A “popular revisionism”? Criollismo and historical revisionism in Argentina

Abstract

From its inception to its demise as a mass-culture phenomenon, the criollismo offered a fertile soil for criticism on the State versions of Argentine history, as they were taught in the local schools. The romantic celebration of Gauchos often appeared combined with the vindication of the Federal party warriors and 19^th century Caudillos, and with the condemnation of certain episodes, such as the extermination of the indigenous peoples and the war against Paraguay. As a vector of popular memories and producer of new visions of the past, criollismo is analyzed in its possible connections with the school of historians that presented ‘revisionist’ visions of the past in the 1930s, concluding that they must be considered as an independent phenomenon — although connected in diverse ways —, including the possibility of the former influencing the latter