Discuss the representation of social and political conflict in Esteban Echeverría’s ‘El matadero’

General Comment: This was another essay that i struggled with writing and did not receive a very good grade for it. The topic was very abstract and philosophical and apparently I focused too much on trying to base the essay on the story rather than the ideas behind it. 

The newly-formed Argentine Confederate in the early 19^th century was characterised by the civil war caused by the ideological clash between the Federals and the Unitarians. One party advocated for a written law, a centralized state, and modern European customs. The other adhered to the caudillo's populist power and rural traditions.[1] ‘El Matadero’ was written during the time that Echevarria was exiled in Montevideo due to the federal dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas whose rule was characterised by political instability and violence. Sarmiento provides the most famous synopsis of Rosas existential dilemma in regards to the social climate: "De eso se trata: de ser o no ser salvaje[2]" and raised the question as to whether the political agenda from either party was beneficial to the confederate. The story is best described as a political allegory; the slaughterhouse is a microcosm for the Rosist regime whereby a well cultivated young Unitarian man is brutally killed by a mob of thugs who work there.

The clash between ‘civilization and barbarism’ in comparison with Europe is a core debate in Latin American culture. The Americans were ‘barbaric’ because of their violent and primitive ways – in ‘El Matadero’ Rosas protects the type of thugs that kill the Unitarian at the end of the story. The thugs were given legal consent to beat the Unitarian which normalises the violence and suggests that it was part of their everyday culture. Echevarria’s decision to call the story ‘El Matadero’ and have the slaughterhouse as the location for his story paints a realistic picture of the type of violence and depravity that the people of Latin America lived in, “los corrales del Alto se llenaron, a pesar del barro, de carniceros, achuradores y curiosos[3]”. Europe acts as the ‘civilised’ counterpart because of its progressive political views that they wanted to implement in their own country. The intellectual and liberal generation 37 movement advocated for the modernization of the Argentine confederate through foreign influence whereas Rosas wanted to continue the post-colonial system that had been abolished during the May Revolution in 1810. According to Echevarria, who was also part of this movement, Rosas desire to continue the post-colonial system was a symbol of ‘aislamiento retrogrado[4]’ because it was a counter revolution against the new freedoms won during the May Revolution. Liberals argued that they had been a Spanish colony which meant that they had already been exposed to foreign influence. The nation needed their guidance to move forward, “Argentina must have Europeans[5]” because they could not do it themselves. In essence, the generation 37 movement deemed Europe as ‘civilised’ and a culturally superior nation in contrast to the violent ‘barbarism’ of Latin American.

The concept of ‘civilisation and barbarism’ can be analysed on an even smaller scale- between rural areas and towns and cities within the Argentine Confederate itself. One the central causes for the civil war was the excessive centralism in Buenos Aires in comparison to the other provinces. It was deemed the urban centre and represented ‘civilisation’ because they were open to influences from Europe with whom they had contact with through the only port that was allowed to trade with the West. It acted as a focal point between the Argentine interior and the civilised world because the rural areas were considered ‘barbaric’. The slaughterhouse in ‘El Matadero’ is the mid- way point between these two ideas of ‘civilization and barbarism’. It is situated on the outskirts of the city but it is the place of contact with the rural areas where they bring their cattle in order to feed the cities desire for meat. It is where the cattle are killed, it is the place where barbarism penetrates into the city through its use of extreme violence.[6] Monti describes the slaughterhouse as on the ‘frontier’ because according to the British dictionary the word “frontera” means “a region that forms the margin of settled or developed territory; a line of division between separate or opposed things[7]”. The May Revolution signified Echeverria’s hope for change.

Echevarria also acknowledged the paradox of the generation 37’s liberal views towards Europe because the confederate needed to establish their own national identity. Latin American nationalism was founded on the idea of democratic republicanism, which was also present in 19^th Century Europe. According to the critic Spektorowski, the basic conviction was that the modern civilisation which were liberal and full of progressive nationalism was superior to the old mythical traditions and aristocratic hierarchy that had been present before.[8] However, in order to achieve this the confederate had to achieve national unity as well. It is ironic that both the Federals and Unitarians were fighting for the same basic cause- national unity- but that they had different methods of doing so. Neither of these views coincided with the generation 37’s view of “nation-building[9]”. In Echverria’s Socialist Dogma, he claimed that both the federals and the Unitarians would end up causing the annihilation of national activity, “No a la unidad de forma del Unitarismo, ni a la despotica del federalismo.”[10]

Although Rosas succeeded in unifying the country during his dictatorship as governor of Buenos Aires, it was considered by the liberal elites to represent anarchy and tyranny which was in total contrast to the spirit of a modern nation because there was no autonomy to their government. In ‘El Matadero’ there is a sense that neither party has been satisfied. The Unitarian dies from his own intensity of his emotions and the Federals who are represented by the workers in the slaughterhouse continue onwards with their same lives with no change. Echevarria’s definition of democracy and national unity was seen in his writings of the socialist dogma (It was published after ‘El Matadero’ was written but one can see the beginnings of these ideas in the story already before they were consolidated) advocating for “Fraternidad, igualdad y libertad[11]” which still has not been achieved in the world of the slaughterhouse.  

