CÓRDOBA – CULTURE &
SOCIETY
By Osvaldo Carnero
Before
beginning our “cultural panorama” of Córdoba, it will be necessary to explain
three terms that sociologists are using with ever increasing frequency. The terms
refer to the character structure of the members of a society, and they have
been widely adopted after the American sociologist, David Riesman, in his book The
Lonely Crowd (published in 1950), adopted and defined them. According to
Riesman, three types of character structure may be distinguished in the members
that make up societies: the tradition-directed, the inner-directed and the
other-directed.
In a tradition-directed
society, each generation receives from the preceding one the patterns of
behavior that characterize it. In an inner-directed society, “the source
of direction for the individual is inner in the sense that it is
implanted early in life by the elders and directed towards generalized... goals
or principles.” (Riesman, Ibid. p.30). In an other-directed society, the
individual turns to his “peer group” for guidance in behavioral patterns.
Again, according to a widely spread belief in sociological studies, most
societies tend to evolve from the first one, through the second one, and into the
third one... with the passing of time.
The
expansion of technology and the shifting of social position brought about by
the outstanding economical development of the end of the nineteenth century and
the process of industrialization of the early twentieth century in Córdoba,
produced the awakening from a very stable, traditional society into a more
flexible pattern, characterized by renewal of ideas, and a questioning
attitude, based on principles, that led to events such as the University Reform
of the 1918. In this sense we can proudly say that Cordoba was a pioneer that exported
change to the rest of the country; up to a certain extent – and this hasn’t
been the only occasion – Cordoba was the place where social and political
changes started... The so called Cordobazo of the 60's , a strong
popular response to military dictatorship, is a later instance of this
phenomenon.
What about
the second transition, from an inner-directed society into an other-directed
society, the typical change of the twentieth century in most Western countries?
– Again, Riesman says that the main cause for this shift are “the decrease of
the birth rate, the increase of material abundance and leisure, and the
transition from an agrarian to an urban society” and “finding themselves in a
centralized and bureaucratized society”. Reading this ideas, one can’t avoid
thinking of the contrast between Buenos Aires and inner Argentina in general;
and Córdoba in particular.
No doubt
all Argentina, especially during the relative affluence of some periods of
recent times, previous to this deep economic crisis, followed the general
Western tendency towards becoming a consumer society... I admit that, in this
respect, Córdoba was not an exception. The main difference is that Buenos
Aires, due to its typical cosmopolitan attitude, showed most characteristics of
an other-directed society, whereas Córdoba remained half-way... a kind of
compromise between tradition and change.
Religion
·
The
role of the Catholic Church in shaping the early life of Córdoba.
·
Religion
today: dogmatism or secularism?
After
having viewed the colonial past of Córdoba, within the context of Argentina,
and seen that religion was an important controlling force in most areas, the
question of its subsequent role in society is sure to arise. One important
difference between the United States and Argentina, and Córdoba in particular,
lies in the fact that here there was not -at least in the beginning- a clear
separation of State and Church. It was comparatively late in history when the
formal separation took place.
As we have
seen in our history panorama, the Catholic Church -and the Jesuit Order in
particular- was a very influential factor in the shaping of the early life of
Córdoba. It was an almost universally acknowledged truth that being a religious
person could be equated with being a “good” member of society. It was believed
that “a society could not exist without morals...” and, further, that “it was
difficult to conceive that a people could have morals when it had no religion.”
– Thus it was predominantly believed that “the maintenance of a religious
spirit was of great political interest”.
Just as an
illustration of the deeply ingrained religious attitude which is at the basis
of Cordobese culture, I will translate for you one line from a song that every
person in Córdoba knows well: “Ciudad de mis amores, antigua y religiosa...”
(“My beloved, ancient, religious city!”)
It is
important to point out, though, that side by side with this religious attitude,
there developed an alternative view in our community: As early as in the 1880’s
a famous High School in Córdoba – Alejandro Carbó School – brought some
Protestant teachers from the United States (“a group of respectable ladies”) to
teach the children of Cordoba. The initiative was partly from the school,
partly from Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, at the time President of Argentina, a
man who produced an epochal development in Argentine education. As you can
imagine, this event was quite controversial. Some conservative Catholics
labeled it a scandal... It even led to a diplomatic crisis between Argentina
and the Vatican State.
In the same
line of thought it is worth mentioning the fact that the University Reform of
1918 meant, among many other things, a step to the liberalization of the
university system from its original clerical pattern.
