Argentines for Progress

Buenos Aires, 1870

We are Argentines for Progress, hand chosen by President Sarmineto to instill the spirit of progress into Argentina. Our names our Ignacio Maupassant Dali heir to the cattle empire that his father left him I am of French and Spanish decent, and Manuel Marino Picasso son of Spanish immigrants who own twenty-five percent of the Buenos Aires province. We both met Sarmineto on his third volunteered exile in Chile. It was years later that we received notice to report to La Casa Rosada by El Presidente Sarmiento. When we arrived, it was there that he proposed to us to be his secretaries of Social Structure and Immigration. Our jobs consist of implementing policies for immigrants from Europe (primarily English, German, French, Northern Italians) to urbanize, civilize and beautify our country. The goal is to use the white immigrants to promote a better country. We believe we can achieve progress if we have a substantial white European population in our country. With this European population, we can defeat the barbarianism of Argentina. We seek to urbanize and modernize the culture of our country through the importation of new scientific and technological advances. Secondly, we need to import labor that is sustainable and economically conscious. It comes in our favor that the first national census in 1869 demonstrated widespread backwardness in Argentina. From this census we discovered that our vast territory only had a small population of about 1.8 million, that our housing quality reflected the poverty of our country, and that 77.9% of the population cannot read or write the Spanish language (Bethell 44). This census also revealed to our advantage that a majority of the land is virgin territory. If we start to invest and develop this land we could boost our economy. This development of this land calls for a larger labor supply, and with Argentina facing a lack of man power, we look to immigrants to invest in and developed the land. We hope that as the turn of the century approaches, we will have a surplus of manpower, but not just any manpower, WHITE MANPOWER!

President Sarimento gave us strict orders that he wants no more Irishmen in our country. He believes that we had our fill of them when 15,000 or so Irish came to the River plate in the aftermath of the potato famine of 1846 (Rock 133). He also described his utter disgust of them when he went to London. When writing about his travels, he described that “in the evenings I would approach the deck, to which the unhappy, naked, haggard Irish, their lives animated by the hope of seeing the end of their wretchedness in the promised land, would come out like rats from their holes” (Patton 66).

For too many years we have watched Argentina slip into barbarianism, the complete opposite direction of a world continually adapting civilization. The movement from barbarianism to civilization depends on the social, ideological and economic resources that have brought success to other nations. Now we believe it is our time to move our nation towards the path that European nations have pursued. We aspire to be a new and improved European nation in Buenos Aires. We have come up with a number of ways to succeed in our endeavor of civilizing our country and these ways include trade, beautification of Buenos Aires, education, infrastructure, agriculture, and the creation of a communication system.

At first, Argentina was only trading with the United States, England, Belgium, Brazil, and West India only. Now we demand more trade and we need it to further our economy and create state relations with our European counterparts. With this desire, we should immediately send representatives to the rest of white Europe (France, Italy, and Germany) to start trade agreements at once. Once we have made these arrangements with these European nations, we should focus on rebuilding our ports so we can welcome their grand ships of European goods into our country.

President Sarimento believes that if we wish to establish this trade with our European counterparts, then we should immediately set up a telegraph communication line between Buenos Aires and Paris. There is no other way faster than this to communicate with one another. It will keep us up-to-date with the European news and la mode.

One other thing we should do before we establish this trade with Europe is to begin the process of beautifying our cities and make them similar to European cities. The Europeans that have come to Buenos Aires have been disgusted by our city. In fact, they desire a more Parisian style way of life. This desire has become an indicator to us that we should switch our style of life. This is why we have literally had the city rebuilt. We have introduced wide boulevards; used marble to build monuments; created walking areas; established cafés, parks, and ways for sanitation; and government held public events. At social gatherings we introduce the newest fashion styles from Europe. For men, we have introduced the heavy wool coats that the British wear. For women, they have become influenced by Parisian style dress. It is our job to show the Europeans that we can be just as civilized as them.

We have also aided President Sarmiento and Secretary of Education in reforming our school system. President Sarimento spent many years traveling throughout Europe and the United States and came back with the desire to model our education system like theirs. In fact, he brought female teachers from the US to staff the schools. He also believes that German, French, and English should be common languages taught in the classrooms. We believe that this is necessary for our future relations with European nations. Our children, the future leaders of Argentina need to know the best and most progressive languages of the world.

To continue this process of progress in Argentina, we have also strongly encouraged the new immigrants to go out into the country and develop it. Almost all immigrants who have come to Argentina settle in the country. Expanding into the country allows us to dominate the region and further our developing nation.

This is only a short summary of our beliefs. We hope that someday Argentina we will be as influential as a European country. That is why we have picked up the ideas of progress and development. Progress and development will lead Argentina to a whole new level and a whole new place in the world system.

Side note: It wasn’t till 1876 that we inaugurated the practice of appointing agents in Europe to recruit settlers throughout Europe, with the incentives of free several days’ lodging in the port of Buenos Aires, and exempted from duties on their tools and personal possessions. Later on as we expanded south and northward agriculturally, harvest workers from Europe only received free rail transportation to different zones of the country.

By Geovanni Almanza, Sam Fillenworth, Josh Utter