the generation of 1837: attitudes, policies, and actions toward indian populations of argentina

The Generation of 1837 Attitudes, Policies, and Actions Toward Indian

Populations of Argentina

Colin Mustful

2

The Generation of 1837: Attitudes, Policies, and Actions Toward Indian Populations of

Argentina

Copyright 2014 by Colin Mustful

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-300-16918-5

This work is licensed under Standard Copyright License

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract By the year 1880 the Indians of the vast plains region known as the Pampas in Argentina had

been almost completely exterminated. The defeat over the Indians by the Argentine government

was a long process largely influenced by the works of a group of elite intellectuals called the

Generation of 1837. This essay evaluates the literary works of the Generation of 1837 and links

those works to the actions taken against the Pampas Indians throughout the nineteenth century.

The justification for the conquering and extinguishment of the Pampas Indians was influenced

through the racist attitude of the Generation of 1837 disclosed in their literary works.

Introduction 5

Chapter 1 8

The Generation of 1837: A Biographical Sketch

Chapter 2 20

The Pampas and Its Inhabitants

Chapter 3 32

Expressions of Progress: The Literary Works of the Generation of 1837

Chapter 4 52

The Conquest of the Desert

Conclusion 73

Through Sword and Pen

Appendix A 82

Laws passed forcing the Pampas Indians beyond the Río Negro

Appendix B 88

Selected Sections of the Argentine Constitution of 1853

Bibliography 89

5

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the Americas, native indigenous cultures were subdued, suppressed, and

overcome by the colonial powers of Western Europe. In areas where Europeans encountered

dense native populations, such as Mexico and Peru, Indian communities survived, despite

population loss and exploitation. But in areas of scattered, small groups of native Americans,

such as in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina, Europeans overwhelmed and virtually

destroyed native social organization. Over the long term the imbalance in population and power

between the European and the Native American nearly extinguished Native American cultures.

In colonial Argentina Spaniards exploited native labor in the silver mines, forcing natives

into a dangerous industry with little reward. Furthermore, working conditions led to the death of

many Indians. By the nineteenth century, however, the mining industry began to decline.

Needing a source of capital to build their new nation, Argentine statesmen searched for other

alternatives. The abundance they found was located just outside of Buenos Aires, in the great

plains known as the Pampas.

The Pampas was home to thousands of Indians led a semi-nomadic lifestyle that relied

heavily on cattle and horses as a means of support. When the Spanish and creoles, or decedents

of Spanish colonists, of colonial Argentina began searching for a new economic identity separate

from mining, they often encountered the Indians of the Pampas. As the ranching and agricultural

economies of Argentina expanded and replaced the depleted mining industry, they encroached

on Indian territory in the Pampas. Shortly after Argentine independence in 1810, immigrant

settlers along with creoles began establishing large ranches called estancias. The rapid

expansion of estancias on the Pampas provoked conflict between settlers and Indians on the

Argentine Pampas.

6

In addition to farmers and ranchers on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the citizens of urban

Argentina also considered the Indians a menace. As long as Indians roamed the Pampas,

Argentines believed their nation could not grow into a wealthy and industrial nation. When the

Indians could not be used for indentured labor, they were perceived as useless. The city, as well

as the country, wanted to rid the Pampas of its Indian population.

Settlers saw the Indians as peculiar and different from themselves. The Indians, they

believed, lived a barbarian lifestyle void of output. This attitude stood out in Argentina in the

nineteenth century. Once the Argentines needed their land, the Indians quickly became a marked

enemy. Through governmental actions as well as through literary materials, Argentine

politicians targeted the Indians of the Pampas. During the nineteenth century the Argentine

government took increased action against the Indians of the Pampas. They put pressure on the

Indians through immigration policy, frontier strategy, and warfare. The government made it

their goal to cure the Indian problem by wiping out the Pampas Indian.

The literary works of Argentine intellectuals displayed consistently negative and racist

attitudes toward the Pampas Indians and served as the intellectual justification for government

action. Many Argentines considered themselves and their race superior to the Indian races of the

Pampas. The Indians, they argued, were incapable of productive labor and intellectual

advancement. Due in large part to their racial attitudes, the intellectuals of Argentina, as well as

the vast majority of Argentines, did not believe they could coexist with the Indians.

One group of intellectuals, called the Generation of 1837, were particularly opposed to the Indian

presence. Although the works of the Generation of 1837 were aimed at political goals, they

contained racially charged attitudes against the Indians. They argued that the Indians were an

obstacle to progress. Their writings called for displacement of all Pampas Indians by the white

7

race. The Generation of 1837 contended for a future without Indians and they promoted it

throughout their literary works. The Argentine intellectual elite, led by the Generation of 1837,

supported and diffused racist attitudes, actions, and policies toward the native and indigenous

populations of the Pampas seeking to establish dominance over the Pampa’s inhabitants whom

they believed were inferior and whose habits were incurable. Over time Argentines adopted the

views of the Generation of 1837 and, through their words and works, justified actions taken

against the Pampas Indians.

8

CHAPTER 1

The Generation of 1837: A Biographical Sketch

In May of 1810 the inhabitants of the southern portion of the Viceroyalty of the Río de

La Plata rebelled against the imperial Spanish Crown. In 1816, after five years of sporadic

warfare, at the interior city of Tucuman, the new nation’s political and military leaders declared

the existence of the independent nation of Argentina. The new nation was composed of sparsely

populated provinces and the political leadership was divided over the issue of unification. One

faction sought to unite the provinces under a centralized government located in the large port city

of Buenos Aires. The other group wished the provinces to be autonomous and sovereign. This

split led to a long term conflict between the Unitarists, who believed Argentina should be united

under a central government at Buenos Aires, and Federalists, who believed that Argentina should

be split along provincial borders. By 1829 the Federalists won this conflict under the leadership

of Juan Manuel de Rosas.

Rosas was a powerful and wealthy estanciero from Buenos Aires province. Once

victorious, he adopted a caudillo style of rule. A caudillo was a ruler of the masses who most

often ruled through violence while holding no juridical claim to its exercise.1 In 1829 the people

were looking for a leader to take control and establish a stable order. The well known Argentine

historian José Luis Romero stated that, “in a choice between abstract theories of government and

the caudillo, the masses felt more comfortable with their caudillos, who, however primitive and

ruthless their methods, were more sensitive to the fears and desires of the rural masses than the

1 José Luis Romero, A History of Argentine Political Thought (Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 1963), 109.

9

centralist elite.”2 The Federalist leadership in the legislature of the Province of Buenos Aires

was so desperate, in fact, that they granted Rosas “extraordinary faculties” which essentially

established him as dictator of Buenos Aires over the following three years.3 After completing his

term, Rosas resigned and returned to his estancia. However, the legislature could not find a

proper replacement to control and unite the nation. The people of Buenos Aires were, according

to historian Nicolas Shumway, “convinced that without Rosas there was no law and order.”4

Therefore, on June 27, 1834, the provincial legislature voted to reappoint Rosas as governor of

Buenos Aires. Rosas eventually agreed to return after the legislature guaranteed him powers that

amounted to a virtual dictatorship. After reassuming power on March 7, 1835, Rosas “quickly

interjected himself into every aspect of Argentine society.”5 Rosas’ tyrannical rule led to the

formation of a well defined political opposition out of which the Argentine Generation of 1837

arose.

The Argentine Generation of 1837 was a group of young intellectuals who grew up in the

unsettled times following the May Revolution of 1810. They were predominantly Unitarists who

sought to replace caudillo rule with a unified government led by sophisticated elites who would

rule in the name of progress and development. Due to the violent political climate in the 1820s

and 1830s, it comes as no surprise that they hoped the principles of order, progress, and

constructive compromise could be restored.6 Rosas, they argued, represented the old, backward

2 Nicolas Shumway, The Invention of Argentina (Berkeley: University of California

Press, 1991), 6.

3 Ibid., 117.

4 Ibid., 125.

5 Ibid., 120.

10

colonial order. To the Generation of 1837 it was time to move forward. They sought an end to

violence and tyranny in order that Argentina might grow strong and become a respected power

among nations. The Generation of 1837, according to José Luis Romero, showed “exemplary

intellectual heroism” as they “prepared to reject the tradition in which they had been reared, in

order to forge a set of beliefs that would avoid the disorders which they must now purge

themselves, since all signs seemed to point to the failure of the noble generation that had

preceded them.”7 However, their initial efforts to create a new order took place away from their

home. The persecution of Rosas forced the men of the Generation of 1837 into exile where they

continued to plead their case from outside of Buenos Aires. The intellectual elite finally returned

to Buenos Aires in 1852 when General Justo José de Urquiza defeated Rosas at Caseros. With

Rosas gone, the Generation of 1837 finally put their principles into practice. Among the many

men involved in the political and literary movement created by the Generation of 1837, four

stood out: Esteban Echeverría, Juan Alberdi, Domingo Sarmiento, and Bartolomé Mitre.

The eldest member of the youthful generation was Esteban Echeverría. Echeverría was

born in a provincial barrio of Buenos Aires on September 2, 1805. Echeverría is largely credited

as the father of the Generation of 1837. Through his words he incited opposition against Rosas

and proposed an alternative future. One reason Echeverría gained such credibility was because

he studied in Paris between 1825 and 1830. Argentine intellectuals at the time looked up to ideas

and writings coming out of France. Since Echeverría had studied among the French, he gained

much respect. Echeverría’s literary style was also very powerful and engaging. Although a poet,

his works still provoked political thought. The publication of Los Consuelos in 1834 ensured

6 Diana L. Clark, “The Argentine Generation of 1837: A Response to Tyranny” (Master’s

Thesis, University of Toledo, 1967), 10. 7 Romero, Argentine Political Thought, 128.

11

him as a leader in a new and lively cultural environment.8 By 1837 Echeverría organized the

Salón Literario, a group of like minded young intellectuals who met in a Buenos Aires book

store to discuss various political, economic, literary, and social issues. It is from the Salón

Literario that the Generation of 1837 took their name.

Although the Rosas government shut down the Salón less than a year after it was

founded, Echeverría had succeeded in planting the seeds of opposition and encouraging new

ideas and thinking. In two unambiguous speeches made to the Salón Literario, Echeverría,

according to historian William Katra, “succeeded in instilling in them the outrage in front of

injustices and the commitment to struggle on behalf of social, economic, and political change.”9

He especially contrasted the political conditions under Rosas to the ideals originally proclaimed

in 1810:

Equality was proclaimed, but the most flagrant inequality has reigned: liberty was

shouted, but it has only existed for a certain number of individuals; laws have been

passed, and these have only protected the rich and powerful. The poor have no protecting

laws, nor do they have justice or individual rights; only violence, an order imposed by the

saber, persecutions, injustices.10

These words gave birth to the entire opposition that followed. It began a long, but definitive

revolution of words, ideas, and progress put forth by the Generation of 1837. Moreover,

Echeverría’s words left no doubt that he was the father, teacher, and mentor of all the young

intellectuals of the time during an important stage of ideological definition.11

8 William Katra, The Argentine Generation of 1837: Echeverría, Alberdi, Sarmiento,

Mitre (Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996), 45. 9 Katra, The Argentine Generation, 55.

10

Echeverría quoted in Ibid. 11

Ibid., 91.

12

Rosas’ secret police, the mazorca, closed the Salón Literario in 1838. Not long after,

Echeverría began his exile at his brother’s estancia outside of Buenos Aires. By 1841 Echeverría

fled to Montevideo, Uruguay, to join other Argentine intellectuals. Despite being forced to flee

Buenos Aires, Echeverría still believed in the power of his words and his ability to use those

words to end the Rosas regime. Although poor health prevented Echeverría from serving in the

Argentine Legion, which was an armed opposition to Rosas, he wrote in his autobiography, “but

I said to myself, if you can’t serve as a soldier, why not fight with a pen?”12

This is precisely

what Echeverría did because he considered it an honorable way to show love for his country.13

This belief led Echeverría to write Dogma Socialista which is considered the founding

document or creed of the Generation of 1837. In it he focused on the ideals of a free society and

a national literature that freed itself of colonial restrictions. Through this work Echeverría

fortified the Generation of 1837 giving it a structure to follow and grow from. William Katra

stated that it “defined a generation.”14

Echeverría’s works and actions stimulated interest in political openness and inspired

challenges to the Rosas government. In addition to Dogma Socialista, perhaps Echeverría’s

greatest contribution was his ability to maintain a strong political connection among individuals

during the early years of association.15

Unfortunately for Echeverría, he did not live long enough

to see the end of Rosas’ rule and the beginnings of his generation’s success. He died in exile

January 19, 1851.

12

Clark, A Response to Tyranny, 55. 13

Katra, The Argentine Generation, 105. 14

Ibid., 61. 15

Clark, A Response to Tyranny, 85.

13

Following Echeverría, the next most notable leader of the Generation of 1837 was Juan

Bautista Alberdi. Alberdi was born in the Argentine province of Tucuman in 1810 to an

aristocratic and prominent family. At the young age of fifteen Alberdi went to Buenos Aires to

study law. Here, he became interested in the anti-Rosas movements in the 1830s and joined the

Salón Literario in 1837. Although he was a very strong writer, Alberdi was nevertheless a timid

and even shy man who exhibited no leadership qualities. One of his earliest works, Fragmento

preliminario al estudio del derecho, framed the initial discussions of the Generation of 1837. In

Fragmento, Alberdi discussed and promoted civil rights as well as resenting a political and social

platform to implement his beliefs.16

Alberdi’s early political views offered tepid support of Rosas, as Alberdi believed that the

stability Rosas provided was necessary to pave the way for Argentina’s maturation as a

democracy.17

In time, Alberdi’s mild support changed to strict opposition and on November 23,

1838, Alberdi fled for Montevideo where he remained until 1843 when he left for Europe and

then Chile.

As he traveled abroad, Alberdi wrote for and edited newspapers that supported a new

Argentina. His efforts focused on finding ways to inform and direct Argentina in the progressive

ideas that, at the time, were flourishing in Europe.18

His most important literary work, Bases y

puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina, reflected this effort.

Bases was a very influential work which Argentine statesmen widely used in the creation of the

Argentine Constitution of 1853 and it acted as the primary source of information on

16

Ibid., 61. 17

Shumway, The Invention of Argentina, 125. 18

Katra, The Argentine Generation, 56.

14

constitutional matters for the convention delegates. According to William Katra, through Bases,

Alberdi “urged a new constitution that took into account the particular values and cultural

orientations of the country’s people, the nature of their institutions, and the way they organized

society.”19

Bases, through the proposed constitution, served as a model for a new Argentina.

Alberdi spent most of his exile in Chile. Although allowed to return to Argentina in

1852, he remained voluntarily in exile until 1855 when he left Chile to once again travel to

Europe. This time, however, Alberdi served as the Argentine Minister Plenipotentiary to the

courts of England, France, Spain, and Rome. Though remaining away from his home Alberdi

always worked for Argentina. In 1879, much later in Alberdi’s life, he served as a member of

Congress. He died on June 19, 1884.

The most publicly accomplished man of the Generation of 1837 was undoubtedly

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. During his career Sarmiento moved from an educator, to writer,

editor, senator, and president. He also traveled to Europe, Africa, and the United States.

Sarmiento was born in the province of San Juan to a very poor family on February 15, 1811.

Growing up his mother and father influenced him in unique ways. According to his close friend

and the wife of author Horace Mann, Mary Mann noted that though Sarmiento grew up poor,

“the resourcefulness of his dedicated and hardworking mother mitigated the frequent economic

deprivation, almost to the point of misery, of Sarmiento’s childhood home.”20

Commenting on

his mother and his childhood Sarmiento wrote, “happy are the poor who have such a mother.”21

19

Ibid., 51. 20

William Katra, Domingo F. Sarmiento: Public Writer (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona State

University, 1985), 6.

15

His father, on the other hand, helped instill ambition in young Domingo. Sarmiento stated that “I

owe to my father that love of reading which has been the constant occupation of my life.”22

Influential supporters recognized Sarmiento’s intellectual abilities. In 1825, at just the

age of fourteen, he was summoned to the College of Moral Sciences. While there Sarmiento

took full advantage and said that “from that time I read every book that fell into my hands,

without arrangement, with no other guide than the chance which brought them to me.”23

It also

did not take long for Sarmiento to make known his opposition to the Federalist government.

When he was sixteen, Sarmiento was arrested when he defied a government order to close his

shop. Shortly after being released from prison, Sarmiento joined the Unitarist army in 1829 to

fight against the caudillo ruler of La Rioja province, Facundo Quiroga.

