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buenos aires: ciae bibliography

CIAE manhole cover, Buenos Aires

Over the last month, I’ve read more about the Argentine electricity sector than I ever thought possible. Two things surprised me most during this investigation: a large amount of misinformation across the board & huge gaps in scholarship. Fact checking does not seem to be very important nor does consulting original sources, so errors propagate throughout books & journals. For example, something as basic as the year a company was purchased or the amount of time a concession was extended should be easy to verify. I’m not writing a thesis, but it’s difficult to form opinions with so much misinformation floating around.

Since my partner is currently working on his Ph.D., I have unlimited access to JSTOR & other academic journals. Yea! The early period of the development of electricity is covered well, up until early 1960s & Frondizi. After that, there is a break in academic studies of about 20 years until Menem’s privatizations in the 1990s. Someone should take the initiative & fill the gap.

Best discoveries

  • The CIAE began as an Argentine-Italian joint venture with a lesser proportion of Swiss capital than is commonly recognized.
  • “Lombardy Romanesque” does not adequately define Juan Chiogna’s architecture. “Romanesque Revival” would be a better term.
  • The CIAE invested heavily in infrastructure until the 1940s & were content with their average 10% market share.
  • No PDF of the very important Informe Rodríguez Conde can be found online. Help!
  • No list of structures remaining has been compiled so I’m working on that.

No doubt there are more revelations to be uncovered…

Buenos Aires, Puerto, CIAE, Dirección Nacional de Migraciones

Below is a list of all the books, articles & URLs used for researching this series:

Alemanes en la Arquitectura Rioplatense, 2005. Coordinado por Patricia Méndez & Florencia Barcina (CEDODAL – Centro de Documentación de Arte y Arquitectura Latinoamericana).

Azpiazu, Daniel. Agua y energía: mapa de situación y problemáticas regulatorias de los servicios públicos en el interior del país / Daniel Azpiazu ; Nicolás Bonofiglio ; Carolina Nahón – 1a ed. – Buenos Aires:  FLACSO – Fac. Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, 2008.

Barbero, María Inés, Norma Lanciotti & Maria Cristina Wirth. Capital Extranjero Y Gestión Local. La Compañía:  Ítalo Argentina De Electricidad. 1912-1950. Versión Preliminar, 1 de abril de 2009. VII Coloquio de Historia de Empresas. Historia del Sector Eléctrico en la Argentina. Evolución, Políticas Y Empresas. The Universidad de San Andrés, Centro de Estudios de Historia y Desarrollo de Empresas.

Barcina, Florencia. Recuerdos de Italia en la Luz Porteña: El Patrimonio de la Electricidad, Usinas y Subestaciones Transformadoras de la Compañía Italo-Argentina de Electricidad en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Didáctica e Interpretación del Patrimonio Industrial. Gijón: INCUNA, 2005.

Bussola, Diego.  As empresas de serviços públicos na Argentina (1880-2000), Análise Social, vol. XLIII (4.º), 2008, 721-747.

Cerutti, Leandro & Martín Schrod. Crisis del Sistema Eléctrico Argentino:  Causas y Perspectivas.

Compañía Italo Argentina de Electricidad. Evolución y Desarrollo de la Compañía Italo Argentina de Electricidad en los Primeros Veinte Años de su Actividad. Buenos Aires, 1931.

Corthell, Elmer L. Two Years in Argentine as the Consulting Engineer of National Public Works, Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 35, No. 5 (1903), pp. 439-471.

Dalla-Corte Caballero, Gabriela. Empresas, Instituciones y Red Social: La Compañía Hispanoamericana de Electricidad (CHADE) entre Barcelona y Buenos Aires, Revista de Indias (2006) vol. LXVI, num. 237.

Genta, Guillermo. Política y Servicios Públicos: El Caso del Servicio Público de Electricidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (desde su orígenes hasta su estatización:  1887-1962), Oct 2006, FLACSO.

