Content area
Full text
Donna Guy , Creating Charismatic Bonds in Argentina: Letters to Juan and Eva Perón (Albuquerque, NM : University of New Mexico Press , 2016), pp. vii + 173, $95.00, $29.95 pb.
Reviews
The difficulties of historical research in Argentina are well known: a national archive that has in the past suffered neglect, flooding, lack of financial resources and the attentions of hungry rats; other archives that are sometimes widely dispersed, sporadically maintained and haphazardly filed; and, in the case of the 1946-55 Peronist government, the efforts of the Revolución Libertadora that overthrew Juan D. Perón in 1955. In its enthusiasm for expunging all traces of Peronism, many valuable documents, photographs and other records were lost, to say nothing of the hospitals, schools and installations of the Eva Perón Foundation that succumbed to neglect or outright destruction. In this context, it is often assumed that no records remain of the myriad letters sent to Juan and Eva Perón, both to the Foundation and in response to government calls for public participation in Perón's two five-year plans.
As Donna Guy notes, the slightly haphazard filing system of national archives may have proved a blessing in this case, with letters coming to light in government ministries and other files. While it may never be possible to find more than a representative sample of these letters - or to know how they were dealt with, as many lack follow-up documentation - this is nevertheless a valuable contribution to our insights into the Peronist government and its correspondents. These correspondents' letters solicited both...