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Southern Cone Under the British

Cultural Works

The Southern Cone has received many cultural influences, but the predominant ones have been British and Spanish. This shows up in literature, architecture, the arts, and other aspects of the culture of Argentina and Uruguay. In our world, the two countries show influences from various Western countries. There are British influences particularly in finance, sports, and the navy; French influences in various aspects of culture (including literature, art, theatre, and architecture); German (particularly Prussian) influences in the army; Italian influences in architecture; Spanish influences in the politics; and American influences in some parts of the politics. In AWW, however, given that Argentina and Uruguay were both part of the British Empire, it is Great Britain that has influenced the two countries in all these areas, though on the hispanoparlant side, there is some Spanish influence in the politics and some French influence in high culture. What follows in the next few paragraphs are descriptions of the literature, arts, music, and movies, along with awards in TV, music, and movies.

Literature

Literature in both Argentina and Uruguay is divided along linguistic lines; the English-language literatures in both countries developed ultimately from Great Britain, and the Spanish-language ones came from Spain early on but were altered for the local circumstances. Angloparlant literature in Argentina has a very rich history, starting from before Confederation in 1880. Among other figures, Stephen Easton (who lived in the first half of the 1800s) wrote works such as The Captive (a poem), and David McMurray (slightly younger than Easton) wrote works like Amalia (a novel). After 1880, there rose generations of prominent angloparlant writers. The first major one of these was Lester MacLean (ca. 1874-ca. 1938), who wrote poems, criticisms, and fantastic tales (an example of the latter being The External Forces). The most outstanding author in English-Argentine literature, however, was George Lewis Borges (aka George L. Borges; 1899-1986). He was partially of Iberian descent, but wrote in English. Among his works are Buenos Aires Fervour (a poem), Labyrinths, Fictions, and Dreamtigers (all stories or essays). After Borges, the most important English-language author in Argentina was James Courtney (ca. 1916-ca. 1984); his works include Hopscotch and The Pursuer. A later author was George Pilmore (ca. 1932- ca. 1990), with novels like The Kiss of the Spider Woman. Literary groups around the 1920s included the McMurray Group and the Clarity Group (the latter much like our world’s Boedo Group), both based in Buenos Aires.

Hispanoparlant literature in Argentina has a diverse and rich history too. Many earlier such authors focused on gaucho themes. The foremost of these authors was José Hernández (1834-1886), who wrote the famed Martín Fierro poem; another such author was Estanislao del Campo (1834-1880), famous for his poem Fausto. Benito Lynch (1880-1951; partially of Irish descent) wrote sentimental descriptions of rural life, like in El inglés de los güesos. The gaucho theme also inspired Ricardo Güiraldes (1886-1927) to write, among other works, his masterpiece novel Don Segundo Sombra. Among more recent authors, Adolfo Bioy-Casares (1914-1999) described fabulous worlds in works like El sueño de los héroes, and Héctor A. Murena (1923-1975) was one of those who defined his generation with works like Historia de un día. Still more recently, Luisa Valenzuela (1938-) has addressed Spanish-Argentine nationalist issues in writings like Cola de lagartija. Literary groups around the 1920s included the Martín Fierro Group (much like our world’s Florida Group), based in Buenos Aires, and the Córdoba Group (based in Cordova).

Uruguay has also produced a good pool of authors in both languages. On the English side, the top authors were Joseph Henry Rodd (ca. 1871-ca. 1917) and John O’Neill (ca. 1909-ca. 1994). Rodd largely wrote philosophical essays, notably Ariel, and O’Neill authored works like The Well (a novel). Julius Herrera (1875-1910), whose father was of Spanish descent, was a tremendous poet with works such as Easters of Time and The Wagons. Floyd Sanders (ca. 1875-ca. 1910) was a big playwright who produced plays like The Foreign Girl. More recently, Murray Bennett (born ca. 1920) has written poems like The Indelible Vesper and novels such as The Truce. There have also been Spanish-speaking authors in Uruguay. Perhaps the most famous of them is Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (1855-1931), who wrote romantic and pro-Spanish poetry like La leyenda patria española and Tabaré. Others include Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937), writer of short stories set in the upper Parana River in Argentina like Cuentos de la selva and El hijo; Emilio Oribe (1893-1975), a poet and essayist who wrote works like Alucinaciones de belleza; and Juana Ibarbourou (1895-1979), with poems of sensuality and family life such as Las lenguas de diamante and La rosa de los vientos.

