An Argentine witness of the occupation and reconstruction of Belgium: The writings of Roberto J. Payró (1918-1922)

Abstract

This article analyses the writer and journalist Roberto J. Payró?s post-war chronicles in the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación for which he served as a correspondent in Brussels (1909-1922). It focuses on the impact of post-war political and social reform and reconstruction in Belgium on discussions on political and social modernisation and reform in his home country, Argentina. Payró was particularly interested in issues such as social legislation, the recovery of an industrial economy, social housing policies and political reform, like the concept of coalition governments and the establishment of universal suffrage in post-war Belgium. Tató stresses the importance of the Belgian case in providing tools and examples for economic and political modernisation to young Latin American countries such as Argentina, and thus demonstrates the global reverberations of post-war reform.