Book Description
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 as well as to the nation-in-formation. They told about their wanderings across the countryside in search of salaried work, their engagement with the Federalist armies, and their families. Their lamentations about unpaid labor, disrespectful government officials, the meaning of poverty, and the dignity of work provide vital insights into the formation of the Argentine nation. Wandering Paysanos discloses a complex world until now obscured—that of rural Argentine subalterns confronting the state.
