“Hombre, brazo, bomba!”. Discussing the Anarchist Violence in Buenos Aires (1890-1910)

Abstract

Between 1890 and 1910, first as fear and later as a reality, anarchist attacks made its appearance in Buenos Aires. There are several questions about these phenomenons: How can they be understood? How should they be categorized? What caused them and how were they presented by the anarchist press? In this paper, a research of primary resources will lead us to examine the categories that are frequently used to describe these attempts: “political terrorism”, “propaganda by the deed”, “vindictive acts”. We will question the historiographical appropriateness of the categories “terrorism” and “propaganda by the deed”, concepts that anticipate the existence of a political aim in these events. We will verify that Anarchist attacks were driven by a passionate impulse, rather than political revolutionary motivations: they were acts of revenge with no intention of spreading the revolutionary message, but to murder those thought of being responsible for repression and injustice. Additionally, we will observe that the passionate perception prevailed also in the Libertarian press, and even though the attacks were celebrated, it was because they were acts of vengeance, and not because they were revolutionary.