New versions, with figures in the history of the country, must be launched. The government did not provide for higher values, despite inflation.
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Three men. Three women. The central bank and the Argentine president, Alberto Fernandez (center left), presented “the new family of tickets”, joint, Monday, May 23. Puts of 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 pesos (from 78 cents to 7.80 euros, at the official rate), all with the effigy of large figures in the history of the country. “Argentina recovers its historic heroines and heroes”, proclaims the central bank.
Among them, Maria Remedios del Valle, an independence fighter, of African origin, makes visible the partly African roots of the Argentinian population, while the prevailing story tends to ignore them. In a range of violets, Eva Peron is back on 100 pesos tickets. Died in 1952, the one who was the wife of President Juan Domingo Peron (1946-1955, then 1973-1974) – founder of a political current with social accents – remains a great reference for the Argentine left. Her smile is already sometimes crumpled at the bottom of the pockets: she made her appearance in 2012 on 100 pesos tickets, during the second mandate of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, currently vice-president.
Local animals
These impressions are not trivial. “Some want to erase history, they want us to forget (…). Today we are getting our memory,” said President Alberto Fernandez on Monday May 23. The criticism addressed to its predecessor, Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), is clear. In 2016, the center president also launched new versions. Jaguar, whale, condor: local animals were in the spotlight. “A new way of becoming aware of environmental protection,” argued at the time the Central Bank. The fauna, free from the political charge of Eva Peron, also had to make everyone agree. By birds and historical figures interposed, it is thus the political, binary and powerful cleavage in Argentina, which interferes in the population portfolio.
“The government makes a choice in the direction of cleavage and with a high economic cost [that of printing]”, criticized Federico Sturzenegger, president of the Central Bank during the mandate of Mauricio Macri, who had at the ‘era decided to put higher facial values into circulation, in order to adapt to inflation. A measure rejected by the current government – despite a prices outbreak of 58 % over a year – which has not affixed new zeros alongside the heroes. The Argentines, whose wallet is growing with tickets that weaken, already say the value they give to the smallest cuts: simple rough paper, on which notes or additions are often scribbled.