The country between orange trees and sugar cane plantation Tucuman and the first centennial

Abstract

In 1916 the province of Tucuman plans the First Centennial Celebration of Independence. It does not receive support from the central government, which had organized its own celebration six years before. In consequence it downsizes the event, at a time of sugar industry crisis. Conservative forces -by then weakening- manage to inspire an enormous cultural movement of the “Generación del Centenario”. Without losing sight of their provincial interests, it conceives a multiprovincial cultural region, rooted in a common past and geography. Museum and archive collections preserving oral traditions are planned and carried out. Two major achievements are the Revista de Ciencias Sociales, and the foundation of Tucumán’s university. Education was to be the fundamental instrument for cementing the region and defending it from foreign massive culture. The most salient contributions of these intellectuals -more ideologues than artists- belong to the field of ideas. They can be related to Rama’s concept of “internationalist modernized culture”. Their project implies a regional response to cosmopolitism, a stance of moderate modernization but, above all, an affirmation of Northwestern regional identity.