Florida group

The Florida group (Sp.: "grupo Florida") were a Buenos Aires-based "avant-garde" literary group in the 1920s, known for their embrace of "art for art's sake". They were identified with the magazines "Proa" and "Martín Fierro", the latter named after the long poem "Martín Fierro", generally considered the greatest work of nineteenth-century Argentine literature. The group is also often referred to as the Martín Fierro group (Sp. "grupo Martín Fierro").

Among the members of the Florida group were Oliverio Girondo, Norah Lange, Ricardo Güiraldes, Francisco Luis Bernárdez, Leopoldo Marechal, Conrado Nalé Roxlo, and Raúl González Tuñón.

Güiraldes was something of a father figure to many Florida members; already a major figure, he spent the 1920s writing his masterpiece Don Segundo Sombra, studying Hindu philosophy, and flirting with nationalist politics. He died in 1927.

Nicolás Olivari, who co-founded the more political Boedo group, later became a member of the Florida group. The fiercely independent Roberto Arlt met with both groups on an irregular basis, but committed to none.

Jorge Luis Borges was not a regular in Florida meetings even though he was widely believed to be, mostly because of his frequent writing for "Martín Fierro". Actually, Borges claimed that the entire Florida-Boedo rivalry was a pointless imitation of European fashions and that he should belong to Boedo because of geography (he lived at that time in Bulnes Street, which takes the name Boedo Street as it crosses Rivadavia Avenue) but that he stayed put.

Arturo Cancela suggested in a letter to "Martín Fierro" that both sides merge under the common name of "Schools of Floredo street", and to name Manuel Gálvez as president, as he lived in Pueyrredón street, equidistant from both groups.

By 1930, all the involved parties had arrived to the same conclusion. Girondo (for Florida) and Castelnuovo (for Boedo) wrote newspaper articles to that effect.

After the 1930 military coup, the Florida constituency gravitated towards Victoria Ocampo's "Sur" magazine, which managed to remain aloof of the ever-deteriorating state of Argentine politics - until the advent of Peronism in 1945.

Since the 1960s, some Argentine writers and historians have identified Florida with many of the perceived illnesses of Argentine society such as ignoring the aspirations and culture of the lower classes (which Peronism articulated later), looking towards Europe for inspiration, and being out of touch with any kind of productive work. González Tuñón alone was excepted from this treatment, because of the social themes of his poetry.