Gaucho Gazetteers, Popular Literature, and Politics

in the Rio de la Plata'

William Acree
San Diego State University

W hen one thinks ofthe connections between writing and cattle, or writing
and gauchos in the nineteenth century, perhaps the only thoughts that
come to mind are those of leather book bindings and rowdy gatherings
at country stores for the day's story
read by one ofthe few literate people
there, usually the pulpero. Leon
Palliere's depiction in figure I sets
the scene with (he pulpero reading
an engaging chapter ofa/o//£'//rt, ap-
pearing in the widely-circulated Ar-
gentine newspaper La Tribuna, to a
small, but attentive gioup of gauchos
and their offspring. It is much easier
to conjure a scene like this: images
ofa %oo^ payada., where gaucho po-
ets improvised their compositions
among friends and enemies, and
where little of what they sung was
ever put to paper. But in the eattle
country of the Rio de la Plata, the
connections between print culture
Figure I: "Interior de una pulpen'a, Buenos and cattle civilization go far beyond
Aires." Watercolor from Palliere, 179. leather book covers.
From the 1820s through the
early 1860s, large estate owners and proprietors of beef-jerking factories teamed
up and enjoyed enonnous success in the processing and sale of animal products,
specifically from cattle. These years were by far their most profitable. Through
their patronage relationships, ihe prominent figures of cattle culture—the caudillos—
became powerful political figures, and as such they were able to foster attachments
to their brand of collective identity, most often tied to a political party. In the Plata,
there were two parties, to be exact: the Federalists, who promoted an economy
and social order based on the exploitation of cattle and that revolved around pre-
serving the wealth of landed elites, and the liberal Unitarians who fought to change
this world based on cattle civilization and open the region to all things European.
These parties would become the Blancos and Colorados in Uruguay, two ofthe
three principal forces in Uruguayan politics today. The one estate owner and caudillo
198 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

who stood out among all the others was Juan Manuel de Rosas, icon ofthe Feder-
alist party and a towering (as well as much loved and much hated) figure in the
historiography of both Uruguay and Argentina.- Everything written during the years
Rosas governed the region—from the early 1830s through the early 1850s—re-
volved around him and the politics and social order of cattle culture.

Figure 2: "Pulperia en campaha. " circa I860, Lithography

from Gonzalez Garafio.

Key to defining the relationship between print and politics during these years is
the role of popular literature, specifically gauchesque verse, often penned by "gau-
cho gazetteers." This article focuses on two gaucho gazetteers who happened to be
rivals: the Argentine Luis Perez, who was a die-hard Federalist during the 1830s
and whose verses are not well-known, and the Argentine Hilario Ascasubi, who
wrote liberal gauchesque verse while in exile in Montevideo. Both made use of
popular voice for political purposes, and their writings ean help us to develop a
more complete understanding ofthe literary landscape in the region at mid-cen-
tury.
Gauchesque writing during the Rosas years did not appear out of thin air,
though. Authors employed language and stylistic devices elaborated by Bartolome
Hidalgo and Francisco de Paula Castafieda, an advocate of writing in the voice of
country folk during the 1 S20s. Since Bartolome Hidalgo's cielitos and didlogos hit
the streets during the wars of independence, gauchesque writing negotiated the
meeting of oral and prim cultures, and allowed for the popular consumption of
print media on a scale seen nowhere else in Latin America. The renegade priest
Castafieda followed in Hidalgo's footsteps in the 1820s. He was keenly aware of
gauchesque literature's potetitial for reaching readers. Writing about his gauchesque,
or at least rustic, compositions in El Despertador Teofilantropico (one of his many
newspapers), he claimed that they were natural, fluid, and native. "Quiero deeir
que no me he de violentar por parecer hombre culto, pues esa es una ridiculez que
William Aeree I99

