606 Sección Bibliográfica

González Bernaldo de Quirós, Pilar. Civility and Politics in the Origins of the
Argentine Nation: Sociabilities in Buenos Aires, 1829-1862. Trans. Daniel Philip
Tunnard. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2006. xiv +
399 pp.

From a wide range of sources, Pilar González presents a powerfully

broad interpretation of the transformation of social relations and their role in na-
tion building during the first half century following Argentina's independence.
Civility and Politics in the Origins of the Argentine Nation explores themes that have
become increasingly prominent in the humanities and social sciences over the past
twenty years—the public sphere, identity and modern political culture, the process of
nation formation—and for this reason the book is sure to appeal to readers in
literary and cultural studies. Translated from the author's dissertation in French,
González sets out to map "relational practices" in places like pulperías, cafés, reading
rooms, and membership-based clubs from the time the conservative Juan Manuel
de Rosas assumed power in 1829 to the moment when liberals established their
foothold over provincial and national governments in the early 1860s. Buenos Aires
takes center stage in her analysis. As she outlines in the introduction, the city was
the viceregal capital, the head of local and regional economies, and at the forefront
of trade with the Adantic world. These characteristics led to changes in the city's
elites and social organization, which in turn stimulated new forms of sociability,
understood generally in the book as ways of interacting. These new sociabilities fed
the construction of a "national society" where civil (courteous) behavior became a
backbone of civic responsibility and a particular strain of national identity (6-7).
Gonzalez's portrait of Buenos Aires during these years draws on cultural and po-
litical history, the study of collective psychology as well as biographies of statesmen,
and interpretation of literary production. After all, nation building and the forma-
tion of the public sphere were complex enterprises that require complex approaches.
The book is divided into two parts that correspond to the author's peri-
odization of the relationship between civility and politics. The first part compris-
es liberals' first attempts to construct a national community to the fall of Rosas
in 1852. This section opens with a brief look at the May 1810 insurrection that
launched the independence movement in the Rio de la Plata and its consequences,
and then centers on places of sociability in the city. Pulperías and other meeting
places where popular association occurred get their well-deserved attention, as do
cafés. Yet until mid-century, the dry goods store/bar that was the pulpería was much
more frequented than the newer establishment of the café. In 1826, to cite just one
year, there were A7Q pulperías and 19 cafés in Buenos Aires (49).
González argues that during these years neighborhoods, parish lines, mar-
kets and squares did more to shape sociabilities than contractual associations like
the reading salons that appeared in the 1830s. Elites who promoted "cultivated so-
ciability," as opposed to a spontaneous sort, aimed to inculcate "good citizenship
and politeness," or the contractual components of civic duty (75), but they faced
overwhelming obstacles to disseminate their model until the 1850s, hence her claim
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that civility was absent from politics (75). Civility, which González describes as a
form of sociability closely linked to the modern public sphere, is the theme of chap-
ter 3. Since civility was lacking in representations of power, other modes of sociabil-
ity took its place, like those oriented around reading practices manifest in Marcos
Sastre's literary salon, which brought together members ofthe generation of 1837.
She contends that the associative practices of these citizens led to the formation of
model "men of opinion" who came together and shared discussions on politics and
literature, supposedly unlike writers who were connected to the government or who
operated in the sphere of popular letters (77-83; 121-31). The last chapter of this
section pinpoints the split between political authority and civility during Rosas's
second term in office.
The second part of the book studies the return of liberals to national pow-
er, the growth in the number of associations in Buenos Aires in the 1850s, and the
renewed union of civility and politics, or the transition from the proverbial barba-
rism to civilization. In addition to cafés and salons, dance clubs, electoral clubs that
chose party candidates, guild associations and Masonic lodges flourished between
1852 and 1862 (225). González argues that the development of these new contrac-
tual associations, despite their limited membership, played a large role in defining
civil society and political belonging to the community ofthe nation (257). The "as-
sociative boom" she speaks about went hand in hand with a shift in forms of po-
litical representation that began molding a national memory and national imagery,
covered in the last chapter.
González merits praise for her bold exploration of the behaviors and psy-
chologies behind political culture, as well as for the breadth of her interpretation of
the configuration of a public sphere in Buenos Aires. Though many years separate
the completion of the original study from this English translation, the book is still
an important contribution to this period of Argentine history and the ties of social
relations to nation building. Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 8 offer engaging looks at reading
practices, the power of the press to shape behaviors, and national iconography that
will be beneficial for scholars studying these problems in Argentina or other parts of
Latin America. For those of us in literary studies, González provides a welcome ap-
proach to bonds between textual production, forms of sociability and the process of
identity formation.
Despite these strengths, there are several weak points of the book. To be-
gin, at times the author blurs "public opinion" with "official" or "elite" opinion. She
admits as much in the conclusion, stating that "the different popular sectors. . .did
not need the elites' sociability at all" (356). Yet she maintains that "civility was the
sociability of the republic, which after the failure of the political regime installed
by Juan Manuel de Rosas, was converted into the principal of national sociability"
(357). This assertion situates her in a liberal historiographical tradition and is evi-
dent in emphasis on contractual forms of sociability, which she ascribes to liberal
governments. González recognizes that this sociability was confined to the world
of elites, though this model is the primary one studied throughout the book (85).
A good example comes from the attention given to socially exclusive reading circles
where small numbers of people came into contact with texts. While she offers a
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fresh look at these spaces of association and the role of writing within them, she
does it at the expense of more popular sites of public reading, like pulperías, and
the immense quantity of popular literature enjoyed by many illiterate citizens of
both the countryside and the city. In these less formal atmospheres sociability did
not have the contractual nature of reading rooms that required subscriptions. In
more general terms, González often uses the term River Plate to refer specifically
to Argentina, which can be bothersome for readers hoping to find a more region-
al interpretation. Lastly, the translation has preserved many sentence structures of
the French original, as well as expressions that seem to have been translated directly
into English. These characteristics make for a narrative that at times does not read
smoothly, and at others can be confusing.
These criticisms aside, Latin Americanists will welcome this broad study.
The book is not suitable for course adoption, though individual chapters would be
useful readings for graduate seminars. Literary scholars of the nineteenth century
and of the Rio de la Plata in particular, as well as those interested in the nexus of
politics and print, will find the book an important contribution.

