari,"La defensade la raza por la castraci6nde los degenera-

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

43

The consequencesderivedfromprinciplesof eugenicswentbeyond

the interestsof criminology.
The causes of povertyand economic inequalitywere also identifiedwithvariationsin heredity.58
But eugenics
also led manyto reversethiscausal orderand put moreemphasison the
influenceofpoor standardsoflivingas the cause forracialdegeneration.
PaulinaLuisi oftheMontevideoMedical Schoolpublishedin BuenosAires
a summary
ofthedemandsthenewscienceputon thestate:theprotection
of racial reproductionagainstmentaland physicaldegeneration,partly
throughthe impositionofcontrolson the reproduction
ofthe hereditarily
unfit,butalso througha wide varietyofsanitary
measures.These included
reformofthe social environment
throughmeasuresto combatalcoholism
and the nonmedicaluse ofdrugs,harshworkingconditions,
poorphysical
health,and sexualdiseases. All thesewere seen as eugenicissues,affecting the hereditary
process.It was necessaryto emphasizethe importance
of"thephysicaland mentalconditionoftheparentsat themomentofconception;"Luisi wentso faras to askfora revisionoftheexistinglegislation
on abortionin orderto givedoctorsmorefreedomto deal withthisissue.59
The idea of rationalcontrolof the racialcompositionof the populationalso appealed to people outsidescientific
circles,such as JoaquinV.
Gonzailez.Afterpromoting
a nationallaborcode in 1904as ministerofthe
interior,he became the leadingfigurein the debate on the social question.60Racial concernsand the need to regulateimmigration
had been
presentin his thoughtfromthe firstmanifestations
ofthe socialquestion.
But apparentlyonlyafterthepublicationofthe resultsofthe FirstInternationalCongressof Eugenicsin London in 1912 did Gonzailezdiscover
the new scienceand embraceitwithgreatenthusiasm.
Thatsame yearhe
participatedin a seriesoflecturesbyLeopold Mabilleau,organizedbythe
UniversidadNacionalde La Plata,on "Cooperacionagricola."Mabilleau,
directorofthe FrenchMusee Social, had been an important
figurein the
developmentof French mutualism.6'Conzalez chose as his subject the
dos. Las ideas profilacticas
de Zucarelli,"Archivos. . . (1902), 285-391. For the Catholic
view,Emilio Lamarca,"La liga socialargentina,"
La Semana,Nov. 14, 1909, pp. 8-1o. For
the supporters'retort,JoseG. Angulo,"La nueva ciencia eug6nicay la esterilizaci6nde
los degenerados,"Archivos. . . (1912), 623-25. Also, E. Clapar6de,"La protecci6nde los
degeneradosy la eugen6tica,"Revistade Criminalogia(1915),456-65; Ram6nMelgar,"El
tipovencedoren la especie humana,"Revistade Filosofia1 (1915),441.
58. Manuel Sall6s y Ferr6, "Origen y causa del pauperismo,"Archivos. . . (1911),
541-54.
59. Paulina Luisi, "Sobre eugenia,"Revistade Filosofia2 (1916), 435-51. On "matrimonialeugenics,"see NancyStepan,Hour ofEugenics,chap. 4.
6o. Cf. "Residenciade extranjeros,"
OCJVGV, 177-85;"La cuesti6nsocial argentina,"
OCJVG XIII, 463-66; "Proyectode ley nacionaldel trabajo,"OCJVGVI, 327-31.
61. On Mabilleauand the FrenchMus6e Social cf.SanfordElwitt,"Social Reformand
Social Orderin Late Nineteenth-Century
France:The Mus6e Socialand Its Friends,"French
HistoricalStudies11:3 (Spring1980),431-51.

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relation between mutualismand eugenic science. The state, he said, must

intervene not only to prevent the reproductionof individuals "organically
degenerated or unfit,"thereby contributingto a permanent racial selection, but also to organize conditions of work, as "preventive hygiene."
Mutual aid societies and cooperatives realized a true "practical eugenics,"
since they focused their work on the most numerous classes, in whichgiven the tendency to unchecked procreation-there was a higher chance
of degeneration.62
In 1913, discussing in the Senate a project for a national census,
Gonzailez included in his report a section on "El problema de las razas."
He pointed to the importance of a "ley de seleccion" in order to preserve "the race of tomorrow."The census, he said, must be used as a
means to know the composition of the "superior races" that have populated Argentina(where, fortunately,"inferiorraces have been displaced").
The relevance of this knowledge, according to Gonzailez, had been conclusively demonstrated by "that new science incorporated to the science
of government .