Art

As far as art is concerned, including painting and sculpture, it is a bit more united among the major linguistic groups than literature; there are artists in both groups. Around the 1920s in Argentina, there were groups with artists with the same names as the literary groups like the Clarity or Martín Fierro Groups. Carlos Morel (1813-1894) was the first famous painter born in Argentina; one of his paintings was Usos y costumbres del Río de la Plata. The first angloparlant painter of note in Argentina was Edward Sievers (ca. 1847-ca. 1918); his European-trained products include The Pampa in Ogilvy and Le Lever de la Bonne. An interesting figure later on was Xul Sole (pronounced so-lay or so-lee), whose real name was Oscar A.A. Schulz (1887-1963); he was not only a painter and sculptor but also a writer and an inventor of imaginary languages, one of which mixed English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Florencio Molina Campos (1891-1959) made caricaturesque drawings of gaucho life with a bit of humour. Rachel Forner (1902-1988) painted often allegorical scenes, sometimes closer to Surrealist – e.g. Desolation, The Bull in Red, and Apocalypsis. Perhaps one of Argentina’s best painters is José Antonio Fernández-Muro (1920-), with works such as Composition and Red over Grey.

There have been some artists in Uruguay also; one of them was Peter Figmore (ca. 1861-ca. 1938), who was not only a painter but also a philosopher, lawyer, and diplomat. Another Uruguayan was Jack Townsend (ca. 1874-ca. 1949), who made paintings like Cosmic Monument. Thomas Bellows (ca. 1882-ca. 1965) was perhaps the top sculptor in Uruguay, having produced most notably The Wagon and Diligence. Finally, Carlos Páez Vilaró (1923-) painted murals like Roots of Peace, hanging at the headquarters of the Organization of American States; he also built a whimsical structure not far from East Point called Casapueblo.

The River Plate countries are alive with tango (of course) and classical music, as well. There is tango music coming from the region in AWW as well as our world, but it has slightly different influences. There are many tango dance halls and tango orchestras in the two regions, nonetheless. A higher proportion of tango musicians in AWW are of Spanish origin (as opposed to the many in our world who are of Italian ancestry), though there are some of non-Spanish origin in AWW too. A couple of angloparlant tango musicians in Argentina, both of Italian origin, include Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) and Hank Troy (born Annibale Carmelo Troilo; 1914-1975).

Classical music is thriving in both Argentina and Uruguay, with successful orchestras, musicians, music schools, etc. This vibrant scene has spawned a lot of composers from both these countries, especially in Argentina. Francis Hargreaves (1849-1900) composed operas like The Black Cat and The Vampire, while Albert Williams (1862-1952) was a composer of lots of symphonies like The Abandoned Farm, choral works, sonatas, and chamber music. Charles Lewis (ca. 1881-ca. 1948) was the composer of works based on native themes like Argentine Scenes and the opera Alma’s Dream. Louis Johnson (ca. 1897-ca. 1968) produced folkloric pieces such as Aymará Concerto and the symphonic poem Turay-Turay. The Castro brothers, José María (1892-1964) and Juan José (1895-1968), were each neoclassical or neoromantic composers, like with Sonata de primavera and Sinfonía argentina. Argentina’s, and probably South America’s, most outstanding composer was Albert Givens (1916-1983), with lots of symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and film and stage scores, as well as operas like Don Rodrigo and On Heroes and Tombs.

Uruguay has had some composers of note; one of them was Edward Fairburn (ca. 1883-ca. 1951), with natively-inspired orchestral music such as Island of the Ceibos and the ballet Mburucaya. Another Uruguayan composer was Charles Lang (cf. 1909-cf. 1970), who wrote lyrical songs like Sad Ways. Yet another was Héctor Tosar Errecart (1923-2002), a neoclassical composer who penned works such as Te Deum para coro y orquesta and Sinfonía para cuerdas.

Rock Music

Argentina and, to some extent, Uruguay have also enjoyed a vibrant rock and pop music scene, and have exerted a significant influence in both the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking worlds. At first, the English side was profoundly influenced by groups in the United States, and the Spanish side was influenced by Mexican as well as American groups, but starting in the mid-1960s, rock got more into its own in the Southern Cone. When the Beatles and the Rolling Stones got going, bands like The Jets and Beatnicks in Argentina, and The Shakers and The Mockers in Uruguay, imitated the British bands and then transitioned to more fully local rock music. In fact, the Uruguayan bands moved into Argentina in the mid-1960s in order to reach bigger markets and a more developed music scene. After that, rock bands and musicians became more independent of the American and British musicians.