It was not until 1836 that he returned to San Juan. At this time Sarmiento dedicated

himself to education and writing in order to promote change. Similar to Echeverría, Sarmiento

believed that writing was the only tool through which the value of oratory could be expressed to

future generations.24

Also, Sarmiento contended that backwardness could be defeated through

education and in 1839 he founded a secondary school for girls in San Juan. During his long

career, he founded many more schools including the first Normal School on the western side of

the Atlantic in 1842.25

Sarmiento wrote that “it is the duty of my country and my compatriots to

21

Mary Mann, “Biographical Sketch of the Author,” in Life in the Argentine Republic in

the Days of the Tyrants; or, Civilization and Barbarism (New York: Hafner Publishing Co.,

1868), 290. 22

Ibid., 303. 23

Ibid., 316-317. 24

Katra, Domingo F. Sarmiento, 17. 25

Mann, “Biographical Sketch,” 347.

16

aid me in the full development of a system of common school education which shall put the seal

upon the work of thirty years of my life.”26

In 1840, Sarmiento fled to Chile where he spent the majority of his exile. While in Chile,

Sarmiento worked as a newspaper writer and editor in the cities of Santiago and Valparaiso.27

Through his publications and his schools, Sarmiento quickly grew to be highly respected among

the exiled intellectuals. Sarmiento strongly promoted his ideas and, according to historian

Nicolas Shumway, was “impassioned, brash, and often more poetic than practical.”28

Sarmiento

hated Rosas and he expressed staunch opposition through an exuberant, intelligent, and inspired

writing style.29

His most notable work at this time was Facundo, also known as Civilization and

Barbarism, in which Sarmiento strongly rejects the rule and methods of the local cuadillo tyrant

Facundo Quiroga. In Facundo, Sarmiento argued that if Argentina was to progress as a nation, it

would have to shed its Spanish colonial heritage and improve upon the racial stock of

Mediterranean, mestizo, and indigenous people, which Sarmiento viewed as an obstacle to

Argentina’s growth and development.30

After his travels and exile, Sarmiento permanently returned to Argentina in 1855 and

became the director of the Department of Education in Buenos Aires Province. With abundant

energy Sarmiento worked to reform education. Between 1856 and 1861 he founded thirty-four

26

Ibid., 314. 27


Shumway, The Invention of Argentina, 132-133. 29


Ibid., 113.

17

new schools.31

Then, between 1862 and 1864 Sarmiento was elected senator and governor of

San Juan. By 1868, Sarmiento was elected president of Argentina. While in office, Sarmiento

reflected the ideals of his literary works by energetically promoting economic, social, and

cultural development.32

Finally, Sarmiento served in the national Senate from 1875 to 1880, and

as superintendent of education of Buenos Aires between 1879 and 1882. Throughout his life

Sarmiento worked hard for Argentina by the pen and the sword. He truly sought the nation’s

benefit and well-being. Sarmiento was always ready to act. Whether by impulse or reasoned

strategy “he never failed to impress a principled following.”33

As Mary Mann rhetorically

queried, “who like him has during a long life pursued the one aim of saving a nation from decay

by proposing to rouse the dormant moral sentiments of the human soul?”34

After a long life of

public service, Domingo Sarmiento died September 11, 1888.

One of the youngest members of the Generation of 1837, Bartolomé Mitre, was born in

Buenos Aires on June 26, 1821. His father, Ambrosio Mitre, hoped his son would become a

landed aristocrat, but Mitre rejected the life his father had planned for him. Mitre enjoyed other

endeavors as he had no desire to become an athlete or to supervise a ranch. Mitre was a serious

boy who loved to read and learn.35

While still very young Mitre and his family moved to

Montevideo in 1833 to “escape the increasingly hostile environment in Rosas’ Buenos Aires.”36

31

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, s.v. “Sarmiento, Domingo

Faustino.” 32

Ibid., 74. 33


Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic, 395. 35

William H. Jefferey, Mitre and Argentina (New York: Library Publishers, 1952), 31.

18

Although in exile, Mitre’s father still wanted his son to hold a high place in Argentina someday.

To promote his intellectual growth, Mitre was sent to the Escuela Normal and eventually to the

Escuela de Comercía del Consulado in 1835. By 1837 Mitre moved on to the Military Academy

of Montevideo where he specialized in artillery. Mitre displayed exceptional abilities in

whatever he did, being an excellent soldier as well as a curious intellectual who constantly

sought knowledge through literature, languages, science, politics, or history.37

Mitre proved his

value to his officers and advanced quickly. By the age of twenty-five he had already become a

lieutenant colonel. Though it was not quite what his father wanted, according to historian

William Jefferey, “he had lived up to the hopes of his father, displaying the courage which was

to distinguish him throughout his life.”38

Mitre left Montevideo on April 1,1846 and traveled to several South American countries

including Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. While in exile Mitre took on many tasks such as “fighting in

a number of battles, writing a textbook of military practice, teaching the members of his artillery

group, supervising the artillery squadron in defense of Montevideo, contributing to half a dozen

newspapers, and courting, marrying and raising a family.”39

Although Mitre was only twenty-

five at the time of his exile, he was accepted everywhere he went and was looked upon as a

leader.40

In 1852 Mitre joined Urquiza, Rosas’ rival from Entre Ríos province, to depose Rosas.

Mitre led the battle against Rosas at Caseros and was promoted to full colonel by the age of

36


Jefferey, Mitre and Argentina, 27. 38

Ibid., 35. 39

Ibid., 42. 40

Ibid., 50.

19

thirty. Mitre’s military success enabled him to be the first of his generation to bring democracy

and progress to Buenos Aires and eventually to the entire nation.41

For the remainder of his life Mitre publicly served Argentina. In 1860 Mitre became

governor of Buenos Aires. Then, on October 16, 1862, Mitre became the first president of a

united Argentina. Much later in life Mitre served as a Senator in 1894. Mitre proved himself to

be a leader and a valuable member of the Generation of 1837. His many roles as a writer,

soldier, and thinker intimately tied him to Argentina’s national life during the second half of the

nineteenth century. Bartolomé Mitre died on January 19, 1906.

41

Ibid., 48.

20

CHAPTER 2

The Pampas and Its Inhabitants

Beyond the city of Buenos Aires lies a vast, open grassland known as the Pampas. In the

nineteenth century the Pampas was more than just rural; it was a rugged land inhabited only by

Indians, ranchers, and the most daring of settlers. It included about 500,000 square kilometers of

territory extending from Buenos Aires in the north, to the Río Negro in the south, and to the

Chilean boundary in the west. It is nearly nine hundred miles wide. Domingo Sarmiento

commented on its size writing that, “immensity is the universal characteristic of the country.”42

Contained in the Pampas are the great rivers of the Negro, the Colorado, the Parana, and the

Plata, and included in its territory are the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fé, Córdoba, La

Pampa, and San Luis.

Due to its vastness the Pampas is characterized by a wide variety of climate and

geographical change. Traveling the Pampas in 1826, Englishman Francis Bond Head described

the territory as “so prodigious that they are bounded on the north by groves of palm trees and on

the south by eternal snows.”43

Another traveler stated that in the north there exists trees, while in

the central zone “the plain and the forest long contend with each other for the possession of the

soil” and in the south “the victory remains with the plain, which displays its smooth, velvet like

surface unbounded and unbroken.”44

The Pampas can also be very dry in some areas while very

wet in others. In the southwest there are many ponds and in the northeast there are marshes. In

42

Domingo F. Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants; or,

Civilization and Barbarism (New York: Hafner Publishing Co., 1868), 2. 43

Ibid., 1. 44

Ibid., 3.

21

other areas, however, the land is much drier, leading the well known naturalist Charles Darwin to

comment that “everywhere the landscape wears the same sterile aspect; a dry gravely soil

supports tufts of brown withered grass, and low scattered bushes, armed with thorns.”45

Defined geographically, the Pampas occupies a wide flat plain, is covered with dense

grass, and has fertile, loessial soils. But nineteenth century European travelers romanticized the

vast stretches of the Pampas: “the whole country bears the noble stamp of an Omnipotent

creator, and it is impossible for anyone to ride through it, without feelings which it is very

pleasing to entertain.”46

Most impressive perhaps are the plains themselves which are so flat and

extensive that Domingo Sarmiento called them “the image of the sea upon the land.”47

The

Pampas are appropriately described as “all grass and sky, and sky and grass, and still more sky

and grass.”48

In the early nineteenth century, Araucanians and other indigenous peoples constituted the

majority of the population on the Pampas. The wild herds of the Pampas attracted the

Araucanians from Chile. As well pressure from European colonization in Chile forced them to

migrate into the region.49

The Araucanians were able to quickly assert themselves on the

Pampas making it seem as if the other Indians inhabiting the region were somehow a part of the

45

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (New York: Bantom Books Inc., 1839), 59. 46

Francis Bond Head, Journeys Across the Pampas and Among the Andes (Carbondale:

Southern Illinois University Press, 1826), 5. 47


Robert B. Cunninghame Graham quoted in Encyclopedia of Latin American History

and Culture, s.v. “Pampa.” 49

Kristine L. Jones, “Conflict and Adaptation in the Argentine Pampas 1750-1880” (PhD

diss., University of Chicago, 1984), 124.

22

great Araucanian tribe.50

Also living in the Pampas were the Pehuenches, the Ranqueles, and the

Puelches. A cacique, or Indian chief, led each band. Sometimes groups would combine and

allowing caciques to take control over several bands creating large and powerful amalgamations

of Indians with a solid basis for political authority.51

When organized in large political groups

they never strictly owed allegiance to one head cacique. Traveler George Chatsworth Musters

noted that among tribes men were equals and “their natural bias is to independence, and rather

insubordinate ideas of one man being as good as another.”52

Although the Indian tribes displayed certain unique customs, all were semi-nomadic and

never lived in one place long enough to reap a harvest.53

Their habitations are called toldos

which, according to historian Alfred Hasbrouck, are portable huts “made of light poles lashed

together covered with skins sewed and laced with leather thongs.”54

Once invited into any toldo

travelers noted that the Indians were very hospitable. They kept their homes in good order and,

as George Chatsworth Musters declared, “have a good deal of regard for personal cleanliness.”55

Though often referred to as savages, Alfred Hasbrouck remarked that “all writers found the

Indians kind to travelers, and generous and hospitable.”56

50

Alfred Hasbrouck, “The Conquest of the Desert,” The Hispanic American Historical

Review, 15:2 (May 1935), 198. 51

Jones, Conflict and Adaptation, 112-113. 52

George Chaworth Musters, At Home with the Patagonians: A Years Wonderings Over

Untrodden Ground from the Straits of Magellan to the Río Negro (New York: Greenwood Press,

1871), 184. 53

Hasbrouck, “The Conquest,” 199. 54

Ibid. 55

Musters, At Home, 164.

56

Hasbrouck, “The Conquest,” 201.

23

The Hispanic and European settlers feared Indian attacks, but in general Indians were

very peaceful only resorting to war as a means of subsistence.57

Usually the Indians were always

very agreeable and ready to compromise. They were “not of the treacherous nature assigned to

them by some ignorant writers.”58

Francis Bond Head even remarked that “from what I did hear

and see of them, I sincerely believe they are as fine a set of men as ever existed under the

circumstances in which they are placed.”59

In the same way, George Chatsworth Musters stated

that “as you treat them, so they will treat you.”60

Although sometimes fabled to be giants, the Indians of the Pampas were of average size.

They were strong and quick, with dark hair and a dark complexion. To the settlers, they were

very different from themselves and they argued that a “fair description of the Indians . . . does

not exist.”61

Many travelers noted the almost always impressive features of the Indians calling

them a “very brave and handsome race of men.”62

George Chatsworth Musters was very

impressed by the Indians and described them as having “extraordinary muscular development of

the arms and chest . . . and as a rule they are well proportioned throughout.”63

A more specific

but still similar evaluation of the Indians given by Alfred Hasbrouck was that they possessed

“well built bodies with broad shoulders and strong limbs, sloping foreheads, high cheekbones,

57

Ibid., 207. 58

Musters, At Home, 286. 59

Head, Journeys Across, 66. 60



Ibid., 54. 63


24

short flat noses, large mouths, thick lips, coarse black hair thick on the head and thin on the

face.”64

Hair was a characteristic travelers often noticed about the Indians. Their hair was long

and from a distance it was easily identifiable. While traveling the Pampas Charles Darwin

recognized “their black hair blowing across their swarthy faces” and wrote that it “heightens to

an uncommon degree the wildness of their appearance.”65

Hair was particularly important to the

Indians. Men took great care of their hair having women brush it daily. For clothes some Indian

tribes remained naked while others wore a “chiripa or under garment round the loins, made of a

poncho, a piece of cloth, or even a guanaco mantle.”66

Whether or not they wore clothes, the

Indians did wear paint. Men and women smeared “their faces, and occasionally their bodies,

with paint, the Indians alleging as the reason for using this cosmetic, that it is a protection against

the effect of the wind.”67

The paint also acted to protect Indians against the sun.

Similar to most cultures, the Indians of the Pampas assigned separate roles for men and

women. While in camp “the duty of the women is to load and unload the horses; to make the

tent for the night; in short to be like the wives of all savages, useful slaves.”68

The men, on the

other hand, considered it beneath themselves to do any work outside of hunting or fishing.69

64


Darwin, The Voyage, 94-95. 66


Ibid., 163. 68

Darwin, The Voyage, 61. 69


25

Although much was asked of Indian women, they were remarkable at their tasks. They

always succeed at their chores and, according to Musters, “the untiring energy with which the

women work, and the rapidity with which they sew, are astonishing.”70

In marriage an Indian

usually had one wife, but was allowed to have as many as he could support.71

Children were like

any other; they were energetic and they liked to run and play. They especially looked up to the

adults and often engaged themselves in imitation of their elders.72

There is no specific event

marking the passage of a child into an adult, but “the boys soon learn the use of the weapons, and

both boys and girls ride almost before they can walk.”73

The Indians did not spend all their time

in labor of course. Occasionally they sang and danced around the fire and what amused them

most included horseracing, card playing, gambling, and an enjoyable game of ball.74

Weapons were very important to the Indians of the Pampas, both in warfare and in

hunting. They were a necessity for life. Their primary weapon was a long spear which they

learned to throw with incredible accuracy. The spear, as described by Charles Darwin, was the

“only weapon of an Indian” made “of very long bamboo or chuzo, ornamented with ostrich

feathers, and pointed by a sharp spear head.”75

The spears, or lances as they were called, were

twelve to fifteen feet long. Defensively, the Indians wore “leather shirts capable of deflecting

the blow of a lance . . . and leather covered shields [were] carried.”76

The Pampas Indian did not

70


Ibid., 178. 72

Ibid., 172. 73

Ibid., 177. 74

Ibid., 174. 75

Darwin, The Voyage, 54-55.

26

use bows and arrows. Charles Darwin remarked that “it is well known that no Pampas Indians . .

. use bows and arrows.”77

Besides the lance, Indians used bolas. Though effective as a weapon,

bolas were usually used as a hunting tool for catching ostriches. Bolas were made of a “tough

light thong” seven to eight feet long with a heavy round, and smoothed rock at each end.78

The

Indians swung the bolas around their heads and threw them from their horse at their prey. If

accurate, the bolas wrapped around the legs of their prey effectively disabling the animal.

Because “their strength of the arm is very great . . . the distance to which they can throw the

ostrich bola is truly astonishing.”79

Furthermore, Darwin noted that “when the speed of the horse

is added to the force of the arm, it is said that they can be whirled with effect to the distance of

eighty yards.”80

Warfare was part of the way of life on the Pampas. Traveler Francis Bond Head believed

that “as a military nation they are much to be admired, and their system of warfare is more noble

and perfect in its nature than that of any nation in the world.”81

In the same way, “the occupation

of their lives is war, which they consider is their noble and most natural employment.”82

The

Indians adjusted to the strength of their enemies. Though they fought with inferior weapons and

their best tool was the element of sudden surprise.83

Without surprise the Indians stood little

76




Ibid., 159. 80



Ibid., 66. 83


27

chance against more modern weapons and they owe their success to the speed and quickness of

their movements.84

The Indians seldom gave up. Musters stated that they “will at all times fight

desperately, regardless of odds, and show little or no fear of death.”85

Darwin reported that

“when overtaken, like wild animals, they fight against any number to the last moment.”86

The Indians did not inhabit the Pampas alone. Along with them were settlers of all kinds.

Settlers came both from the cities of Argentina and from Europe. They came to start a new life

in the rough and rugged frontier of the Pampas. Settlements were often very small and spread

out. They were so small that when Charles Darwin reached the settlement town of Bahía Blanca

in 1839 he said that it “scarcely deserves the name of a village.”87

They were almost entirely cut

off from the rest of the world including the Argentine government. The settlers lived by their

own laws and were left to their own defense.