The May Revolution signified the birth of a new national literature and culture that was different from their European heritage. It “promoted an Argentina for the Argentine people[12]” who were finally able to come together and call themselves a nation without being ruled by another autonomous government. From the May Revolution Echevarria founded the ‘Asociacion de Mayo’ who were another group of liberal intellects that were biased against the federal government of Rosas who they saw as suppressing their new-found freedom of expression through his authoritarian regime. They wanted to “construir a partir de cero una cultura, romper con la tradición colonial y fundar en el ‘desierto’”[13] and the May Revolution was the beginning of hope and salvation for the new nation. ‘El Matadero’ represents cultural independence from its Spanish roots through its adoption of French Romanticism writing style. It was one of the first pieces of realist literature in Latin America that explored in depth and in detail the lives and conditions that the people lived in during the Rosist regime. While the social and political model of the generation 37 can be found in Europe, they needed to create something that would characterise their own literature and identity because they were ultimately different from Europe.

The liberal’s module for the Argentine confederate was to be realised through European immigration and a negative view towards the existing lower class such as the blacks and indigenous people. The generation 37 wanted to attract European immigrants to underpopulated regions so that they would bring with them foreign investment and their political and social ideas that would help improve the nation. In contrast, Rosas depended on the support from the lower social ranks in order to maintain power. The Unitarian in ‘El Matadero’ has been Europeanised and represents these ‘civilised’ immigrants whereas the Federal workers in the slaughterhouse are seen as ‘barbaric’. Alberti claimed that their country did not have indigenous roots but rather Spanish ones and during this time the army exterminated the few indigenous tribes that refused to assimilate with their concept of national identity.[14] Echeverria didn’t want to integrate these marginalized groups of blacks and indigenous people into his version of democracy because they were considered ‘impure’ through these associations. They occupied too low a level for the new society they aspired to create which was going to rise above the ‘barbarity’ of these people.[15] Echeverria wanted to “eliminar completamente los aspectos “bárbaros” de la población para crear un país[16]” but there were also issues with this. His definition of democracy was rather restrictive because it alienated a large part of the Argentine population through its voting system. It was selective, the people needed to own a certain amount of property and capital before they were able to participate. Echeverria was writing from an elitist point of view that was immediately prejudiced against those from a lower social class due to his political beliefs. He does not try to help the lower-class Argentine population but rather condemns them to their fate.

The concept of the ‘Europeanised’ and ‘civilised’ Unitarian in contrast to the ‘barbaric’ Federals can be explored with closer analysis to the text. The Unitarian is immediately identified by his forms of speech, dress and even facial hair when he first enters the scene, he does not even have to speak for the Federals to know who he is. According to Lanctot, physical appearance was regulated and monitored both by officials and citizens[17] which demonstrates that the Federalist government was not tolerant towards these ideas. There was a high population of Afro-Americans in Latin America because of the slave trade in the previous century, contributing to the perception of their ‘barbaric’ nature. In El Matadero, the lower social class speak in an uneducated manner “se mete el sebo en las tetas[18]” and “Se lleva la riñonada y el tongorí[19]”. They are associated with “el tongorí” which are the most undesirable parts of the animal that no one else wants to eat. They are also associated with the violence of having to dismember those animal carcasses and the violent atmosphere of the slaughterhouse. The increase of a white presence would ‘purify’ the nation and eliminating it of those traces of barbarism who were used as a scapegoat for their political and social failures. The presence of these two different social classes also suggest that there was still a hierarchy in place despite Echeverria’s claims of equality through democracy.

Echevarria did not support either the federal or unitarian political agenda, instead he was a nationalist and a liberalist who advocated for democracy. In ‘El Matadero’ there are flaws with both the Unitarian and Federal characters. The Unitarian that enters the slaughterhouse is doomed to death right from the very beginning. It is a reflection on their own political standing because “se alimentaban con esperanzas de una restauracion imposible”[20]. Some critics argues that his death makes him a martyr because he would rather die than be beaten and humiliated, elevating the purity of his ideals. The dictatorship of Rosas already showed that the Unitarian party had been defeated and in reality, can be seen as a metaphor for the death of the political ideas of the rest of the party. Their disillusionment and preoccupation with their own selves means that they are not even aware when they are heading towards danger and are continuing to fight for a lost cause. The federalist is once more characterized by the extreme violence that Rosas used in order to maintain power. Although the term ‘gaucho’ is not mentioned explicitly in the text, many of the characters such as Mataseite demonstrate their basic principles of being brave and unruly. The ‘gauchos’ (argentine cowboys) were thought to be one of the true representations of the people in Argentina and marked another noticeable difference between themselves and Europe. Spain did not have gauchos in their own country. The political clash between the unitarians and the Federals is one of the most easily identifiable themes in the story but there are liberalist undertones within his criticism towards those political ideas.   

