Women’s Fashion and its Direct Link to Social Status
The conflict in the play centered around an expensive necklace that Ricardo bought Maruja. The necklace is one of many things that helped propel Maruja from a poor Cabaret dancer into the high middle class. According to Regina A. Root, author of Couture and Consensus: Fashion and Politics in Postcolonial Argentina, “Body dressing would seem to reflect the social, moral, and economic concerns of this period, demarcating the public arena and the private domain along strict gender lines.” Women were more decorative than men to indicate their “embellishing” function in the public sphere, men were less fanciful which reflected their “rationality” in the public sphere. Following the Declaration of Independence in Argentina in 1816, a Civil War broke out between two differing ideologies: the federalists and the Unitarians. Dress was used to show political affiliation during a time that was divided between Unitarian and Federalist tendencies (scarlet dress indicated Federalist while light blue and green hues indicated antifederalist views). Women authors of fashion columns would try to “fashion their way to freedom.” An item that was synonymous to women’s emancipation and involvement in the public sector, was the grandiose peinetón comb. The women of postcolonial Argentina would redefine their independence and defiantly assert their presence in the public sphere through the use of the peinetón. Women were becoming more than a spectacle of modernization and, increasingly, set their own terms of femininity and social status. In the mid-1800s, fashion had become a moral question and a topic of serious public debate.
Agricultural Effect on the Economy and the City of Buenos Aires
Carlos, Ricardo’s father, talks about his struggles as a farmer and how Ricardo moved to the city to help support his family. Urbanization in Argentina had a great effect on the economy, but also led to the endangerment of small farmers. 1879 was the first time that Argentina exported more wheat then it imported and soon became one of the top 5 wheat exporters in the world. However, from 1910 to 1926 economic growth began to decline. Banks started to exert financial control over agriculture and forced many farmers out of business. After 1900, the northern sector of Buenos Aires turned into cattle and maize farming rather than wheat. Wheat was more likely to receive financial support from the banks. Money from the banks were invested where returns would be the highest. If creditors could safely invest their money elsewhere, then there would be no need for them to invest into small farmers. According to Jeremy Adelman, “Bank lending continued to favor large landowners and in doing so raised the relative cost of machinery and capital investments for modest producers.” During the 1912 “lockout”, tenants on the farms refused to till the land due to poor harvest and increase in rent prices.
French Cabaret Influence on Buenos Aires
The word ‘cabaret’ is mentioned all throughout Viper of the Cross, and it was thought that Maruja, one of the main characters, was a ‘cabaret girl’ at some point. Thus, we thought that digging deeper into what a ‘cabaret’ is would be insightful to understanding the full picture of the play, and what life may have been like in 1919 Argentina.
Our teacher told us that “Buenos Aires was the Paris of Argentina”. Thus, we looked into the French cabaret to get a better understanding of the cabaret in Buenos Aires. Cabaret began in Paris in 1881. An article by Denise Bernardini explains that It began as a place that served liquor, but developed into an artistic culture and club scene where artists met to share and perform their work. Even early French aristocrats would go to the cabarets so that “they could rub elbows with the talented artists and famous intellectuals of the day”. After cabaret began in France, the concept started to take off, and became popular all throughout Europe. The article notes “Eventually, the new cabarets began to stray form the original Parisian form of cabaret, and new clubs had little in common with their artistic forebears. Some degenerated into strip clubs, dives, and dance halls marketing sex. With its atmosphere of sex, smoke, jazz, song, and political satire, cabaret became the perfect outlet for those seeking new forms of art”.
From what we can tell, Buenos Aires cabaret seems to reflect this ‘new’ form of cabaret, often involving dance, such as the tango. Dance is extremely important to the characters in our play, as well as the other plays. Thus, it seems that the cabaret in Buenos Aires took on this dance hall type of atmosphere.
Vasena Strike in Argentina in 1919
The play refers to the Vasena Strike. Vasena was a metallurgy company, well known in Buenos Aires in 1919. A supporting character says to his women, “You are more stubborn than someone on strike at Vasena!” The Vasena Strike was also referred to as Semana Tragica or the “Bloody Week.” The week consisted of a succession of riots, violent acts, and massacres that happened the week of January 7, 1919 in Buenos Aires. The massacres involved the parties of the Russian-Jewish worker community, the Argentine Police and Army, and the right-wing paramilitary. Initially tensions rose due to post-World War economic pressures for the workers.
The repression started against the workers whom were demanding less labor hours (dropping from 11 to 8), higher salaries, and better working conditions. The strike started January 7 when workers constructed a picket line in an effort to block the arrival of materials to the factory. The drivers were not fond of the actions made by the striking workers and started shooting at them, eventually killing four. Following the first event on January 9th, Buenos Aires turned into a ghost town. Every business had closed, there was no entertainment for people to see and no public transit being offered. Everything was vacant and had been shut down.
However, workers and the supporters of the strike still went out to walk the streets, in efforts to show that they were not afraid of the governments oppression. These men and women were on their way to the wake of those who had passed from the conflicts that had risen in Argentina. While Delegates of the Argentine Regional Worker Federation were giving speeches, armed policemen and firemen were in hiding and waiting to unleash an outburst of gunfire on the crowd. Despite another attack on the workers, the strikers were not disheartened, and continued their demand for justice. Finally, the FORA (Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina) made an agreement with the government to restore order and halt conflict. After one week of conflict, 100 deaths, and many pesos later, Buenos Aires was seemingly back to normal by January 16, 1919.
TANGO IN ARGENTINA
From the book “The Tango Machine: Musical Culture in the Age of Expediency by Morgan James Luker (Historical Context of tango in Argentina), the author states that “tango and Argentina have been essentially synonymous (p.121) in the minds of cosmopolitan audiences going back to the Parisian tango craze of the early twentieth century, if not earlier”. “Tango and Argentina have been effectively synonymous in the cosmopolitan cultural imagination for more than a century now, and the genre serves as a powerful symbol of the nation within the transnational cultural sphere. This history of cross-cultural fantasy and desire explains, in part, the playful tone of the news coverage that accompanied UNESCO’s 2009 tango declaration in the international press” (p.122)
In 2009 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared their recognizing tango as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. “Tango is a genre that originally involved dance, music, poetry and singing. Tango expresses a way of conceiving the world and life and it nourishes the cultural imagery of the inhabitants of the capital cities of the Rio de la Plata. […] Tango was born among the lower urban classes in both cities as an expression originated in the fusion of elements from Argentine and Uruguayan’s African culture, authentic criollos and European immigrants. As the artistic and cultural result of hybridization’s processes, Tango is considered nowadays one of the fundamental signs of the Rio de la Plata’s identity.” (p.122)
Tango is a physical representation of tension, self-expression,and romance which can been seen in Viper of the Cross. In the play after Maruja and Ricardo’s argument about the necklace, the tango begins and Maruja goes to dance with another character named Devoto. While dancing the tango they (Maruja and Devoto) laugh at Ricardo, causing him to feel utterly betrayed- “as if he has been bitten by a Viper”, alluding to the title of the play. This scene shows tango as an act of betrayal; Maruja chooses to leave Ricardo in his time of need. Tango here is an expression of Maruja’s emotions towards Ricardo in that moment. The tango is normally a very romantic and intimate act yet Maruja chose to partake in it with another man. This choice shows Maruja’s ultimate betrayal of Ricardo.