As was to be expected, the increasing censorship that Peron imposed aroused the anger of writers and artists. His response was to threaten those who openly spoke out against the regime. A number of those who may be regarded as Argentina's cultural leaders, such as the actress and singer, Libertad Lamarque, chose to leave Argentina rather than stay and risk imprisonment. Prominent among those who were persecuted were:
• comedy actor, Nini Marshall, who sometimes mocked the government
• publisher, Victoria Ocampo, who allowed subversive literature to appear
• pianist, Osvaldo Pugliese, who declined to perform at Peronist rallies
• film director, Luis Saslavsky, whose works contained strongly implied criticisms of Peronism.
Jose Luis Borges
The regime's attitude towards culture was vividly displayed in Peron's treatment of Jose Luis Borges, Argentina's most celebrated writer at that time. Borges' reluctance to give his whole-hearted support to Peron led to his inclusion in a list of artists and writers who began to be persecuted. He was treated in a particularly humiliating way, with ridicule being used as a form of oppression. The holder of a prestigious public position in Argentina's main cultural centre, the Miguel Cane Library, Borges in 1946 was informed by the authorities that he was being 'elevated' to the position of chief inspector of poultry at a Buenos Aires meat market. Faced with this insult, he immediately resigned from government service. To show its solidarity with Borges, Argentina's main intellectual forum, the Society of Argentinian Writers (SADE), organized a dinner in celebration of his literary accomplishments. Borges could not attend the function, but he sent an address which he asked to be read out (see Source H).
SOURCE H
Excerpt from a 1946 address by Jorge Borges quoted in Borges: A Life by Edwin Williamson, published by Viking Books, UK, 2004, p. 295.
Dictatorships breed oppression, dictatorships breed servility, dictatorships breed cruelty; more loathsome still is the fact that they breed idiocy. Bellboys babbling orders, portraits of caudillos, prearranged cheers or insults, walls covered with names, unanimous ceremonies, mere discipline usurping the place of clear thinking. Fighting these sad monotonies is one of the duties of a writer.
Borges became regarded as the main representative of artistic dissent during the Peron years. Against his own inclination, but judging that it might be a gesture of defiance to the regime, he allowed himself to be nominated and then elected President of SADE in 1951. What depressed Borges was the thought that the only reason the organization had not yet been closed down was that Peron regarded it as of barely peripheral influence in an Argentina in which the government controlled the press, radio and television.
However, government indifference turned to direct interference following Eva Peron's death in 1952. Borges and other writers had been as scathing of her as they had been of Peron, and the President did not tolerate criticism of his wife. Borges was told that the SADE offices had to put large photos of the President and the First Lady on permanent display. When Borges refused, as the authorities expected him to, he was placed under house arrest. Soon after, SADE was prohibited as an organization and its offices closed down. Borges joined in the celebrations that followed Peron's overthrow in 1955 and used his time as a free man to renew his condemnation of the fallen regime.
With the coming of Peron's third presidency in 1973, artists, writers and academics feared renewed repression. However, the brevity of the ailing Peron's last period in power meant that the all-out attack that had occurred in the earlier periods was not repeated. That Borges was totally blind by this time may also have been a factor explaining the apparent clemency.
World History
