Abstract
The concept of the gendered soundscape allows blending two theories in a creative way—the gender approach and the sound studies approach—in a history of the first steps of radio and feminism in South America. Beyond the introductory theoretical discussion, the book describes the complexity of modernity and one of its foundational media in the form of radio, through the life stories of five women from Argentina and Uruguay. These two countries share cultural heritage and the geographical territory known as the Rio de la Plata region, and they were at the vanguard in two trends that began in the early 1920s, radio and feminism, the latter illustrated by the fact Uruguay was the first country in the continent that gave women the right to vote.
As if listening to Latin American “melodramas,” readers can enjoy the book just as though they were using old-fashioned radio equipment. Starting the program, they can find the story of provocative Silvia Guerrico, a modern girl who challenged audiences by expressing her feelings and defending her right to be unmarried, and was consequently considered a public danger for the traditionalist society of Uruguay. Moving down the dial, spectators can follow the vibrant struggle for political rights of two radio propagandists. Paulina Luisi plays the character of the first feminist, letting us hear a female voice with conviction and authority as it had never been heard before. As the first woman college graduate and the first woman physician in Uruguay, she was the model of women’s qualifications for full citizenship. On the other side of Rio de la Plata River, Eva Peron was the Argentine counterpart of the civil conquest. In spite of her humble origins and modest artistic career, she was one of the most powerful women of her era. As Juan Domingo Peron’s First Lady, she played a crucial role in Peronist propaganda delivered through emotional radio drama, setting the foundations of modern political marketing and Latin American populist narrative. After this intense political melodrama, the program follows with the life comedy of Nini Marshall, which mocked the working class that Peron and Evita protected. Her accurate portraits of female characters led a critic to define her as Chaplin in a skirt. Last come the soap operas of Nene Cascallar, a pioneer of the sensual and passionate style that would be a distinctive feature of Latin American serials.
At the end of the varieties, spectators find that all the scenes make not only a book on early times of the radio but a volume on Latin American political history as well. The words that depict soundscape almost one century ago also describe the recent history of those countries: coups, prohibition, propaganda, persecution, but also creativity, advocacy, civic commitment. These sounds of the past still echo in the present times. Argentina and Uruguay are actually not mainstream countries, but were ahead in world media trends at the beginning of the radio era, and they certainly played a crucial role in the first half of the last century, when part of the world was devastated by crises and wars.
Although the book is not primarily theoretical, references to theory can be found throughout the chapters. As the author makes clear, the book does not claim to provide the Latin American perspective in general, but a Latin American perspective on the interaction of media and context. Although it is not strictly a gender study, a feminine viewpoint is present throughout the book. This makes sense, as the gender approach can hardly apprehend by itself the full diversity of feminine issues. The very selection of these five women shows the diversity of expressions in similar professions and the wide range of feminism in those early times. Gender studies usually focus on the female body and its social representations, but it is rare to find women depicted by the sound of their voices and the contents of their speech. “Woman and microphone are incompatible,” declared a critic in the mid-1930s; and this simple statement showed the density of the phenomenon.
Christine Ehrich is associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Louisville. Her work shows a fervent interest in women’s lives and a deep knowledge of the countries selected for this book. This extensive research combines preceding studies and a lot of primary historical evidence, including firsthand testimonies and unpublished records. More than two dozen historical periodicals, as well as family archives, were devotedly reviewed and quoted by the author, with accurate translations that capture the spirit of these voices and the subtleness of Spanish expressions. The main text is framed by footnotes that reveal the depth of the research and the affection of the author for the topic, making this book an original piece that can be used for further studies.