Risk defined the life of a settler in the Argentine Pampas. George Chatsworth Musters

noted as late as 1871 that “the great mistake most English settlers make is going out to a place

with the idea that they are going to make a ‘pile’ in a year or two and then return to Europe.”88

It

took time to achieve success on the frontier. Settlers were at the will of the region. Often they

encountered drought and sometimes were ravaged by swarms of locusts. The locusts could be so

many that they have been described as “walking along the road so thick that the ground was

84




Ibid., 65 88


28

completely covered.”89

Settlers were also at high risk of attack from Indian raids. Upon

traveling to the provincial town of Santa Fé Francis Bond Head described it as having a “wild,

desolate appearance” and that it “has been so constantly ravaged by Pampas Indians, that there

are now no cattle in the whole province, and people are afraid to live there.”90

Frontier life in the

Pampas was certainly not easy.

The most well known and conspicuous product of settlement life on the Pampas was the

Gaucho. Historians have often compared the Gaucho to the cowboy of the American West

describing him having a lawless and rustic lifestyle. Gauchos lived independently among the

settlers. Because of the freedom offered by the vastness of the Pampas, Gauchos lived by their

own rules and looked after only themselves. They were always on horseback and were never

without a knife. Although they may not have provoked violence, they did not turn from it.

Lawlessness was their way of life to a point that homicide became nothing “but a misfortune.”91

They were free of rules which governed the people as “the situation of the Gaucho is naturally

independent of the political troubles which engross the attention of the inhabitants of the

towns”92

Gauchos became skilled at frontier living and were quite adept on the horse. It was

necessary for the Gaucho to always ride even by the young age of four of five so that they could

assist in driving the cattle. It was a unique, but simple way of life that the Gaucho practiced.

Though the majority of Argentines considered them uncivilized it did not bother the Gaucho. He

89


Ibid., 51 91


Head, Journeys Across, 10.

29

embraced his nature and, according to Francis Bond Head, “vain was the endeavor to explain to

him the luxuries and blessings of a more civilized life; his ideas are that the noblest effort of man

is to raise himself off the ground and ride instead of walk . . . and that the print of the human foot

on the ground is in his mind uncivilization.”93

The Gaucho of the Pampas longed for freedom, but this resulted in a lack of common

knowledge and education. Showing how ignorant the Gaucho was, Head described his journey

with the Gauchos saying that, “I asked every one of the Gauchos who rode with me from post to

post, for the next six hundred miles, the same questions, and I found that the greater number of

them had never seen a town and that no one of them knew his age.”94

Immigrants, settlers, and city dwellers vilified the lifestyle of the Gauchos and they

believed the Gauchos hindered Argentina. This view led Domingo Sarmiento to comment that

“great things were not made for such people.”95

As a result, the Argentine Gaucho was allowed

few privileges.

Prior to 1879, the settlers and the Indians often shared the limited resources of the

Pampas. By way of trade and annuities, the Pampas Indians were integrated into the market

economy and depended upon settlers to survive.96

But peaceful relations often broke down.

Unfortunately, settlers and the government alike often took advantage of the Indians in trade

denying them access to the commercial networks and forcing them to resort to raiding.97

Indians

93

Ibid., 14. 94

Ibid., 146. 95


Ibid., 131. 97

Ibid., 147.

30

attacked settlements in search of food, cattle, and horses. They raided quickly and viciously

taking as much as they could. The Indians had little choice because promised rations were never

forthcoming. No matter the treaty, “the contractors won and the Indians lost on every deal.”98

The repeated exploitation of the Indians by the whites provoked Indian retaliation.99

Due to the raids, and because of the broken promises, hate often existed between settlers

and Indians. Francis Bond Head stated that “it would be impossible to describe the savage,

inveterate, furious hatred which exists between the gauchos and the Indians.”100

Conflict was

ongoing on the Pampas and revenge was often taken by whites for the destruction of white

settlements leading settlers to burn down entire Indian villages. 101

Neither group understood the

other. The Indians did not understand why more and more whites encroached on their territory

and their game while settlers did not understand the way of life of the Indian. Often, they

accused each other of treachery while living in misunderstanding. Fighting existed at such a

level that in 1839 Charles Darwin predicted that “there will not, in another half century, be a

wild Indian northward of the Río Negro. The warfare is too bloody to last; the Christians killing

every Indian, and the Indians doing the same by the Christians.”102

Throughout the nineteenth century there were drastic changes in both Indian and

settlement populations. As immigration increased settlement populations grew. This led to a

reduction of resources for the Indians and resulted in a rapid decline of Indian population. In

98


Ibid., 205. 100



Darwin, The Voyage, 89.

31

1829, the Indian population of the Pampas was estimated at 34,000. By 1869 they numbered just

21,000.103

Then, between the years of 1869 to 1879 the Indian population fell rapidly to just

12,000.104

This population decline was noticeable in 1871 when one traveler commented that

“the population is steadily and rapidly decreasing, and the inroads of disease and ill effects of

liquor are, as usual, doing the work of extirpation of this race.”105

The settlers, on the other hand, enjoyed a large population growth. In 1829, the frontier

population of settlers living below the Río Salado was just 10,816. By 1854 they had grown to

as many as 26,720.106

Just fifteen years later in 1869 the frontier population began to explode

and reached 92,222 vastly outnumbering the Indians.107

For the Indians of the Pampas, the

passage of time favored the settlers.

103

Jones, Conflict and Adaptation, 114, 140. 104



Jones, Conflict and Adaptation, 114. 107

Ibid., 141.

32

CHAPTER 3

Expressions of Progress: The Literary Works of the Generation of 1837

The Argentine intellectual elite known as the Generation of 1837 have been revered as

great thinkers who liberated and built the nation of Argentina. Through their great literary works

men such as Esteban Echeverría, Juan Alberdi, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Bartolomé

Mitre directed the Argentine people away from despotism and ushered them toward democracy.

They advanced and popularized virtues such as liberty, equality, and independence and they

promoted growth, progress, and advancement. They sought what was best not for themselves,

but for their nation. The Generation of 1837 successfully displaced the old regime and took

control of a young nation ready to change. For this reason they are studied and remembered.

They stood against tradition and sought progress. Writing in the 1930s Alberto Ghiraldo

summarized their reputation in the following manner: “only the most blindly biased could deny

that in the men of ’37 there is much to praise.”108

One reason for the success of the Generation of 1837 was their ability to fight with the

pen. They believed they could reach their goals and fight their battles with the words they wrote

and the people they inspired. As Bartolomé Mitre put it “the journalist . . . fights with his

opinion in order to direct, his written or spoken word, lifting his pen high as if it were a banner

round about that which groups ideas and stimulates passion.”109

Sharing this belief Sarmiento

wrote, “a soldier with the pen or the sword, I combat that I may write, that to write is to think; I

108


“El publicista . . . se lanza en la corriente de la opinión para dirigirla, su palabra escrita

o hablada, levantando en alto su pluma como un pendón en torno del cual se agrupan las ideas

que animan las pasiones.” Alberto Ghiraldo, El pensamiento argentino (Santiago: Ediciones

Ercilla, 1937), 184.

33

write as a means of combat, that to combat is to become a thinker.”110

Through their literary

works they fought for what they thought was right. To them it was a noble and brave endeavor.

It also led to exile from their own country.

The Generation of 1837 considered themselves missionaries of Argentine nationhood. It

was their responsibility to build a nation. Mitre commented that “it is as if the journalists form

the conscience of the people.”111

There was a belief among them that they were at a new point in

history when all knowledge concerning man’s social and physical needs would be possessed by

society’s leaders.112

In this way it was their duty to influence the public and to share with them

their ideas. Mitre further noted that a writer “is similar to the spreader that flings the seeds in the

furrows of the ground with daily toil and scatters them like hands full of ideas so that they

germinate in the mind of the people in order to reap the bread that each day rises strongly.”113

The Generation of 1837 successfully shaped the intellectual contours of a new nation.

Domingo Sarmiento wrote “it is as if each line carries a devastating spark of fire, that reaches the

heart of thousands of men, disordering their routines, inciting their passions, and polarizing their

attitude in order to give life to nascent dream.”114

It was through their words that they rose to

110

“Soldado, con la pluma o la espada, combato para poder escribir, que escribir es

pensar; escribo como medio y arma de combate, que combatir es realizar el pensamiento.”


“Es así como los publicistas forman la conciencia de los pueblos.”Ghiraldo, El

pensamiento argentino, 184. 112


“Es como el sembrador que arroja la semilla en el surco de la tarea diaria y esparce a

manos llenas las ideas que germinan en la cabeza del pueblo para cosechar el pan de cada día que

alimenta a los fuertes.” Ibid., 188. 114

“Como si en cada a línea llevasen una chispa de incendio devastador, llegan al corazón

de miles de hombres, desorbitan sus rutinas, encienden sus pasiones, polarizan su actitud hacia el

34

power in Argentina. Through their writings about progress, democracy, liberty and other virtues

they inspired the people of Argentina to follow them. José Luis Romero stated that “Argentina

was throbbingly alive in the work of the men of 1837, with all its virtues and defects, with its

implicit grandeur crudely contrasted with its present misery.”115

By earning the esteem of their

compatriots, the Generation of 1837 sought to create a new future. Mitre recognized that their

project needed popular support. He wrote that “in order to give credit to these ideas we need the

cooperation of all and of each and the confidence that we will not fail them.”116

Esteban Echeverría, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Domingo Sarmiento, and Bartolomé Mitre

played the largest role in directing and changing the nation of Argentina. All four men shared a

purpose in their writings.117

They sought to build Argentina for the future, and to prepare it for

democracy just as the United States had following the American Revolution. They believed that

Argentina lagged behind the developed world and was stuck in its traditional colonial, imperial,

and backward ways. The greatest foe of the Generation of 1837 was the caudillo Rosas who

embodied stagnation and barbarism. Thus the Generation of 1837 associated progress with

internal social change. As Echeverría put it, “we will always keep one eye clearly on the

progress of nations, and the other on the inner workings of our society.”118

ensueño naciente.” José Ingenieros, introduction to Conflicto y armonías de las razas en

américa, by Domingo F. Sarmiento (Buenos Aires: La Cultura Argentina, 1915), 8. 115

Romero, Argentine Political Thought, 133. 116

“Para acreditar esas ideas necesitamos de la cooperación de todos y cada uno y

confiamos que ella no nos faltará.” Bartolomé Mitre, “Profesión de fe,” in Proyecto y

construcción de una nación (1846-1880) (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1980), 295. 117


“Tendremos siempre un ojo clavado en el progreso de las naciones, y el otro en las

entrañas de nuestra sociedad.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 99.

35

The men of the Generation of 1837 were determined to make Argentina great. During

their exile they could see the future and, as José Luis Romero put it, “there would be no

wavering advance but rather a sure movement toward their ideals of civilization and progress.”119

But what was meant by the term progress. In immediate political terms progress meant

overthrowing Rosas and other caudillos which took place during the difficult period of national

consolidation from 1852 to 1862. Once they accomplished this they could implement their

beliefs. Progress represented a move toward a more modern capitalist society and a move away

from a traditional colonial society.

The Generation of 1837 used the United States and Europe as models of progress. They

sought to imitate the Enlightenment ideals already practiced in the United States and Europe

such as independence, liberty, competition, and democracy. In general terms, the Generation of

1837 believed that to imitate these ideals might facilitate progress. But specifically, they sought

quantitative results through the building of railroads, ports, and cities. Argentine statesmen

looked to Europe not only as an example, but also for concrete financial and technological help.

They wanted Argentina connected to the European economy, inviting England to build railroads

and buy Argentine beef and wheat. The Generation of 1837 admired Europe and the United

States for their large populations and fast paced capitalist and industrial economies. Both the

intellectual theories and the industrial and economic advancement of the United States and

Europe were greatly stressed by the Generation of 1837 as a means for progress in Argentina.

Meanwhile, the intellectual elite repudiated a rural and folk lifestyle of simple, non-

materialistic living.120

They were repulsed by the slow, rural, and uneducated lives of the

119

Romero, Argentine Political Thought, 144.

36

mestizo or mixed bloods, Indian, and rural Argentine. The traditional way of life of the native

and rural Argentine was considered by the Generation of 1837 as largely unproductive and

opposite to progress. The Generation of 1837 believed that rural Argentina needed to be forced

from its traditional lifestyle in order for Argentina to maximize its potential for creating the

greatest benefit for the greatest number of inhabitants.121

Altogether, the Generation of 1837 saw

progress as represented through industrial growth, material wealth, and the unchecked pursuit of

profit.122

To achieve progress they promoted a racist attitude toward the indigenous populations of

the Pampas and sought to conquer the “uncivilized” races while seizing and redistributing their

land. They did not seek compromise with the indigenous races, whom they viewed as a

hindrance to Argentina’s advancement. Furthermore, they promoted massive European

immigration as a means of displacing the lesser populations with what they believed to be more

productive and intelligent peoples. The Generation of 1837 believed that the quickest and most

effective way into the select circles of civilized nations depended on the successful displacement

of Indian and mestizo influences while replacing them with white immigrant settlers.123

The Generation of 1837 spoke out for many values, but progress was foremost among

them. Esteban Echeverría, for instance, identified the most important virtues of the Generation

when he wrote, “the only formula, definitive, fundamental to our existence as a free people, is:

May, Progress, Democracy.”124

In addition to this Echeverría also believed in association,

120

E. Bradford Burns, Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History, 5th ed.

(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), 94. 121

Ibid. 122

Ibid., 92. 123

Katra, The Argentine Generation, 33.

37

liberty, equality, and fraternity, calling them “divine symbols of the successful future of the

people of humanity”125

and Echeverría included them in the Generation’s creed, Dogma

Socialista. But he noted that progress was foremost. Echeverría made this clear when he wrote,

“our philosophy carries the motto: progress indefinitely.”126

For the Generation of 1837 there was no other way but forward. It was defined by their

beliefs and repeated in their works. Anything other than progress was not even considered,

because, as Sarmiento wrote, “it is absurd to turn our eyes back.”127

They believed that progress

was a rule that could not be broken. Echeverría went as far to call progress a law. Sarmiento

reflected the same belief when he wrote, “it is the law of humanity that through the new interests,

the prolific ideas, progress triumphs to end the old traditions, of ignorant habits and unproductive

preoccupations.”128

Again and again the Generation of 1837 identified the law of progress as the

only way to live and the only way Argentina could become great. Echeverría declared that “a

people who do not work to improve their conditions do not obey the law of being.”129

So

strongly did they believe in progress that to not move forward was to not even exist. Juan

124

“La formula única, definitiva, fundamental de nuestra existencia como pueblo libre, es:

Mayo, Progreso, Democracia.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 57. 125

“Símbolos divinos del venturoso porvenir de los pueblos de la humanidad.” Esteban

Echeverría, Obras completas de Esteban Echeverría (Buenos Aires: Antonio Zamora, 1972),

233. 126

“Nuestra filosofía lleva por divisa: progreso indefinido.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento

Argentino, 127

“Es absurdo volver los ojos atrás.” Ibid., 175. 128

“Es ley de la humanidad que los intereses nuevos, las ideas fecundas, el progreso

triufen al fin de la tradiciones envejecidas, de los hábitos ignorantes y de las preocupaciones

estacionarias.” Ibid., 173. 129

“Un pueblo que no trabaja por mejorar de condición no obedece a la ley de su ser.”

Ibid., 61.

38

Alberdi not only considered progress as a law of being, but he literally took the idea to congress

when he wrote “it should be declared that Congress cannot pass a law that will limit or distort the

guarantees of progress.”130

During their exile, the Generation of 1837 criticized Rosas’ caudillo rule for retarding the

law of progress. They considered that the people and its rulers were steeped in idleness,

inactivity, and inability to advance. Sarmiento noted that “moral progress, and the cultivation of

the intellect, are here not only neglected . . . but impossible.”131

The Generation of 1837 was

determined that inactivity would not continue. It was their obsession to move Argentina forward

arguing that “to be human is to live always, and progress constantly.”132

To them it was simple:

“all human associations exist through progress and for progress, and in the same way civilization

is nothing other than the indelible testimony of humanitarian progress.”133

The Generation of

1837 always promoted their law of progress. They repeated it as often as possible attempting to

convince all to share in their beliefs. They criticized those who did not appear to work for

progress and they praised those who did. Echeverría exclaimed praise to others in support of

progress writing, “glory to those who do not despair, that have faith in the future and in the

progress of humanity.”134

130

“Ella debe declarar que el congreso no dará ley que limite o falsee las garantías de

progreso.” Juan Bautista Alberdi, Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la

República Argentina (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Estrada, 1852), 254-255. 131


“La humanidad es como un hombre que vive siempre, y progresa constantemente.”