The story of ‘El Matadero’ is not as simple as it first appears. It does not only deal with the ideological clash between the Unitarians and Federals but rather communicates the authors frustrated desire to create a new constitutional regime that allowed for national unity and foreign influence at the same time. The tone in the story is often bitter and sarcastic, showing the ‘ugly’ reality of living under the dictatorship of Rosas in the slaughterhouse. Some members of the generation 37 movement eventually contributed to writing the Argentine constitution in 1853 that was politically modelled after the United States. This did not happen until many years after he had written this story and throughout the text there was the constant longing for the ‘civilised’ Europe to reform the barbarity of Latin America and the Rosist regime. Perhaps the confederate needed a moral reform before they could embark on another political reform because there were still flaws with Echeverria’s version of democracy- there was still class hierarchy, racism and oppression fo the indigenous and black people.

Bibliography:  

Lanctot, Brendan, Literature and the Production of National Space in Nineteenth-century Argentina, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, (Colombia University, 2008) from: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Literature_and_the_production_.pdf accessed: 15/03/2019

Sarmiento, Domingo, Obras completas, Vol II: Juan Facundo Quiroga (Civilización i barbarie) (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Gutemberg, 1889)

Echeverria, Esteban, Obras completas de D. Esteban Echeverria, Vol 5: Escritos en prosa (Buenos Aires: Imprenta y librerias de Mayo, 1874)

Echevarria, Esteban, Obras completas de D. Esteban Echeverria (Buenos Aires: Imprenta y libraría de mayo, 1873)

Schulman, Sam, “Juan Bautista Alberdi and His Influence on Immigration Policy in the Argentine Constitution of 1853?”, The Americas, Vol. 5, No 1 (1948)

Beatriz Sarlo and Carlos Sltimirano, Ensayos Argentinos de Sarmiento a la vanguardia, (Argentina: Ariel. 1997)

Merriam- Webster, “Frontier” by Robert Klitzman, accessed: 10/03/2018, from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frontier

Spektorowski, Alberto, “Nationalism and Democratic Construction: The Origins of Argentina and Uruguay's Political Cultures in Comparative Perspective”, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 19, No 1 (2000)

Katra, William, The Argentine Generation of 1837: Echeverría, Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre (Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1996) pp. 133

Janover. S. William Reinventing the Nation: The Generation of the Centenary and the Rise of Nationalism in Argentina Ph.D. thesis, (Brown University: 2015) from: https://www.brown.edu/academics/history/sites/academics-history/files/images/William%20Janover%20Honors%20Thesis%20Final%20Draft.pdf accessed: 12/03/2019

Monti, Jennifer, “La visión del “otro”: racismo y ostracismo en “El matadero” y Facundo”, Revista de critica literaria Latinoamericana, Vol 1, No 1 (2013)

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[1] Brendan Lanctot. Literature and the Production of National Space in Nineteenth-century Argentina, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, (Colombia University, 2008), pp. 1-2 file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Literature_and_the_production_.pdf accessed: 15/03/2019

[2] Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Obras completas, Vol II: Juan Facundo Quiroga (Civilización i barbarie) (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Gutemberg, 1889), pp. 9

[3] Esteban Echeverria, Obras completas de D. Esteban Echeverria, Vol 5: Escritos en prosa (Buenos Aires: Imprenta y librerias de Mayo, 1874), pp. 4

[4] Esteban Echevarria, Obras completas de D. Esteban Echeverria (Buenos Aires: Imprenta y libraría de mayo, 1873) pp. 46

[5] Sam Schulman, “Juan Bautista Alberdi and His Influence on Immigration Policy in the Argentine Constitution of 1853?”, The Americas, Vol. 5, No 1 (1948), pp. 9

[6] Beatriz Sarlo and Carlos Sltimirano, Ensayos Argentinos de Sarmiento a la vanguardia, (Argentina: Ariel. 1997)pp. 19

[7] Merriam- Webster, “Frontier” by Robert Klitzman, accessed: 10/03/2018, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frontier

[8] Alberto Spektorowski, “Nationalism and Democratic Construction: The Origins of Argentina and Uruguay's Political Cultures in Comparative Perspective”, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 19, No 1 (2000), pp. 83

[9] Ibid, pp. 84

[10] Echevarria, Obras completas, pp. 24

[11] Ibid, pp. 40

[12] William Katra, The Argentine Generation of 1837: Echeverría, Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre (Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1996) pp. 133

[13] Altimirano and Sarlo, Ensayos Argentinos, pp. 25

[14] William S. Janover, Reinventing the Nation: The Generation of the Centenary and the Rise of Nationalism in Argentina Ph.D. thesis, (Brown University: 2015) pp. 13 https://www.brown.edu/academics/history/sites/academics-history/files/images/William%20Janover%20Honors%20Thesis%20Final%20Draft.pdf accessed: 12/03/2019

[15] Jennifer Monti, “La visión del “otro”: racismo y ostracismo en “El matadero” y Facundo”, Revista de critica literaria Latinoamericana, Vol 1, No 1 (2013), pp. 10   

[16] Ibid, pp. 2

[17] Lanctot, Literature and production, pp. 28

[18] Echeverria, Obras completas, escritos de prosa, pp. 225

[19] Ibid, pp. 225

[20] Echeverria, Obras completas, pp. 7