Giacomo Matteotti in Argentina

The article analyzes the reception of the murder of Giacomo Matteotti and his figure in Argentina, considering both the enormous Italian community – about one-sixth of the country's population – and the public opinion and political parties of Argentina. It examines the role that Matteotti's figure had until the mid-1930s, on one hand, in articulating an expanded anti-fascist field that initially included communists; on the other hand, as a liaison between the Italian anti-fascist movement and the Argentine Socialist Party. In the concluding part, it focuses on the transition represented by the war in Ethiopia and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, when anti-fascism was united again but in the name of Giuseppe Garibaldi, emblem of that Risorgimento tradition in which Italian anti-fascism in Argentina had its roots, and the cult of Matteotti's memory remained the prerogative of Italian and Argentine socialists.