O.C. de Esteban Echeverría, 234. 133

“Todas las asociaciones humanas existen por el progreso y para el progreso, y la

civilación misma no es otra cosa que el testimonio indeleble del progreso humanitario.” Ibid.

39

Another main idea promoted by the Generation of 1837 was that of civilization versus

barbarism. Domingo Sarmiento popularized the theme in his great work Facundo written in

exile in 1845. An historian of Argentine intellectual development, Alberto Ghiraldo considered

Sarmiento’s literary work, “more than a book, outside of history, outside of literature, outside of

the entire artistic reach of man, Facundo is the revenge of genius.”135

Facundo strongly

influenced Sarmiento’s generation. It exposed the harmful traits of caudillo culture while

promoting a new and more civilized way of life founded in the cities. Sarmiento held that “all

civilization, whether native, Spanish, or European, centers in the cities.”136

On the other hand

the gaucho and the caudillo were the antithesis of progress. He believed that the caudillo was the

“incarnation of evil who must be exorcised if Argentina [was] to become civilized.”137

Furthermore, historian José Ingenieros stated that “Sarmiento conceived Argentine history . . . as

the result of the conflict between two different social evolutionary stages; one representing the

civilized cities and the other the barbarous countryside.”138

Sarmiento was not the only one of his generation to perceive the city as a vital locus for

progress. Though Sarmiento helped to make this idea more popular, cities were always

considered a source for progress and as the means of destroying Native American culture.139

134

“Gloria a los que no desesperan, tienen fe en el provenir y en el progreso de la

humanidad.” Ibid., 230. 135

“Más que un libro, fuera de la literatura, fuera de todas las normas artísticas al alcance

del hombre, Facundo es la venganza del genio.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 151. 136



“Sarmiento concibe la historia argentina . . . como el resultado del conflicto entre dos

etepas distinas de la evolución social; la una representada por las ciudades civilizadas y la otra

por las compañas bárbaras.” Sarmiento, Conflicto, 13.

40

Prior to Sarmiento’s publication of Facundo, Alberdi wrote, “it is imperative never to lose sight

of the fact that the city best represents the principle of progress, and the country that of

stagnation.”140

Overall, the Generation of 1837 agreed with Sarmiento’s hope that civilization would

triumph over barbarism. They saw the city as the means of advancement and as a method for

progress. Barbarism, they argued, deterred progress and, since barbarism characterized the lives

of gauchos and natives on the Pampas, then the Pampas must be civilized if progress was to

flourish. Basically, they believed that the Pampas must be subdued and controlled if the people

of Argentina were ever to become civilized.141

For Sarmiento it was essential that the future

arrive through the cities. He argued that “the progress of civilization must culminate only in

Buenos Aires; the Pampa is a very bad medium of transmission and distribution.”142

In order to achieve progress the men of the Generation of 1837 greatly supported

immigration. They believed Argentina needed a large influx of population to stimulate the

economy and foster change. Europe was considered far more advanced than Argentina and the

Generation of 1837 wished for Europe to come to Argentina. They wanted to get rid of the old

ways and introduce new ways as exhibited by Enlightenment Europe. They believed fervently

that the settlement of millions of European immigrants would eradicate the old ways which

lacked industry and was without education.

Juan Alberdi led the way in his most popular and influential work, Bases y puntos de

partida para la organización politíca de la Republica Argentina, published in 1852. In Bases

139


Ibid., 134. 141


Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic, 6-7.

41

Alberdi not only advanced the idea that immigration would bring progress and wealth to the

nation of Argentina, he also established the political framework through which it would occur.

As historian Sam Schulman concluded, “Alberdi’s work was the frame upon which the

formulators of the Argentine Constitution of 1853 based their finished product.”143

In this way,

the ideas of the Generation of 1837 found their way into public policy as early as 1853.

In order to attract European immigrants, Alberdi argued that Argentina needed to

establish peace, pacification and order through Constitutional means.144

He believed that “the

Constitutions of underpopulated nations cannot have any other serious or rational means, for now

and for many years, than to give to the solitary and abandoned territory the population that it

needs, as the fundamental instrument of their development and progress.”145

Alberdi regarded

the Pampas as an under-populated territory, claiming that Argentina was “deserted, solitary,

poor. She asks for population, prosperity.”146

Alberdi considered immigration as the only way

for Argentina to rise among nations. In addition he considered the Constitution and immigration

as complementary to the goal of progress. Alberdi argued that “without better population for

industry and for the free government, even the best political Constitution will be inefficient.”147

143

Sam Schulman, “Juan Bautista Alberdi and His Influence on the Immigration Policy in

the Argentine Constitution of 1853,” The Americas, 5:1 (July 1948), 7. 144

“La paz sólo viene por el camino de la ley; la constitución es el medio más poderoso

de pacificación y de orden.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 121. 145

“Las constituciónes de países despoblados no pueden tener otro fin serio y racional,

por ahora y por muchos años, que dar al solitario y abandonado territorio la población de que

necesita, como instrumento fundamental de su desarrollo y progreso.” Alberdi, Bases y puntos,

241. 146

“Ella no está bien; está desierto, solitario, pobre. Pide población, prosperidad.” Ibid.,

75.

42

Men in Congress at the time, agreed with Alberdi. They implemented Alberdi’s ideas in

the 1853 Constitution. Article 25 of the 1853 Constitution stated:

The Federal Government shall encourage European immigration; and it shall not restrict,

limit or impose taxation of any kind upon the entry into Argentine territory of aliens

coming to it for the purposes of tilling the soil, improving industries, or introducing and

teaching sciences and arts.148

Thus Article 25 enshrined into law Alberdi’s belief that immigration should not be deterred, but

rather encouraged and promoted so that Argentina might advance and progress.

Alberdi popularized his theories toward immigration with his famous phrase “to govern is

to populate.”149

In that single phrase Alberdi captured the attention of his generation and

“imbued [in them] the fundamental idea that could become in time the savior of the country.”150

Mitre, for instance, reflected and supported Alberdi’s ideas when he wrote, “all who come here

are sure to improve the conditions of the moment and establish a sound economic footing in

order that later they may have the energy and perseverance to continue.”151

Mitre went on to

write that immigration is a native force that coincides to progress. Similar to Alberdi, Mitre

agreed that immigration was the method in which progress could be achieved. He recognized the

147

“Sin mejor población para la industria y para el gobierno libre, la mejor constitución

política sera ineficaz.” Ibid., 245.

148

Schulman, “Juan Bautista Alberdi,” 13. 149

Alberdi, Bases y puntos, 242. 150

“Imbuído de la idea fundamental que había de ser con el tiempo la salvadora del

porvenir de un país.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 108. 151

“Todo el que viene aquí está seguro de mejorar de condición por el momento, y de

conquistar el bienestar y la fortuna para más tarde si tiene energía y perseverancia.” Bartolomé

Mitre, Argenas: Colección de discursos Parlamentarios políticos, económicos y literarios,

oraciones fúnebres, alocuciones conmemorativos, proclamas y alegatos pronunciados desde

1848 hasta 1888, ed. Carlos Casavalle, (Buenos Aires: Imprenta y Librería de Mayo, 1889),

535.

43

desert as something to be conquered and populated as much as possible. He believed

immigration could create a spark and argued that immigration was a “new field of activity open

to immobilized societies,”152

such as the ones living in the Pampas. Mitre also commented, in a

speech to Congress, that immigration constituted the “evolution of humanity.”153

Mitre believed that immigration provided not only cheap labor, but the means of building

a great and proud country. He contended that they would “bring to us their robust arms, their

capital, their practical and theoretical intelligence, their activity, their blood and their heart

also.”154

For Mitre it was not enough to just bring them to Argentina, but they must also become

a part of Argentina. Mitre expressed to Congress that, “I want that the foreigner who comes to

this land . . . [to understand] that our country could be his country . . . that our sons the sons of

the immigrants would share the same affection . . . and that the name and the flag of Argentina

would not be only an echo or a cloud carried away by the wind.”155

Mitre considered that the

Argentine immigrant must not only settle in Argentina, but must love Argentina. The immigrant

must develop a sense of nationhood in which he seeks to better himself and his country. Mitre

wanted immigration to be sufficiently strong in order to anchor the nation and hold it firm. For

this reason, he sought immigration from the best, brightest, and most productive nations such as

Britain, Germany, and France.

152

“Un nuevo campo de actividad abierto a las sociedades inmovilizadas.” Ibid., 567. 153

“Es una evolución de la humanidad.” Ibid., 566-567. 154

“Nos traen sus brazos robustos, sus capitales, su inteligencia práctica y teórica, su

actividad, su sangre y su corazón también.” Bartolomé Mitre, “El capital ingles,” in Proyecto y


Mitre, Argenas, 569.

44

Sarmiento, on the other hand, supported immigration because he thought it was essential

to populate. Sarmiento was concerned with populating the Pampas with as many people as

possible in order to develop the empty spaces of the nation. Sarmiento stated that “space is the

evil that afflicts the Argentine Republic” and he continued by noting, “the desert surrounds us on

all sides and insinuates itself into our very bowels.”156

Sarmiento also wrote that “only by

developing the interior, improving the communications system and peopling the vast plains

could they hope to create an energetic, progressive and truly national Argentina.”157

Therefore

immigration was considered necessary so that Argentina could become united and work together

for progress.

For the Generation of 1837 the importance of immigration could not be highlighted

enough. Echoing the remarks of Sarmiento, Alberdi wrote that “we need a politics of creating,

of populating, of conquest over solitude and the desert.”158

Alberdi saw immigration as art and

science simultaneously. He thought of it as something the enlightened elites could design for the

benefit of the nation. He wrote that “to populate is an art, a science, the art, the most important

branch of the science of governing.”159

Put simply, Alberdi wrote, “the art of populating, is not

to populate that which is populated, but rather that which is deserted.”160

156



Necesitamos una política de creación, de población, de conquista sobre la soledad y el

desierto.” Alberdi, Bases y puntos, 241. 159

“Poblar es un arte, una ciencia, el arte, la rama más importante de la ciencia del

gobierno.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 112. 160

“El arte de poblar, no es poblar lo que está poblado, sino lo que está desierto.” Ibid.,

120.

45

The support given to immigration by the Generation of 1837 also found its way into the

public press. Echoing the arguments made by Alberdi, promotion brochures such as “El Río de

la Plata” proclaimed in 1869 that “a good government . . . conquers the desert.”161

In the same

article the authors argued that immigration represented order and progress and was a useful

element toward transforming the Republic. In another article, also in “El Río de la Plata” the

publicists noted that “immigration will come to be a powerful help for the fulfillment of our

humanitarian destiny.”162

Their pamphlets show that the ideas and beliefs toward immigration

advocated by the Generation of 1837 found support in the public realm and that their ideas came

to be accepted and promoted. Sarmiento summed up those ideas writing that “the movement of

new people brings with them paths of iron, steamers, agriculture, cities, civilization, commerce

[and] ideas that uplift, advance and become stronger, while modifying the colonial one, without

industry, without art and represented in the masses by the half civilized Indians.”163

Although the Generation of 1837 publicly espoused immigration in general terms, they

were openly candid in their desire to populate Argentina with immigrants from northern and

western Europe exclusively. This included nations such as Germany, England, and France.

These regions, they believed, produced superior cultures and races. The Generation of 1837

wanted to recreate the best aspects of European as well as American societies through

161

“Un buen gobierno . . . conquisten el desierto.” Tulio Halperín Donghi, Proyecto y


“La inmigración vendrá a ser un auxilio poderoso para el cumplimiento de nuestro

destino humanitario.” Ibid., 440. 163

“Caminos de hierro, vapores, agricultura, ciudades, civilización, comercio, ideas van

renovándose, aumentándose, avanzando con este movimiento de nueva población y modificando

la antigua colonia, sin industria, sin artes y representada en sus masas populares por los indios

medio civilizados.” Obras Completas de Sarmiento: XXXIV Cuestiones Americanas (Buenos

Aires: Editorial Luz Del Día, 1952), 248.

46

immigration. Alberdi contended that “without population, without better population . . . all our

intentions will remain illusions without results.”164

For this reason immigration had to come

from northern and western Europe. If it did not, Argentina could not advance, or as Alberdi

wrote, “without great populations there is no development of culture, there is no considerable

progress.”165

Other members of the Generation of 1837 showed similar support for immigration only

through Europe. Mitre wrote, “in social matters we will always, support European immigration,

as the method of regeneration for our society.”166

Mirroring Mitre, Sarmiento wrote, “the

principal element of order and moralization that the Republic of Argentina bears in mind today,

is European immigration.”167

Immigration was important, but only European immigration was considered valuable.

They believed that immigrants would remake America in Europe’s image. As Echeverría

concluded, “when American intelligence reaches the level of Europe, the sun will shine

brilliantly of our complete emancipation.”168

He reminded his readers that, “Europe is the center

164

“Sin población y sin mejor población . . . todos los propósitos quedarán ilusorios y sin

resultado.” Alberdi, Bases y puntos, 243-244. 165

“Sin grandes poblaciónes no hay desarrollo de cultura, no hay progreso considerable.”

Ibid., 77. 166

“En materias sociales estaremos siempre, por el fomento de la inmigración europea,

como medio de regenerar nuestra sociedad.” Mitre, “Profesión de fe,” 295. 167

“El elemento principal de orden y moralización que la Republica Argentina cuenta

hoy, es la inmigración europea.” Domingo Sarmiento, “Las Transformaciones de la Realidad

Argentina,” in Proyecto y construcción de una nación (1846-1880) (Caracas: Biblioteca

Ayacucho, 1980), 115. 168

“Cuando la inteligencia americana se haya puesto el nivel de la inteligencia europea,

brillará el sol de su completa emancipación.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 91.

47

of civilization through the centuries and of humanitarian progress.”169

They believed, as Alberdi

wrote, that “in America everything that is not European is barbarian.”170

Summarizing the

Generation of 1837’s support for European immigration, Alberdi declared, “each European who

comes to our shores brings us more civilization in his habits, which is then communicated to our

inhabitants more efficiently than by many books of philosophy.”171

The final method to achieve progress proposed by the Generation of 1837 was the erasure

of what they perceived to be the lesser races. They held that Indians, blacks, and even mestizos

were inferior peoples incapable of advancement. Most notably, however, they sought to

extinguish the Indians of the Pampas, whom Argentine intellectuals saw as savages and

barbarians. The Generation of 1837 looked down on the Indians as a savage race and an obstacle

to Argentine growth and progress. The Generation of 1837 saw no other solution but the

destruction of the Indians in order that Argentina could advance.

The men of the Generation of 1837 strongly supported equality and liberty among all

men, but they did not apply it to the Indians. For instance, Echeverría wrote that “the human

spirit is essentially free: liberty is an indestructible element of [its] nature.”172

The Generation

of 1837 theoretically believed in rights for all men. Supporting equality Echeverría wrote, “the

path for arriving at liberty is equality; equality and liberty are the father-like principles of

169

“La Europa es el centro de la civilación de los siglos y del progreso humanitario.”


“En América todo lo que no es europeo es bárbaro.” Alberdi, Bases y puntos, 68. 171

John E. Dougherty, “Juan Bautista Alberdi: A Study of His Thought” The Americas,

24:4 (April 1973), 496. 172

El espíritu humano es una esencia libre: la libertad es un elemento indestructible de su

naturaleza.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 63.

48

Democracy.”173

When considering the Indians, however, the Generation of 1837 allowed them

no rights and no freedoms. They believed that since Indians could not be considered men, that

they could not be considered citizens.

The beliefs of the Generation of 1837 toward Indians created a strong contradiction in

their writing. Historian William Katra pointed out that in Sarmiento’s writings “the forceful

measures that he called for hardly typified the harmonious society, founded on liberal principles

of mutual respect, mass participation, and democratic rights, which he promoted in other

passages of the same work.”174

Though they supported Democracy, they denied participation to

the Indians. They believed in equality, and they claimed it for everyone, except for the Indians.

Alberdi contended that “men should be equal before the law, but only before the law.

They are unequal in capacity and talents; consequently, there is a natural basis for inequality of

fortunes.”175

Here, Alberdi revealed a racist attitude that reoccurred in nearly all the works of the

Generation of 1837. Similar to Alberdi, Echeverría argued, “there will be, nevertheless, always

in society, high capacities and inferior capacities, men only able to do material labor, and men of

superior intelligence, that know how to legitimately conquer power, and rise in the social

hierarchy.”176

The Generation of 1837 believed it was the Indians who were of unequal capacity.

