Representations of power. <i>Argentina Austral</i>´ review

Abstract

In 1929, the most powerful commercial livestock company in southern Argentina, the Sociedad Anónima y Exportadora de la Patagonia, founded Argentina Austral review, which remained in circulation until 1968. The continuity and quality of the publishing, scope of the circulation and its transcendence converted the review into one of Patagonia’s most significant publications, in a clear expression of the economic and social interests of the south’s dominant sectors. The review’s founding contract centered on defending the south’s interests, expressed by means of discursive representations of Patagonia, its inhabitants and the society responsible for the publication, which served to justify the arguments and demands. We aim to analyze Argentina Austral review in order to interpret transformations in the representations and their relationship with political and economic changes and the founding contract that the review established with its readers. We consider how Argentina Austral permanently selected and hierarchized different representations of Patagonia to articulate a discourse allowing the review to position itself up against the plans and decisions of the governments at the time, consolidating its monitoring of the tactics of agricultural corporations or accentuating several aspects of these tactics in light of the needs of the south.