Aspects of bathing life in the magazines A Gaivota and Turismo en el Uruguay, 1930-1950

Abstract

In South America, the modern atmosphere of wide, bright streets with enormous buildings stands out in illustrated magazines that circulated in the first decades of the 20th century. Adventurous, the modern individual was also searching for a place to calm his nature amid the frantic rhythm from large urban centers. Therefore, being on the seaside has turned into a getaway from modernity, in which joy, fun and leisure permeated the values of a social life by following its natural pace. From two illustrated magazines, A Gaivota and Turismo en el Uruguay, specialized in the daily life of South Atlantic beaches, this article approaches the importance of those illustrated magazines to promote ideas, encourage the summer holiday culture, and to develop the seaside resorts and tourism. Through cross-history perspective and the analysis of numbers in the magazines between 1930 and 1950, the intention is to show how those periodicals represented the aspects of life in the beaches and reinforced the social and cultural summer holiday practices in the southern seas.