Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T17:08:15.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pulperías and Contraband Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires Province*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Richard W. Slatta
Richard W. Slatta*
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The pulpería, a country store and tavern, stood with the estancia as the most important socio-economic institutions of the Argentine pampa. The store served multiple social and commercial functions (both licit and illicit) and survived into the twentieth century despite virulent verbal attacks and calls for legislative restriction from the colonial era on. Some commentators lauded the pulpería as the outpost of civilization on the savage frontier and projected the pulpero or proprietor as civilization's lonely representative in a barbarian world. He supposedly embodied patriotism, culture, and free enterprise in a hostile, alien environment of anti-social, localistic, unlettered gauchos—the itinerant horsemen of the pampas. Evidence weighs heavily in the opposite direction; however, and the pulpero of fact rather than myth functioned as a contraband capitalist exploiting the landless rural masses and preying upon ranchers whose livestock provided the goods for illicit trade. Far from encouraging culture and civilization on the vast pampa, the pulpería housed excessive drinking and gambling, prostitution, and served as an arena for violent, often fatal, knifefights.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , January 1982 , pp. 347 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author thanks the SSRC, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Program for financial support.

References

1 Bossio, Jorge Alberto, Historia de las pulperías (Buenos Aires, 1972), pp. 243–244,247Google Scholar; Scobie, James R., Revolution on the Pampas: A Social History of Argentine Wheat, 1860–1910 (Austin, 1964), p. 62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a laudatory view of the country store, see Bouché, León, Las pulperías: mojón civilizador (Buenos Aires, 1970),Google Scholar passim.

2 Bossio, , Pulperías, pp. 13–15, 18–19, 257–261.Google Scholar

3 Vidal, Emeric Essex, Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, consisting of Twenty-four Views: Accompanied with descriptions of the scenery, and of the costumes, manners, &c. of the inhabitants of those cities and their environs (London, 1820; reprinted Buenos Aires, 1944), p. 67.Google Scholar

4 Cunninghame Graham, Robert Bontine, “La Pulpería,” in: Thirteen Stories (London, 1900),Google Scholar reprinted in The South American Sketches of R. B. Cunninghame Graham, ed. John Walker (Norman, 1978), p. 62. For a commentary on Cunninghame Graham and the Walker edition, see Slatta, Richard W., “A Scottish Hidalgo Among Gauchos,” Américas, 32:9 (September 1980), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar Other descriptions of pulperías appear in Bossio, , Pulperías, pp. 48–51.Google Scholar

5 Turner, Thomas A., Argentina and the Argentines: Notes and Impressions of a Five Year's Sojourn in the Argentine Republic, 1885–1890 (London, 1892), p. 200 Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, pp. 62–63, 200Google Scholar; Leguizamón, Martiniano, Recuerdos de la tierra (Buenos Aires, 1896; 2nd. ed., 1957), p. 217.Google Scholar

6 Graham, Cunninghame in Walker, , “Pulpería,” p. 63 Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, p. 49.Google Scholar

7 Hudson, William Henry, Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life (New York, 1918), p. 19.Google Scholar

8 Lángara, Manuel F., Los gauchos: Cuentos y costumbres de estos habitantes de las pampas de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1878; 1943), p. 13.Google Scholar

9 Turner, , Argentina, pp. 137–138.Google Scholar

10 Miller, General William, Memoirs of General Miller, in the Service of the Republic of Peru, 2 vols., ed. Miller, John (London, 2nd. ed., 1829), I, 161–162.Google Scholar

11 MacCann, William, Two Thousand Miles’ Ride Through the Argentine Provinces, 2 vols. (London, 1853; reprinted, New York, n.d.), I, 24 Google Scholar; Granada, Daniel, Reseña histórico-descriptiva de antiguas y modernas supersticiones del Rio de la Plata (Montevideo, 1896), pp. 219–234 Google Scholar; Villanueva, Amaro, El mate: Arte de cebar (Buenos Aires, 1960), pp. 31–34.Google Scholar

l2 Vidal, , Picturesque Illustrations, p. 69 Google Scholar; Proctor, Robert, Narrative of a Journey across the Cordillera of the Andes, and of a Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of Peru, in the Years 1823 and 1824 (London, 1825), p. 11.Google Scholar

13 Sarmiento, Domingo Gaustino, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants; or. Civilization and Barbarism, trans. Mrs. Horace, (Mary) Mann, (New York, 1868; reprinted, 1971), pp. 41–45 Google Scholar; Coluccio, Félix, Diccionario folklórico argentino, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1964),II,356–361.Google Scholar

l4 Lima, Miguel A., El estanciero práctico: Manual completo de ganaderia (Buenos Aires, 1876), p. 233 Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, pp. 56–57.Google Scholar

15 Rodriguez Motas, Ricardo E., “La pulperia rioplatense en el siglo XVII (ensayo de historia social y económica),” Universidad, 49 (1961), pp. 124–127 Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, p. 32 Google Scholar; MacCann, , Two Thousand Miles’ Ride, 1,47 Google Scholar; Coluccio, , Diccionario, 2, 472–473 Google Scholar; Granada, , Reseña, p. 272 Google Scholar; Lángara, , Los gauchos, pp. 16–19 Google Scholar; Páez, Jorge, Del truquiflor a la rayuela; Panorama de los juegos y entretenimientos argentinos (Buenos Aires, 1971), pp. 35–42 Google Scholar; Alais, Octavio P., Libro criollo (Costumbres nacionales) (Buenos Aires, 1903), pp. 102–103.Google Scholar

l6 Estrada, Ezequiel Martínez, X-Ray of the Pampa, trans. Swietlicki, Alain (Austin, 1971), pp. 52–53.Google Scholar

17 Proctor, , Narrative, p. 16 Google Scholar; Slatta, Richard W., “Rural Criminality and Social Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires Province,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 60:3 (August 1890), p. 464 Google Scholar; Caldcleugh, Alexander, Travels in South America during the Years 1819–20–21; Containing an Account of the Present State of Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and Chile, 2 vols. (London, 1825), I, 179–180.Google Scholar

18 Mauricio Díaz, letter of May 6, 1850, Bahía Blanca, legajo Juez de Paz de Azul, 9-4-4, Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires “Ricardo Levene,” La Plata, (hereafter AHPBA).

