“I let myself be carried away by the chimera.” Vicente Blasco Ibáñez said it some time after closing his “Argentine adventure” in recognition of a dream that ended in failure and that almost brought him ruin. The novelist, between 1911 and 1913, when he was already a successful author (he had published “Blood and Sand” and all the novels with Valencian themes), wanted to “colonize” and “found” in Patagonia and the region of the Paraná River. communities dedicated to agriculture, for which he brought “settlers” from Valencia who were experts in the cultivation of rice and citrus fruits. The documentary “Blasco Ibáñez, el gaucho” directed by Juan Pablo Palladino addresses a formidable epic that changed the writer forever. “It was too ambitious,” warns Palladino.
To understand that adventure you have to know two things beforehand. The first is that Blasco Ibáñez was a man tremendously passionate about action and a tireless traveler; Not in vain years later he would travel around the world. “I wasn’t afraid,” says Palladino to explain what could now be considered madness. The second is that the novelist discovered Argentina in 1909 on a trip to promote his works coinciding with the centenary of that country’s independence. Encouraged by Emilio Zola, who gave him the idea, he understood that going to Argentina, and other countries in the southern cone of the American continent, could be a good strategy to expand his market of readers.
Both the personal situation in which Blasco found himself and the political and cultural situation of Argentina were more than favorable to carry out his trip, says professor and researcher Alicia San Martín Molina in her article “Blasco Ibáñez’s trip to Argentina : business and culture. Past and Memory” published in 2020 in History Magazine. In Argentina he was entertained by national authorities and Spanish emigrants who had achieved a strong social position. He even gave lectures where he addressed characters and topics such as Napoleon, Wagner, Renaissance painters, the French Revolution, Cervantes, philosophy, cooking, among others.
During his stay in Argentina he made a trip to Patagonia and decided to carry out a great colonization work there and in the Paraná River region. He dedicated himself to buying lands that he planned to put into cultivation, bringing farmers from Valencia who would rent them for ten years and then be able to buy them with the profits obtained. And between 1911 and 1913 he managed to get almost a hundred Valencians to support the proposal, the idea, of moving to Argentina with Blasco Ibáñez, who was also a mass leader, to colonize that country. The adventure, however, ended fatally, even with episodes that put his own life at risk.
The documentary “Blasco Ibáñez, el gaucho” delves into that curious episode and has been filmed between the Spanish and Argentine provinces of Valencia and Corrientes, recording the migratory adventure of the famous writer and 60 Valencian families to the South American country, in 1914. Thus, investigates the human, social, economic, cultural and artistic repercussions of the agricultural-business odyssey. “He was too ambitious, he did not have the knowledge to create the project he wanted,” assesses the director of the documentary.
Palladino explains that the harsh Argentine experience “forever changed Blasco Ibáñez’s vision, from that moment on his novel was different.” In addition to testimonies from descendants of Valencian people who emigrated with the novelist and from specialists in the Valencian writer’s career, the documentary has abundant material from the photographic collection provided by the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Foundation of Valencia.
After the Argentine failure, Blasco Ibáñez decided to follow the First World War in person, and on the front line. From that experience a novel would emerge that would make him immensely rich: “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” He never again suffered hardship, and never again took excessive risks. Of course, he never stopped traveling either.
The documentary can be seen at the following link: blascoibanezelgaucho.com