cansa a los lectores y haee ridiculos a los hombres por mas respetables que sean
por su caracter" (qtd. in Rivera 15). Castafieda's observations were right on target,
and his verses, like those of Hidalgo, were stepping stones built on by future
authors. Names that Hidalgo had used appeared again in anonymous Federalist
verse, as well as in later creations by more well-known writers like the Argentines
Hilario Aseasubi and Estanislao del Campo, and the Uruguayan Antonio Lussich.
The result was both the creation ofa genre and the public that nourished gauchesque
production. Ultimately, this literature was bom out oflife along the frontier, in the
very real sense of its producers and consumers living in rural areas, on the edge
between known and uncharted territories, and in the more figurative sense ofthe
boundary between oral tradition and the restricted realm of written culture. The
negotiating space of the frontier was perfect for the development of a complex
circle of transmission, as we will see, and it allowed for this form of popular
literature to become politically charged writing.^
From Hidalgo up through the 1850s, gauchesque writing served to wage a
rhetorical war. Employees ofthe Rosas regime who came up with verses promot-
ing the party line certainly embody the intimacy ofthe written word with spheres
of political power. They published anonymously, as well as with their signatures,
loose-leaf poems, broadsheets, and compositions for newspapers praising El Viejo
(one of Rosas's many nicknames) and the Federalist party, and damning their
Unitarian enemies. These compositions appeared in official Federalist newspapers
like La Gaceta Mercantil, El Diario de la Tarde, and El Archivo Americano,
among others in Argentina. Officialist papers were made available for free by the
Buenos Aires provincial treasury.^ Equally important to the unique relationship
between print and politics in the Plata was the role of popular print media created
by gaucho gazetteers who were not functionaries. Unitarians, of course, shot back
with their own printed creations, though their only real success came through
mimicking the style of popular Federalist print media, writing a sort of popular
literature of their own.
Ordinary citizens—albeit ones who knew how to write—dashed off hundreds
of loose-leaf poems that appeared anonymously in papers and were posted in the
streets, too. Most of these compositions, whether cheering for El Viejo and con-
demning Unitarians, or slandering Rosas and his Blanco collaborators as tyrants
and murderers, promote a limited set of themes: criminal and cowardly opponents,
bravery of like-minded partisans, loyalty, triumph in battle, and, most importantly,
party values as patriotic and national ones. In the end, anonymity reflected and
contributed to the popular character of gauchesque writing in this period (Ayestaran
25-28). Even if white, urban, male authors were behind all the words that ap-
peared in gauchesque papers and loose-leaf verses, authors gathered inspiration for
their material from time spent among popular classes, mainly gauchos, slaves, and
free blacks. That such print media were so popular made them particularly well-
suited to branding political identity. This is the case ofthe papers of Luis Perez, the
first of our two gaucho gazetteers.
200 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

Luis Perez and the Making of a (Forgotten) Legend

Little is known of Perez's background, aside from the fact that he was bom in
Tucuman, in the northwest of Argentina, and that he was a patriot soldier during
the wars of independence." He garnered quite a reputation for hanging out among
riff-raff and criminals in and around Buenos Aires. His real fame began in 1830
when he started writing papers under names of characters from the countryside.
The look ofthe papers, with sketches of gauchos, horses, and other country adom-
ments on the covers, made them appealing to rural inhabitants and lower-class city
residents, and the language Perez employed was their language. What is more
important to point out is that gauchos, Afro-descendants, and women were the
invented editors of Perez's papers. The papers were sold in public places, like
pulperias and markets, where hard-working gauchos, "blacks always ready for
candombe^ as one scholar put it, and the simple vagrant who spent hours on end
at country stores attentively listened to readings of their contents (^Rodriguez Molas
6). Perez even paid for a private mail service to distribute them in the interior, as
well. He penned more-than-thirty papers from 1830 to 1834, including El Gaucho,
La Gaiicha, El Torito de los Muchachos, La Negrita, El Negrito, and De Cada
Co.sa un Foquito. Each issue consisted of four pages printed on one large sheet
folded in half, and all of his papers were expressions of Perez's loyalty to the
Federalist party and attempts to inspire political identity.
Some good examples come from El Gattcho, published over several months in
1830, 1831, 1832, and again in 1833. The paper was supposedly written by the
gazetteer and violinist Pancho Lugares, who
tells readers that his parents sent him to leam
to read and write, and that he came from
hispago to Buenos Aires expressly to write
(El Gaucho 31 July 1830, 1). This image
appears on the front page of every issue of
El Gaucho except the first one from 1830,
where a mstic ranch house welcomes read- EL GAUCHO.
ers. Here we see Pancho with pen and pa-
per in hand, contemplating his next verses,
with his rebenqiie (an important element,
as we'll soon find out) at his feet. El Gau-
cho contains Pancho's verses, letters to the
editor—of eourse written by gaucho read-
ers, both male and female—and satirical
news and ads. In the paper's introduction
he outlines his political philosophy: "D.
JUAN MANUEL es el hombre, / Que nos
manda por la ley / La ultima gota de sangre
/ Es preciso dar por el" (Frospejo, 2). In Figure J: t'ir.st page oJ Ll Uaucho
the subsequent numbers Pancho sketches 30 Nov. 1830.
William Aeree 201

