Juan Álvarez (3 September 1878 – 8 April 1954) was a judge and historian born in Gualeguaychú, .

Biography

Álvarez was born at a time of massive

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

in Argentina. His father, Serafín Álvarez, was an exiled Republican

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern Nation state, nation-state of Spain. Genetics, Genetically and Ethnolinguisti ...

; within the family, discussions about society, politics and religion were common. He studied at the Faculty of Law 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 ...

, where the ruling class of the time was raised. His doctoral thesis was evaluated by

Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of Argentine Civil Wars#National unification, unified Argentina. Mitre i ...

. Since 1902, he worked at the Tribunals of

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

, as a secretary, attorney, prosecutor and judge. He lived most of his life in this dynamic and rapidly growing city of the province of Santa Fe, and made friends within the professional and business elite, as well as firm links with other Argentine intellectuals. He was of a liberal mindset, opposed to

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

and the tendency to worship tradition. His first books argued that the roots of a nationality should not be sought in the old times, but in the future. This topic was especially relevant due to the wave of nationalistic pride sweeping Argentina near the centennial of its liberation from Spain (the

May Revolution The May Revolution () was a week-long series of events that took place from 18 to 25 May 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, ...

of 1810). In his ''Essay on the history of Santa Fe'' he went as far as claiming that Argentine history is nonexistent before 1853 (year of the framing of

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

). In 1913, Álvarez founded a public library in Rosario. This library, which is the largest in the city, carries at present the name of '' Biblioteca Argentina Dr. Juan Álvarez''. In 1914, Álvarez wrote about the civil wars of Argentina from an economic point of view, and explicitly looking to prevent similar wars in the future.

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

affected his liberal mindset, which led him to write a criticism of liberalism and its limitations. Similar crises came after the

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''). ...

of secret and compulsory suffrage and the conservative revolution of 1930. Álvarez turned towards conservatism, unsure about the new developments in the relationship between citizens, institutions and the state. In 1943, he wrote ''Historia de Rosario (1689–1939)'' ("History of Rosario"), which, like other works that deal with the interaction of geography, economy and politics, is considered a seminal work, which introduces the concept of the city as a subject matter, starting from its local identity, without a forced reference to national matters. His thesis about the asymmetric relationships between his adopted home town, Rosario, and the capital city of Santa Fe, opposes the dynamism of the former (devoid of a colonial past or an aristocratic class) and the bureaucratic tradition of the latter. This idea is still considered valid and continues to re-emerge in popular and intellectual discourse today. Álvarez was the Attorney General of the Nation between 1935 and 1946. He died in Rosario in 1954.

Sources

* News and comments at the online edition of

La Capital ''La Capital'' is a daily Spanish-language newspaper edited and published in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It was founded on November 15, 1867, and it is the oldest Argentine newspaper still in circulation, which has gained it th ...

newspaper of Rosario, 4 April 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Juan 1878 births 1954 deaths 20th-century Argentine judges Argentine prosecutors Attorneys general of Argentina 20th-century Argentine historians Argentine male writers Culture in Rosario, Santa Fe People from Entre Ríos Province Argentine male non-fiction writers