Women, State Violence, and the Politics of Restitution in Argentina, 1829–62

Between 1829 and 1852, Argentina's caudillo leader, Juan Manuel de Rosas, began a large-scale campaign of repression in order to eliminate political enemies. Throughout this period, hundreds of families were targeted, their properties confiscated, and all legal rights and protections taken away. In response, many of these families wrote restitution petitions, seeking the reinstatement of property, rights, privileges, honor, and citizenship. Female members, in particular, played prominent roles in crafting these appeals by offering persuasive arguments, soliciting testimony, and providing documents and eyewitness testimony. This paper examines women's restitution petitions filed in Buenos Aires and Córdoba, two of the country's largest provinces. The first part focuses on the period between 1829 and 1852, when women first took the bold risk of communicating with the Rosas state. In doing so, women drew from a variety of long-standing legal, political, and cultural relationships and practices. Claims to dowry rights and property became the most often cited reason for restitution. However, women made significant pronouncements about the role of the authoritarian state and the rights of citizens. Women's arguments were persuasive because authorities, especially in Córdoba, granted most of these requests. After Rosas's overthrow in 1852, women shifted their strategies and filed lawsuits against rosista jurists, military officials, soldiers, and politicians, arguing that they had exceeded the boundaries of their authority. Focusing on women's supplications during times of war provides a new understanding about Argentina's history. Scholars tend to focus intently on the authoritarian and repressive characteristics of nineteenth century regimes and go so far as to argue that these were endemic or rooted in Argentina's political culture. This study, however, demonstrates that political rehabilitation occurred more frequently than previously acknowledged and that women were vital in this process.