In 1960 Argentina celebrated her sesquicentennial year of independence. The Seminario de Estudios de Historia Argentina observed the year by publishing two studies, one of which, the first volume in a projected full-length biography of Félix Frías by Ambrosio Romero Carranza, is reviewed here. Frías, it is true, did not participate in the struggle for independence, but his career as a Catholic layman attracted the attention of the Seminario because of its interest in re-evaluating the Christian and democratic forces in the Argentine past.
Although he examined the published works on the period and the unedited manuscripts of Frías, Romero Carranza does not pretend to write a scholarly biography of Frías. His aim is instead to dramatize certain events and to reconstruct conversations that he assumes took place. The conversations actually consist of excerpts, sometimes selected without reference to time and the person spoken to, from the letters and books of the speakers themselves. The result is a book which is a tribute to the author’s imagination and ability as a writer.
Unfortunately, Romero Carranza adds little to our knowledge of Frías. Indeed, General Juan Lavalie and his so-called Campaign of Liberation actually occupy nearly half the book, while his secretary, Frías, aside from the introductory biographical notes, is given scant attention. Perhaps the sources permitted no other alternative. In essence, then, La juventud de Frías is a review of the events that took place in the lifetime of Frías. However, some interesting things are said about Frías. He was “the first lay apostle of Catholic socialism and of Christian inspired democracy” in Argentina, that is, he was a Christian Democrat, and his participation in the Joven Argentina suggests that Christian Socialists today can subscribe to most of the principles of the Asociación de Mayo. Romero Carranza, it is hoped, will elaborate on these statements in the next volume of his study.