Montonereando: A Look from La Rioja Folklore about the Actions of the Chacho and the Popular Sectors of La Rioja, during the Process of Formation and National Organization 1853-1863

Abstract

The study of the process of formation and organization of the Argentine national state offers us aconflictual framework formed by various components that, in turn, integrated and were related to thematerial and symbolic structures of the social sectors in question. Of these sectors, the collective andpolitical participation of La Rioja montoneras, led by the caudillo Ángel Vicente, El Chacho, Peñaloza,was one of the last remnants of the federal project in the period of 1853-1863, which we study in thiswork through the analysis of manifestations of popular folklore culture. The starting point is the critiqueof mitrista/sarmientina history, which, while maintaining a historiographical work based on certaininterests, meant the marginalization, omission and vandalization of those sectors, in this case thepopular people of Rioja, in liberal history. Based on this position and the proposed objectives, theanalyses and interpretations of the representations of Rioja’s grassroots sectors as historical sources,take into account the social experience and concretize an approach to a national history that makesvisible the actions and voices of the Rioja women who accompanied the Chacho in the various gesturessurrounding the conflict of the national organization.