Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
OF THE SEMANA TRÁGICA,
JANUARY 1919
I
[Juan E. Carulla] heard that they were burning the Jewish quarter,
and there I directed my steps. . . . Only when I reached Viamonte
[Street], opposite the School of Medicine, was I able to witness what
could be called the first pogrom in Argentina. Piles of books and old
furniture were burning in the middle of the street. One could recog-
nize among them chairs, tables, and other domestic chattels. The flames
sadly illuminated the night, making prominent with reddish glare the
faces of a gesticulating and shaking multitude. I made my way through
the crowd and saw fighting in and around buildings nearby. I was told
that a Jewish merchant was accused of making communist propaganda.
I thought, nevertheless, that other Hebrew homes were suffering from
this cruel punishment. There was noise of furniture and cases violently
thrown into the street mixed with voices screaming “death to the
Jews, death to the maximalists [anarchists].” Every now and then long
bearded old men and disheveled women passed by me. I shall never
forget the livid face and supplicant look of one of them who was being
dragged by a couple of youngsters; or that of a crying child who held
fast to the old black coat, already torn, of another of those poor devils.
Not without repugnance, I could not but see similar pictures wherever
I set my eyes, because the disturbances provoked by the attacks to the
Hebrew stores and homes had spread to various blocks around us.
Source:
Juan E. Carulla, quoted in Mirelman, Victor A.
Jewish Buenos Aires,
1890-1930: In Search of an Identity
(Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State
University Press, 1990), p. 63.
The Beginnings of Economic Nationalism
Following setbacks during World War I, the Argentine economy
resumed its vigorous export development in the 1920s. Foreign capital
inflows, railway building, immigration, and expansion of the domestic
capital market continued their prewar trends. Little new territory was
opened up to agricultural exploitation after the war, but rising capital
investment in agricultural machinery and a developing regional spe-
cialization in breeding and fattening cattle for the
frigoríficos
improved