the image and powers ofthe great patron

Rosas—"the most illustrious American,"
as he calls him—always aiming to convert
his readers into loyal Federalists." This goal
is clearly expressed in a letter the editor
writes to his wife, Chanonga, telling her
to cover her head and heart with red rib-
bon. After all, red was the color of the
Federation, so Pancho was going to send
her enough ofthe divisapimzo to distrib- VIIA.
ute to her female friends (2 Oet. 1830,4).
Chanonga, for her part, wrote a letter to
Pancho in which she praises Rosas as the
protector of the poor and tells her hus-
band that since he has become an
"escribinista," he'll have to write£/ Viejo's
name in gold. On a separate occasion,
Chanonga wrote a poem printed on the
double-sided broad sheet shown in figure Figure 4: Front side of loose-leaf
4. In this "Jaleo" she admonishes her fe- letter from Chanonga, 25 May (circa
male compatriots to wear proper attire in 1830), Different breeds of cattle and
order to demonstrate their tme Federalist dogs surround Chanonga. pictured
colors. Figure 5 shares a couple divisas of at the top ofthe letter. Like Pancho.
the type Pancho sent to his wife. Although she, too. has pen and paper in hand,
we see them in black and white, they were Biblioteea Nacional de Argentina, Sala
made of red ribbon—^hence the name de Tesoro, Buenos Aires.
divisa punzo. These two boast a portrait
of Rosas at the top, followed by the abbreviation F. o M. {Federacion o Muerte)
and the Federalist lema\ "Vivan los Federales / Mueran los salvajes, inmundos
traidores Unitarios." Readers familiar with Esteban Echeverria's story "El Matadero"
will recall that the young Unitarian is asked to show his divisa to demonstrate his
political loyalty. His refusal to produce the icon leads to his end. Variations ofthe
Federalist slogan headed official documents ofthe Rosas govemment, including
foreign correspondence, which raised the eyebrows of more than one diplomat.
This comes as no surprise, though; it is clear that the slogan embodies a spirit of
violence, which leads us to another characteristic of gauchesque verse.
The discourse of violence that permeates the pages of this and other papers of
Luis Perez was attractive to his audience, readers who were accustomed to vio-
lence in their daily lives.^ In one cielito, for instance, a friend of Pancho wrote
about teaching "Mos guapos unitarios" a lesson: "Cielito, cielo del alma, / Cielito del
rebencazo; / Tocales, Pancho, el violin, / Mientras yo preparo el lazo" {El Gaucho
28 Aug. 1830, 3-4)."* This was no innocent cielito, either. Rebencazo was a lash
with a rebenque, or riditig crop, that often doubled as a weapon. And the reference
202 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

to playing the violin was not a musical one, but

rather spoke to the act of slitting a throat, in this
case, of one's political enemy instead of an animal.
The slogan that headed the paper El Toro de Once
conveyed a similar stance. It warned simply
"Unitarios: No estan seguros en casa, cuando el
TORO esta en la plaza" {El Toro de Once 1830).
One ofthe most revealing passages of Perez's
efforts to inspire political identity comes through a
poem in the correspondence section ofthe 28 Au-
gust 1830 issue of El Gaucho. In the poem-letter,
Pancho's uncle expresses his worry that the gazet-
leer will upset too many people with his papers and
that he should stick to his career as a horse tamer.
The uncle's brother-in-law listened carefully, and
then had his chance to speak. He told the uncle to
relax. Pancho was a lot smarter than he thought. In
fact, Pancho had spent three months "gauchando /
Por las calles, por las casas, / Oyendo, viendo,
observando... / Alii se jue alicionando..." And in
the places he visited, he always noticed certain gath-
erings where people discussed politics and the fu-
Figure 5: Divisas with the ture, but they left out one critical component—what
profile of Rosas and the people in the countryside were like and felt, some-
Federalist slogan. These thing that Pancho had experienced. The story con-
were usually worn on hats tinues with Pancho relating the character of people
or pinned to lapels. in the countryside and how they are loyal to the
Complejo Museogrdfico end if they believe that their leaders love Xhtpatria.
"Enrique Udaondo. " Sala What's important, notes Pancho to his audience, is
Federal., Lujan. the following: "Debemos comunicarles / Las ideas
convenientes / Y a la patria favorables. / Valiendonos de espresiones / De su pro-
vincial lenguage, / Con las cuales se concilie / Su opinion y su corage" (4). Pancho
ends the bit of advice by saying that if folks from the countryside are treated with
respect, then they will, in turn, always be respectful.
On a lighter note, in El Gaucho, as well as in his other texts, Perez wrote with
a sense of peasant humor to reach his readers and listeners. Jokes ridicule dress
styles, ways of speaking, reading materials and forms of behavior that are sup-
posed to be representative of Unitarians. One ofthe favorite tropes was the com-
parison of Unitarians to a weak and skinny horse, whieh was quite an insult for the
time. Humor was especially important in group readings, and Perez was keenly
aware of this. Collective laughter connected those who were part of the group.
What's more, if everybody was laughing, one did not want (and at times could not)
be the odd man out of the joke, not laughing when others did.
William Acree 203

