José Pascual Tamborini (February 22, 1886 – September 25, 1955) was an Argentine physician, politician, and presidential candidate.
Life and times
José Pascual Tamborini was born in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, in 1886. He enrolled at the public college preparatory school, the
National College of Buenos Aires and by 1900, became affiliated with the
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union (, UCR) is a major political party in Argentina. It has reached the national government on ten occasions, making it one of the most historically important parties in the country. Ideologically, the party has stood for r ...
(UCR) - then the nation's leading
advocacy group
Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...
for universal male suffrage. He then headed the school's UCR chapter and published its newsletter.
[''Historical Dictionary of Argentina''. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978.]
Tamborini received a medical degree from the
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...
and by 1912, headed that city's UCR committee. That year, free and fair elections guaranteed by the landmark
Sáenz Peña Law
The Sáenz-Peña Law () was Law 8871 of Argentina, sanctioned by the National Congress on 10 February 1912, which established the universal, secret and compulsory male suffrage through the creation of an electoral list (''Padrón Electoral''). ...
led to the victory of numerous UCR candidates for the
Argentine Congress
The National Congress of Argentina () is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies. The Senate, a third of whose members are elected to ...
, including Tamborini. Following the election to the presidency of longtime UCR leader
Hipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen (12 July 1852 – 3 July 1933) was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union who served as President of Argentina from 1916 to 1922 and again from 1928 until his overthrow in ...
in 1916, however, Tamborini aligned himself against what a faction in the UCR viewed as the president's growing
personality cult
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an ideali ...
. This opposition was fueled by Yrigoyen's numerous removals of provincial governors, for instance, and soon became known as "anti-personalism."
[
The election of a diplomat with anti-personalist sympathies, ]Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear
Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear y Pacheco (4 October 1868 – 23 March 1942) served as president of Argentina between from 1922 to 1928.
His period of government coincided precisely with the end of the Post-war, postwar world crisis, w ...
, as president in 1922 led to a division in the UCR. Congressman Tamborini joined Senate President Leopoldo Melo and others in the formation of the Antipersonalist UCR in 1924. President Alvear named Tamborini Interior Minister (overseeing law enforcement), in 1925. The aging Yrigoyen returned to power in 1928, deeping inter-party divisions; but his 1930 overthrow helped unify the UCR, and Tamborini joined the City Hotel Declaration of April 1931 to that effect.[
Seeking to thwart a UCR victory ahead of the 1931 elections, the dictator, General ]José Félix Uriburu
José Félix Benito Uriburu (20 July 186829 April 1932) was an Argentine military officer and politician, he was the President of the Provisional Government of Argentina, ousting the successor to President Hipólito Yrigoyen by means of a ...
jailed much of its leadership - including Alvear and Tamborini. Freed after the election (which the UCR boycotted), Tamborini was returned to Congress in 1934 and stood for the UCR nomination in 1937
Events
January
* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...
; but he was defeated by Alvear. Elected Senator in 1940, he became the dominant figure in the UCR following Alvear's death in 1942.[
A coup d'état in 1943 led to rise of the populist new Labor Minister, Col. ]Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...
. Forcing the junta to call elections for early 1946, Perón's populism and anti-U.S. sentiment rallied an unusually diverse opposition against him. Tamborini led the majority of the UCR, the reformist Democratic Progressive Party
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...
, Socialists
Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...
, Communists
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
and the conservative National Democrats (part of the Concordance that kept the UCR from power by " patriotic fraud" in the 1930s) into a Democratic Union. Joined by interests in the financial sector and the chamber of commerce, the alliance also enjoyed the support of U.S. Ambassador Spruille Braden
Spruille Braden ( ; March 13, 1894 – January 10, 1978) was an American diplomat, businessman, lobbyist, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the ambassador to various Latin American countries, and as Assistant Secretar ...
, and was united solely by the goal of keeping Perón from the Casa Rosada
The ''Casa Rosada'' (), , is the president of the Argentine Republic's official workplace, located in Buenos Aires. The palatial mansion is known officially as ''Casa de Gobierno'' ("House of Government" or "Government House"). Normally, the pre ...
.[Crassweller, David. ''Perón and the Enigmas of Argentina''. W.W. Norton and Company. 1987.] Organizing a massive kick-off rally in front of Congress on December 8, the Democratic Union nominated Tamborini and his fellow political prisoner in 1931: former Congressman Enrique Mosca
Enrique Mosca (July 15, 1880 – July 22, 1950) was an Argentine lawyer and politician prominent in the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR).
Life and times
Enrique Mosca was born in Santa Fe, Argentina, Santa Fe, in 1880. He enrolled at the Societ ...
. The alliance, however, failed to win over several prominent lawmakers opposed the Union's ties to conservative interests.Todo Argentina: 1945
/ref> Ambassador Braden's leak of a white paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...
accusing Perón of fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
ties and his addressing Democratic Union rallies in person backfired, moreover. Perón seized on this to make the election a choice between "Perón or Braden," while prevailing on President Edelmiro Farrell to enact his populist agenda and dismissing Tamborini and Mosca as "the tambourine and the fly."[ The Democratic Union was defeated by 11%.
Tamborini was unable to return to prominence following his break with less conservative UCR figures during that election. He ran once again for his party's nomination in ]1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...
; but he lost to Congressman Ricardo Balbín
Ricardo Balbín (29 July 1904 – 9 September 1981) was an Argentine lawyer and politician, and one of the most important figures of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), for which he was the presidential nominee four times: in 1951, 1958, and ...
. President Perón was overwhelmingly reelected, though on September 19, 1955, he was violently overthrown. The ailing Dr. Tamborini died a week later, at age 69.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamborini, Jose
1886 births
1955 deaths
Physicians from Buenos Aires
Argentine people of Italian descent
Radical Civic Union politicians
Candidates for President of Argentina
University of Buenos Aires alumni
20th-century Argentine physicians