Building the State from the Outside: The 1868 Cholera Epidemic and Health Networks in Northwestern Argentina

The 1860s were a watershed moment for the Argentine state. Following decades of civil war between federalists and centralists and the dictatorial era of Rosas, the 1860s began with the victory of the province of Buenos Aires over the interior provinces and closed with the culmination of the Paraguayan War (1865-1870). Within the literature, the 1860s are presented as a decade in which the consolidation of the state rapidly accelerated through the formation of an army and economic revitalization through railroads, industry, and population growth.

This paper centers on the question: what happens when we analyze the state, governance, and state actors in the peripheries of the nation-state. In this presentation, I will focus on the 1868 cholera epidemic that unfolded in the northwestern region of Argentina and the responses it generated within the context of the Paraguayan War. The war was originally foreseen to last no more than three months. By 1868, into its third year, the war had siphoned supplies, personnel, and funds. The continued need for soldiers pressed the state to forcibly enlist soldiers from the interior. Possible recruits employed concerns over their health and the economic impact of their death by the war or disease, others promoted direct revolt against conscription. The eventual outbreak of the epidemic in the northwest created difficulties at the regional and national level. In the absence of federal oversight, the provinces created public health networks to respond to the epidemic.

Based on a reading of administrative sources, newspapers, memoirs, and writings from the National Folklore Survey, I argue that prominent representatives of the state, like the centralist caudillo Antonio Taboada, used these networks as a means of repairing the relationship between the interior and the state following the tensions over the war and fears of the epidemic.