Las derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890-1939 (review)

Las Derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890-1939. By SANDRA MCGEE DEUTSCH. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. Notes. Bibliography. Index. xv, 491 pp. Cloth, $60.00.

Given the important role that the Right has played in Latin America, it is remarkable how little scholarly attention has been paid to it. Sandra McGee Deutsch's book on the extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in the first half of the twentieth century contributes greatly to filling this void. This thorough and well-documented study offers the reader a clear and compelling portrait of the history, ideology, programs, membership, impact, and legacy of the extreme right in the ABC nations. The book begins in the late 1800s in order to establish the evolution and continuity, along with the discontinuities, in the extreme Right's ideology and organizations in each nation. Because they reached their zenith in the 1930s, the book focuses on the three dominant fascist parties of the period: the Movimiento Nacional Socialista in Chile, the Argentine Nacionalismo, and the Ação Integralista Brasileira. The comparative nature of this study allows Deutsch to explore the domestic roots of each organization, the differences between them that emerged in response to local conditions, and the similarities that persisted across national boundaries.

Nationalism offered these rightists a principle to unite behind, a goal to strive for, and a belief by which they could identify themselves. In the name of nationalism the Argentine Right opposed immigration, the Brazilian Right rejected international finance but not local capitalism, and the Chilean Right urged Latin Americans to unite against the "Yankee economic yoke" (p. 166).

Deutsch's book effectively dispels certain myths about the extreme Right, which she carefully distinguishes from the more moderate Right. Two of the more pervasive misconceptions are that the extreme Right (like the Right in general) "consists of moneyed interests" and "ha[s] uniformly opposed the struggle of the impoverished for economic improvement" (pp. 2-3). Although most of the organization's leadership came from the upper classes, a significant sector of the membership came from the lower classes. This was particularly true for the Chilean Nacis, whose membership, according to the party, was 60 percent lower class. Part of the Right's appeal for the poor stemmed from the former's opposition to poverty, which it feared could generate conflicts that would prevent the construction of a strong and unified nation.

Women participated in the extreme Right, although they were never as numerous as men. Most rightist women worked in the different charity projects that the groups established as part of their effort to end poverty and unite the nation. Few women held leadership positions and most viewed their political work as an extension of their familial and patriotic duties. Fairly rigid ideas about gender defined these organizations. Men were to be virile, "strong and audacious" and women were to be mothers and "delicate and conciliating" (p. 235). The family, like the nation, depended on hierarchy, with men in control.

Although Deutsch defines these organizations as fascist, it is interesting to note that they did not adopt automatically the racial politics of the German Nazi Party. Indigenous peoples belonged to the Integralistas and Nacis (as did Blacks), and Jews were members of the Liga Patriótica Argentina and the Integralistas. The Argentine Nacionalistas were the most virulently anti-Semitic and the only group known to have physically assaulted Jews.

Las Derechas successfully illustrates why it is essential to examine the extreme Right in Latin America. Not only did it have a significant impact on political developments in the earlier part of the previous century but its legacy continues to influence society today. While this book will be of particular interest to specialists in the field, it is an important work for all students of modern Latin American history.

Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology

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