Radio Portevideano: Broadcasting, Gender, and the State in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, 1930s–40s

Argentina and Uruguay, and perhaps especially their respective urban centers of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, have a fascinating historical, political, and cultural relationship. In my recently published book, I refer to the circulation of people, ideas, and radio waves within a rioplatense cultural zone, an area which is deeply interconnected but not unmarked by the forces of nation state, population, and political culture.

            Radio is a natural medium for exploring the relationship between two interconnected, but distinct, South American countries. Radio emerged early and spread rapidly in the rioplatense zone, especially in the major urban centers of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and radio signals readily crossed the river separating the two cities. The cities’ radio cultures were sometimes complementary, sometimes antagonistic, but never unaware of the other’s presence. While Uruguayans were constantly attracted to the bright lights and greater financial prospects that Buenos Aires broadcasting promised, Argentines found Montevideo’s airwaves more financially and politically accessible. The first all-woman commercial station in the hemisphere, for example, was founded in Montevideo in 1935 by Argentine business interests, and the city’s microphones later served as a mouthpiece for anti-Peronist exiles.

            In this paper I will bring together my work on both feminism and radio in the Rio de la Plata to offer some thoughts about doing rioplatense history. While it may seem evident that one cannot understand Montevidean or Uruguayan history without Argentina, I argue that the opposite is also true:  the Uruguayan presence has shaped Argentine history, culture, and politics in subtle but important ways. In this paper I hope to contribute to this larger conversation about nation and region in South America, and how a transnational approach can also chip away at the “great country” paradigm of Latin American history, a paradigm which is eroding but still present in the field.