The Trench, and food for thought

Now that, finally, Latin, and in particular South America enters the scene, I’ll talk about “political life [being] turbulent and unstable” in Latin America, as Strayer puts it in Chapter 18. Some of the events that happened in the 1800s in Argentina will probably make us think about, and reflect, on certain endeavors we embark on today.

During the 1800s Argentina was basically a group of powerful centers, called provinces. As a side note, just like we have primarily a Eurocentric view of the world, Argentineans have a Buenos Aires-centric view of the country, so most of the historical accounts have a “porteño” (from the port) perspective. Back then, it is true that Buenos Aires, being the main port of entry, was important and it received most of the European influence; however, there were other powerful provinces that played a major role in Argentinean history, like Tucuman (“the garden of the Republic”), Cordoba, Entre Rios, Corrientes, and Santa Fe, to name a few.

Side note done, the 1800s were turbulent in many ways. At the beginning of the century the country was organizing its political environment, fighting Brazilian invasions, and in plain chaos, with almost all provinces fighting for power on either the Unitarist or Federalist sides. By 1816, Argentina declares independence from Spain and all other foreign powers. In addition to the chaos, the Argentineans were also, from about mid 1800s on, conducting the infamous “Campaigns to the Desert,” fighting, and mostly exterminating, the different Native populations that existed in the country. See, by then that was the “patriotic” thing to do. Argentineans were so “European” just 300 years after the founding of the city of Buenos Aires (1536), that they had a view of the natives pretty much like the one the first Conquistadors had: they are uncivilized, and barbaric. So the Argentineans fought them.

At this point is where a bright idea occurred to government official Adolfo Alsina: to dig a trench over 8 feet deep, 10 feet wide, and 600 miles long, from the Atlantic to the Andes [1], to secure the frontier of “civilization” and keep away the natives. Sounds laughable? That was the 1800s in Argentina, fast forward to today, and see if you recognize this:





It’s the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall. The fence. I think this is why we need to learn about World history, and not just the major events, but also the ones that seem small and silly. Alsina’s trench was not much different than today’s U.S.-Mexico fenced border. Did it work back then? Nope. Will this “contemporary trench” work? I doubt it. 150 years later, we keep not focusing on the real issue.



[1] Nouzeilles, G. & Montaldo, G. (Eds) The Argentina Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press, 2002