The history and memories of the women of the Rural Movement and the Agrarian Leagues of Northeastern Argentina. Contributions to the field of peasant studies

Abstract

This article examines the politics of women in the Agrarian Leagues and the Christian Rural Movement in northeastern Argentina, focusing on their forms of participation and intervention in rural territories. This is a topic that has received scant attention, both in the field of rural studies and in studies of memory and recent history in Argentina. Indeed, the political participation of peasant women has been rendered invisible, even in experiences where grassroots organizing was driven entirely by rural families—living spaces whose organization and reproduction are typically ensured by women. Specifically, this work studies the history of the Agrarian Leagues and the Christian Rural Movement through the analysis of memory exercises by the women who participated in this experience and reflects on its impact on the processes of reinterpreting the past. To this end, we examine oral narratives, visual and audiovisual documents (photographs, iconography, interviews), privileged vehicles for understanding the political history of the peasantry in the region and their representations of that experience.