One
characteristic of nowadays religious practice that deserves mentioning is its secularism.
It is an almost universally acknowledged fact that the contemplative and mystical
elements of religion have -to a large extent- been left aside, in favor of the
practice of good deeds. This is a tendency that you can also see in the typical
Sunday school teaching, where the practice of good deeds goes has much more
central place than the study of dogmas.
Government
& politics
·
The
system of government after the Reforms to the Constitution of Córdoba in 1987
and in 2001.
·
Political
parties & political issues in Córdoba today.
Talking
about politics in general, and about political parties in particular, it could
be said that Cordoba has, up to a certain extent, been “the black sheep of the
family”. This can be said in two senses: at an inter-party level and at an
intra-party level.
When I say
inter-party level, I am referring to the frequent case when the National
Government (the Federal Government) was in the hands of one of the two big
parties and the Provincial Government (the State Government) was held by the
other political party.
When I say
intra-party level, I am referring to the situation when both, National
Government and Provincial Government were in the hands of the same political
party, but the President of the Republic and the Governor of the Province
belonged to two different (often antagonistic) wings of the same political
party.
At this
point of my presentation of the topic you may be wondering why the emphasis...
Supposedly each order, each jurisdiction, should do what is best for all; and a
compromise between nation and province should naturally arise...Unfortunately
this has not often been the case; and too often the central government has used
its constitutional right to decide on the redistribution of revenue as a
political tool to exercise pressure. Conversely, the provinces have sometimes
managed to boycott reasonable federal initiatives, the ones calling for
austerity; in particular, the ones opposing the coining of local currencies...
In order to
show two distinctive features of Córdoba in this field, I will refer to the
Constitution Reform of 1987; and the one in 2001. The first allowed for a
second 4-year period of administration to the same governor, among other
things; it also introduced the referendum, a semi-direct democracy
instrument. The second was aimed at reducing the number of houses in the provincial
legislature, from 2 to only one, in order to cut down expenses... an to foster
efficiency.
The local
political parties do not directly reflect the tendencies in the federal order.
For many years the province or Cordoba was a stronghold of the Union Civica
Radical (UCR), even in times of Peronista rule at national level. The City of
Cordoba had some epochal UCR administrations, such as the rule of the recently
deceased late Mayor Ramon Mestre, which resulted in great advance in
public works, and security for the city. His rival from Union por Cordoba
(Peronista), Jose Manuel de la Sota, though, won the last elections, and
is at the moment Governor of the province for a third period. A new instance of
intra-party tension arose last year, when Luis Juez, the present Mayor
of the City of Córdoba, a former Union por Córdoba politician, created Partido
Nuevo, and was elected with an overwhelming majority over the candidate
supported by Governor de la Sota.
Education
·
Organization
of the educational system in Córdoba – Some differences with the national
order.
·
Education,
politics and religion.
The
educational system in Córdoba has certain differences with the one in Buenos
Aires and in most Argentine provinces. The organization is as follows:
Kindergarten recruits 4-year-old children and
5-year-old children. In any case, the children will start the next level when
they are 6 years old. The main aim is to develop habits and to socialize
children manly through play.
The
primary school
lasts 6 years. The child has to learn to read and write, to express himself
orally and by writing and a basic information in science, geography, history
and mathematics.
Once the
student finishes the sixth grade, he starts the secondary school. Here
lies an important difference with Buenos Aires and other provinces, where the
student continues into a seventh grade through ninth grade, doing what is
called there EGB (General Basic Education, in Spanish). The difference is not
only nominal, since in Cordoba the student is supposed to become a secondary
school student when he finishes the sixth grade. In Córdoba, the first part
of the secondary is called CBU (Unified Basic Cycle, in Spanish). The
student is supposed to learn different subjects, at a general level.
Later, when
finishing third year of the CBU, the student gets into Ciclo de
Especialización (Specialization Cycle). At this point the student has many
options such as Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Economy and Management,
Production of Goods and Services, Foreign Languages and Art.
Apart from
these, there are also technical schools, which give a more specific formation,
but at the same time, affording him the possibility to enter the university.
Another relevant
characteristic of Cordoba in the field of education is the existence of escuelas
municipales (town hall schools). As the name says, these schools are
supported by the town hall of the city. They appeared some 20 years ago, in
response to social needs in the poor suburbs of the city.
