IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 81

relations with the Axis and to raise the flags of Anti-Communism and Catholicism. The Revolution of 1943 enabled Perón, coordinator of GOU, to temporarily hold his first public office: Minister of War. It would be the springboard for his rise to power. Along with the repression common to all military regimes, there was also certain approach to the masses. On November 27, 1943, the National Department of Labor became Secretary of Labor and Social Security headed by Perón, who began to forge a special relationship with the labor movement that would change the Argentine history forever (Rouquié, 1998: 25, 32; Romero, 2012: 114; Tower, 2002: 25, 27). The relations with the Axis were finally broken. Perón was appointed firstly as Minister of War and then as Vice President, while retaining his two previous offices. Thus, he reached the summit of power and was the soul of the government (Romero, 2012: 113; Tower, 2002: 24). The post-war in Europe encouraged the transition to democratic regimes and Peron glimpsed the electoral process as political chance. Since 1944 he had channeled his social policy through multiple measures favoring the workers, like the Statute of the Day Laborer, in order to develop a political doctrine, later known as Justicialism, against the resistance of the most powerful economic sectors (Rapoport, 2010: 134135). As pressure to a democratic transition increased, the government was branded as Nazi-fascist. The opponents found support in the US Ambassador Spruille Braden, and they showed their discontent in a successful mobilization of 200-250 thousand people on September 19, 1945 (Rapoport, 2010: 137; Tower, 2002: 30). The government's response raised the tensions and Perón resigned on October 9. The next day he delivered a speech encouraging his humble followers. On October 13, he was arrested and deported to the island Martin Garcia, as Yrigoyen fifteen years ago. By then, Perón was already a martyr. On October 17, union leaders and others activist called for a general strike and marched on the City of Buenos Aires. The workers were determined to defend their conquests under the social policies implemented by the military government and demanded the release of their leader (Rapoport and Seoane, 2007: 515, 665). The Peronist faction estimated that 500,000 people marched; Perón appeared in Plaza de Mayo to deliver a speech more substantial than the previous one a week ago (Rapoport, 2010: 137-138). This rally against antiPeronism proved that the establishment was no longer in power. Peronism, poverty and Blackness Thusly, the unprecedented mass demonstration on October 17, 1945, gave birth to Peronism. A new and decisive stage in the history of Argentina was open by the founding pact between the leader and the people. From there, all massive popular concentration had a plebiscitary legitimizing effect for the nascent regime (Torre, 2002: 33). Peronism was born as a warning to those who described the rally as a gesture of barbarism, in which thousands of sansculottes from various parts of Greater Buenos Aires came to Plaza de Mayo bearing the brand of Peronist identity marked by drums and popular songs (Solomianski, 2003: 256). The enemies of this budding movement did not see a popular feast, but a portrait of barbarism against the status quo. And the word black surfaced in this context to name these popular sectors that became very visible in the City of Buenos Aires. Argentina is a nation that prides itself from an absolute whiteness. In the twentieth century, blackness leads to a very particular and contemptuous statement that refers to the beginning of Peronism —October 17, 1945— and therefrom, as identity category, it arrives to the present time. From a sociological perspective, interpreting what implied this October 17 in the way of conceiving the Other, we must explain the birth of Peronism in historical context, but firstly blackness must be characterized. Blackness in Western Civilization The word black recurs in speech and its characterization is predominantly negative throughout history. Today it has negative sense in most contexts. The Afro-groups prefer other words to define themselves with identity categories: Afro-Latin Americans or, more recently, African 80