Wandering Paysanos: State Order and Subaltern Experience in Buenos Aires during the Rosas Era [Hardcover]

Ricardo D. Salvatore (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0822330865 | ISBN-13: 978-0822330868 | Publication Date: June 24, 2003

A pioneering examination of the experiences of peasants and peons, or paysanos, in the Buenos Aires province during Juan Manuel de Rosas’s regime (1829–1852), Wandering Paysanos is one of the first studies to consider Argentina’s history from a subalternist perspective. The distinguished Argentine historian Ricardo D. Salvatore situates the paysanos as mobile job seekers within an expanding, competitive economy as he highlights the points of contention between the peasants and the state: questions of military service, patriotism, crime, and punishment. He argues that only through a reconstruction of the different subjectivities of paysanos—as workers, citizens, soldiers, and family members—can a new understanding of postindependence Argentina be achieved.

Drawing extensively on judicial and military records, Salvatore reveals the state’s files on individual prisoners and recruits to be surprisingly full of personal stories directly solicited from paysanos. While consistently attentive to the fragmented and mediated nature of these archival sources, he chronicles how peons and peasants spoke to power figures—judges, police officers, and military chiefs—about issues central to their lives and to the emerging nation. They described their families and their wanderings across the countryside in search of salaried work, memories and impressions of the civil wars, and involvement with the Federalist armies. Their lamentations about unpaid labor, disrespectful government officials, the meaning of poverty, and the dignity of work provide vital insights into the contested nature of the formation of the Argentine Confederation. Wandering Paysanos discloses a complex world until now obscured—that of rural Argentine subalterns confronting the state.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In the best tradition of subaltern studies, Ricardo Salvatore goes to the military records, court cases, and police files that most reveal the testimony of the popular classes. His book represents the most complete and nuanced analysis of the lives of peons, migrants, itinerants, and common soldiers—including their dress, family relationships, interaction with the Rosista state, and demands for liberty in the job market. Wandering Paysanos is both theoretically sophisticated and richly documented.”—Jonathan C. Brown, University of Texas

"Meticulously researched in official correspondence, military records, judicial archives, political poetry, and other popular narratives, Wandering Paysanos contributes importantly to interdisciplinary discussions of modern state formation and rural political and social consciousness. Few students of the Latin American past can match Salvatore in combining skillful analysis of political, social, and economic relations with an ability to deconstruct and interpret texts. This volume redeems the promise of Latin American subaltern studies."—Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University

About the Author

Ricardo D. Salvatore is Professor of Modern History at Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires. He is coeditor of Crime and Punishment in Latin America: Law and Society since Late Colonial Times and Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.–Latin American Relations, both published by Duke University Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (June 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822330865
• ISBN-13: 978-0822330868
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,122,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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