Guía Patrimonio Cultural de Buenos Aires #6—Arquitectura Industrial, 2006. Investigación y textos: Jorge D. Tartarini (Dirección General de Patrimonio, Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires).

http://arquitectos-italianos-buenos-aires.blogspot.com Consulted 07 Jul 2010.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esc%C3%A1ndalo_de_la_CHADE Consulted 02 Jul 2010.

http://revista-zoom.com.ar/articulo1057.html Consulted 02 Aug 2010. Opinions, wrong facts.

http://www.argentinaoculta.com/cade.htm Consulted 13 Aug 2010.

http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/victimas/c/casariegoj/index.html Consulted 13 Mar 2024.

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=963956 (Usina de la Música)

http://www.recoletacemetery.com Consulted 03 Jul 2010.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=340212 (Usina de la Música)

Italianos en la Arquitectura Argentina, 2004. Coordinado por Patricia Méndez (CEDODAL – Centro de Documentación de Arte y Arquitectura Latinoamericana).

Kupper, Patrick and Tobias Wildi, Motor-Columbus from 1895 to 2006:  111 years of Motor-Colombus, 2006.

Liemur, Jorge Francisco & Fernando Aliata, compiladores. Diccionario de Arquitectura en la Argentina (Clarín, 2004).

Luces Argentinas:  Una Historia de la Electricidad en Nuestro País, director Félix Luna, Edesur (2002)  http://www.edesur.com.ar/conozca_edesur/fr_conozca_edesur.htm

Miradas sobre el Patrimonio Industrial, 2007. Coordinado por Patricia Méndez & Florencia Barcina (CEDODAL – Centro de Documentación de Arte y Arquitectura Latinoamericana).

Petriella, Dionisio and Sosa Miatello, Sara. Diccionario Biográfico Italo-Argentino. Buenos Aires: Asociación Dante Alighieri, 1976.

Pírez, Pedro. The management of urban services in the city of Buenos Aires, Service Provision in Cities:  Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 10, No. 2, October 1998.

Pírez, Pedro. Relaciones de poder y modelos de gestión: la energía eléctrica en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, 1900-1960, Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 40, No. 157 (Apr -Jun 2000), pp. 97-120.

Romero, Carlos Adrián. Regulación e Inversiones en el Sector Eléctrico Argentino, Sept. 1998. Prepared for the Project “Crecimiento, empleo y equidad: América Latina en los años noventa” (HOL/97/6034).

Segreto, Luciano. Financing the Electric Industry Worldwide:  Strategy and Structure of the Swiss Electric Holding Companies, 1895-1945, Business and Economic History, Vol. 23 (1), Fall 1994.

Villulla, Carlos. Doctrinas Economicas del Mercado Eléctrico. III Conferencia Politica Nacional Partido Socialista de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

CIAE id badge, photo sent by reader

CIAE series: Electricity timeline Precedent & foundation Swiss holding companies Architecture 1 2 3 4 Expansion Scandal Fade to black Building list Bibliography

2 thoughts on “buenos aires: ciae bibliography”

  1. Maybe I am just an incredible nerd- but I love this stuff, and am so glad you are doing it.
    You really should consider doing a blurb, or other online book of your old web pages, all the BsAs stuff in one place- if its already digital, its not THAT much work to upload it.
    A few of us diehard city fans would buy one.

    I will be looking for CIAE substations now whenever I walk.

    also, thanks for the portugal stuff- its been too long since I was there, but I love seeing it.

    1. Hi Ries – One of the main reasons I did this is because no one has done it yet (who knows why?) & I’m an incredible nerd too 🙂 I’ll continue to upload some of the old content, but I need to weed through 900 posts or however many I wrote over 4 years. That would be an unwieldy book! I think I’ll work on a stencil graffiti review next.

      I’m doing a map of CIAE sites… & I need to update this post because I’ve been informed of a lot more. But there are still more to discover! Thanks for the help!

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