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In 1836 Governor Juan M. de Rosas is supposed to have ordered the execution of 110 pampa Indians in the main plaza of Buenos Aires city. This is what the anti-Rosista fiction argued: The "Tyrant" had executed indigenous peoples in order to cause terror on the Unitario opponents. Was this event a product of a political fiction? Or was it a true massacre of aboriginal peoples? The essay tries to respond to these questions, using both new archival sources, the testimonies provided at the trial of Rosas after his fall, and other secondary sources. At stake is the puzzling interaction or overlapping of historical and fictional narratives in the history of post-independent Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on textile production in the Central Plateau of the Province of Chubut (Patagonia Argentina). This kind of textile production is similar to the one practiced by the ancient inhabitants of the Patagonia region, which is described in historic documents of the 16th Century. Using a combination of ethnographic and historical research methods, I study the main characteristics of current textile production in the Patagonia region, and how these are firmly rooted in the past. In this paper I discuss the technical and instrumental details of textile production, how it is transmitted through generations, and its importance for the economy of the families who practice it, both in the present and in the past. I also examine how identity is created in the process of textile production. I adopt a structuralist perspective on the analysis of textile production, and I depart from a primordialist and static concept of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supplying of salt in sufficient amounts was one of the main concerns of the Town hall of Buenos Aires. This was a product of vital importance not only due to its usage in daily meals, but also because of its application in the conservation of the meat and leather. Such features, and the difficulties to obtain it, increased not only its commercial but also its strategic value. The discovery of local deposits allowed the inhabitants of Buenos Aires to supply themselves through periodic expeditions that were promoted by the authorities, which allowed them to exert a greater control on this production. Since the activity required an important manual labor and cargo capacity, it was a practice that many took advantage of to be employed and to obtain benefits with the commerce that was generated by such opportunity. This turned the expeditions to salt mines -organized by the authorities of the city- into great caravans that went into indigenous territory, involving a wide set of social actors from the countryside and the indigenous world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]