This book builds on a previous doctoral dissertation concerning José Aricó’s contribution to Latin American political theory. Rather than presenting an overview of the Argentine’s intellectual career, the present text makes the case for the importance of Aricó’s thought within the field of Latin American Marxism. Before proceeding to the matter at hand though, I would like to add several remarks regarding my research and take the opportunity to thank those who have accompanied me throughout the book’s different stages.
José Aricó is slowly starting to gain recognition as one of the great Latin American leftist intellectuals of the last decades. Despite having had almost no presence in academia – better yet, a token of an Argentine cultural critique that thrived almost entirely outside the university – he nevertheless acted as mentor to many intellectuals who today are among the most respected public figures in Argentina and Latin America. For generational reasons, this was not my case: unlike those who had the opportunity to meet and converse with him, a generational distance has prevented me from addressing Aricó with the more familiar ‘Pancho’. He was not my teacher – not directly, anyway – but equally important to underscore, nor is he is my object of study here. As we shall soon see, this is owing in large part to Aricó’s own attitude: he approached historical texts as if they were material fragments, arraigned by the present out of theoretical and political necessity rather than for arid philological exercises. I have attempted to do the same with regards to Aricó’s own work.
My acquaintance with Aricó was somewhat accidental. Not only did friends and teachers repeatedly reference his name, he kept re-emerging through the fortuitous encounters that, one way or another, gave rise to the present book. My readings of Marxism and other Marxist-adjacent universes began at a time of crisis and doubt that was typical of Argentina at the beginning of the twenty-first century. As I grew more interested in the Marxist tradition, and increasingly drawn to the more heterodox figures in that current of thought, the name ‘Aricó’ began to appear in connection with publishing activities, and increasingly with translation. I started to suspect that his books had been conceived for just those times when theoretical certainty began to waiver.
This initial encounter was what provided me with the impetus to delve into Aricó’s monumental studies of Marxism. First, I discovered his publications – nearly 200 volumes – from which I could conclude that, as concerns the availability of Marx and Marxist texts in the Spanish language, Aricó’s emergence marks a clear before-and-after. Not only was he responsible for the publication of volumes never previously available in the Spanish language, he also in many cases compiled rare texts in order to invent his own books, thus exemplifying what came to be one of his most characteristic and interesting strategies: to speak through the words of others. Later, I discovered Aricó’s written works: four book-length studies, hundreds of chapters, prefaces, introductions, and any number of forewords. Indeed, at the time of my writing his publishing activities had already generated a modest interest among scholars working on the new left in Argentina and Latin America, especially with those interested in the role that the movement had played in intellectual and cultural modernisation throughout the region. His writings, however, had been less fortunate: largely neglected, his theoretical insights had perhaps been overshadowed by the magnitude of his contribution as a publisher. Thus I knew from the outset that I was trying to restore Aricó’s writings, but without jettisoning his immense publishing enterprise. And rather than seeking to find some invisible thematic unity that could tie together his writings and published material, I have attempted to discover a recurrent method common to all his interventions into contemporary Latin American debates.
I must admit that, despite generational differences, some part of Aricó has found its way into this work, no doubt through the different individuals who assisted me along the way. The name ‘Aricó’ seemed to magically open doors to me, and everyone I encountered was eager to speak of ‘Pancho’, to share their recollections, and, of course, to endorse the progressive recognition of his great theoretical, political and cultural achievements, even where differences of opinion existed.
With that, I would like to thank the friends and acquaintances with whom I spoke during the writing of this book – whether through interviews or in casual conversation: María Teresa Porayzán, Horacio Crespo, Alberto Filippi, José Carlos Chiaramonte, Juan Carlos Cena, Ricardo Melgar, Giacomo Marramao, Ricardo Nudelman, Alberto Díaz and Robert Paris.
I also wish to thank the advisors of my doctoral dissertation, Mabel Thwaites Rey and Patrice Vermeren, who to this day remain important interlocutors in all my intellectual pursuits. Along with them, I would like to acknowledge my colleagues and friends at the Instituto de Estudios de América Latina y Caribe at the University of Buenos Aires, as well as collaborators at the Université Paris 8 and at the Centro Cultural de la Cooperación; I have only omitted their names here to avoid forgetting anyone, but just as well, they will recognise their influence all throughout this book. I would especially like to thank those who made this English edition of the book possible: Peter Thomas for taking the lead with the project, Juan Grigera for his interest and constant availability, and Nicolas Allen, for showing the type of translator’s patience and insight that I regard as fundamental in every sense of the word, and which I have attempted to illustrate throughout this book.