In Cordoba,
as it happens in most parts of Argentina, the schools administrated by
religious orders are important. They provide quality educational services
at a cost which is not really too high. One may wonder nowadays if the
government could do without these private schools, to answer the demand of
educational services...
The Mass
Media
·
Newspapers
and other printed material.
·
Radio
and television.
The word
communication has different meanings. For one thing, it means the possibility
to overcome physical distance; on the other hand, it means transmission of
information. In this second sense, it also implies the shaping of
opinion, influence upon the way people think and act. Conversely, the
changes in society have a strong influence upon the life of the mass media
which are sometimes forced to meet political and economical needs.
These
general ideas help us explain how the mass media evolved in Córdoba, and the
deep changes they had to undergo in the last two or three years, partly as a
result of our economic and political crisis.
The crisis
at the end of 2001, with the devaluation of the peso, the default, the freezing
of bank deposits, accelerated a process which had started a few years before: a
concentration process. This
meant that the local media, that had been struggling to survive, were forced to
give up.
Talking
about television, Channel 8 and Channel 12, which had been successful private
companies for long years, had to give up. They were purchased by the big
operators, the big media companies of Buenos Aires. A big group, like Clarin,
from Buenos Aires, bought Channel 12 and one of the most traditional newspapers
from inner Argentina: Cordoba’s La Voz del Interior (which, by
the way, celebrated its 100-year anniversary this year).
Cable TV
inside the provincial territory, in cities and towns of Córdoba, were also
purchased by the big operators.
Channel
10 seems to be the
only channel that still remains typically Cordobés. The Services of
Radio and Television (SRT) are controlled by the University of Córdoba,
but at the moment they don’t get any economic support from the University. They
sell advertising space for self-financing.
There are
many FM radio stations (too many perhaps), catering for all tastes. The COMFER,
the supervising broadcasting authority often seems to overlook the excessive
amount of stations, what results in falling standards of quality, due to the
overlapping frequencies.
Aside from La Voz del Interior, an important newspaper is Comercio y
Justicia. It was
owned by a private investor, from Brazil, but later it collapsed financially,
and it developed into a cooperative venture, controlled by the workers,
an unusual result... that allowed the newspaper to remain alive.
Art
& Literature
·
Fiction
and poetry in Córdoba.
·
Classical
& popular music in Córdoba.
·
Painting
in Córdoba.
For reasons
of brevity in our panorama of artistic expressions, besides literature, we
shall be dealing with just two other art forms: music and painting.
LITERATURE:
In the
history of Cordoba literature, which is varied in style, content and themes,
one has to mention Leopoldo Lugones, who was born in a small city in the
north of the province of Córdoba, Villa María del Río Seco in 1874. He attended Colegio Nacional del Montserrat. He was famous both for his literary
production as well as for his life and political activism. Socialist in his
youth, he represented a strong opposition to the Establishment. Later, he
abandoned that position and was considered a representative of the right,
defender of the first argentine dictatorship, the one of Uriburu, in 1930. He
was controversial in many senses, and he could be considered the literary
father of a great Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges.
Another
important writer in Juan Filloy, who was born in Cordoba in 1894 and
died in 2000, at the age of 105. He is considered the creator of parody in XX
century Latin American literature. During a long period he did not publish his
literary production, because he had a position as a judge in Río Cuarto,
Córdoba; he thought that publishing his often controversial ideas might have
interfered with his work at the local courts. When he retired, he resumed his
job as a writer. In his work we find an infinite play of allusive realism, and
permanent irony. Caterva and Los Ochoa are among his best known
novels.
Among
contemporary writers in Córdoba we have to mention Lilia Lardone, who
has led well-known literary workshops; María Teresa Andruetto and Graciela
Bialet, who have produced excellent literature for children.
MUSIC:
In the
field of music, an important part of its development and production depends on
state support. The province of Córdoba supports, for example, Cordoba
Symphony Orchestra, the Provincial Choir, the Provincial Ballet.
Outside the field of classical music, the Orquesta de Música Ciudadana, which
deals especially with tango is also supported by the Province of Córdoba.
The City
Town Hall supports a prestigious Chord Orchestra (Orquesta de Cuerdas Municipal),
and through the CPC’s (Centros de Participación Comunitaria), the 14 precincts
(areas) of the city offer a wide variety of workshops where people can learn to
sing and play different musical genres and instruments. Guitar and choral
practice are outstanding in this field.
