Indigenism in northwestern Argentina: rescuing Don Silenio (1936), by Alberto Córdoba

Abstract

1936 is a particular year for Tucuman’s cultural history, because Atahualpa Yupanqui records his first songs and the novels Hasta aquí nomás, by Pablo Rojas Paz and Don Silenio, by Alberto Córdoba, were published. These works continue the social realism with indigenists traits present in Mario Bravo’s novel En el surco (1928). But if the first two authors are well known, the third one has been almost forgotten in the regional and national literary history; for this reason, the purpose of this article is to highlight Don Silenio, analyzing some issues: its impact when it was just published, the narrativization of the main character -an indigenous peon at a ranch located in Zarate, near San Pedro de Colalao, in Tucuman-, the plot of social relations, the contrast between the fiction and the historical moment in which it was inspired, and the tension between the provincial identity and porteño cosmopolitanism.