19 Justice of the Peace of Vecino to Felipe Vela, Justice of the Peace of Tandil, March 19,1852, “Policía 1852,” Archivo Histórico Municipal de Tandil, (hereafter AHMT); Police report, legajo 1862, AHMT.

20 Buenos Aires Province, Comisión de Hacendados del Estado de Buenos Aires, Antecedentes y fundamentos del proyecto de código rural (Buenos Aires, 1864), pp. 145, 151.

21 See Juez de Crimen, 1872, AHPBA; Turner, , Argentina, p. 45 Google Scholar; Lemée, Carlos, El paisano: Reflexiones sobre la vida del campo (Buenos Aires, 1887), pp. 23, 30, 35–37Google Scholar; d’Orbigny, Alcides, Viajes a la América meridional realizado de 1826 a 1833, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1945), II, 497–498.Google Scholar

22 Ebelot, Alfredo, La pampa, costumbres argentinas (Buenos Aires, 1943), pp. 13–16 Google Scholar; Cortazar, Augusto Raúl, Folklore argentino (Buenos Aires, 1959), pp. 199–238.Google Scholar

23 Graham, Cunninghame in Walker, , “Pulpería,” pp. 63–64 Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, p. 61.Google Scholar

24 Tinker, Edward Larocque, The Horsemen of the Americas and the Literature They Inspired (Austin, 2nd, ed. rev., 1967), pp. 27–28 Google Scholar; Alais, , Libro criollo, pp. 123–124 Google Scholar; Paullada, Stephen, Rawhide and Song: A Comparative Study of the Cattle Cultures of the Argentinian Pampa and the North American Great Plains (New York, 1963), pp. 55–56, 154–161.Google Scholar

25 Bossio, , Pulperías, pp. 99–100, 240–241Google Scholar; Rural code reprinted in Prado, Aurelio y Rojas, , ed., Leyes y decretos promulgados en la Provincia de Buenos Aires desde 1810 á 1876, vol. 6 (Buenos Aires, 1878), p. 545.Google Scholar

26 Rodríguez Molas, Ricardo E., “Variaciones sobre la pulpería rioplatense,” Revista de la Universidad, 14 (May 1961), p. 139.Google Scholar

27 Nario, Hugo, Tata Dios: El mésias de la última montonera (Buenos Aires, 1976), pp. 102, 107, 119–120Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, p. 242.Google Scholar

28 Ebelot, , La pampa, p. 133.Google Scholar

29 Brown, Jonathan C., A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776–1860 (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 9–10, 21–26Google Scholar; Ramsay, G. D., English Overseas Trade During the Centuries of Emergence (London, 1957), pp. 199–206 Google Scholar; Sergio, Villalobos R., Comercio y contrabando en el Río de la Plata y Chile, 1700–1811 (Buenos Aires, 1965), pp. 45–47, 97–100, 107–113Google Scholar; quote from Scobie, James R., Argentina: A City and a Nation (New York, 2nd ed., 1971), p. 53.Google Scholar

30 Campbell, John, A Concise History of Spanish America (London, 1741), pp. 278,284–286,316–318,Google Scholar quoted in Madeline Nichols, Wallis,The Gaucho: Cattle Hunter, Cavalryman, Ideal of Romance (Durham, 1942; reprinted, New York 1968), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

31 Nichols, , The Gaucho, p. 31.Google Scholar

32 Molas, Rodríguez, “Variaciones,” pp. 139–141 Google Scholar; Bossio, , Pulperías, pp. 200–201.Google Scholar

33 Justice of the Peace of Las Flores, Report of December 31, 1851, document 4, 21 -2-4, Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires (hereafter AGN); Gori, Gastón, Vagos y mal entretenidos: Aporte al tema hernandiano (Santa Fe, 1951), p. 80.Google Scholar

34 Buenos Aires Province, Comisión de Hacendados del Estado de Buenos Aires, Antecedentes, pp. 69, 170.

35 Prado, y Rojas, , Leyes y decretos, pp. 509, 544–545.Google Scholar

36 Barros, Alvaro, Fronteras y territorios de las pampas del sur (Buenos Aires, 2nd. ed., 1975), pp. 95–98, 117–122.Google Scholar

37 Anales de la Sociedad Rural Argentina, 7:8 (August 31, 1873), p. 257.

38 Diario de la Tarde, February 1,1848, p. 1 (Buenos Aires), copy in Tribunales Civil 1848, Letter A, no. 57, Document 14, AGN.

39 Document dated June 26, 1862, Copiador de notas del juez de paz de Tandil, 1862–1863, AHMT; Police reports, 1862, AHMT; Slatta, , “Rural Criminality,” pp. 466–467 Google Scholar; Duncan Baretta, Silvio R. and Markoff, John, “Civilization and Barbarism: Cattle Frontiers in Latin America,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 20:4 (October 1978), p. 609.Google Scholar

40 Hernández, José, The Gaucho Martín Fieno, Adapted front the Spanish and Rendered into English Verse by Walter Owen (Buenos Aires, 1960), pp. 31–32.Google Scholar

41 Slatta, , “Rural Criminality,” passim.Google Scholar

A correction has been issued for this article:

Editorial Apology