Moving into
the field of private activity, there are two Suzuki orchestras, where many
children (and adults as well) learn how to play the violin and other chord
instruments, like cello too... Artists in the field of classical music often
get together to form duos, trios, quartets or quintets... There are plenty of
them... and new ones keep forming all the time.
Getting
away form classical music and talking about popular music, we have to mention a
form of music which was born here in Cordoba and which has definitely become a
mass phenomenon, going far beyond the limits of the province. I am talking
about the so called Música de cuarteto. The name of this genre may be
misleading. Although the original bands that played this kind of music were
made of four people (thus the name cuarteto), the number of players
later increased to six, or even 9... and these bands later became so popular
that the original name referring to an arrangement of four remained in people’s
minds, irrespective of the number of players... This music appeals especially
to the economically postponed strata of society; but nowadays people of all
social levels play at least some of these songs at family parties, at the
traditional 15-year-old-girl parties, Christmas parties, or whatever...
especially when people want to dance. To understand this popular phenomenon the
best way is to listen to one song, or else, to read the lyrics. Two respected
artists in this field are Carlos Jiménez (La Mona) and the
recently deceased Rodrigo Bueno.
Aside for música
de cuarteto, all styles of folk music (folklore de Córdoba) are widely
produced and practiced in Córdoba. Two excellent representatives of Córdoba
folklore music are Duo Antar and Ica Novo.
PAINTING
In this art
form, as in many other fields, Córdoba has had a production reaching all
Argentina, and becoming well-known in other Latin American countries as well;
and also in Spain.
Within a
long list of masters who lived and produced their works of art here in Cordoba,
a special mention is deserved by José Malanca, who painted memorable
landscapes. He was, in this sense, a symbol of the union of the artist and
the land where he grew up and lived.
Coming to
the present, there are a few painters who are producing now great works, like Pedro
Pont Vergés who, in the late fifties represented a position of deep changes
both in technique and in subject matter, expressing a style of inner Argentina.
Or Oscar Gubiani (Tutuca) (that nickname means "Popcorn"), who
is now the Director of the Genaro Pérez Museum. The name of one of his latest
collections “From memory to matter” expresses his line of art: from figurative
painting to deep abstract art...
Antonio
Seguí was born in Cordoba
(Argentina) in 1934 and studied art in Buenos Aires, Europe and Mexico. His
painting portrays beautifully detailed city scenes. The lines between the real
and the fantastic are blurry in Segui's artworks. Intense color and comedy
combine in an urban setting and demonstrate that Antonio Seguí is truly a
man of the cities. Segui's work is present in many museums and in numerous
collections in Argentina.
Córdoba, June 16, 2004
Osvaldo Carnero
******************************************
Bibliography & links:
· Rouquié, Alan. Introducción a la Argentina. Emecé Editores. Buenos Aires, 1987. Online version available at: http://www.oni.escuelas.edu.ar/olimpi99/libros-digitales/html/rouquie.htm
· Floria, Carlos A. & García Belsunce. Historia Política de la Argentina Contemporánea. Alianza Editorial. Buenos Aires – Madrid, 1989.
· Villalba, Diego. Utopías Juveniles en el siglo XX. Universidad Nacional de Luján, 2000. http://selajp.hypermart.net/lecturas/on%20line/utopias%20juveniles.htm
· Carmody de Martínez, Clara. An Introduction to American Culture. Unpublished class notes. Cordoba, 1974.
·
Carnero, Osvaldo. Cultura
Latinoamericana y Argentina: guía de estudio para extranjeros. Unpublished class notes. Córdoba,
1989.
· The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade. An Introduction to Argentina. Tucson, AZ http://www.natlaw.com/pubs/sparcs1.htm
Links
related to painting and music in Cordoba.
|
Click here to see José Malanca web site. Click here to see some paintings by Antonio Seguí. La Mona Jiménez
(Carlos Jiménez) Click here to see La Mona Jiménez web site. Click here to here typical "música de
cuarteto". (AUDIO: turn on speakers !) |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
|
I want to give my heartiest thanks
to some friends, who helped me with their knowledge and good advice when I
was writing these notes. In particular I want to express my gratitude to
Humberto Catania, the pianist and School of Arts professor, for his
recommendations in the field of music; to Verónica Seguí, my colleague at
Manuel Belgrano school, for her help in the field of literature; to Graciela
Valsagna, the painter, who guided me in the field of Fine Arts; and, last but
not least, to María Teresa Macello, the TV journalist at Channel 10 (SRT),
for her advice on the mass media. |