This gaucho gazetteer took care to include words of Afro-Argentines in his

papers, too, and to speak of black communities' support for Rosas. A letter from
"La negra Catalina" to Pancho Lugares is a case in point. Catalina apologizes for
her rough written Spanish, and tells Lugares that her husband wants to leam to
write. He does not know Spanish very well either, but "El es negro... fedela / Y
agladecido a la Patlia / Que le dio la libelta / Esi neglo cada noche / Suena con don
Jua Manue; / Y luego de mananita, / Otia vesi hablando de el" {El Gaucho 25 Aug.
1830,4). The paper I a Negrita, one of Perez's papers written for blacks in Buenos
Aires in July 1833, exuded the same spirit. The editor of Ao Negrita was the
character Juana Pefia. The voice of the black female author is unique, if not for
being the real voice of such a woman, then for claiming such an identity to reach a
given community. There is sufficient evidence showing that Perez wrote down
verses and themes he heard sung or improvised while hanging out at local pulperias.
Juana's introduction to ihe paper underscores this notion and the idea that Perez's
verses would be listened to in group readings. She tells us:

Yo por desgracia no tengo / Hijos, padre, ni marido / A quien poderles

decir, / Que sigan este partido. / Pero tengo a mis paisanos, / Los negritos
Defensores, I Que escucharan con cuidado / Estas fiindadas razones. / A
ellos dirijo mi voz / Y con ellos cuenlo yof ... / Patriotas son y de flbra, /
De entusiasmo y de valor. / Defensores de las Leyes I Y de su Restaurador
I Solo por D. JUAN MANUEL / Han de morir y matar. (21 July 1833, 1 -
2)^

Ironically, being disposed to die and kill for El Viejo was not enough to ensure
one's well-being in the eyes of the regime.
Luis Perez was jailed by Rosas's men, probably as a consequence of violating
laws governing the freedom of the press and getting into scuffles in the press with
Pedro de Angelis—^an Italian immigrant and political opportunist in Buenos Aires, a
close ally of Rosas, and chief editor of official newspapers. The relationship be-
tween de Angelis and Perez had started out strong. De Angelis financed several of
the author's publications and made generous loans to the gazetteer—loans that
were never repaid. Things soured between the two men, and both had a public
reputation to maintain. In effect, by 1834, when de Angelis addressed our gaucho
gazetteer in a letter that was printed and circulated as part of the battle of fame,
Perez had become an urban legend. Mention of his papers appeared throughout
the Buenos Aires press, from El Claslficador, in 1830-1831, to the Gaceta Mereantil
Je Buenos Aires, in 1834, where the author constantly contributed letters to edi-
tors. Accounts of his whereabouts and the shady people he spent time with also
made news. For the rising political star of de Angelis, Perez's reputation had to be
dealt with, especially after the gazetteer had insulted his honor, and this was done
by attacking the quality and popularity of his writings. De Angelis complains of
Perez:
204 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

El favor que desgraciadamente encuentran en el publico las producciones

mas desvergonzadas, le ha heeho mirar a la prensa como una anna que debe
empunarse para hacer victimas; y el escandalo que respiran sus papeles es
obra del convencimiento en que esta, y que le ha sido conflrmado por la
esperiencia, de que euanto mas insolentes son sus escritos tanto mayor es
la ganancia que le procuran. jY este hombre desearriado se figura ser el
organo de un partido respetable que lo desprecia... el arbitro de la suerte
de un pais, euya humillaeion y desgracia es de esperar que no llegue hasta
caer en la dependencia de hombres tan abyectos y envilecidos!

The run-in with de Angelis was the beginning of the end for Perez, about whom we
know hardly anything after 1835, except that his status as urban legend was quickly
forgotten. Perez also irked the minister of the Buenos Aires government, who
characterized the author "de orador de tabema, de hombre perverso, de hombre
malvado, de hombre nacido para la ruina y perdicion del pais, hombre miserable,
vulgar y [worst of all] coplero" (qtd. in Zinny, Efemeridografia 306). Being seen
in this light by a powerful government official did not help his cause as a popular
poet, nor the preservation of his fame in the future.
In contrast to the first time he was imprisioned in 1831, when he could count
on numerous supporters (including de Angelis) to write on his behalf, and when
donations were collected to help free him, Perez had made some powerftil enemies
from among Rosas's close allies (including de Angelis) by the time of his second
encarceration in 1834. But like a good gaucho, he was not going to go down
without a fight. Throughout March and April of this year he wrote dozens of letters
under the pen name of Un Gaucho to the editors of the main Buenos Aires news-
papers. In these he is highly critical of his critics, who have attacked his character
and education and accused him of inciting violence, and he makes prominent use
of sarcasm to communicate his points. In one that followed the publication of the
Minister's harsh words noted above and the implementation of new rules govern-
ing the press, Perez claims that he does not know what to do with himself and that
he lost his job as a consequence of his newly acquired ill reputation. But at least he
finished the "petitpieza" he was working on. However, he writes

me encuentro sin poderia dar a la luz publica por dos podcrosos

ineonvenientcs que son, el estar en estilo yocaso y en capias o en verso
eomo antiguamente se llamaba; pero esto me esta bien empleado porque
despues de haber renuneiado de la mania de escribir en renglones desiguales
al mejor tiempo y euando debe privarse hasta de que payen y eanten cielitos
los paisanos en las pulperias, porque Senior, nada de coplas, me ha tentado
Satanas de escribir mi Petipieza. {La Gaceta Mereantil 26 Mar. 1834, 2)'"

