Felipe Varela’s death in 1870, attributed to natural but “cruel” causes, brought to an end a turbulent and active military life. He died in poverty and obscurity short of his fiftieth year, far from his native Catamarca. Largely unknown, he was the son of a caudillo and son-in-law of another, and in his own right was one of a legion of provincial caudillos whose careers occupy much of nineteenthcentury Argentine historiography; but he had been dismissed, until recently, as merely another of the barbarians who endeavored to lead the misbeguided “hordes.” So argue the four authors of Felipe Varela: Su historia, Raúl Bazán, Gaspar H. Guzmán, Gerardo Pérez Fuentes and Ramón R. Olmos, collaborators in this revisionist book.
They declare that Varela is a victim of liberal distortions chiefly conjured by Sarmiento, Mitre, and their actual and spiritual cohorts, the “unpatriotic” porteño oligarchs. The ideological biases of the authors set the framework of this brief biography, the principal purpose of which is to vindicate Varela by demonstrating that “this peasant of quixotic figure, intrepid captain of montonero followers, is a symbol of courage and sacrifice, and an idealist who dreamed of the great nation so desired by Moreno, Belgrano, and San Martín.” Varela is thus portrayed as a sincere patriot and federalist, Urquiza’s friend and supporter, an enemy of a hateful Mitre and other vendepatrias who sold out the best interests of their nation to imperialist powers, a man fervently opposed to the Paraguayan War, Argentina’s most eloquent supporter of the Unión Americana, that rather ineffectual and abortive effort by some South American voices that denounced British, French, and Spanish imperialist schemes.
The catalyst in the depiction of Varela in this book is the determination of its authors to reincarnate a forgotten hero of prophetic nationalist wisdom and impeccable integrity. In a manner far more modulated than is to be found in the other book now reviewed on Varela, here the authors give us some information on a neglected historical personality who did indeed play a significant role in the interior provinces. In the process, the authors also succeed in delivering a political message to contemporary readers on the virtues of nationalist morality. Adepts of the struggles for national liberation may very well appreciate their effort—only slightly less, perhaps, than they would the effort of Rodolfo Ortega Peña and Eduardo Luis Duhalde, coauthors of Felipe Varela contra el Imperio Británico: Las masas de la Unión Americana enfrentan a las potencias europeas.
This second book has nothing subtle in it, not even its poor printing. It is difficult to read because of the inferior workmanship that went into its manufacture. But it is inexpensive. Whether the “masses” buy it for that reason or some other remains to be seen. The book was written for “them.”
The authors are quite right in telling us in their first sentence that they consider theirs an original interpretation. They are also right, as they warn us in their first paragraph, that short of an understanding of Marxist interpretation of imperialist maneuvers, their thesis will prove unintelligible. But they assist us generously by packing this volume with lots of footnotes, graphs, and documents, even some relevant quotations from Juan Domingo Perón and Juan José Hernández Arregui. Among the documents, as they call them, is case “No. 1,” a marvelous letter by Arturo Jauretche to the authors in which some baffling contradictions are explicated. Bent upon rejecting a “falacious academic attitude,” the authors inform us that their style in this book “is hard and combative.” They are right again.
The focus in this book on Varela is primarily on his anti-imperialist attitude. He emerges in their eyes as “the heroic incarnation of the struggle of the oppressed classes in a continent that refused to be definitively Balkanized, after an initial partial success, by Canning’s diplomacy.” Further, they tell us, Varela as an historical figure grows not only in moral force, the more we get to know him, but “takes on transcendental historical importance which official historiography, moved by sinister class interests, has systematically hidden. His struggle was not a disconnected event of the past, nor was it isolated. Simultaneously other South American caudillos and their masses rose up and fought against their extermination, clutching the same banner.”
Aside from what appears as ludicrous melodrama and questionable taste in methodology, this book on Varela by Peña and Duhalde deserves some serious attention if only because they are representative of a resurgent left-wing nationalism with many sympathetic followers at home and elsewhere. Theirs may be deficient history according to the hygienic norms most of us are used to and demand, but their strident voice and angry attitude count for something. What is needed by the serious reader is a large dose of therapeutic patience.
What is remarkable about both books on Felipe Varela is that they exploit their obscure subject in order to launch earnest polemics of political consequence in our time. That may lead to stimulating revisionism, even as it disappoints some of us for the weaknesses in methodological niceties and sound historical conceptualization.
