Buenos Aires Capital

Representations related to the topic of the Capital City in the Federalization of 1880

Abstract

This essay explores the representations relating to the topic of the Capital City evoked in the context of the Federalization of Buenos Aires in 1880. To this end, we analyze the legislative debates, the press and the essays written at that moment. The main hypothesis maintains that the public discussion was dominated by a classical conception of the city as a multifunctional pole of large dimensions, whose origins can be traced back to the Rivadavia years. This position was upheld by those aligned with the president elected that year, Julio A. Roca, whose ranks included Autonomists historically opposed to federalization. In contrast, the voice of Leandro Alem stood out among the dissident minority, as he criticized that decision on the basis of arguments in favor of a democratic federalism contrary to the concentration of power in a single center; he also put forward schematic notions about a new but truncated provincial capital, unable to emancipate itself from the Buenos Aires axis. However, he did not present any alternative for the Federal Capital, a silence that allows us to test the idea that even among those who opposed the law, it turned out to be impossible to imagine a city different from Buenos Aires itself.