Word: chaco
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Argentine Chaco is in the far north of the country, a subtropical continuation of the pampas. Few regions, even in Argentina, have been so nearly ruined by economic dislocation. Almost at a standstill are exports of quebracho bark and the tanning extract derived from it, and of the Chaco's famed, strange-sounding woods: algarrobo, lapacho, guayabo, guayacdn, caranday, ybird-pyita, ñandubay, aguai, tatané, palo santo, palo de rosa, palo de lanza. And the "white gold," cotton, has proved fool's gold...
Even before the rains came, the Chaco had lost hope in cotton. Years ago credits were granted freely by the Government, by cotton manufacturers and brokers, by company-store almaceneros. These credits lured to the region the strange mixture of Central European immigrants who now make up the vast majority of the Chaco's population. But efforts to specialize the cotton failed; Chaco cotton had to compete in a glutted world market for cheap, ungraded cotton. Then war cut off one of the few sure markets, Germany. Calls came for interest payments that could not be met. Some people...
Misery in the Jungle. Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, 25 years ago a railway car on a Chaco siding, is today a city of 25,000 souls. Typical of the region is its population: 90% foreign-born, 80% Slavic. Its mayor, blond, blue-eyed, Jewish José Pavlotzky, was until recently one of the most popular characters in the Chaco...
...German Winterhilfe, for needy German colonists, gives very real help to farmers and croppers of other races. So people who once had nothing but dislike for the Nazi regime are beginning to say publicly that Hitler must be a great humanitarian because he helps people in the faraway Chaco while the Government in Buenos Aires does nothing...
Skillful propaganda, coupled with this aid, makes capital of the Chaco's misery. And the misery is real. Presidencia Roque Saenz Pena has 4.000 people on relief at $1.50 per person per year. Cosecheros (Argentina's Okies) pour in to work in the fields, but less than one-fourth of them find work. Company-store prices are double to treble the prices at ordinary stores, and the cosecheros are paid in bonos, valid only at these stores...