Suicide, Immigration, and Modernity in Buenos Aires in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

While attempting to shed its colonial and indigenous past, and yet retain characteristics authentically Latin American, Argentina was at the same time committed to making changes that would ensure its reception into the growing group of so-called modern nations. Apprehensive about any setbacks that might presage disaster for its modernizing program, Argentine political and professional elites were especially attentive to conditions that predisposed society and individuals to degeneration. One of these was a growing concern with some of the downsides of urban modernity, in particular, suicide.

This paper draws on Argentine archival court cases and the legal and medical commentaries that accompanied them to explore the challenges of urban life, especially for immigrants. The study focuses on Buenos Aires and complements Anton Rosenthal’s paper on streetcars in this city and other major cities in Latin America.

For Buenos Aires, in particular, this paper examines the growing sense of the danger of suicide as a contagion, which was made more threatening because of  the vulnerability of populations such as immigrants and others who were seen both as especially susceptible to the contagion of suicide, and as “vehicles” of contagion, thus leading to the conclusion that suicide was possibly inherent in the immigrant experience. Delving further into the intricacies of suicide, the paper explores suicide as an expression of private honor, in particular when the act occurred in a public place. Finally, the paper addresses the question of who in an immigrant society could claim to have honor, how honor could be restored, if at all, and what alternatives were available to people who might otherwise take their own lives.