José Tamborini

José Tamborini (February 22, 1886 - September 25, 1955) was an Argentine physician and historically significant politician.

José Pascual Tamborini was born in Buenos Aires, in 1886. He enrolled at the public college preparatory school, the National College of Buenos Aires and by 1900, became affiliated with the Radical Civic Union (UCR) - then the nation's leading advocacy group for universal male suffrage. He then headed the school's UCR chapter and published its newsletter.

Tamborini received a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires and by 1912, headed that city's UCR committee. That year, free and fair elections guaranteed by the landmark Sáenz Peña Law led to the victory of numerous UCR candidates for the Argentine Congress, including Tamborini. Following the election to the presidency of longtime UCR leader Hipólito Yrigoyen in 1916, however, Tamborini aligned himself against what a faction in the UCR viewed as the president's growing personality cult. This opposition was fueled by Yrigoyen's numerous removals of provincial governors, for instance, and soon became known as "anti-personalism."

The election of a diplomat with anti-personalist sympathies, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, as president in 1922 led to a division in the UCR. Congressman Tamborini joined Senate President Leopoldo Melo and others in the formation of the Antipersonalist UCR in 1924. President Alvear named Tamborini Interior Minister (overseeing law enforcement), in 1925. The aging Yrigoyen returned to power in 1928, deeping inter-party divisions; but his 1930 overthrow helped unify the UCR, and Tamborini joined the City Hotel Declaration of April 1931 to that effect.

Seeking to thwart a UCR victory ahead of the 1931 elections, the dictator, General José Félix Uriburu jailed much of its leadership - including Alvear and Tamborini. Freed after the election (which the UCR boycotted), Tamborini was returned to Congress in 1934 and stood for the UCR nomination in 1937; but he was defeated by Alvear. Elected Senator in 1940, he became the dominant figure in the UCR following Alvear's death in 1942.

...
Wikipedia