They saw them as idle; they saw them as obstacles to progress. Furthermore, they were

173

“El camino para llegar a la libertad es la igualidad; la igualidad y la libertad son los

principios engendradores de la Democracia.” O.C. de Esteban Echeverría, 233. 174


Dougherty, “Juan Bautista Alberdi,” 498. 176

“Habrá, sin embargo, siempre en la sociedad, capacidades altas y capacidades

inferiores, hombres solamente dispuestos para el trabajo material, y hombres de inteligencia

superior, que sepan conquistar legítimamente el poder, y un puesto elevado en la jeraquía

social.” O.C. de Esteban Echeverría, 373.

49

unwilling to compromise. They argued strongly that the Indian had no place in the future of

Argentina.

Sarmiento concurred, writing that “the American aborigines live in idleness, and show

themselves incapable, even under compulsion, of hard and protracted labor.”177

The white and

Christian race, however, Sarmiento believed to be not only capable of progress, but destined for

it. He stated that “Christianity is destined, without doubt, to dominate the land and to

incorporate themselves in the womb of all the races; because the progress of intelligence is

certain and infallible in all of them.”178

In a similar way Sarmiento described the Indians as

“more or less dismissed of ability for the development of riches.”179

In his work Conflicto y

armonías de las razas en américa, Sarmiento showed his approval of the racist tracts of other

authors. In one such example the author noted that Indians “pass their life in a state of stupid

insensibility that demonstrates that he is ignorant of that which surrounds him. His ambition and

desires never extend farther than his immediate needs.”180

In Sarmiento’s opinion the Indians

had to be extinguished because “he believed that any nation possessing a significant number of

Indians was burdened with an inferior genetic pool, and consequently could never aspire to equal

status among the powerful nations of the world.”181

177


“El Cristianismo está destinado, sin duda, a dominar la tierra e incorporar en su seno a

todas las razas; porque es seguro e infalible el progreso de la inteligencia en todas ellas.”

Sarmiento, Conflicto y armonías, 179. 179

“Más o menos destituídas de aptitude para el desarrollo de la riqueza.” O.C. de

Sarmiento, 248. 180

“Pasa su vida en un estado de estúpida insensibilidad que demuestra que es ignorante

de sí misma y de cuanto lo rodea. Su ambición y sus deseos no se extienden jamás más allá de

sus necesidades inmediantes.” Sarmiento, Conflicto y armonías, 84-85. 181

Karta, Domingo F. Sarmiento, 87.

50

Alberdi also saw nothing beneficial about the Indians of the Pampas. He believed that in

no way could they be included in Argentina’s advancement. Alberdi argued that “the Indian

does not figure as a component in the world or in our political or civil society.”182

Alberdi held a

completely racist attitude toward the Indians commenting, “I do not know any distinguished

person in our society that carries the last name of an Indian.”183

Alberdi believed that the Indian

lacked the capacity to understand modern views of democracy and profit. He argued that “they

cannot be strong those who are incapable of comprehending, law of the worlds, physical and

moral.”184

He summed up the difference between the two races by noting that “we are the

conquering race, not the conquered race.”185

Adding to this racist tendency, Echeverría

commented that “it is the appetite of the savage that only moves himself to collect fruit or pursue

the hunt.”186

Altogether, the Generation of 1837 used racism toward the Indians of the Pampas to promote

their ultimate destruction. They used it as a tool to help push Argentina toward what they called

progress. They used it to justify the conquest and settlement of the Pampas. As author Nicolas

Shumway concluded, by “using the racial stereotyping of the Generation of ’37, the ideological

justification for such actions was readily available.”187

Furthermore, Shumway stated that the

182

Alberdi, Bases y puntos, 66. 183

“No conozco persona distinguido de nuestras sociedades que lleve apellido pehuenche

o araucano.” Ibid. 184

“No sabe ser fuerte lo que no es capaz de comprensión, ley do los mundos, físicos y

moral.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento Argentino, 129. 185

“Somos la raza conquistadora, no la raza vencida.” Ibid., 120. 186

“Es el apetito del salvaje que solo se mueve para recoger el fruto o perseguir la caza.”

Ibid., 73. 187

Shumway, The Invention of Argentina, 144.

51

Generation of 1837 used racism to build a “framework for a political system that would exclude,

persecute, dispossess, and often kill the ‘racially inferior’ gauchos, Indians, and mixed

bloods.”188

In an ultimatum to the Indians leading to what became the Conquest of the Desert,

Alberdi wrote, “you are left with two paths of salvation in the future: either the Christian altar,

where one mounts the heavens, or the abyss of the rivers, where no one passes but the

ignorant.”189

188

Ibid., 144. 189

“Te quedan dos caminos de salvación en lo futuro: o el altar del cristiano, por donde

se monta al cielo, o el abismo de los ríos, por donde se pasa nada de los brutos.” Ghiraldo, El

Pensamiento Argentino, 106.

52

CHAPTER 4

The Conquest of the Desert

Nomadic Indians controlled the Pampas during the entire colonial period 1517-1816.

Early European settlers thus tended to avoid the Pampas, opting instead to subdue the

agricultural Indians of Paraguay and Northwest Argentina. When Argentina declared

independence in 1816, the Pampas Indians still greatly outnumbered European or mixed race

settlers. Also, during the later colonial period, Araucanian migrants from Chile displaced

original nomadic groups of the Pampas. The migrants from Chile adopted a lifestyle based on

the wild horses and cattle of the Pampas.

During the nineteenth century the fortunes of the Pampas Indians changed dramatically.

Europeans entered the area and pushed them off their land. Although the Pampas Indians

defended their territory with their lives, no matter how much they resisted, more and more

settlers came. The Indians held on as long as they could but a half century of warfare took its

toll. By 1879 the Argentine army overcame the Indians. Two major invasions and the denial of

basic necessities contributed to their near extermination.

During the nineteenth century the Argentine army captured, killed, or forced the Pampas

Indians south into Patagonia. This process of usurping Indian territory was called the Conquest

of the Desert. Although the major events of the conquest occurred in the 1870s, it was a process

that began in the 1830s. In the early part of the century Indians and Argentines had lived

relatively peaceably side by side. The government made agreements with the Indians and

warfare was avoided. By 1820, creoles began to disregard treaties made with the Indians thereby

53

denying them rations of cattle and horses.190

This resulted in increased malones, or Indian raids

of white settlements as Indians sought resources needed to continue living on the Pampas. As

violence increased the Governor of Buenos Aires in 1825, Las Heras, charged Don Manuel de

Rosas with establishing peace with the Indians.191

Rosas, a large estancia owner in the Pampas,

knew very well the consequences of an Indian raid. He was fit for the task of establishing peace

and was aware of its advantages. Rosas quickly sought peace and “he was shrewd enough to

understand that friendship was preferable to continuous attack.”192

As early as 1825 Rosas

established peace treaties with caciques from the Tehuelche, Vorogano, and Ranquel tribes.193

Despite treaties of pacification fights still broke out. A major reason for renewed

violence, was an extensive drought between 1830 and 1832 which resulted in the death of

350,000 head of cattle.194

Because of this decline of resources, the government could not live up

to many of its agreements with the Indians resulting in more raids. As sporadic eruptions of

violence occurred, Rosas decided that a military campaign was the only solution. Even though

Rosas wanted peace, he strongly believed that in order for Argentina to fully benefit from the

open plains of the Pampas the Indian must eventually be exterminated.195

In fact, Rosas believed

so strongly that a military campaign was necessary, that he put up his own money to conduct a

large scale campaign in 1833. At the outset of the campaign, he pledged “to heaven that I will

190


Ibid., 91. 192

Alfred Joseph Tapson, “The Indian Problem on the Argentine Pampa, 1735-1852”

(PhD diss., University of California, 1952), 131. 193


Ibid., 135-136. 195

Ibid., 132.

54

not sleep until I have fulfilled this part of my public duties.”196

Rosas oversaw every aspect of

the campaign considering every detail very carefully.197

To Rosas’ advantage, he had acquired many Indian allies who contributed to the success

of the 1833 campaign. The pacification treaties that Rosas made with certain groups of Indians,

as described by historian Kristine Jones, “laid the foundation for Rosas’ successful military

campaign . . . which vaulted him into national prominence.”198

Rosas risked everything and

went into the desert with the goal of forcing the Indians south of the Río Negro. He commanded

a gaucho army of 2,010 men as well as over eight hundred Indian allies.199

The campaign took less than a year and by March of 1834 Rosas had accomplished his

goal. With relative ease Rosas moved his armies to the island of Choele-Choel on the Río Negro

and cleared the Pampas of hostile groups. Rosas added 20,000 square leagues to the pacified

frontier200

driving the Indians back out of the Pampas and into the Andean border of Chile and

across the Río Negro.201

An estimated 3,200 Indians were killed and approximately 1,200 were

taken prisoner while 1,000 white captives were released.202

Rosas was very satisfied with his conquest. He believed he had closed the Pampas

permanently to the Indians while opening it to the Argentines. Upon completing the campaign

Rosas triumphantly declared to his men, “the beautiful regions which extend to the cordillera of

196

Ibid., 145. 197

Ibid., 146. 198


Tapson, The Indian Problem, 153, 140. 200



Tapson, The Indian Problem, 161.

55

the Andes and the lands that stretch to the Straits of Magellan are open to your sons.”203

His

rhetoric was exaggerated. Many Indian groups reunited and many others returned. Thus in 1833

Rosas did not bring the Indian problem to an end, the problem was just beginning.

After 1833 Rosas became the governor and virtual dictator of Buenos Aires. For the next

two decades, the frontier was relatively peaceful. As long as the government paid rations to the

Indians, violence was avoided. The Indians only raided out of necessity. Rosas used subsidies

to prevent the Indians from raiding because he knew that hunger caused war.204

While subsidies

reduced Indian/creole violence, they did not end all violence. Internal disputes flared creating

conflicts of Indian against Indian throughout the late 1830s and 1840s.205

In general Indians

allied with Rosas fought Indians who were opposed to Rosas. Thankfully for the settlers treaty

agreements established by Rosas were enough to allow ranching to take their expansionist course

in peace.206

Raids still occurred, but they were not as common as they had been before 1833, or

as common as they became later in the 1850s. Historian Alfred Tapson reported that during

Rosas’ time, the “expanded frontier was based on the shaky foundations of Indian good will.”207

This good will, however, did not last. When given the chance, the Indians took back the Pampas.

In 1852 Rosas was defeated at Caseros by Justo José de Urquiza who effectively ended

Rosas’ reign as the Governor of Buenos Aires. The defeat ushered in a ten year civil war among

Federalists and Unitarists, which the Unitarists finally won in 1862 under Bartolomé Mitre. Ten

203

Ibid., 160. 204

Ibid., 166. 205

Ibid., 168. 206


Tapson, The Indian Problem, 173.

56

years of civil war and chaos, however, took attention away from the frontier allowing the Indians

to recover the land taken by Rosas. Though Rosas held the Indians back during his rule as

governor, the limited population and resources of Argentina were not enough to fill the vast area

that Rosas had conquered.208

In 1852 the Pampas was still a vast and open plain. When the

government let down its guard, the Indians returned, taking what they could to survive. During

the years of civil war the frontier was pushed north and desolated by Indians.209

Between 1854

and 1857, the Indians took 400 captives and drove off over 400,000 animals. Also, they

recovered a large amount of land reducing the territory of Buenos Aires Province by some

25,000 square miles.210

In addition to the lack of defense on the frontier, the civil war also meant that promised

rations were not delivered to the Indians. Without rations, the Indians had to raid to survive.

Futhermore, even if the government could send rations, they often neglected to do so. In

Argentina, according to Alfred Hasbrouck, “the history of the first three quarters of the

nineteenth century was one of making and breaking of treaties with the Indians.”211

Calfucurá,

one of the Pampas greatest caciques, in a letter to President Mitre in 1863 wrote, “I am so weary

of this manipulation that has befallen me, because the lies are so many. Each time I order rations

to be brought from Azul (a further settlement), they force me to say that I am going on a raid.”212

208

Richard Perry, “The Argentine Frontier: The Conquest of the Desert, 1878-1879”

(PhD diss., University of Georgia, 1971), 101. 209

Ibid., 103. 210 Richard O. Perry, “Warfare on the Pampas in the 1870s,” Military Affairs, 36:2 (April

1972), 53. 211


57

The continuous lies and the breaking of treaties almost always resulted in retaliation by the

Indians. Thus the government attempted to maintain a fragile peace with the Indians that had its

base in the assistance of the government to the tribes through a system of rations.213

In 1862 Argentina became united, but the government was still unable to dedicate

resources to the Indian problem of the frontier. Instead the military was needed for the

Paraguayan War which began in 1864 and lasted until 1870. During the war the Indians were

able to continue their domination of the Pampas with little resistance. Local militias assembled

to defend the southern frontier, but they were unable to stem the Indian advance.214

In conflicts

over territory the advantage was almost always with the Indians until the late 1860s.215

By 1870

the Indians gained back control of the Pampas and recovered much of the land they had lost, but

the conflict was not over. The next decade drastically changed the fortunes of the Indians.

Renewed attention to the Indian problem surfaced in 1867. On August 13, 1867, the

legislature passed Law 215 providing that “following the termination of the Paraguayan conflict,

the frontier of the Republic would be advanced across the Pampas to the north banks of the Río

Negro.”216

Although no immediate action was possible, the decision was nevertheless important

as it revealed the government’s determination to take back the Pampas and force the Indians to

retreat south of the Río Negro.

212

“Estoy tan aburrido en esta discrito en que me hallo, porque las mentiras son muchas.

Cada vez que mando a traer las raciones del Azul, siempre me mandan decir que yo estoy por ir a

malon.” Jones, Conflict and Adaptation, 136. 213

“La paz ajustada y mantenida con los indios tenía por base el auxilio del Gobierno a la

tribus por el sistema de las raciones.” Dionisio Schoo Lastra, El indio del desierto, 1535-1879

(Buenos Aires: Agencia General de Librería y Publicaciones, 1928), 205. 214


Ibid., 140. 216

Perry, “Warfare on the Pampas,” 53.

58

The government decided to take conclusive action against the Indians for several reasons.

For one, raids not only became more frequent, but they also became larger. In order to preserve

their way of life, “raids were transformed into full scale invasions by columns of three to five

hundred men.”217

The large raids were upsetting to the growing settlement population as well as

the growing cattle industry. In contrast to the Rosas period, frontier society had changed by the

1870s and was no longer just a backward periphery.218

The frontier was advancing and by 1870

it warranted the government’s attention. Also warranting attention was the greater number of

Indians moving toward the frontier line. Historian Dionisio Schoo Lastra noted that in 1870 “the

great quantity of Indians that are coming from Chile to establish themselves create an alarming

situation in the Province of Buenos Aires, that perhaps never has there been an equal gathering

of natives.”219

Furthermore, there was the ever present belief that “the Indian was a cancer that

corroded the innards of the country.”220

The Administration also calculated that a new frontier line would in the long-run reduce

frontier defense costs. To protect a frontier line in 1870 “imposed a severe economic burden”

with an annual cost of over 2.3 million pesos fuertes.221

In contrast, the Río Negro offered a

217

Perry, The Argentine Frontier, 113. 218

Jones, Conflict and Adaptation, 163.

219 “La gran cantidad de indios que están viniendo de Chile a establecerse crea una

situación alarmante para la Provincia de Buenos Aires, que quizás nunca ha tenido una reunión

igual de indiadas.” Lastra, El indio del desierto, 206. 220

“El indio era un cancer que corroía las entañas del país.” Ibid., 265. 221

Perry, The Argentine Frontier, 133.

59

shorter, easier line of defense that would require fewer men and reduced defense costs of only

600,000 pesos fuertes.222

As raids increased in size and number, the Argentine government and people became

increasingly agitated over the frontier problems. One solution, proposed by President Domingo

Sarmiento in 1870, was to advance another frontier line, while still maintaining the former line.