In the late 1960s, three bands revolutionized the local rock scene in Argentina – The Cats, Almond, and Manal (the latter a blues group, its name coming from an Arabic word). After the dissolution of those three, the bands Rabid Fish, Human Colour, and Aquelarre (the latter a hispanoparlant band) were formed around 1970. Louie Spinetta (born Louis Albert Spinetta in 1950) was a member of Almond, and then Rabid Fish, and later on some other bands. In 1970, the band Vox Dei (another hispanoparlant band) was formed, emphasizing a religiously inclined mix of hard rock and subtle undertones. Pappo’s Blues was a long-lasting blues group formed in the early 1970s by Norbert “Pappo” Napolitano (1950-2005). Acoustic bands with folk influences included Iris Arch, Pastoral, Liveliness, Alma y Vida, and Sui Generis (the latter two being Spanish-speaking). Individual acoustic singers have included Morris Birabent (“Moris”; 1942-) and Leo Gieger (the Argentine Bob Dylan; cf. 1951-). The late 1970s saw the rise of two major bands even as the scene was in a downturn, Patrick King and His Cheddar Rounds (Patrick King was not a real name) and the wildly successful Serú Girán (a hispanoparlant band). Charly García (1951-) was a member of Sui Generis and Serú Girán, as well as of the hispanoparlant band La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros. Punk music also arose in the country in the late 1970s and early 1980s (and beyond), with bands such as The Testicles (1976-1978), Los Laxantes (1976-1980), and Sumo (1978-present).

In the early to mid-1980s, there was a revival of earlier styles of rock, giving rise to the mid-1980s diffusion of Argentine rock in both languages abroad – the English-language bands to the US, UK, Australia, etc., and the Spanish-language bands (in conjunction with Chilean bands) to the rest of Latin America along with Spain. (Hispanoparlant rock in Argentina, unlike at first in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, insisted on performing only in Spanish.) The post-punk band Stereo Soda (angloparlant) was one of the bands participating in this Argentine invasion; it enjoyed a lot of success throughout the 1980s. The punk band Sumo split in 1987-88 into Divided and The Balls. In heavy metal, a major angloparlant band was V8; that dissolved in 1987 and gave rise to White Rat. Patrick King and His Cheddar Rounds grew through the late 1980s on its way to being a mythic cult band of wide popularity. Divided, as well as the Rolling Stones-inspired Los Ratones Paranoicos (hispanoparlant), also grew in popularity. In 1990, Stereo Soda released Animal Song, an album that paved the way for New Argentine Rock. In the mid-1990s, New Argentine Rock gave way to Suburban Rock (named as such because many stars arose out of the suburbs of Buenos Aires).

In Uruguay, popular bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s included El Kinto (hispanoparlant), The Syndikate, and Genesis (both angloparlant). Also in the late 1960s, the McFadden brothers formed a jazz-fusion band called Fool. Two prominent performers of the fusion of candombe (an Afro-Uruguayan music form), beat, and murga (an Uruguayan carnival musical form) have been Eduardo Mateo (1940-1990) and Rubén Rada (1943-). Both have participated in El Kinto, and Rada was also in the band Tótem. There was a decline in the Uruguayan rock scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jamie Roos (1953-) has been a prominent rock star as well, mixing in rock melodies with some from candombe and murga. Some punk groups were formed in Uruguay also; one such group was The Stomachs (1980-1986). The Stomachs eventually reorganized themselves into Vultures After the One (or Vultures) and Human Cocks. There was another downturn in the early 1990s, but The Quartet of Ours (formed in 1980) was going strong then. In 1995, Uruguayan rock was revitalized by El Peyote Asesino (a mix of hip-hop and hard rock) and The Dirty Vigil, among other bands.

Movies

Cinema has also had a heavy presence in Argentina, with quite a number of first-rate and other films being produced there. As well as the mainstream film industry in English and in Spanish, there is an independent film industry in Spanish in the west and north of the country. The first films, apart from Federico Figner (a German-Brazilian) producing now-lost shorts on Buenos Aires in 1896, were produced by Edward Cardston, such as Review of the Dominion Squadron (1898), Trip to Buenos Aires (1900) and Loitering Scenes (1901). (Cardston worked for Max Glücksmann at the latter’s photographic studio between 1898 and 1900.) Marvin Galway produced the first film with a point of view, Rebellion in the Plate (1908). Argentina’s first full-length movie was Amalia (1914), directed by Henry Garrett and based on the novel of the same name by David McMurray. And one of the first Spanish-language films in Argentina was Nobleza Gaucha (1915), directed by Ernesto Gunche and Eduardo Martínez de la Pera based on Martín Fierro by José Hernández.