William G. Aeree, Jr. San Diego State University

Havard, Robert. The Spanish Eye. Painters and Poets of Spain. Woodbridge: Tame-
sis, 2007. 150 pp.

El título del libro del profesor Havard, The Spanish Eye, indica claramente
cuál es la tesis central del libro: que existe un "ojo", es decir, una manera de ver la
vida, que sería típicamente española, según Havard.
Al comienzo del libro se declara o se reconoce lo ambicioso del proyecto.
No es tarea fácil escribir un acercamiento crítico a unos cinco pintores y otros tan-
tos o más poetas españoles de cinco siglos y presentarlos como representantes de esa
mirada o forma de ver española. En el prólogo se advierte al lector de que tal acer-
camiento a la cultura española puede causar la impresión de ser irremediablemente
reductor.
El libro contiene abundantes ilustraciones: ocho en color y el resto en blan-
co y negro. Gonsta de cinco capítulos de entre veinte y treinta páginas cada uno. En
ese espacio tan reducido, el profesor Havard menciona y, a veces, intenta también
dilucidar fenómenos y conceptos tan complejos como el misticismo, el simbolismo,
el transcendentalismo, lo real, el sueño de la razón, el cubismo, el comunismo, el su-
rrealismo, el narcisismo y las relaciones de Federico García Lorca con Salvador Dalí.
El proyecto es indudablemente ambicioso.
El primer representante de "la mirada española", contemplada por Ha-
vard, no es en realidad español. El Greco, nació en Greta y, como el mismo Havard
nos recuerda, en España lo miraron como "excéntrico" y "extranjero" (1, 18). El
Greco terminó sin embargo siendo visto como una especie de Quijote españolizado
por el paisaje de Toledo, según sugería Maurice Barres. La personalidad visionaria
de El Greco y su transcendentalismo inducen a Havard a invitarnos a comparar a