This way the government placed its fortifications in front of the settlements as well has having

fortifications behind the settlements. This double frontier line meant that, “the Indians could no

longer cross the frontier and find the herds of the estancias immediately at hand.”223

In effect,

the Indians might enter past the frontier line, but, once alerted of their presence, the army denied

their exit. The double frontier was the first step to turn the tide of the frontier war. It was

effective because, according to historian Richard Perry, “troops stationed on the interior line . . .

provided immediate, close at hand protection to the estancias, and they patrolled forward of the

second line to those places that, from their abundance of water and pasture, large parties of

Indians might use to regroup their forces.”224

For the Indians, raiding was like a business venture. They did it to obtain food, but also

to get goods for later sale to settlers and other Indian tribes. Because they had become so

involved in the market economy, they were dependent on cattle and horses for trade. Without

them, they stood little chance of survival in the Pampas. Unfortunately, for the Indians, the

double frontier line combined with increased security measures deprived the Indians of the

222

Ibid. 223

Perry, “Warfare on the Pampas,” 53. 224

Perry, The Argentine Frontier, 83-84.

60

horses and cattle for which they depended.225

Becoming somewhat desperate, the Indians

launched several large raids early in the 1870s.

One such raid occurred in 1870 at a settlement called Tres Arroyos. Tres Arroyos was

located between the larger settlements of Tandíl and Bahía Blanca. In 1870, “it had its own life

and its condition could not have been more flourishing.”226

It was a growing settlement and

represented progress in the frontier region. However, the Indians were able to launch a very

successful raid against Tres Arroyos. The success of the raid was quite upsetting to the settlers

and increased the demands to solve the Indian problem. Historian Dionisio Schoo Lastra stated

that “the success was in effect deplorable, threatening the depopulation of a large part of the

territory, because the raid had affected a zone situated far inside the line of defense and could be

repeated.”227

For the settlers, it was time to take action against the Indians. The growing

numbers on the frontier demanded that something be done. By 1870, “the national government

had formed the opinion to the respect: to pretend that the Indians had not penetrated through the

line would be to pretend even air did not enter.”228

Another major raid occurred March 5, 1872. In this raid, the Indian cacique Calfucurá

led 3,500 men against the settlement of San Carlos. The Indians attacked quickly and as often

225


“Tenía vida propia y su estado no podía ser más floreciente.” Lastra, El indio del

desierto, 208. 227

“El suceso fué de efectos deplorables, amenazaba la despoblación de una gran parte

del territorio, porque el malón había afectado una zona situada bastante más adentro que la línea

de defensa y podía repetirse.” Ibid., 211. 228

“El Gobierno Nacional tenía formada opinión al respecto: pretender que los indios no

penetraron a través de la línea era como pretender que no entrara el aire.” Ibid., 213.

61

happened, they were upon the settlement before the alarm could reach frontier armies. In

describing the raid, Dionisio Schoo Lastra wrote:

The din of the natives, the clamor of the Christians, the dry crack of clashing and

smashing spears and the noise of the swords deadened the explosion from a small unit

that was shooting from one side of the camp. The voices of command jumbled with the

interjections of passion and with cries of impotence and of pain.229

The Indians swept in at full strength taking everything they could. At San Carlos the Indians

took 75,000 head of cattle and 16,000 mares, as well as an uncounted number of sheep. The raid

at San Carlos “was a decisive triumph for the Indians.”230

But, these raids were reactions by the

Indians who were concerned over their shrinking territory, and soon thereafter, the Indians were

completely denied the necessities of life.

Indian fortunes began to change in 1873. Until that time, the Indians had the advantage

in any even numbered battle with the Argentine army. However, in 1873, the Argentine army

received its first shipments of the Remington rifle. The Remington was a quick loading gun that

could be fired much more rapidly than their previous armaments. It gave the Argentine army a

new and significant advantage over the Indians that they had not enjoyed previously. Before the

introduction of the Remington rifle, the Indians effectively learned to attack the army while they

were reloading. With the Remington rifle, the army was capable of reloading fast enough to

repel the Indian attacks. It became such a large advantage for the army that “a relatively small

government force could wander about the entire Pampas and inflict unacceptable casualties on

229

“La algarabía de la indiada, el clamoreo de los cristianos, el chasquido seco de las

lanzas al chocar y quebrarse y el ruido de los aceros amortiguaban los estampidos de la pequeña

pieza que disparaba en uno de los extremos del campo. Confundíanse las voces de mando con

las interjecciones de coraje y con gritos de impotencia y de dolor.” Ibid., 233. 230

“Fué un triunfo decisivo sobre los indios.” Ibid., 236.

62

anyone who dared molest them.”231

Also to the army’s advantage, Remington rifles were not

easily obtainable by the Indians. Most Indians did not have firearms due to the fact that colonial

law prohibited Spaniards and their descendents, under severe penalty, from selling such weapons

to the Natives.232

The Indians, armed only with lances, did not have much of a chance.

Another major blow to the Indian cause in 1873 was the death of the cacique Calfucurá.

Since the 1830s Calfucurá led large bands of Indians living on the Pampas. Calfucurá earned a

reputation as “probably the greatest Indian chief in all Pampa history.” He “was an astute leader,

a formidable warrior, and a clever diplomat.”233

It was these qualities and assets that the Indians

missed dearly after his death on June 4, 1873 at Salinas Grandes. Now, as the government forces

grew stronger, the Indians grew weaker. Leadership was handed down to Calfucurá’s son,

Namuncurá, but Namuncurá did not prove as worthy as his father. As noted by Lastra,

“Namuncurá did not have the claws of a tiger as his father did.”234

In October 1874, after his election to the presidency, Nicolás Avellaneda intensified the

war against the Indians. He appointed Adolfo Alsina as the Minister of War with the hope that

he would finally conclude the Indian problem.235

Alsina believed that “he was touched by glory

to direct the final grand operation of the civilized country against the barbarians of the desert.”236

He considered it his honor to defend the country against the Indians and to extend the frontier.

231


Ibid., 52. 233

Tapson, The Indian Problem, 170. 234

“Namuncurá no tenía las garras de tigre de su padre.” Lastra, El indio del desierto,

219. 235

César Bustos-Videla, “Conquest of the Argentine Desert and its Religious Aspects,”

The Americas 21:1 (July 1964), 42.

63

Alsina immediately proposed a plan to progressively move the frontier line forward

toward the Río Negro. He sought to conquer and fortify each area and then settle it, before

pushing forward again. His solution, therefore, was a gradual approach, defined by historian

Richard Perry as “advancing across the desert by occupying successive lines and encouraging

development of the land behind them by the agricultural and pastoral industries.”237

While he

hoped to push the frontier south, Alsina planned to hold the frontier through fortified lines. On

each line he built fortínes, or blockhouses established at intervals which were connected by

strong trenches and palisades.238

This way, the Indians would not be able to recover land they

had lost. Adding to Alsina’s plan was his idea to occupy oases across the Pampas. Alsina’s goal

through this strategy was to occupy oases with military forces first and then later with civilian

populations.239

Enacted on October 4, 1875,240

Law 752, or Alsina’s Law, provided the funds to

implement the plan. The law indicated the seriousness of the Government’s effort to solve the

Indian problem. “For the Republic, breaking through the frontier line was a vital question of the

moment.”241

It was so important that when men returned to Buenos Aires from the frontier, they

almost always had to go back being told that, “the country needed more sacrifices.”242

236

“Le ha tocado a él la Gloria de dirigir las últimas grandes operaciones de la campaña

de civilización contra la barbarie y el Desierto.” Lastra, El indio del desierto, 267-268. 237




Ibid. 241

“Para la República, el romper con sus fronteras interiores del momento era cuestión

vital.” Lastra, El indio del desierto, 244.

64

As soon as possible, Alsina put his plan into effect. In 1875 Alsina and his army pushed

the frontier one hundred twenty-four miles further south. As they pushed the Indians deeper into

the interior, they also opened new roads, and extended telegraph lines.243

This success continued

into 1876. In March of that year, the frontier line was advanced by ninety miles thereby adding

seven thousand square miles of territory to the Republic.244

But the Indians were still strong, and

Alsina moved the frontier slowly. He feared combat between his men and the Indians and

“observed an attitude of caution in consolidating the new line.”245

As the government slowly gained the advantage in the frontier, the Indians desperately

retaliated. Between December 1875 and March 1876, the Indians launched six major invasions.

In each case the Indians were intercepted by the army and were forced to abandon their booty

and flee.246

Three major raids occurred in August, October, and December 1876, the first two

led by caciques Namuncurá and Catriel, and the third led by the cacique Pincen. All failed.

Though the Indians continued to raid, it was only out of desperation. Furthermore, raids were

becoming noticeably less intense.247

It was an indication of things to come.

Alsina’s death in December 1877 led to a change in military strategy. Alsina had done

well with his plan, but progress was slow, leading some to believe it could take as many as

twenty years to conquer the Indians. A subordinate to Alsina, General Julio A. Roca believed

that the army should be much more aggressive. He had advised Alsina in 1877 that the “the best

242

“El país necesitaba de ellos más sacrificios.” Ibid., 238. 243


Perry, The Argentine Frontier, 123-124. 245

Ibid., 124. 246



65

system of overcoming the Indians is to extinguish them and drive them beyond the Río Negro by

an offensive like that followed by Rosas.”248

Nonetheless, Alsina had successfully worn down

the Indians. In early 1878, General Nicolás Levalle wrote, “the invasions have ended; today the

Indian is reduced to the most complete impotence.”249

For this reason historian Richard Perry

stated that “Alsina’s work . . . marked a new era in the history of the frontier” that made possible

the achievements that followed.250

After Minister of War Adolfo Alsina died, General Roca was

presented with the opportunity to test the theory he had proposed to Alsina. On January 3, 1878,

General Julio Argentino Roca was appointed the Minister of War.

Roca was born into a prominent family in the Argentine province of Tucumán in 1843.

As a youth he studied at the Colegio Nacional de Concepción del Uruguay. Roca was

exceptionally bright and determined as a young man and it did not take him long to rise among

the army ranks. In 1873, at just the age of thirty, Roca won the praise of the Argentine President

by winning the battle of Santa Rosa thereby becoming a General. Physically, Roca was not the

most imposing man. He did not seem to be the type to lead an entire army, and eventually, an

entire nation. In describing Roca, author Dionisio Schoo Lastra wrote, “his arm, shaking from

his nerves on certain occasions, he did not give the impression that he would be able to aim a

great blow or thrust the spear strongly.”251

Despite his stature or appearance, Roca was a strong

leader. In his mind he was confident and in his heart he was determined. Though he was

248



Ibid., 131. 251

“Su brazo, rápido a impulse de sus nervios en ciertas ocasiones, no daba la impresión

de que pudiera asestar un gran mandoble o un fuerte bote de lanza.” Lastra, El indio del

desierto, 277.

66

relatively young, Roca “transfigured himself acquiring an imposing aspect: undoubtedly

encouraged in him was the spirit of the greatest leaders, the sacred fire of warriors that penetrates

all and each one of their men and ignites their hearts.”252

Roca’s plan to conquer the desert was much different than that of Alsina. Roca did not

believe that the Pampas should be conquered with a series of successive fortified lines. Instead,

Roca proposed that the Indians be conquered through major, large scale invasions, pushing the

Indians south of the Río Negro as quickly as possible. Roca “proclaimed that henceforth the

purposes of his expeditions should be those of punishing, liberating, and colonizing.”253

Unlike

his predecessors, Roca recognized that the Indians were very spread out, only uniting to go on

the attack. If, then, they were attacked they were too few and were vulnerable to defeat. To

Roca, it seemed obvious that “when faced with a succession of strong attacks, the Indians were

physically incapable of uniting to resist each.”254

As far as Roca was concerned, he “had solved

the mystery of the Pampas. Its caciques and tribes were disseminated over a broad area, and

their forces were not, and could not become, united for a prolonged and vigorous resistance.”255

It was Roca’s plan to conquer the Pampas in two separate stages. The first stage was one

of preparation. Roca wanted to explore the area in order to learn its geography. He, along with

others, understood the importance of knowing the land. Also included in Roca’s plan for a

preliminary campaign were a series of what the Argentine army called “inverted raids.”256

In

252

“Se transfiguraba adquiriendo aspecto imponente: indudablemente alentaba en él el

espíritu de los grandes capitanes, el fuego sagrado de los guerreros que trasciende a todos y cada

uno de sus hombres y les inflama el corazón.” Ibid. 253




67

these inverted raids, the army swept into the interior sacking groups of Indian toldos and taking

cattle, horses, and other resources from them. It was just the same as an Indian style raid, but

now the Argentine army was doing it. Commenting on the preliminary campaign Roca said, “it

is necessary to repeat it continually, to break the spirit of the Indians and keep alive the fear and

terror among them. Then, instead of thinking only to invade us, they will only think of flight,

seeking their safety in the depths of the monte.”257

In the second stage of his campaign, Roca

sought to extinguish the Indians of the Pampas with one major invasion and force them to

surrender or go south of the Río Negro.

Avellenada was pleased with Roca’s plan and on August 14, 1878, Roca and Avellenada

sent a bill to Congress establishing the frontier at the Río Negro and the Río Neuquén.258

The

bill was the same as it had been eleven years earlier in 1867, but now the government had the

resources to implement it once it was made law. On October 4, less then two months after Roca

and Avellenada proposed the bill, it was passed as Law 947. Article two “authorized the

Executive to expend up to the sum of 1,600,000 pesos to execute the mandate of the law of

August 23, 1867, which provided for moving the frontier to the ríos Negro and Neuquén.”259

Good fortunes continued for the army during the first phase of Roca’s plan. The

preliminary campaign lasted six months beginning in August, 1878, and ending in January, 1879.

In that time, as reported by historian César Bustos-Videla, “1,250 Indians had been killed, 976 of

them warriors. Meanwhile 2,491 old people, women, and children had been taken prisoner, and

256

Ibid., 143. 257

Ibid., 153. 258

Bustos-Videla, “The 1879 Conquest,” 43. 259

Ibid.

68

300 captives had been rescued.”260

The success was more than even Roca had anticipated and

the Indians were on the heels of defeat. They were so devastated by the final months of 1878

that the Indians could no longer fight and there were no major battles.261

After completing the

campaign one commander reported that, “there only remains, then, in the ancient dominions of

the savages, groups of hungry Indians, without the elements of mobility and without other means

of subsistence than wild vegetables and fruits.”262

While the Indians experienced great loss, the army suffered much less. By January 1879,

only thirteen soldiers had been killed and only five had been wounded.263

This shows the

incredible advantage the army had gained over the Indians. In 1878, the frontier war was

becoming extensively lopsided. However, the Argentine army was not without affliction. Men

in the army suffered, but most suffering came at the hands of nature or disease rather than from

the Indians who caused relatively few casualties.264

The men were often hungry and “no one

escaped the tortures of thirst.”265

Furthermore, living conditions were rather poor and loneliness

was a constant companion. It was difficult passing the months along the frontier: “the

uncertainty, the constant attack, finally producing in the men that which might have well been

called the anguish of the Desert.”266

260

Ibid., 45. 261




Bustos-Videla, “The 1879 Conquest,” 47. 265

“Nadie escapó a las torturas de la sed.” Lastra, El indio del desierto, 317.

266 “La incertidumbre, el sobresalto constante, concluían produciendo en los hombres lo

que bien hubiera podido llamarse la angustia del Desierto.” Ibid., 264.

69

Also included in the preliminary campaign was the search for the five major caciques

leading the Indians of the Pampas. Roca believed this was important, because without their

leaders, the Indians had even less hope of unity to repel an attack. The caciques were vital to the

Indians and were referred to as the “pilot of the Desert.”267

According to Dionisio Schoo Lastra,

caciques, “carried the attack, maintained the initiative in the fight and marked the boundaries of

progress.”268

The caciques were irreplaceable. At the time of Roca’s campaign the five major

caciques included Epumer, Catriel, Pincen, Namuncurá, and Baigorrita. By 1879, Roca’s army

had successfully captured three of the five major caciques. The first to be caught was Pincen in

November, 1879. Upon his capture Roca exclaimed that “his entrance into [the] capital will

cause a sensation.”269

In the same month cacique Juan José Catriel was captured and his people

surrendered. Finally, in December, Epumer was captured. By the end of the preliminary

campaign Namuncurá and Baigorrita were the only two major caciques left at large. Namuncurá

had fled to safety and Baigorrita wandered the Pampas with a small force.

By January, as summer approached, it was time for the army to rest. Roca had more than

accomplished his goals in the preliminary campaign, but he still did not want to take any

chances. The army let the summer pass preparing for their final conquest. In January, Roca

telegraphed to General Levalle, “now we leave the pampas tranquil and rest until March when

we will take up our tents to go to pitch them on the picturesque banks of the Río Negro.”270

267 “Piloto del Desierto.” Ibid., 299. 268

“El llevaba el ataque, mantenía la iniciativa en la lucha y marcaba límites al

progreso.” Ibid. 269


Ibid., 170.

