In Defiance of Boundaries: Anarchism in Latin American History

393 Pages·2015·2.16 MB·English

by  Geoffroy de Laforcade

In DefIance of BounDarIes
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

In DefIance
of BounDarIes
Anarchism in Latin American History
Edited by Geoffroy de Laforcade
and Kirwin Shaffer
University Press of Florida
Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton
Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota
Publication of this book was made possible in part by a grant
from Penn State University–Berks College.
Copyright 2015 by Geoffroy de Laforcade and Kirwin Shaffer
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
This book may be available in an electronic edition.
20 19 18 17 16 15 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
In defiance of boundaries : anarchism in Latin American history / edited by Geoffroy de
Laforcade and Kirwin Shaffer.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8130-6110-8
1. Anarchism—Latin America—History. 2. Latin America—Politics and government—
20th century. I. Laforcade, Geoffroy de, editor. II. Shaffer, Kirwin R., editor.
HX850.5.I5 2015
335'.83098—dc23
2015008841
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University
System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University,
Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University,
New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of
North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
contents
Acknowledgments / vii
Introduction: The Hidden Story Line of Anarchism in Latin American
History / 1
Geoffroy de Laforcade and Kirwin Shaffer
Part I. Crossing Borders: Internationalism, Solidarity,
and Transnationalism
1. Cuban Cigar Makers in Havana, Key West, and Ybor City,
1850s–1890s: A Single Universe? / 25
Evan Matthew Daniel
2. Panama Red: Anarchist Politics and Transnational Networks in the
Panama Canal Zone, 1904–1913 / 48
Kirwin Shaffer
3. Moving between the Global and the Local: The Industrial Workers of
the World and Their Press in Latin America / 72
Anton Rosenthal
4. The FACA and the FAI: Argentine Anarchists and the Revolution in
Spain, 1930–1939 / 95
James Baer
Part II. Harnessing the Collective: Labor, Culture,
and Counterhegemonic Movements
5. From Anarchists to “Anarcho-Batllistas”: Populism and Labor
Legislation in Uruguay / 117
Lars Peterson
6. Rebel Soul: Cultural Politics and Cuban Anarchism,
1890s–1920s / 142
Kirwin Shaffer
7. From Workers’ Militancy to Cultural Action: Brazilian Anarchism in
Rio Grande do Sul, 1890s–1940s / 162
Beatriz Ana Loner
8. Memories and Temporalities of Anarchist Resistance: Community
Traditions, Labor Insurgencies, and Argentine Shipyard Workers,
Early 1900s to Late 1950s / 185
Geoffroy de Laforcade
Part III. The Personal to the Popular: Nation, Identity,
and Gender
9. From Radicals to Heroes of the Republic: Anarchism and National
Identity in Costa Rica, 1900–1977 / 219
David Díaz-Arias
10. Magonismo, the Revolution, and the Anarchist Appropriation of an
Imagined Mexican Indigenous Identity / 243
Shawn England
11. Anarchist Visions of Race and Space in Northern Perú,
1898–1922 / 261
Steven J. Hirsch
12. Anarchists and Alterity: The Expulsion of Casimiro Barrios from
Chile, 1920 / 281
Raymond Craib
13. The Anarchist Wager of Sexual Emancipation in Argentina,
1900–1930 / 302
Laura Fernández Cordero
Epilogue. Transference, Culture, and Critique: The Circulation of
Anarchist Ideas and Practices / 326
José C. Moya
Bibliography / 335
List of Contributors / 369
Index / 373
acknowledgments
As noted in the introduction, this project has been brewing for close to a
decade, and over those years we have encountered many people who have
given wonderful advice and support to see this book to its fruition. First,
we must thank our families for the long hours away from them that led
to the book that you have in your hands. Second, we wish to thank the
editors and staff at University Press of Florida. During the long course of
reviews, we worked with a supportive cast of editors, including our original
supporter, Amy Gorelick, followed by Sonia Dickey, Meredith Babb, and
Erika Stevens. All were consistently positive in their critiques and helped
us to weather shifting editors as well as cranky and disappearing reviewers.
Third, we wish to thank our respective universities—Norfolk State Univer-
sity and Penn State University–Berks College—for moral and occasional
financial support in developing this project. Fourth, we are thankful to the
authors of this volume not only for their exceptional chapters that help to
illustrate the diversity of anarchism in Latin America but also for their pa-
tience. Fifth, we are indebted to many individuals for their insightful (and
sometimes frustrating) comments. This book could not have reached this
point without frequent readings from Barry Carr, suggestions from Steve
Hirsch, the epilogue by José Moya, and comments by David Struthers. To
our readers: we trust that this book will help you appreciate Latin American
anarchism in new and enriching ways.
Cheers!

Introduction
The Hidden story Line of anarchism
in Latin american History
Geoffroy de Laforcade and Kirwin Shaffer
Many of us were graduate students in the mid-1990s when anarchist history
became a growing focus of research on a worldwide scale. This trend grew
out of new directions in the history of labor and social history, gender and
ethnic studies, the world-historical turn in migration studies and intellec-
tual history, and, most of all, the crisis in socialist and Marxist ideologies
that followed the long-anticipated collapse of state-sponsored social engi-
neering. Scholars and activists struggled with outdated teleological para-
digms of modernization and class formation, particularly in Latin America,
where ominous cracks in the national-popular state, and the dependency
theories upon which it rested, were just beginning to birth the social upris-
ings that would rattle the continent from Chiapas and Oaxaca to La Paz
and Buenos Aires. Many on the left welcomed the demise of authoritar-
ian regimes, cautiously embracing the democratic and globalizing claims
of grassroots social movements, liberal democracy, and human rights but
were weary of the cheerleading and celebrations heralded by right-leaning
advocates of an “end of history.” In this climate, activists and scholars began
to reinvestigate the era of diverse, contending socialisms that culminated in
the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. In Latin America itself, Marxism
had made only timid appearances in the waning nineteenth century, and
Communist Parties did not emerge until the 1920s. By this time anarchists
had been active throughout the hemisphere for four decades.
Even prior to expressions of modern anarchism, socialist utopianism
had existed in Latin America throughout the nineteenth century. In 1828
Robert Owen requested permission to create a collectivist commune in
the Mexican state of Texas, and an Icarian settlement inspired by Étienne