Violent Media and Gaucho Celebrations: The Cinematic Leap of Juan Moreira and the Spirit of the Centennial

Abstract

This paper examines, in the first place, the relationship between the circus versions of Gutiérrez’s Juan Moreira (1879-1880) and the arrival of cinema to Argentina, considered as shows that represent the entrance to modernity as a leap. Based on this configuration, secondly, we argue that every appearance of Moreira on screen is founded on: a use of violence as a legitimate medium, a state of the cinematographic technique, and an idea of celebration. Finally, taking the adaptation released during the 1910 Centennial as a case study, we affirm that, being a public success but a failed attempt to turn Moreira into a patriotic gaucho, the film makes visible the cracks in a project of nationalization of the masses that was moving along elusive paths, not entirely controlled by the modernizing elites.