70

Roca’s second and final campaign into the Pampas began in April, 1879. This campaign

sought to expel, once and for all, the Indians from the Pampas so that it could be open to free and

permanent settlement. Like Rosas before, Roca desired to force all Indians south of the Río

Negro with his final point of advance at the island of Choele-Choel. The campaign officially

began on April 6 and “the expedition was to consist of five divisions which were to traverse the

desert between the frontier, the Río Negro, and the Andes southward and westward by different

routes, cooperating with each other in order to surround and capture all Indians encountered in

their march.”271

Roca himself did not leave until April 16 to join his division. The plan was to

have each division march across the Pampas acting like a net. The divisions were to maintain

contact with each other so that no Indians could escape through them. By doing this, “the

divisions . . . covered the territory inch by inch without leaving an Indian to his rear or his

flanks.”272

With few Indians in its way each division was able to sweep quickly through the

Pampas. It took just over a month, but the five divisions successfully swept through the Pampas

relieving the area from Indian threat.273

The second campaign was even more successful than the

first. Roca’s plan worked to perfection.274

The Fourth Division was the first to reach its goal, arriving at the Río Neuquén as early as

April 30 and establishing a fort. Roca’s goal, however, was the island of Choele-Choel.

Ironically, Roca, along with the First Division arrived there on May 25, the anniversary of the

271


“Las divisiones . . . han batido palmo a palmo el territorio sin dejar un indio a su

retaguardia ni su flancos.” Lastra, El indio del desierto, 315.

273 Bustos-Videla, “The 1879 Conquest,” 46.

274

Historian Alfred Hasbrouck commented that Roca’s “skillful and comprehensive plan

worked to perfection.” Hasbrouck, “The Conquest,” 216.

71

May 1810 Revolution. There, the First Division celebrated Independence Day and rejoiced that

the most anxious stage of the campaign had already been successfully completed.275

While

addressing his troops Roca announced that the Conquest of the Desert was a continuation of May

25, 1810, and said, “we now make the most far-reaching advance since we acquired

sovereignty.”276

Shortly after completing the campaign the army fortified their new territory to

keep it free from the Indians. To do this the army sealed the frontier, by establishing outposts at

all points of importance and they operated patrols between those points.277

The Argentine government exterminated the Indians from the Pampas, which resulted not

only from Roca’s large and final invasion, but from a series of steps taken by the government

beginning in 1867 that “assure[d] to Argentina dominion over the Pampas.”278

The Indians were

denied the necessities of life and slowly, but surely cut off from the land they called home. The

Indians were eventually defeated because, according to Richard Perry, “for to a people who no

longer had the resources to master it, the Pampas proved a hostile environment that reduced them

to abject misery.”279

The final result of Roca’s second campaign was that 1,271 warriors were

imprisoned, 1,313 were killed, 10,513 women and children were placed under state supervision.

Those that remained were deprived of leadership and withdrew west to the cordillera or south to

275

Ibid., 221. 276


Ibid., 190. 278



72

Patagonia.280

Any Indians that were still in the Pampas after Roca’s campaign were alone, tired,

and hungry. They either surrendered, or died of starvation.

General Julio Roca returned to Buenos Aires on July 8, 1879, successfully completing his

campaign in just two months and twenty three days. Roca’s achievements had catapulted him

into prominence helping him to win the presidential election in 1880. Although minor

skirmishes with the Indians still occurred, they were permanently eliminated from the Pampas

and Roca was determined to keep it that way. For a half century since 1830 the government

battled with the Indians over the territory of the Pampas, at times losing land and at times

gaining. Upon becoming the President of Argentina, Roca assured the nation the Conquest of

the Desert was finally complete, stating:

I ought, nevertheless, to make special mention of the necessity to populate the desert

territories, which yesterday were inhabited by the savage tribes, but today are open to

numerous populations, who are the means to effectively assure its dominion . . . I will

employ every resort and faculty of the Constitution put in the hands of the national

Executive, in order to oust, suffocate, and repress any attempt against public peace.281

280


“Debo, sin embargo, hacer especial mención de la necesidad que hay de poblar los

territorios desiertos, ayer habitados por las tribus salvajes, y hoy asiento posible de numerosas

poblaciones, como el medio más eficaz de asegurar su dominio . . . Emplearé todos los resortes y

facultades que la Constitución ha puesto en manos del Ejecutivo nacional, para evitar, sofocar y

reprimir cualquiera tentativa contra la paz pública.” Halperín Donghi, Proyecto y construcción,

593-594.

73

CONCLUSION

Through Sword and Pen

The Conquest of the Desert was a definitive and permanent victory for the Argentine

government over the Pampas Indians. Although minor skirmishes persisted until 1930, it is

accurate to conclude that the government had, by 1880, seized control of the Pampas. This vast

territory became the foundation for Argentina’s wheat and beef export economy, which shaped

Argentine development from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century.

Even before the Generation of 1837 the Pampas was considered a valuable and attractive

land. But the Indians who dwelled there were considered a barrier to advancement. Even prior

to Rosas’ war with the Indians in 1833, “civic minded leaders dreamed of the day when the

Indian presence would cease to be an impediment to the country’s manifest destiny of

transforming the deserts with cattle and sheep ranches and agricultural colonies.”282

From

independence in 1816 political leaders considered ways to eradicate the Indian problem and open

the vast plains of the Pampas. Before the unification of Argentina in 1862 treaties were used as a

method of pacifying the Indians. The tribes agreed not to raid if the government provided them

with necessary rations.283

However, the treaties were often unfair or left unfulfilled by the

government. In order to create peace “agents were appointed by the government to protect the

interests of the Indians, but instead of giving justice, these agents frequently connived at and

even aided the contractors in extorting their illicit profits.”284

282


Tapson, The Indian Problem, 166. 284


74

Most Argentines saw no need to compromise with the Indians. They considered the

Pampas too grand a resource to be wasted on the Indians. Traveler Francis Bond Head

exclaimed that “the vast region of grass in the Pampas for four hundred fifty miles is without a

weed, and the region of wood is equally extraordinary. The trees are not crowded, but in their

growth such beautiful order is observed that one may gallop between them in every direction.”285

Settlers greatly sought such land which necessarily resulted in conflict with the Indians who

already inhabited the territory. To the settlers, the Indians “took up a substantial portion of total

Argentine territory whose resources they did not even attempt to exploit intensively, while still

denying them to other occupants.”286

For these reasons, it became the goal of the Argentine

people to wipe out the Indians, whom they viewed as an inconvenience to be overcome.

The first attempt at permanent submission of the Indians was made by estanciero owner

Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1833. Rosas’ success in temporarily defeating the Indians catapulted

him to the position of Governor of Buenos Aires and essentially dictator of Argentina. Rosas,

however, was a caudillo who ruled in a tyrannical style which earned him substantial opposition.

This provoked the youth of Argentina to speak out against Rosas and his government which led

to the creation of the Generation of 1837. The Generation of 1837 used words and literature to

oppose Rosas’ tyranny and to promote democracy.

The most valued principle of the Generation of 1837 was that of progress. At the time of

Rosas’ rule, the young intellectuals believed Argentina was not advancing materially or

intellectually. This is why they promoted progress and referred to it as, “among other things, the

285


David Bushnell and Neill Macaulay, The Emergence of Latin Americana in the

Nineteenth Century, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 230.

75

search for the true, the good, and the beautiful.”287

Esteban Echeverría called progress the

“fundamental formula of the philosophy of the nineteenth century.”288

To promote progress, the Generation of 1837 relied on their writings. Historian Nicolas

Shumway concluded that “theirs was a generation of writers who apparently felt that progress lay

in the right words, the right beliefs.”289

During most of Rosas’ rule they found themselves exiled

from their own nation to avoid persecution. While away, they made their beliefs known through

their literary works. In them they promoted equality, liberty, and independence. They sought an

end to Rosas’ barbaric tyranny and promoted a movement toward a civilized future. The

Generation of 1837 believed Argentina could become great and they stopped at nothing to help

Argentina advance. In their early works, according to Historian William Katra, “they were able

to instill in the youth of the country a sense of the unity of their endeavor which would later

translate into political action aimed at toppling the Rosas dictatorship and promoting progressive

ideas.”290

The Generation of 1837 relied on their ideas to influence the Argentine nation.

Bartolomé Mitre believed that “the idea governed the world.”291

This belief was reflected in

their literary works. Over time, their ideas shaped policies that resulted in increased immigration

and the Conquest of the Desert. After Argentina became united in 1862, “the accomplishments

of the first three constitutional presidents . . . were no more than the realization of the ideas

287

Ibid., 71. 288

“Fórmulo fundamental de la filosofía del décimonoveno siglo.” Esteban Echeverría,




“La idea es la que gobierna el mundo.” Mitre, “Profesión de fe,” 289.

76

advanced by the movement that had begun in 1837.”292

It was through the pen that the men of

the Generation of 1837 inspired action through the sword.

The ideas put forth by the Generation of 1837 were not completely unique. They

themselves were inspired by earlier writings and earlier generations. Mostly, they were

influenced by theories coming out of Europe such as positivism, Social Darwinism, and

geographical determinism.293

The men of the Generation of 1837 promoted the displacement of

the Pampas Indians through often racially charged language derived from popular theories of the

time. José Luis Romero argued that “the events that were occurring were a result of the faithful

imitation of European political thought of the eighteenth century.”294

Therefore, the Argentine

Generation of 1837 was only restating what had already been argued. Their ideas came out of

Enlightenment Europe which they sought to recreate. Many of their works “were a pale and

often ill-digested adaptation of European and North American works on race, psychobiology and

history in which social Darwinist and positivist interpretations prevailed.”295

Although it is clear they held and promoted a discriminatory attitude toward the native

Argentine, they truly sought what they considered to be best for their country. They worked

extremely hard and were “austere men who lived in honorable poverty and who stepped down

from their governmental positions to continue as citizens the daily struggle for their ideals.”296

292


Aline Helg, “Race in Argentina and Cuba, 1880-1930: Theory, Policies, and Popular

Reaction in The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940,” in The Idea of Race in Latin

America, 1870-1940, ed. Richard Graham, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 37. 294


Helg, Race in Argentina, 59.

296

Romero, Argentine Political Thought, 163.

77

Furthermore, racism, or a belief that the white race was naturally superior to all other races, was

overwhelmingly accepted at the time of their writings. Even individuals opposed to racism

seldom spoke out against it. This made it easy and even natural for the Generation of 1837 to

include racism in their works. During their lifetime “no one dared or wanted to oppose seriously

the concept of race. Instead, everyone accepted the supposed characteristics of the established

fundamental races.297

Due in part to the intellectual context in which the Generation of 1837 wrote, they easily

influenced others to share in their beliefs about race and progress just as they had been

influenced. In the intellectual context of the time, the writings of the Generation of 1837 served

to legitimize a bias against native Argentines. It was through their relentless promotion of

progress, immigration, and constant advancement that they could advocate and justify the

Conquest of the Desert. Because of their adamant stance against the Indians and their ability to

persuade, they justified the extinguishment of an entire people. Based on the popular acceptance

of the victory over the Indians, “it is easily determined . . . that they were successful as

propagandists.”298

One example of the success of the Generation of 1837 as propagandists is found in the

Argentine Constitution of 1853. Juan Alberdi strongly influenced the writing of the Constitution

which greatly reflected his beliefs toward immigration. Alberdi stated that “if we want grand

states in little time we must bring the elements already prepared and ready from outside.

Without grand populations there are not grand things.”299

The Constitution directly facilitated

297

Helg, Race in Argentina, 60. 298

Clark, A Response to Tyranny, 90.

78

immigration, the goal of which was to populate the desert and displace the Indians. Alberdi and

his generation propagated the idea that the Indians were a useless population that must be

replaced by a more productive European culture. Alberdi stated that “Europe will bring to us

their new spirit, their industrial habits, their practices of civilization, in the immigrants they send

to us.”300

Because of Alberdi’s arguments, “the Argentine Constitution aspired before all other

things to populate [the country].”301

Although slowly implemented during the 1850s and 1860s,

Alberdi’s goals to populate Argentina came to fruition in the 1870 to 1914 period. Indeed,

governmental leaders measured “the efficacy of their administration by the number of

immigrants who were entering the country.”302

Once Argentina became a united country in 1862

immigration quickly began to rise. In 1862 the number of immigrants was at 6,716. By 1870,

41,000 immigrants entered the country and during 1874 the figure reached 70,000.303

Immigration reached its full extent between 1870 and 1914 when 3.1 million settled.304

But

thanks to the works of the Generation of 1837, immigration policy had its start in the 1850s.305

299

“Si queremos grandes estados en poco tiempo traigamos sus elementos ya preparados

y listos de fuera. Sin grandes poblaciones no hay grandes cosas.” Jorge M. Mayer, Las Bases de

Alberdi: Edición crítica, con una noticia preliminar, la reconstrucción de los textos originales y

sus variantes, las Fuentes y notas ilustrativas (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1969),

138. 300

“La Europa nos traerá su espíritu nuevo, sus hábitos de industria, sus practicas de

civilización, en las inmagraciones que nos envíe.” Alberdi, Bases y puntos, 75-76. 301

“La constitución argentina aspiró ante todo a poblarlo.” Ghiraldo, El Pensamiento

Argentino, 110. 302


Ibid. 304

David Rock, Argentina, 1516-1982: From Spanish Colonization to the Falklands War

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 141. 305

Bushnell, The Emergence of Latin America, 227.

79

Immigration was not the only action inspired by the works of the Generation of 1837.

More relevant than just replacing the Indians, they sought their extinguishment in the Conquest

of the Desert led by Julio A. Roca. Though members of the Generation of 1837 promoted

equality among men, they showed no regard for the Indian. While the Generation of 1837 was in

exile, the Indians lived relatively peaceably in the Pampas while agreeing to pacification treaties.

Shortly after 1862 when Bartolomé Mitre became president, things began to change.

The men of the Generation of 1837, now in power, were determined to wipe out the

Indians. They considered them idle and useless acting only as an obstacle to progress.

Furthermore, they convinced the rest of the nation to believe the same thing. Alberdi was so sure

of the Indian’s inferiority that he considered that a “native Argentine could not become the equal

of an English worker in one hundred years.”306

By this measure, the Argentines had little choice

but to eliminate the Indians. In the same way, Sarmiento exclaimed that the Indian “is

characterized by love of idleness and incapacity for industry, except when education and the

exigencies of a social position succeed in spurring it out of his customary pace.”307

Sarmiento

even went as far to say the indigenous race is “primitive, prehistoric, [and] destitute of all the

rudiments of civilization and government” and continued by arguing that only education could

act as a vaccination “in order to extirpate the death that barbarism inseminates in our veins.”308

The barrage of arguments put forth by Alberdi and Sarmiento justified the Conquest of

the Desert. The works and writings of the Generation of 1837 laid the intellectual foundation for

306

Dougherty, “Juan Bautista Alberdi,” 494. 307


“Primitivas, prehistóricas, destituídas de todo rudimento de civilización y gobierno.”

“Para extirpar la muerte que nos dará la barbarie insumida en nuestras venas.” Sarmiento,

Conflicto y armonías, 454.

80

law 215 in 1867 that called for the occupation of the Río Negro and the Río Neuquén as the

southern frontier line against the Indians. The law stated that “in the case that all or some of the

tribes resist peaceful submission to the national authority, there will be organized against them a

general expedition until they are conquered and forced to the south of the Negro and Neuquén

rivers.”309

Law 215 served as the first official step toward conquering and exterminating the

Indians. With the conclusion of the Paraguayan war in 1870, Argentine legislators passed law

385 to invest two million pesos for the execution of law 215. This allowed the words of law 215

to be put into practice. Although law 385 did not result in the immediate conquering of the

desert, it created more pressure against the Pampas Indians and it helped to advance the frontier

line south. Law 385 was followed by laws 752 and 753 in 1875. These laws invested more

money toward the advancement of the frontier as well as the establishment of telegraph lines in

order to improve communication among the army along the frontier line. The final law passed

before Roca’s ultimate campaign against the Indians was law 947 in October, 1878. According

to law 947 the government invested 1.6 million pesos toward the execution of law 215. Law 947

established the Pampas as government land to be opened for settlement and to be free from

Indian incursions. It assured the final and lasting conquest over the once vibrant Pampas

Indians.

The young intellectuals known as the Generation of 1837 rose out of the political conflict

of a new and growing nation. They truly sought what was best for the future of their country and

its white populations. They promoted noble values such as liberty, justice, and equality.

