A “Public for Export”: Staging the Nation at Argentina’s 1978 World Cup

Argentina was eager to present a friendly and well-polished face to the tourists, press, and delegations that had converged on the country at the end of May 1978. The World Cup, planned long before a military junta had assumed power in a coup d’etat in 1976, presented a singular opportunity for the country’s authoritarian government to showcase their technological progress and organization. Moreover, a well-choreographed reception could dispel notions that Argentina was in any way “barbaric.” Perhaps most importantly, it could challenge the reports that had already begun to circulate in Europe about the practice of forced detention and disappearance that would take an estimated 30,000 lives. As the military leaders hoped that efficient organization would depict Argentina as a developed nation to the international community, journalists writing for several of the most widely read newspapers in Buenos Aires and the surrounding suburbs rejoiced that the public had behaved properly during the opening match. One of the feature articles published in Diario Popular the day after the opening ceremonies described this appropriate stadium culture under the bold title, “Public for Export.” 

Drawing on promotional materials, advertisements, newspaper articles, and photographs, this paper analyzes what a “public for export” meant to event organizers, military officials, journalists, and fans. It examines how the international gaze paralleled police and military surveillance to manage bodies in the stadiums and the streets.  The paper suggests that the reported success of Argentines in creating a “public for export” reinforced and perpetuated the image of the military government as a technologically modernizing and civilizing force. Engaging with scholarship on sport and nationalism, this paper argues that presence of foreign tourists and the preoccupation with the international gaze served as a disciplinary mechanism for both Argentine fans and military authorities.