Perez's fear of the crackdown on popular verse was warranted, although the Rosas
government had no problem at all with this type of cultural production when it did
not cut too hard against the grain or did not deploy too much hutnor or sarcasm, as
was a common trait of Perez's verses. In subsequent letters he relates astrological
William Aeree 205

signs to the "fate of his hide" and finally states that he will not write anymore until
he knows more about his future. Unfortunately for us (and for Perez), that future
would begin with another period of imprisonment on a boat in the middle of the
Rio de la Plata. This is the last bit of news we know about our first gaucho
gazetteer.
Perez's verses are just a few examples of the enomious quantity of popular
literature that supported the Federalist party. Unitarian writers like Domingo F.
Samiicnto, Esteban Echeverria, Jose Marmol, and Marcos Sastre railed against
Federalists and were constant contributors to newspapers in Santiago and
Montevideo. But they wrote for their social class—the elite—and thus failed to
inspire popular support tlirough print. One of these Unitarians was Florencio Varela,
editor of the most widely disseminated liberal newspaper of the time, El Comercio
del Plata, printed and distributed in Montevideo. In a November 1846 issue Varela
recognized the power of gaucho gazetteers, commenting that if "la prensa ha de
tener influencia sobre nuestros campesinos, ha de ser solamente bajo esas formas
pintorescas y animadas puestas a su alcance por el lenguaje, por los caracteres y
por esa clase de versos que les hace reir y que luego se complacen en cantar al son
de su guitarra en las pulperias y en los fogones" (qtd. in Boullosa, del Carmen
Bruno, and Canterelli 274). In this same number Varela recommended to readers
the gauchesque compositions of Hilario Ascasubi, Luis Perez's rival.

Eigiire 6: Carlos Enrique Pellegrini. "Interior de un nincho. " circa

1840. Two gaucho poets engage in contrapunto. improvising verse to
see who is the better poet. Biblioteca Naeional de Uruguay, Materiales
Especiales, Coleccion Cavigiia, earpeta 2, lamina 45.
206 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

A Liberal Gaucho Gazetteer in Exile *

Exiled in Montevideo from the early 1830s to the end of the Rosas years, Ascasubi
began his career as a rising star writer. Moreover, he was the only writer on the
side of the Unitarians and Colorados who enjoyed veritable success in the venture
to wage war through print and to reach a large public. He authored hundreds of
gauchesque poems that were published in newspapers he edited, sometimes under
a pseudonym, and sometimes anonymously. One of these papers was El Gaucho
Jaeinto Cielo, depicted in figures 7 and 8. Like the papers of Luis Perez, this one
by Ascasubi carried familiar images at the top of the front page, and each issue
consisted of four pages^—again, one broadsheet folded in half On the left-hand
side of the issue illustrated in figure 8 (number 6), there is a poem in which Jaeinto
Cielo responds to a poem supposedly written by a member of the Mazorca (Rosas's
group of henchmen), printed in number 5 (28 July 1843,2-3). Ascasubi, of course,
invented the poem of the mazorquero precisely in order to respond to it in the
subsequent issue of the paper. He thus created a whole world of popular verse in
different voices to make the liberal, Unitarian perspective shine brightest. Many of
his verses were also printed in loose-leaf fonnat, and later collected in book fomi
under the title of Paidino and dedicated to Justo Jose de Urquiza, the rival Argen-
tine caudillo who put an end to to the rule of Rosas. The definitive version of this
collection was published in 1872 with the revealing title of Paulino Lucero, 6 Los
gauchos del Rio de la Plata. Cantando y combatiendo contra los tiranos de las
republicas Argentina y Oriental de Uruguay.
In tbe poems oi Paulino, and in his newspapers El Gaucho en Campana and
El Gaucho Jaeinto Cielo, Ascasubi's war against Rosas and his Uruguayan coun-
lerpart, Manuel OHbe, is wnged by a so-called liberal gaucho that appropriated the
nativist attraction of the figure of the gau-
cho to change the minds of mral and ur-
ban followers of Rosas. Part of his strat-
egy consisted of entertaining readers in