309

“En el caso que todas o algunas de las tribus se resistan al sometimiento pacífico de la

autoridad nacional, se organizará contra ellas una expedición general hasta someterlas y

arrojarlas al sud de los río Negro y Neuquén.” Juan Carlos Walther, La Conquista del Desierto:

Síntesis histórica de los principales sucesos ocurridos y operaciones militares realizadas en La

Pampa y Patagonia, contra los indios (años 1527 – 1885) (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria

de Buenos Aires, 1970), 572.

81

However, the works of Esteban Echeverría, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Domingo Sarmiento, and

Bartolomé Mitre, also show an ardent ambition for progress that disregards the value of the

native Argentine. Their works disseminated racist attitudes portraying the Pampas Indians to be

an inferior race. They promoted the dispersal and destruction of the indigenous races and

supported their replacement by a superior European culture. The Generation of 1837 directly

influenced the immigration policies of the 1853 Constitution and the laws passed ordering the

advancement of the frontier to the Río Negro. Through their literary works, the Generation of

1837 ultimately justified the actions taken to exterminate the Pampas Indians.

82

Appendix A:

Laws passed forcing the Pampas Indians beyond the Río Negro

.

Ley 215: Ley ordenando la ocupación de los ríos Negro y Neuquén como línea de frontera sud

contra los indios.

Buenos Aires, agosto 13 de 1867

El Senado y la cámara de diputados, etc.

Artículo 1 Se ocupará por fuerzas del ejército de la República la ribera del río “Neuquén”

o Neuquén,” desde su nacimiento en Los Andes hasta su confluencia en el río Negro, en el

Océano Atlántico, estableciendo la línea en la margen septentrional del expresado río de

cordillera a mar.

Artículo 2 A las tribus nómadas existentes en el territorio nacional comprendido entre la

actual línea de frontera y la fijada por el artículo 1 de esta ley, se le concederá todo lo que sea

necesario para su existencia fija y pacífica.

Artículo 3 La extensión y límite de los territorios que se otorguen en virtud del artículo

anterior, serán fijados por convenios entre las tribus que se sometan voluntariamente y el

Ejecutivo de la Nación. Quedará exclusivamente al arbitrio del Gobierno Nacional fijar la

extensión y límite de las tierras otorgadas a las tribus sometidas por la fuerza. En ambos casos se

requerirá la autorización del Congreso.

Artículo 4 En el caso que todas o algunas de las tribus se resistan al sometimiento

pacífico de la autoridad nacional, se organizará contra ellas una expedición general hasta

someterlas y arrojarlas al sud de los ríos “Negro” y “Neuquén.”

Artículo 5 A la margen izquierda o septentrional de los expresados ríos y sobre todo en

los vados o pasos que puedan dar acceso a las incursiones de los indios, se formarán

establecimientos militares en el número y en la distancia que juzgue conveniente el Poder

Ejecutivo para su completa seguridad.

Artículo 6 Autorízase al Poder Ejecutivo para invertir fondos en la adquisición de

vapores adecuados y en la exploración y navegación del río Negro, como una medida auxiliar de

la expedición por tierra; igualmente que para el establecimiento de una línea telegráfica que ligue

todos los establecimientos dispuestos a las márgenes del expresado río.

Artículo 7 Autorízase igualmente al Poder Ejecutivo para hacer todos los demás gastos

que demande la ejecución de la presente Ley, usando si fuera necesario el crédito nacional, para

la consecución de tan importante objeto, dando oportunamente cuenta al Congreso.

Artículo 8 Por una ley especial se fijarán las condiciones, el tiempo y la extensión de

tierras que por vía de gratificación se concederá en propiedad a los individuos que compongan la

expedición, ya sea como fuerzas regulares o como voluntarios agregados.

83

Artículo 9 Todo el contenido de la presente ley comenzará a tener efecto inmediatamente

de terminad la guerra que hoy sostiene la Nación contra el Paraguay o antes, si fuera posible. Lo

relativo al pacto de indios deberá comenzar su ejecución inmediatamente de sancionada por el

Ejecutivo.

Artículo 10 Comuníquese al Poder Ejecutivo.

Ley 385: Autorizando al Poder Ejecutivo para invertir dos millones de pesos en la ejecución de

la ley del 13 de agosto de 1867.

Buenos Aires, julio 22 de 1870

Artículo 1 Autorízase al Poder Ejecutivo para invertir la suma de dos millones de pesos a

fin de atender a la más pronta ejecución de la ley de 13 de agosto de 1867.

Artículo 2 Los recursos a que se refieren el artículo anterior serán tomados de las rentas

generales de la Nación dentro de los límites de esta ley.

Artículo 3 El Poder Ejecutivo informará anualmente por medio de un mensaje especial

del uso que hiciere de esta autorización así como de los trabajos que realice en ejecución de la

ley de 13 de agosto de 1867, del mismo modo que de la inversión de los fondos votados, sin

perjuicio de la que dé en la cuenta general de inversión.


Ley 752

Artículo 1 Autorízase al Poder Ejecutivo para invertir hasta 200.000 pesos fuertes a fin

de crear pueblos, levantar fortines y hacer construcciones adecuadas en la nueva línea de

fronteras que se establezca en la provincia de Buenos Aires y en otras de la República, que

urgentemente lo requieran.

Artículo 2 El gasto que esta que esta ley autoriza, será cubierto con rentas generales;

pudiendo hacer uso el Poder Ejecutivo del crédito si ellas no alcanzaren.

Artículo 3 Tan luego como la línea de frontera avance sobre el desierto en cualquier

dirección, el Poder Ejecutivo tomando por base el nuevo punto ocupado, adoptará a la mayor

brevedad las medidas necesarias para adelantar y uniformar el resto de la frontera de la

República.

Artículo 4 Los pueblos, villas y colonias que se funden en ejecución de esta ley, en

territorio en el cual no esté reconocida la jurisdicción de una provincia, quedarán sujetos a la

jurisdicción nacional, hasta que se dicte la ley que determine los límites provinciales.

84

Artículo 5 El Poder Ejecutivo dará cuenta detallada al Congreso en el primer mes de

sesiones, del uso que hiciere de esta autorización.

Artículo 6 Comuníquese, etc.

- Sanción: 1 de octubre de 1875.

- Promulgación: 4 de octubre de 1875.

Ley 753

Artículo 1 Autorízase al Poder Ejecutivo para invertir hasta la suma de doscientos mil

pesos fuertes ($ 200.000) en el establecimiento de líneas telegráficas que unan esta Capital con

las cinco comandancias militares existentes en la Provincia de Buenos Aires.

Artículo 2 Las líneas serán ejecutadas con arreglo a los estudios, planos y presupuestos

que han sido practicados, debiendo emplearse el excedente que resulte sobre los gastos que se

presuponen, en la adquisición de materiales telegráficos, que serán estimados al servicio de las

fronteras, a medida que sus necesidades lo exijan.

Artículo 3 El gasto que esta ley autoriza, será cubierto con las rentas generales, y si ellas

no alcanzaren, podrá el Poder Ejecutivo hacer uso del crédito.

Artículo 4 El Poder Ejecutivo dará cuenta detallada al Congreso anualmente y en el

primer mes de sesiones, del uso que hiciera de esta autorización.

Artículo 5 Comuníquese al Poder Ejecutivo

- Sanción: 1 de octubre de 1875.

- Promulgación: 5 de octubre de 1875.

Ley de Octubre de 1878 (947)

Departamento de Guerra

Buenos Aires, 5 de octubre de 1878

Por cuanto:

El Senado y Cámara de Diputados de la Nación Argentina, reunidos en Congreso, etc., sancionan

con fuerza de

85

Ley 947

Artículo 1 Autorízase al Poder Ejecutivo para invertir hasta la suma de un millón

seiscientos mil pesos (1.600.000 pesos) en la ejecución de la ley 23 de agosto de 1867, que

dispone el establecimiento de la línea de fronteras sobre la margen izquierda de los río Negro y

Neuquén, previo sometimiento o desalojo de los indios bárbaros de la pampa, desde el Río

Quinto y el Diamante hasta los dos ríos antes mencionados.

Artículo 2 Este gasto se imputará al producido de las tierras públicas nacionales que se

conquisten en los límites determinados por esta ley; pudiendo el Poder Ejecutivo, en caso

necesario, disponer subsidiariamente de las rentas generales en calidad de anticipos.

Artículo 3 Decláranse límites de las tierras nacionales situados al exterior de las fronteras

de las Provincias de Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, San Luis y Mendoza, las siguientes líneas

generales, tomando por base el plano oficial de la nueva línea de fronteras sobre la pampa, de

1877:

1 La línea del río Negro desde su desembocadura en el Océano, remontando su

corriente hasta encontrar el grado 5 de longitud occidental del meridiano de Buenos

Aires.

2 La del mencionado grado 5 de longitud en su prolongación norte, hasta su

intercepción con grado 35 de latitud.

3 La del mencionado grado 35 de latitud, hasta su intercepción con el grado 10 de

longitud occidental de Buenos Aires.

4 La del grado 10 de longitud occidental de Buenos Aires en su prolongación sur, desde

su intercepción en el grado 35 de latitud, y desde allí hasta la margen izquierda del río

Colorado, remontando la corriente de este río hasta sus nacientes y continuando por el

río Barracas hasta la Cordillera de los Andes.

Artículo 4 Destínase igualmente a la realización de la presente ley, el producido de las

tierras públicas que las provincias cedan de las que se les adjudica por esta Ley. Estas tierras

serán enajenadas en la misma forma que las nacionales sin afectar la jurisdicción provincial y los

deforma que las nacionales sin afectar la jurisdicción provincial y los derechos adquiridos por

particulares.

Artículo 5 Queda autorizado el Poder Ejecutivo para levantar sobre la base de las tierras

a que se refieren los artículos anteriores, una suscripción pública por el importe de la cantidad

espresada en el artículo 1 de la actual será destinada a los gastos que demande la ejecución de

esta ley.

Artículo 6 La suscripción se hará por medio de cuatro mil títulos de a cuatrocientos pesos

fuertes cada uno, emitidos nominalmente o al portador, a opción de los suscritores, y pagaderos

por cuotas de a cien pesos fuertes cada una, cada tres meses.

86

Artículo 7 Los capitales suscritos devengarán el seis por ciento de renta anual, que se

abonará por semestres, y se amortizarán por medio de adjudicaciones en propiedad de lotes de

tierra, en el modo y forma que esta ley prescriba.

Artículo 8 A medida que avance la actual línea de fronteras, se hará mensurar las tierras

a que se refieren los artículos anteriores, y levantar los planos respectivos, dividiéndose en lotes

de diez mil hectáreas (cuatro leguas kilométricas cuadradas) numeradas de uno adelante, con

designación de sus pastos, aguadas y demás calidades, todo lo cual se hará constar en un registro

especial denominado “Registro gráfico de las tierras de fronteras.”

Artículo 9 Una vez practicada esta operación, los suscritores o tenedores de títulos,

podrán pedir por solicitud dirigida a la oficina que el Poder Ejecutivo determine la amortización

de sus títulos por adjudicación de lotes de tierra. La solicitud deberá presentarse cerrada y

contendrá la fecha en que se presente, la designación del lote o lotes, que se soliciten por sus

números de los títulos que deben amortizarse, si el que los presenta es suscritor y por cuantas

acciones. En el sobre se espresará tan solamente el nombre y domicilio del solicitante y el

número o números de lotes solicitados; y la oficina encargada espedirá un recibo talonario en que

se trascribirá lo escrito en la cubierta y la fecha de la presentación; dejando igual constancia en el

talón del libro.

En caso que haya varios suscritores que pidan la adjudicación de un mismo lote, se

adjudicará por sorteo entre ellos.

Artículo 10 La base para la venta de la tierra será de cuatrocientos pesos fuertes, o sea el

valor de una acción por legua cuadrada; peor la enajenación no podrá hacerse sino por áreas de

cuatro leguas cuadradas, y tampoco podrá adjudicarse más de tres áreas a nombre de una sola y

misma persona.

Artículo 11 A los efectos del artículo precedente solo se tomarán en consideración para

la adjudicación por sorteo, las solicitudes presentadas dentro de quince dias contando desde la

fecha en que se pidiere la adjudicación del lote o lotes en competencia.

Artículo 12 La enagenación de estas tierras podrá hacerse por amortización de títulos.

Artículo 13 La entrega de los títulos se hará una vez satisfecho el importe de cada acción,

dándose recibos provisorios a medida que se abonen las cuotas.

Artículo 14 Los suscritores que no abonaren sus cuentas respectivas hasta treinta días

después de vencido el término fijado para el pago de cada una, perderán todo derecho a las

sumas que tuviesen entregadas, y la oficina podrá ceder las mismas acciones a otros suscritores

que quisieran tomarlas abonando su importe total, para lo cual publicará los avisos que fuesen

necesarios.

Artículo 15 Los suscritores podrán abonar en una sola vez el importe de sus acciones, y

en tal caso se les hará un descuento de cuatro pro ciento al año sobre el monto de las cuotas

anticipadas.

87

Artículo 16 Los títulos espresarán que el portador o persona suscrita que es acreedor por

la cantidad que represente su valor escrito, y que el pago se hará por medio de adjudicaciones de

lotes de tierra pública, en la forma prescrita por esta ley; y serán firmadas por el Ministro de

Hacienda, por el Presidente de la Contaduría o uno de los Contadores mayores y por el Gefe de

la Oficina encargada de esta operación por el Poder Ejecutivo.

Artículo 17 Los suscritores o tenedores de acciones deberán pedir la amortización de sus

títulos dentro del término de cinco años contados desde la fecha en que el Poder Ejecutivo ponga

los planos de la tierra, en la forma prescrita por esta ley, en la oficina respectiva, para que en su

vista puedan pedirse las adjudicaciones.

Artículo 18 Los gastos de la mensura general serán por cuenta del Gobierno, y las

ubicaciones serán hechas en el modo y forma que el Poder Ejecutivo determine, pero siempre por

medio de un empleado del Departamento de Ingenieros, sujetándose a los datos e instrucciones

que al efecto le trasmitirá esa oficia.

Artículo 19 El Poder Ejecutivo reservará en las partes que considere más conveniente los

terrenos necesarios para la creación de nuevos pueblos y para el establecimiento de los indios

que se sometan.

Artículo 20 Queda facultado el Poder Ejecutivo para hacer los gastos que demanda la

ejecución de esta ley.


Dada en la Sala de Sesiones del Congreso Argentino, en Buenos Aires a cuatro de

Octubre de mil ochocientos setenta y ocho.1

1 Juan Carlos Walter, La Conquista del Desierto: Síntesis histórica de los principales

sucesos ocurridos y operaciones militares realizadas en La Pampa y Patagonia, contra los

indios (años 1527 – 1885) (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1970).

88

Appendix B:

Selected Sections of the Argentine Constitution of 1853

Articulo 20

Los extranjeros gozan en el territorio de la Nación de todos los derechos civiles del ciudadano:

pueden ejercer libremente su industria, comercio y profesión ; poseer bienes raíces, comprarlos y

culto; testar y casarse conforme a las leyes. No están obligados a admitir la ciudadanía, ni a

pagar contribuciones forzosas extraordinarias. Obtienen nacionalización residiendo dos años

continuos en la Nación; pero la autoridad puede acortar ese término a favor del que lo solicite,

alegando y probando servicios a la República.

Articulo 25

El Gobierno Federal fomentará la inmigración europea; y no podrá restringir, limitar ni gravar

con impuesto alguno la entrada en el territorio argentino de los extranjeros que traigan por objeto

labrar la tierra, mejorar las industrias, e introducir y enseñar las ciencias y las artes.

Articulo 27

El Gobierno Federal está obligado a afianzar sus relaciones de paz y de comercio con las

potencias extranjeras por medio de tratados que estén en conformidad con los principios de

derecho público establecidos en esta constitución.2

2 La Constitution Argentina: Anotada con la jurisprudencia de la Corte Suprema de

Justicia edited by Roberto Martinez Ruiz (Buenos Aires: Editorial Guillermo Kraft LTDA.,

1946).

89

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.

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Darwin, Charles. The Voyage of the Beagle. New York: Bantom Books Inc., 1839, 1972.

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Ghiraldo, Alberto. El pensamiento argentino. Santiago: Edicciones Ercilla, 1937.

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Head, Francis Bond. Journeys Across the Pampas and Among the Andes. Carbondale, IL:

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Jefferey, William H. Mitre and Argentina. New York: Library Publishers, 1952.

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University, 1985.

—————. The Argentine Generation of 1837: Echeverría, Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre.

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the generation of 1837: attitudes, policies, and actions toward indian populations of argentina

Documents

pampas indians

thousands of indians

native labor

literary works

dense native populations

colonial argentina spaniards

native indigenous cultures

native social organization