From Parsifal to Perón: Early Radio in Argentina, 1920–1944 (review)

In 1940, Argentina accounted for one-third of all radio stations in Latin America, featured the world’s second largest commercial network, and was number three worldwide in number of radio listeners, surpassed only by the United States and England. In this book, Robert H. Claxton provides a comprehensive examination of the exciting rush of technical, business, and artistic creativity that explains the surprising figures achieved by early radio in Argentina. Similar to other works on Argentine radio, Claxton highlights the role played by media entrepreneurs such as Enrique Susini, Antonio Devoto, and Jaime Yanquelevich. However, rather than narrowly focusing on a few illuminati, Claxton places greater emphasis on the strength of Argentine civil society, especially that of the print media and neighborhood associations, as the critical condition that created both the market and the content for the boom in radio broadcasting.

In the first section, especially the first two chapters, Claxton provides a wealth of information on the state of Argentine radio activities. The author convincingly argues that Argentine radio was an essentially national development in the double sense of being free from foreign control and achieving nationwide coverage. This last aspect, accomplished in a relatively short period, was the result of the rapid growth of radio stations in the provinces and the expansion of receiver sales throughout the country. In the mid-1930s, as Claxton reminds us, the novelty of network broadcasting, the popularity of sports and soap operas, and the furor of tangomania made radio a ubiquitous presence in the daily lives of most Argentines, regardless of social class or geographical location.

The book is at its best when, as in the first two chapters, Claxton recounts how the availability of new technologies triggered the inventiveness of Argentine individual and collective radio pioneers. Less convincing is the analysis of the political and social consequences that such innovations brought about. Claxton coincides with the accepted notion that in Argentina, no less than in Brazil and Mexico, early twentieth-century radio contributed significantly to the rise of nationalism by reinforcing the perception of national homogeneity based on a shared popular culture. He shows how radio was used to usher in tango and folklore and to promote the cult of the gaucho. However, Claxton also argues that radio contributed to nationalism by offering an example of technical achievement that made Argentines feel proud of their country. This is a debatable point. The author presents the numerous congratulatory editorials published in radio magazines as evidence, but does not elaborate on whether the population at large shared such sentiments, or even cared about it. In any case, he does not offer any theory to explain how the sentiments of pride (in this case, instilled by the number of radio stations and receivers) factored into the nationalist ideologies that took central stage in Argentine politics in the 1930s. The book contains a number of incorrect assertions such as the identification of staunch positivist Carlos (Octavio) Bunge as a 1910 nationalist criollista author and the mention of the “1934 military government” (p. 121) in reference to the constitutional government of General Agustín P. Justo. These may simply be two minor editorial oversights, but one would have liked to see in this book more engagement with the extensive and sophisticated literature on nationalism, culture, labor and society in early twentieth-century Argentina. Lacking that historiographical context, the question Claxton raises in the final chapter—whether radio contributed to democracy in Argentina—seems futile. The Argentina where broadcasting flourished was not just the jovial world of neighborhood associations and football clubs, but also one of labor, social and political conflicts that barely surface in the pages of this book.