Figure 7: Eront page of El Gaueho

Jaeinto Cielo 18 July 1843. The catch
phrase of the front page of each
number reads: "EL GAUCHO como
hombre pobre salird los VJernes y
Martes al rayar el lucero despues de
tomar mate: el que quiera platicar con
el 6 escrebirle, en la Carida lo
encuentra mientras no monta a
cahallo; y el que quiera lerlo mande a
lo de D. Hernandez y a lo de D.
Domeneque—por supuesto. con un
realito sin rayas."
William Acree 207

order to win them over to the Unitarian side,

or to politicize those who had not yet de-
clared their political affiliation. In one poem,
two gauchos laugh about defeating Rosas's
forces and then relaxing on his estancias and
roasting up a fine asado—of course cut from
among Rosas's cattle (Ascasubi 45-49). On
other occasions Ascasubi puts words in the
mouths of Federalist party leaders in order to
paint them as cowards and an incoherent
bunch. He was very effective at this strat-
egy, publishing letters that were supposedly
intercepted.
In the spirit of Bartolome Hidalgo,
Ascasubi also wrote lively dialogues between
peasants. One of these was a conversation
held by Norberto Flores and Ramon Guevara,
two gauchos orientales, who discussed the
1839 Federalist invasion of Uruguay and how lugurc iV. .Juiiiilu Lido whirls his
it was necessary to join the ranks of those boleadoras on the front page from
fighting to preserve the patria. At the high El Gaucho Jaeinto Cielo I Aug.
point of the chat, the two men speak of Rosas 1843.
one day ordering people around in Uruguay,
which would equal a total loss of independence. Flores asks Guevara what he
thinks about the dark prospect. Guevara responds in a way that sheds light on how
party affiliation casually became imbedded in one's identity. He cannot contem-
plate not taking sides, which is the very idea Ascasubi hoped to get across to his
readers—they had to take sides. Of course, the only viable option was to oppose
Rosas. "Dejuramente," Guevara concludes, "es preciso / forcejiar en la ocasion, /
porque peligra la patria, / y debemos en union / defenderla a toda costa." Those
Uruguayans who did not see things in the same tight would have to face Guevara's
facon, an idea he hoped would be clearly expressed by the words embroidered on
the divisa he asked Flores to buy: "j Viva la Custitucion / y los orientales libres! /
jMuera... el invasor!"(Ascasubi 49-62). Illiterate companions of the countryside
would have been able to read these few words—or the image of the words—on
the battle headband. And with Ascasubi's compositions being read aloud, like those
of Luis Perez, party lines would blend with patriotic sentiment, the result being a
few more opponents of Rosas.
Another type of Unitarian reaction appeared not in gauchesque verse, but
rather in images that became the most attractive features of the newspapers El
Grito Arjentino and the bluntly titled jMueraRosas!, both published in Montevideo
around 1840. Created and edited by prominent figures of the generation of 1837,
like Esteban Echeverda, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Jose Marmol, and Juan Maria
208 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

Gutierrez, these papers

were sharp attacks on
Rosas, Oribe, and their
followers. They con-
tained some gauchesque
verse, but the main idea
behind them was this: if
words were not effective
in firing up popular
classes to side with the
Unitarians, and in hopes
of not having to revert to
a paper entirely in
gauchesque verse, then
images of the crimes at-
tributed to Rosas and his Eigure 9: jMuera Rosas! 23 Dec. 1841, 4.
henchmen should do the
trick. In both jMuera Rosas', and El Grito Arjentino the fourth page of every issue
presented drawings by Antonio Somellera. Figure 9, for example, portrays Rosas
atop a pile of skulls (presumably victims of his regime), holding a flag with a play
on the Federalist lema—Rosas o Muerte—in one hand and a dagger in the other,
against the black backdrop of Buenos Aires. The same message is conveyed in
figure 10, where lady liberty of 1810 (left) is compared to lady liberty in 1839
(right). On 25 May 1810, when the junta de Buenos Aires declared self rule and
kicked off the fight for independence in the Plata, she has vanquished the Iberian
lion and wields the Argentine national flag (which, curiously, had not yet been
created). On the same date in 1839, Rosas is about to receive a dagger and do
away with lady liberty. jMuera Rosas', was distributed for free in Buenos Aires,
thrown onto doorsteps in the middle of the night until one of those involved in the
operation was caught and executed (Zinny, Historia de la prensa 222-23). Somellera
himself was caught, too, though he managed to escape and fiee to Montevideo
(Somellera).
After Rosas was defeated in the early 1850s, gauchesque writing took a tum.
Combative newspapers were no longer necessary, and, in fact, there is no register
of this type of text following the publication of Ascasubi's Paulino Lucero. What
occurred from the 1850s through the early 1870s was a demilitarization of print
culture that accompanied the decline of cattle civilization and economies based on
the exportation ofjerked beef and hides. Authors turned their attention from politi-
cizing popular classes and waging rhetorical war to focus more on aesthetics and
social problems, and these same themes reoriented the focus of gauchesque litera-
ture. Estanislao del Campo aimed to bring country inhabitants and urban dwellers
closer together with his Eausto, a portrait of unarmed gauchos talking about an
operatic representation of Faust in Buenos Aires. And both Antonio Lussich, in his
William Acree 209

Los (res gauchos

orientales, and
Jose Hernandez,
through the best-
selling Martin
Fierro, expressed
great concem for
educating gau-
chos, or the group
of country resi-
dents that was be-
ing converted
from gauchos to
peons. Their mes-
sages were being
heard—literally.
Tens of thousands
of official and pi-
rated copies o!"
these gauchesque
tales were sold and Figure 10: El Grito Arjentino 25 May 1839. 4.
reprinted. And travelers like the Scottish Robert Cunninghame Graham recorded
their surprise at meeting illiterate peasants who knew by heart the verses o^Martin
Fierro. Education., indeed., would be the next great force shaping Rioplatense print
culture.

