Building the city-nation through the underground railways (Buenos Aires, c. 1880-1940)

DHAN ZUNINO SINGH

Londres

Congreso; CITIES AND NATIONALISMS; 2010

for Metropolitan History, IHR, SAS, University of London

The paper analyses two moments of the creation of discourses about the national identity in which the underground railway was used as a symbol of modernisation. The first moment refers to the implementation of the first underground line by the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company in the context of the Centenary of the Republic (1910). The second one covers the period 1928-1936 in which the construction of the underground railways was conceded to a Spanish company to the detriment of the British company, and during which Buenos Aires celebrated its fourth centenary. If during the first period the image of modern city-nation matched the image of the Anglo-French cities and the idea of Progress meant a rupture with the Colonial and Spanish past, in the second, the national identity discourses were marked by a reconsideration of Spanish roots and the emergence of anti-imperialism ideologies ?particularly against the predominance of British interests in Argentine economy (including transport).