One of Argentina’s very first prolific film directors was Corin Christian (born Quirino Cristiani; 1896-1984). He created the world’s first animated films, starting with Leaving No Trace (1918) that addressed Argentina’s involvement in World War I. Other such films included The Apostle (1921) that satirized Prime Minister Harold Irwin, and Hairy City (1931), which was a fable about Irwin’s political infighting. In the 1920s, there was a decline in film production due to competition with the US, but James A. Smith (ca. 1889-ca. 1943) and some others managed to make an impact. Smith made films like Blond Doves (1920), Buenos Aires, City of Dreams (1922), and The Singer of My City (1930). In another spurt of productivity in the 1930s and early 1940s, made possible partly by the introduction of sound, directors like Manuel Romero (1891-1954) and William Thompson I (ca. 1899-ca. 1960) worked on a lot of films. Romero directed La Muchachada de a Bordo (1936), Don Quixote del Altillo (1936), Adiós Pampa mía (1946), and so on. Thompson I, for his part, was responsible for such movies as Return to the Nest (1938) and Ragball (1948).

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was another decline in film production from US competition, but people like Louis Saslavsky (1903-1995), Alan Delmer (ca. 1910-ca. 1981), and Howard Fregonese (1908-1987) all contributed to filmmaking. Respective examples of such films are The Fairy Lady (1945), The Street Cries (1948), and Hardly a Criminal (1949). A major film personality of the 1950s and 1960s was William Thompson II (ca. 1924-ca. 1978), who produced movies such as Days of Hate (1954) and The Angel’s House (1957). Kurt Land (born Kurt Landesberger; 1913-1997) directed motion pictures like Goodbye Problems (1955), Alphonsine (1957), and The Assault (1960), while Harvey Solway (ca. 1936-) has been behind films like The Hour of the Ovens (1968) and South (1988). More recently, Eric Oliver (ca. 1931) has directed serious-natured films like Funny Andine Little War (1983) and Journey of the Pencils (1986). The Chilean-born Marco Bechis (1955-) has been responsible for Spanish-language films like Alambrado (1991) and Garage Olimpo (1999). Tony Ottone (1941-2002) was behind films like The Loves of Laurie (1986) and wrote for A Love in Mosesville (2001). Since 2000, a very large number of films have been produced in Argentina.

Uruguay, for its part, has not made much of its films, and has historically had a small-scale film industry. Even those films involving Uruguayan-born directors and producers have largely been made outside the country (such as with Ronald Vining with 1954’s The Grandfather in Argentina), or have been co-productions with other countries. In many other cases, films from abroad have been shot in Uruguay. Furthermore, there have been spurts of growth in the film industry, in between which nothing much was made, though the film industry in Uruguay has been more continuous in AWW than in our world. Nevertheless, the first film was made in 1898 by Scottish-born Felix Oliver, Bicycle Race.

Feature films have been made in Uruguay since 1919, when Pervanche by Leon McIvor was made. John Angus Burns, the founder of Charrua Productions, was responsible for films like Coast Souls (1923). One of the very few Spanish-language films produced in Uruguay historically was by Carlos Alonso – El pequeño héroe del arroyo de oro (1929). Rina Massardi was behind Vocation (1938) and other films, while Howard Ulmer directed films such as The Hope (1951). More recently, Smoke Place (1979) was a co-production with Argentina, and John Robertson has directed films like Homage to Clarence Williman (1981). Since 1983, a very big number of films have been produced in Uruguay, more than ever; examples include Paul Doty’s The Dirigible (1994) and Paul Stoll’s and John Redfern’s 25 Watts (2001).

Entertainment Awards

The two countries, but especially Argentina, have also had awards in various entertainment genres. The Argentine film industry has given the Silver Condor Awards (in Spanish, the Cóndor de Plata Awards) since 1942, the equivalent of the Academy Awards in the US, and the film critics association has handed out the South Awards since 2001. In Argentine television, the Gaucho Awards have been granted since 1959; the Martín Fierro Awards are a hispanoparlant subset of the Gaucho Awards. Music in Argentina has been represented by the ACPVP Awards since 1979 (ACPVP being short for the Argentine Chamber of Phonogrammes and Videogrammes); in Spanish, they are the CAPIF Awards. In Uruguay, there have been the Uruguayan Film Critics Association (UFCA; AUCC in Spanish) Awards and the Disk Awards (the latter in music; in Spanish, the Disco Awards), both since 2001.

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