Cauchesque Literature's Circle of Transmission

and Mode of Production
Understanding gauchesque literature's circle of transmission is key to grasping the
success of gaucho gazetteers in channeling political sentiments and politicizing
popular classes. This circular transmission explains how a poem like Martin Fietro
became so well known, and it is central to understanding this popular discourse's
(that is., gauchesque literature) mode of production. Yet approaching what was a
fluid circle of transmission—from orality to print and back to orality—is a chal-
lenge given the lack of sources that have survived the passage of time and the very
nature ofthe texts themselves. After all, gauchesque newspapers, creations like
I Muera Rosas!, and popular literature in general were not meant to be preserved
or to form part of library collections. Instead, they made their way from one group
of readers to another, were used to wipe up spills at the bar, and served to start
fires. And while these popular texts were bought and sold, while they were compo-
nents ofthe cultural marketplace, statistics on print runs and records from the
presses that published the papers of Luis Perez, Hilario Ascasubi, and so many
other gaucho gazetteers are non-existent. Thus, evaluating the reach of this literary
210 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

production and engaging its circle of transmission requires a combination of direct,

indirect, and analogous evidence.
Throughout this article we have seen different types of direct and indirect
evidence, though not much analogous evidence. Perhaps the most obvious type of
direct evidence comes from the texts of our gaucho gazetteers. They provide some
ofthe first and most important clues for understanding what popular literature
during the Rosas years was all about. Without the texts themselves, imagining the
role of this discourse in the popular culture ofthe Rio de la Plata during this period
would not be possible. Another sort of direct evidence is found in the constant
dialogue ofthe press during the 1830s and 1840s. Buenos Aires papers mentioned
and advertised the creations of Luis Perez, as did the liberal press in Montevideo
with Ascasubi's verses in the 1840s. Furthermore, both Perez and Ascasubi, among
other authors who wrote in the voice of gauchos, were steady contributors to the
correspondence sections of diverse papers. Lastly, the fact that Ascasubi, the Uru-
guayan Isidoro de Maria, and other Unitarians and Colorados co-opted this popu-
lar voice is direct evidence ofjust how powerful such a voice in print was. Indirect
evidence can be found in the comments and observations of travelers to the region.
Cunninghame Graham was mentioned in the context ofthe 1870s, but he was not
the only one to note in journals or in painting how gauchesque verse was part of
daily life. Carlos Pellegrini and Leon Palliere did this in paint, as we have seen in
the accompanying figures. Analogous evidence requires more ofa stretch of imagi-
nation, but is no less critical to comprehending the circle of transmission of this
popular literature.
What I mean by this last type of evidence is taking what we know from
"cases"—authors, texts, and their historical moments—where more information is
available, usually from after 1850, and applying it to situations and similar cultural
production from earlier periods and about which we know less. The best example
comes from Jose Hemandez and his Martin Fierro, For the case of this epic
poem, there are fairly reliable numbers on the quantity of official copies that were
printed and circulated during the 1870s. These were accompanied by a large num-
ber of pirated copies. We know that Hemandez spent time among ranch hands on
estates gathering material for the poem, andaccountsof travelers tell of illiterate
peasants who sat for hours listening to readings ofthe tale and who could recite the
verses by heart. While the sheer volume of copies of Martin Fierro cannot apply
to similar earlier texts, the orality-print-orality circle was the same for Bartolome
Hidalgo, Luis Perez, and Hilario Ascasubi as it was for Jose Hemandez. The
fluidity of this circle is at the heart of gauchesque literature's mode of discursive
production.
It is true that those who penned gauchesque verses were among the minority
of literate citizens, but theirs was not a top-down discursive production. Authors of
this popular literature gathered material from time spent among lower classes in
popular hang-outs. We know Luis Perez certainly had a penchant for marginal
places and frontier life, reflected in his reputation. Ascasubi was not accused of
William Acree 211

