Poor People's Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and the Legacy of Evita

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not the whole story ...
Review: I would recommend POOR PEOPLE'S POLITICS to anyone interested in studies of Evita, Peronism, and modern Argentina. I found it very interesting to read that Evita has become, for many women within the Peronist movement, an icon that they want to emulate. This book even refers to women who are "playing Evita."

But I think we need to be a little cautious about a few things. For starters, POOR PEOPLE'S POLITICS is not really culturally sensitive. In my experience (I grew up in Hispanic culture and was once an exchange student to Argentina), Hispanic culture and sensibilities are very different from Anglo Saxon sensibilities. For example, all Hispanic cultures are deeply Catholic, whereas all Anglo Saxon cultures are rooted in Protestantism. Without bridging the gap between the two worldviews, we often can come to conclusions about things that are wrong or at the least have great misunderstandings. For example, the idea of "clientalism" seems quite corrupt by Anglo Saxon standards, but it possesses - at least in my opinion - many of the underlying characteristics of the Catholic and Hispanic culture and worldview.

Robert D. Crassweller writes in PERON AND THE ENIGMAS OF ARGENTINA that many people have believed that Peronist populism was all bread and circus bartered for political support. But he argues that such an appraisal is much too narrow a view of human purpose, and that "a great deal that was religious and quasi-religious went into the enfolded depths of Peronism." Yet another difference is that in the United States ideas of freedom are founded on a striking down of centralized power, whereas Peronist Argentina viewed freedom in terms of the rights that a centralized power granted you (the "clientalism" that Auyero refers to in POOR PEOPLE'S POLITICS is, indeed, a type of centralized power). Crassweller says that an understanding of these two almost diametrically opposed notions can be helpful (as they were largely the cause of the difficult relationship between the United States and Peronist Argentina), but concedes that such understanding is elusive at best.

Javier Auyero makes no real attempt to explain the cultural differences, nor does he try to shed light on the "religious depth" of which Crassweller speaks. Rather, Auyero presents the situation in Argentina under the assumption that the populace has the same cultural foundation as the United States and the other Anglo societies. Therefore, I found POOR PEOPLE'S POLITICS to be interesting in parts, but somewhat shallow in other areas. For a more culturally sensitive take on Peronism, consult Robert D. Crassweller's PERON AND THE ENIGMAS OF ARGENTINA and INSIDE ARGENTINA FROM PERON TO MENEM by Lawrence Levine.

Rating:
Summary: Ethnography at its best!!
Review: This is a truly outstanding work. Hardly anyone did the kind of fieldwork Auyero did, hardly anyone illuminates the way in which the poor in Argentina manage to solve their everyday survival problems and, in the process, become subordinated in a powerful domination network. I would recommend this book not only to those interested in Latin American politics but also to those who want to know what a theoretically-inspired ethnography looks like.

Rating:
Summary: Pathbreaking!!
Review: Where should we shelve this book? Does it matter? Should it be in LAtin American Studies? Should it be in sociology? The people that auyero portraits with the skill of s craftman could not be Argentinean. They could be in every day New York at the kitchen soups, they could have lived in the old days of italian immigration. Rather that concentrating in names and places the aim of this book is to find the ways in which every day people make sense of their lifes while being in a situation of opression; to find the ways in which there could be resistance inside acts catalogues as domination and at the same time maintain the idea of domination intact. This book os a must for every person interested in Argentina, for every person interested in LAtin America, for every people ineterested in the sociological analysis of everyday life and political domination. Integrating theory and empiria, this book is a readable one, even though it doesn't run away from theory. As a grad student and an adjunct teacher myself, I think it could be a great undergrad and grad textbook.