Matías E. Suárez in Defensa de la argentinidad has produced another defense of authoritarian government in Argentina. The strength of Argentina for the author is its Ibero-Catholic heritage which produced a “religion” cementing the society. Religion is used by Suárez more in the sense of a martial spirit than our usual understanding of the term.
He carefully traces the development of this spirit from Aristotle to Vicente Sierra, his mentor, and ties Argentine problems to the infusion of alien liberalism by Mariano Moreno and Bernardo Rivadavia. The spirit of Argentinidad is rescued by Juan Manuel de Rosas whose fall is Argentina’s great tragedy. Perfidious liberalism then reemerges and cripples Argentine society with the regimes of Mitre, Sarmiento, and Avellaneda who restore the alien idea of popular sovereignty. Suárez’ panacea for today’s problem is a return to the true tradition of authoritarian Catholicism. This argument is neither new nor persuasive. The value of the book, however, lies in its presentation of the mentality and “logic” of the Argentine right wing.
