The Ruins of the New Argentina: Peronism and the Remaking of San Juan after the 1944 Earthquake (review)

In The Ruins of the New Argentina, Mark Healey analyzes the processes of reconstruction that took place in the wake of a 1944 earthquake that devastated San Juan, a provincial capital in the interior of the country. Healey successfully argues that an examination of the disaster and the reactions to it opens much more than a window into sociopolitical conditions and relations in San Juan. It also reveals a crucible that subsequently shaped significant developments in Argentina. As Healey shows, responses to the earthquake were not only of great consequence for San Juan, they also mattered for national politics and the future of architecture and engineering in the country. Exploring how these processes related to each other, Healey provides an integrated perspective that builds on recent work on disasters and makes important contributions to Argentine historiography and the history of urbanism and planning.

Healey argues that the aftermath to the disaster was crucial in shaping Peronism, the movement that began in 1944 under Juan Domingo Perón and has dominated Argentine politics ever since. While this point may not be of great interest to readers of Technology and Culture, it upends both conventional and professional wisdom. Historians have interpreted Peronism as a movement that primarily developed in Buenos Aires, and they have described how Perón brought together a nationalist coalition that depended heavily on the urban working class and industrialists. Healey, however, demonstrates that Perón’s efforts in organizing nationwide relief efforts as the Secretary of Labor were crucial to his rise. Perón became the public face of reconstruction, and he articulated a critique of the liberal oligarchy that had dominated San Juan before the disaster. For Perón, the ruins represented the failures of the old order. In the new Argentina, however, everyone, even the working classes, would live in secure homes. As Perón publicized this vision, the relief campaign brought his supporters together. At the same time, it helped Perón develop the welfare institutions that would become a crucial pillar of his presidency.

Given both the devastation and the promise of massive government intervention, architects and engineers initially drew up ambitious plans to remake San Juan. The new city would be built following the principles of modernist architecture. Many of these plans even called for moving San Juan and building new infrastructure in the countryside around it. Some included efforts to develop an economy that would be both more diverse and more equitable than the wine industry that had dominated the region beforehand.

Few of these plans came to fruition. As Healey shows, they failed for several reasons. First, planners met staunch opposition in San Juan, particularly from members of the liberal elite. Modernist architecture, moreover, with its dependence on European models, proved unpopular amid the nationalism of the period. Finally, the central government began to scale back its ambitions for the reconstruction of San Juan in the face of opposition and a souring economic situation. For several years, the rebuilding of San Juan was piecemeal, falling far short of its initial promise. Given this, Healey argues that San Juan came to represent the ruins of the New Argentina, a testament to the shortcomings of Peronism.

But all was not lost. Perón’s promise to make housing a right of citizenship obviously struck a nerve, as it became a cornerstone of future planning processes. If Healey does not adequately demonstrate how reconstruction efforts and social pressures contributed to this significant shift, he does reveal how architecture and engineering changed in Argentina. These fields increasingly became dominated by native-born experts who focused on nationalist projects and building in the interior. Architects and engineers began to develop innovative plans with much-improved safety standards, showing greater concern for the living conditions of the lower classes. This left surprising and far-ranging legacies on the evolving...