ABSTRACT
Towards the end of the década infame in 1941, Blomberg returned to serialised radio drama with Juan Cuello: El Romántico Rebelde. This serial tells the story of the legendary gaucho outlaw who defied Rosas during the last years of his regime. Part of the significance of this radio serial lies in its bringing together of the two most significant strands of radio drama from the década infame by pairing the Rosas era with the gauchesque. Blomberg’s Juan Cuello also continues Blomberg’s engagement with the nineteenth-century writer of novelas por entregas, Eduardo Gutiérrez. Blomberg’s radio serial is essentially an updated version of Gutiérrez’s 1880 serialised novel Dramas policiales: Juan Cuello which was published from 9 January to 19 March 1880 in his brothers’ newspaper, La Patria Argentina (Chávez 105). This chapter will begin by exploring the historical relationship between Rosas and the gaucho and the recognition of the potential of the gaucho as a romantic figure, despite his association with the dictator, in Sarmiento’s Facundo. The differences between Gutiérrez’s nineteenth-century novela por entregas version of Juan Cuello and Blomberg’s novela radioteatral version reflect the different historical moments at which they were written. The treatment of the protagonist Juan Cuello differs across the versions as Blomberg’s serial accentuates his heroism, identifying the serial more within the genre of melodrama. The differences across the versions, particularly in the portrayal of race and gender, are most revelatory as they demonstrate Blomberg’s updating of the liberal conception of Argentine nationhood for the nation-building project of the década infame.
