Against Cordoba

The former rector and current professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities published  Contra Córdoba  (Caballo Negro 2016). The book presents a cultural hypothesis and talks about various issues of being Cordovan. With an interesting proposal, like all those of Diego Tatián, he invites us to  rethink the idiosyncrasy of Cordoba.  And in turn, to deduce behaviors or imaginaries that revolve around Cordovan.  Against Córdoba  is taking us through various unique historical and current experiences, which try to define and redefine this province.

The book leads us to rethink the Cordovan being and, from economic, philosophical and social theories, explains the contradiction in which the Cordobese are inserted. And how is it that this came and comes to  decisive historical facts : the Cordobazo or the victory of neoliberal politicians. They are  contradictory facts , which have a common background and which are being carried out within Cordovan society. Which is revolutionary and conservative at the same time. And how did we get to this.

The proposed cultural hypothesis refers to the title. And he postulates that everything that has left a mark or has managed to produce a libertarian event, has done it against Córdoba — despite Cordoba, however, Cordoba.

It is a rich book of content, and proposes to critically rethink these facts that constitute us as social beings. And, in turn, it shows us as in a mirror, the contradictory of being. And, above all, of being Cordovan. In turn, the philosopher argues that we Cordobese are chauvinists, or we possess a fairly provincial chauvinism.

Chauvinists

“It was already detected by Sarmiento in  Facundo  ('Córdoba does not know that there is anything else but Cordoba'). He has a  strange narcissism , somewhat torvo, distrustful of any cultural experimentation or social transformation, he says. What Córdoba has produced as interesting culturally and politically has done it in rupture against itself. Against that self-referential conservatism that gives it identity. In revolt against this deep Cordoba there is a tradition, less but intense. That of a universalist, open, inventive Cordoba that manages to open the question again and again for other possible ways of life. But it ends almost always eaten by the 'Cordobesist' Cordoba”.

And he continues: “That conservatism survives and is expressed culturally, socially,  electorally . But by a kind of paradox he always incubates, in the steady state of his  narcissistic pride , a new demonstration against Córdoba, which may be cultural or political (hopefully soon also electoral). It is the conservative Cordoba herself that begets what breaks with it. And even if it does not thrive in time, it leaves a mark and an inspiration for those who come after.”

In conversation with the prologue to his book,   Tatián   expresses: “La Reforma Universitaria and El Cordobazo, the two great urban myths in which the city is referred to. They have been neutralized in their content of revolt by a self-complacent common sense that reduces them to mere protocolar commemorations that  no longer inspire emancipations . A domesticating force that inhibits them in their power to inspire revolts and  boasts them at the same time proudly  as the blazons of their history. There is an important cultural task to be accomplished, and also a historical contribution to liberating those events (which occurred against Córdoba) from the embezzlement in which they have been captured.”

And it leaves us thinking a little, about our Cordovan pride, which can calmly be taken to the rest of the country. To our pride in being Argentines. However, we also fall like a bucket of cold water and invites us not to stay breathing revolutionary commemorations of the past.