Between revolution, power, and liberty: Continuity and change in family, gender, and society in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1776-1870

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact of independence on society in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by looking at family relations and the state in the late colonial and early-national periods. The state and the family frequently interacted in courts where parents, children, and spouses converged to settle civil disputes. This project focuses on marriage conflict cases (disensos), child custody cases, divorce cases, as well as newspapers and literature of the times to study societal attitudes regarding patriarchal power, free will, romantic love, socio-racial differences, and the role of women. Strong legal and societal traditions perpetuated continuities in porteno family life and society from the late colonial into the national period. Underneath those continuities, however, important changes emerged. Revolutionary wars, liberal ideology, and the necessities of building a new nation created ruptures that weakened (though by no means destroyed) patriarchal authority. Children had more freedom to marry the mate of their choice, despite social and racial differences. Attitudes towards women also changed and they had more space to maneuver in society after independence. Porteno families, and society in general, were moving closer to what is considered "modern." The revolutionary era was not just a symbolic and rhetorical movement. Rather, it ushered in important processes of change that shaped the future of the Argentine nation.