being a criminal, but he too was a frequent visitor of pulperias where verses were
improvised on the spot and peasant language predominated. Such authors then put
their material to paper, transforming it sometimes, and at others not. Then, their
printed verses^whether from Perez, Ascasubi, Jose Hemandez, Antonio Lussich,
or others-—were read aloud, sometimes danced to, and many times memorized,
making their way back into oral tradition. Gauchesque literature would not have
flourished without its bottom-up component. So while literate citizens put the verees
in print, they could not have done so without having spent time among illiterate
poets. The resulting cultural production was thus the work of many people at
different stages and in different positions in the social hierarchy.
This complex circle of transmission is one ofthe most fascinating components
of this fomi of popular literature, and the multi-faceted mode of discursive produc-
tion (bottom-up and top-down) allowed for the work of gaucho gazetteers to reach
deep in Rioplatense society. Both of these traits of popular literature in the Plata
are characteristic of popular literature in other regions of Latin America. The meth-
odology of combining different types of evidence that we have used to explore
gaucho gazetteers can also be usefril for teaming more about ephemeral, popular
literary production in these regions. Of course conditions in other contexts will
differ and require their own tailored approaches. But it is clear that a whole world
of popular literature existed in nineteenth-century Latin America, and it remains
largely unknown, in part because the sources have disappeared, and in part be-
cause this type of writing has been left out ofthe history of national literatures.
Now it is a race against time (and against the moths that eat the remaining texts) to
discover this world once again.

Conclusions
Gauchesque poetry and papers were a phenomenon of the Plata and, in much
smaller measure, southem Brazil. This popular literature negotiated the meeting of
oral and print cultures and allowed for the large-scale consumption of print media,
though not in the traditional sense of silent, individual reading. Popular consump-
tion of gauchesque writing made it a conduit through which political identity was
disseminated in print, especially during the Rosas years. Insofar as Federalist au-
thors made use of this conduit, they were able to wed print to power. That Rosas
was a good gaucho himself made state appropriation of popular discourse seem
completely natural. The state and its functionaries, however, did not have a mo-
nopoly on the written word. The gaucho gazetteer Luis Perez was an ardent Fed-
eralist whose papers were all the rage, but he was not on Rosas's payroll. And
when his rival Ascasubi tapped into the power of gauchesque writing, he also had a
substantial readership. That he and other Unitarians adopted this form of writing
reveals just how powerful popular literature could be. As Angel Rama has pointed
out, gauchesque writing had the most abundant literary audience in all ofthe nine-
teenth century (165-66). This was a lesson leamed the hard way by Unitarians and
Colorados who chose not to write things that could be read, discussed, and sung at
212 Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26

the local dry-goods store or around the campfire at night. This did not stop such
writers from engaging the political debate in print. It just meant that their words did
not inspire many followers, especially when seen in the light of popular literature
and gaucho gazetteers.
The success of gaucho gazetteers can help us to better understand the dy-
namic backdrop against which canonical texts like Echeverria's "El Matadero,"
Sarmiento's Facundo, and MkxmoV?, Amalia were written. Not only were political
parties competing for followers, but different writing systems and proponents of
these were vying for influence. Likewise, studying the success of gaucho gazet-
teers in tandem with works ofthe traditional canon can lead us to fruitftil discus-
sion about canon formation and the role of lost, popular texts in this formation.
Lastly, gauchesque literature in the Plata can prove useful to understanding the
relation between print and politics in other Latin American contexts, too. When it
comes down to measuring the extent to which print media and print culture shape
the formation of collective identities, the process seems to hinge on the spread of
popular literature, or at least on the contact of popular classes with print.

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Notes
1. Research for this article was made possible by generous support from the U.S.
Department of Education, through a Fulbright-Hays field research grant, and from
the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill.
2. For an excellent, balanced portrait of Rosas see Lynch.
3. For more on life along the frontier, see Duncan Barretta and Markoff.
4. A handful of older works study the newspaper press in the Plata. For a narrative
account, see Femandez 57-95. A more detailed look at different papers can be found
in Beltran 161-255. Indispensable are Zinny's bibliographical studies, Praderio,
and Estrada. The newspaper press during the Rosas years is carefully studied in
Weinberg, "El periodismo en la epoca de Rosas" and figures in Myers, specifically
27-42.
William Acree 215

5. Mention of Perez, along with short analyses ofa handful of his compositions, can
be found in Chavez, Femandez Latour de Botas, Ibanez, Ludmer, Rivera, Rodriguez
Molas, Soler Caiias, and Schvartzman. Despite this attention, most of his writings,
as well as biographical details of his life, have remained previously unexplored.
6. See, for example. El Gaucho 1 Aug. 1830 and 21 Aug. 1830, 2.
7. On the symbolic meanings of violence in frontier life, see Chasteen.
8. See El Gaucho 10 Aug. 1830, 3-4, for correspondence asking Pancho not to be so
hard on Unitarians. His response can be read in the issues from 18 Aug. 1830, 2-3,
and 21 Aug. 1830, 1-2.
9. For more on popular verse and black written culture in the Rio de la Plata, see
Becco and Soler Caflas. On the broader field of black written culture in the region,
see Acree and Bomcki.
10. Other correspondance in the same spirit can be found in La Gaeeta Mercantil 20
Mar. 1834-9 Apr. 1834, as well as in El Imparcial 24 Mar. 1834-10 Apr. 1834.