Symbiotic Cities: Theatre and Film Culture in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, 1940–55

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The cultural history of Peronism in twentieth century Argentina has been reassessed by historians who have shown how mass culture was integral to the regime’s appeal. Scholars have also begun to consider how the making of mass culture in Argentina occurred within a transnational context and benefited from the global character of Buenos Aires. In dialogue with this emerging historiography, my paper argues that the expansion of mass culture in Argentina is best understood as a regional and transnational process. Buenos Aires’s mass cultural marketplace gained hemisphere importance due to the strength of its regional cultural connections with neighboring Montevideo, Uruguay, and also from its wider cultural connections in the Atlantic world. 

During the 1940s and 1950s, numerous actors and dramatists in the capital cities of Buenos Aires and neighboring Montevideo faced a changing landscape in the Río de la Plata's interlinked theatre and film industries. Before and during the first Peronist government (1945-1955), the Argentine film industry sought to challenge Hollywood, European, and Mexican films in the Latin American marketplace. Buenos Aires's cultural industry attracted talented performers to pursue their dreams on the city's stages and screens. However, the rise of censorship during the Peronist government led many actors and dramatists to consider possibilities outside of Argentina. Among the options for actors was the possibility for opportunities in Montevideo, including the Uruguayan state-backed Comedia Nacional at Uruguay's Solis Theatre. Studying the careers of Argentine, Uruguayan, and exiled Spanish dramatists and performers, my paper examines the different processes by which national mass cultures were constructed across borders in Argentina and Uruguay. The primary sources are drawn from Argentine and Uruguayan archives, including the Solis Theatre in Montevideo, guild records from dramatists and actors, and film and theatre periodicals published in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo.