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Intellectuals and Left Politics in Uruguay, 1958–2006
Frustrated Dialogue

Stephen Gregory
Stephen Gregory is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His recent research into culture and politics includes papers on Mario Benedetti, Jorge Luis Borges, and the collaboration of Wim Wenders and Ry Cooder.

“Via consideration of published scholarship and archival materials, Gregory (Univ. of New South Wales, Australia) examines the evolution of intellectuals’ engagement in political life and public debate over an eventful half century in Uruguay. This chronologically organized account begins with the debates from the late 1950s through the early 1970s in which the Frente Amplio was established as a new political movement. The second half of the book examines the military dictatorship, the transition to democracy, and the shift toward an increasingly electorally successful Frente Amplio, culminating the Tabaré Vázquez’s victory in the 2004 presidential election. Gregory’s ambitious attempt to synthesize five decades of debate, literary criticism, political mobilization, and political reorganization in 159 pages makes this book more accessible to readers already familiar with Uruguayan politics. Gregory’s monograph is best suited for graduate students and faculty interested in the interpretation of political texts.” Choice

“Gregory considers the half-century that began with the election of the National Party – the first change of ruling party in 90 years – and the victory of the Frente Amplio government – the first by a center-left party since the South American country gained independence from Spain. His main argument is that during the 1960s, Uruguayan intellectuals helped a fragmented left unify and broaden its constituency with a new kind of politics built on consensus and dialogue in an increasingly polarized society. Alas, the effort foundered on the same widening social and political rifts that led to the 1973 coup and 12 years of dictatorship, he says, and relations between intellectuals and politics after the return of democracy has taken two paths.” Reference & Research Book News

Beginning in the year Uruguayans elected a different party into government for the first time in nearly a century, the author examines intellectuals’ role in the Uruguayan left’s drive toward unity and effectiveness. Discussion focuses on fragmentation and impotence on the left; frustrated attempts at left unity in the 1960s; the creation of the centre-left Broad Front in 1971; and the defeat of all left endeavours and all dialogue in the 1973 military coup – a prelude to a twelve-year dictatorship in which the military substituted themselves for intellectuals.
… The story continues in 1985, reversing the earlier trend in a record of dispersal and diversity. The author details the initial post-authoritarian anarchic cultural outburst – part celebration, part frustration; intellectuals’ role in the disputes that accompanied the Broad Front’s move from democratic socialism to social democracy, and from opposition to government in 2004; and recent excursions into the long-standing Uruguayan obsession with its identity and viability as an independent nation.
… This book is essential reading for all those interested in interplay between intellectuals and politics in Latin America; changes in the Latin American left since the 1960s; and the leftward drift of elected governments in the Southern Cone.

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