Tales of Criollo Conscripts: Nationalism and Popular Culture in the Argentine Army, 1921–43

In August 1921 “El Soldado Argentino” was published for the first time amid a period of intense political conflicts that reached its peak with the army’s harsh repression of a workers’ strike in the southern region of Patagonia. This bi-monthly publication was distributed for free in the barracks and was intended to serve a means of distraction for Argentine recruits. “El Soldado” followed pretty much the pattern of some other successful magazines of that time: it included folk stories, cartoons and pictures from different corners of the country. Besides, it clearly targeted a male reader –the young conscript- to which it offered the guidelines of a decent and patriotic masculinity.

“El Soldado Argentino” survived the times in which it was born and evolved into a long-term cultural project that lasted decades. In this paper I analyze the changing meanings of national identity constructed by “El Soldado” from the events of Patagonia Rebelde in 1921 to the military coup of 1943. How was popular culture portrayed in these pages? What ideal of citizen did the magazine propose? How did gauchos, Indians and black people fit into the nationalist narratives of the Argentine past? I argue that the analysis of “El Soldado” provides valuable insight into the forging of cultural bonds between the Army and popular sectors during the years in which the Armed Forces became a central actor of public life in Argentina.