Alberto Ezcurra Medrano was an Argentine

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

activist. One of the most important thinkers of Argentine '' Nacionalismo'', Ezcurra championed a social order based on Roman Catholicism and

corporatist Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come together and negotiate contracts ...

economics. His son Alberto Ezcurra Uriburu would become one of the most important Argentine far-right political figures of the 20th century as a leader of the Movimiento Nacionalista Tacuara.

Biography

Alberto Ezcurra Medrano was born in Buenos Aires in 1909. His family was related to Encarnación Ezcurra, wife of Argentine ''

caudillo A ''caudillo'' ( , ; , from Latin language, Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of Personalist dictatorship, personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise English translation for the term, though it ...

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...

and an important political figure of her time. He worked as a history professor at the

Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires (''National School of Buenos Aires'') is a public high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, affiliated to the University of Buenos Aires. In the tradition of the European ''gymnasium'' it provides a free educatio ...

and rose to intellectual prominence with his studies about the

Argentine Confederation The Argentine Confederation (Spanish: ''Confederación Argentina'') was the last predecessor state of modern Argentina; its name is still one of the official names of the country according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35. It was the nam ...

. In 1939 Ezcurra founded the ''Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas Juan Manuel de Rosas'' to promote historical revisionism in Argentina. Ezcurra also stood out as a writer for many nationalist magazines and newspapers like ''La Nueva República'', ''Baluarte'', ''Crisol'' and ''Nueva Política''. He had seven children, of which three became priests.

Ideology

Ezcurra adhered to '' Nacionalismo'', a loosely defined ideological current which emphasized Catholic religion, medievalist reactionarism,

corporatism Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...

and

authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...

. His ideas were close to that of Argentine priest Julio Meinvielle, despite being less pragmatic. Ezcurra summed up his ideology as proposing "a strong government and a corporatist regime as a reaction against liberal individualism". He considered

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 ...

as an "exaltation of moral values as a reaction against atheism, internationalism and marxist materialism", that notwithstanding was to be tempered by Catholic doctrine in order to succeed and avoid falling into

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...

. A Catholic integralist, Ezcurra supported Gelasian Diarchy and idealised the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

as a peak of Western civilisation marked by social harmony and order. According to his vision, the West had undergone a progressive decadence since the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

and the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

that was to be reverted by the restoration of an appropriate relationship between Church and State. He saw Argentine

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

and history as inherently bound to Christianity, despite the process of slow decadence it had experienced since the fall of

. Ezcurra understood Argentine nationalism as essentially connected to political Catholicism and

pan-Hispanism Panhispanism or pan-Hispanism (Spanish: ''panhispanismo''), sometimes just called hispanism (Spanish: ''hispanismo''), is an ideology advocating for social, economic, and political cooperation, as well as often political unification, of the Hispan ...

, holding a Traditionalist perspective based on restoring a supposedly lost Christian order of society that would return

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

to its actual national character. Ezcurra had a close ideological relationship with European

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 ...

and authoritarian movements. He was sympathetic to

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...

's regime in Italy and admired

Francoism Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

and Salazarism, but criticized

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

as a "neopagan" and "Antichristian" consequence of the Protestant Reformation.

Main works

*Las otras Tablas de Sangre (1934) *Catolicismo y nacionalismo (1936) *La independencia del Paraguay: historia de una desmembración Argentina (1941) *Sarmiento masón (1952) *Historia del Anticristo (1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ezcurra Medrano, Alberto 1909 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholics Argentine anti-communists Argentine male writers Catholicism and far-right politics Far-right politics in Argentina 20th-century Argentine historians Argentine Roman Catholic writers