. eugenic science."63

Having established the relevance of eugenics to "the life of nations,"

Gonzailez tied eugenics to another favoritetopic: education. In a 1914 lecture, he identifiedin education a mechanism of social selection, discriminating between the lower and higherelements ofsocietyand thus realizing
another example of practical eugenics. Finally, in his essay "Patria y democracia" (1920), Gonzalez returned to the relation between racial ideas,
nationalism, and social legislation that had played such an importantrole
in his thought.64
During the 1920S and 1930S the eugenics movementreappeared with
some momentum in academic and political circles. Victor Delfino, who
had attended the First International Congress in 1912, founded in 1918
the short-livedArgentineEugenics Society. This was followed by the Liga
Argentina de ProfilaxisSocial during the 1920S and the Asociacion Argentina de Biotipologia, Eugenesia y Medicina Social during the 1930s as the
institutionallocation of the movement. A number of legislative initiatives
on social hygiene and "protectionof the race" were sent to the Argentine
"Cooperaci6n,mutualidady eugenicasocial,' OCJVGXV, 429-34.
sec. lo, "El problemade las razas,"OCJVG
63. "El censo nacionaly la constituci6n,"
politica,"OCJVGXI, 443-45.
XI, 392-97. Also, "El censo y la representaci6n
64. On education,see Bosquejo de conferencia"La escuela cientificay la selecci6n
social. Educaci6n y eug6nica,"OCJVG XXII, 409-26. "Patriay democracia,"OCJVG XI,
636-37. The bibliographycited by Gonzalez in this workindicateshis continuinginterto Eugenics(London: Bowes
est in eugenics:W.C. D. and C. D. Whetam,An Introduction
a BiologicalStudy(London: G. Bell, 1911);
& Bowes, 1912); H.G.F. Spurrell,Patriotism,
in the U.S.," Annalsof theAmericanAcademyof Politicaland Social
"Race Improvement
62.

Science (1919), among others.

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RACIAL IDEAS

AND SOCIAL

REFORM

45

neverachievedthepoliticalcloutofits
Congress,althoughthe movement
in the UnitedStates.65
counterpart
The Paradoxof Racialism
The absence ofa seriousracialquestionin Argentinaat the dawn of this
centurymakes the prevalentlanguageof and, in some cases, obsessive
concernwithrace seem a condemnableexaggeration.Despite the racial
rhetoricin politicaland intellectualcircles,when comparedwithother
Latin Americannationsand otherregionsofrecentsettlement
Argentina
did not face seriousracialconflicts.By the turnof the century,massive
European immigration
had reducedto a smallnumberthe proportionof
blacksand otherethnicminorities
in the population.The answerto this
paradoxlies to a verylargeextentin the"artifactual"
natureofracialideas
and racialcategories:theyare nota directreflection
ofan existingsocial
realitybut a productof the complexinterrelationship
between cultural
and scientific
practices,and as such are constantly
being "created"and
modifiedunder different
social circumstances.66
Certainintellectualand
scientific
currents,plus factorsparticularto Argentina
(alongwiththe imswifteconomicexpansionand materialprogress,and a growing
migration,
concernwiththe nationalidentity),
providedan appropriategroundfor
the developmentofan Argentine
raciallanguage.
Thislanguageofraceand evolution,so closelyassociatedwithscientific
prestigeafterDarwin'sdiscoveries,was a suitablevehicleforovercoming
ideologicaldifferences
on the pressingsocial question.The role of the
statebecame a matterofappliedsocialscience,notofdifferent
ideological
a powerfulclaim
perspectivesor moralvalues,thusgivingsocialreformers
to intellectualsuperiority.
Racial ideas, therefore,
acquired the statusof
paradigmsin the social sciences,prescribingto a large degree the ways
new disciplinessuch as hygiene,social medicine,and criminology
were
to develop duringthe period. In the politicalarena,racialconcernsgave
impulseto muchofthe sociallegislationpassed duringthe period-such
as Sundayrest,regulationofworkingconditions
forwomenand children,
65. The institutions,
and the scientific
and ideologicalcurrentswithinthem,are extensivelyanalyzed by Nancy Stepan in her Hour of Eugenics.On the legislation,cf. Jos6
Le6n Suarez, "Eug6nica. Necesidad de su ensefianzay divulgaci6n,"Revistade Ciencias
Econ6micas,ser. 2, 88 (Nov. 1928), 2506-32, and 89 (Dec. 1929), 2607-24; H. Vezzetti,"El
discursopsiquiatrico,"in El movimiento
positivistaargentino,ed. H. Biagini(BuenosAires:
en la Argentina,"
20.
Editorialde Belgrano,1985),372; Orioneand Rocchi,"El darwinismo
66. On the proportionof minorities,see George Reid Andrews,"Race versusClass
Association:The Afro-Argentines
of BuenosAires,1850-1900," Journalof Latin American
Studies11:1(1979), 19-39. On the"artifactual"
aspectofracialcategories,see NancyStepan,
Hour ofEugenics,xiv-xix.

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and insuranceagainstindustrial
accidents-and to thedecisionto regulate
intoparts
theimmigration
process.All theseissueswerethustransformed
ofa new and comprehensive
scienceofsociety,an "objective"sciencethat
made no ideologicaldistinctions
in its searchforthe solutionto the new
socialproblems.
Duringthe interwarperiod,the connectionbetweenthe languageof
race and the "scientific"
approachto thesocialquestionbegan to weaken,
as new ideologicaland intellectualcurrentsbegan graduallybut dramaticallyto transform
the formand contentofpoliticaldebate in Argentina.
At the turnof the century,however,theyreflectedthe powerfulinfluence certainideas exertedall over the worldand across all ideological
betweenstateand
boundarieson the conformation
ofa new relationship
society.

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