FORMER INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES. XVIII AND XIX CENTURIES

June edition FORMER INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES. XVIII AND XIX CENTURIES Cristian Redi 0 0 University Torcuato Di Tella , Buenos Aires , Argentina This paper constitutes a part of deeper research whose object of study are the former inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires. Men and women come in spotlight when studying the basic needs of the population such as job, housing and family. With the passing of time the success or failure in the reproduction and settling (unwanted pregnancy, lack of stable income) as well as structural problems (high infant mortality rates, militarization) caused a series of adaptations in families that would lead to the acquisition of particular characteristics. Although census permit to identify population; in order to investigate the causes, changes and adaptations in the family forms in time I have used two analytical categories: amparo and desamparo. As well as a crossed genealogical model of analysis among the homes considered in the population records (1833 and 1855) Since there is not much research on former inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires, this paper focuses on them, as an attempt to get a closer insight into the ancestors. Even though data are available related to native population, they did not constitute an object of study for Argentina historiography. It will not be until the nineteen nineties that a sustained development of research on family and immigration focusing on the importance of demographic problems will begin. This paper is part of a larger investigation of the first inhabitants of Buenos Aires, those pioneer families registered between ends of eighteenth century and the first half of the Former inhabitants; amparo; settling; genealogical analysis - nineteenth century; period in which an articulation of factors would progressively modify the structure of the homes as well as the family life cycle of its members. In order to identify the causes, the changes and adaptations in the family forms through time, I have employed two categories of analysis: amparo (protection) and its opposite, desamparo (lack of protection). The contrast, the first associated with settling1 and the latter related to reproduction2 allowed me to consider native men and women. Shelter and lack of shelter are related to the basic needs of the population. Being sheltered or unsheltered depended on having a safe income, own a home or an extended family to fall back. Through and articulation of factors, a family or an individual could be included in either category, staying longer or less time in it. For instance, Jos Luis Moreno (1965) understands that by the end of the eighteenth century having a family and developing a low occupation entailed an implicit riski. On the other hand, even though there are many degrees of poverty, depending on temporary1 Settling relates to a stable income and the access to a home of ones one, that is to say with definitive rooting. Jobs and renting a house could have ended up, because of lack of safe income, in the loss of itii. Thus because of not having relatives to whom resort, families were forced to make extreme decisions. Some of those involved abandonment of children; unwanted pregnancy (above that there existed abandonment of bodies in the streets) leading to the rising of a social assistance system which in its beginnings focused on womeniii. Furthermore, as the lawsuits that I have analyzed as well as certain basic aspects of reproduction show; that progenitors given the impossibility of getting a safe income and thus a home were forced to give away their children in order to abandon the city. In the submission contracts we can see that once carried out, progenitors left commonly to ranches looking for a job. In relation to founding children, in the periodo1779-1838iv, an average of 6% of those born alive was housed in the Casa de Expsitos3. Moreover in 1837, 29% of children born alive died before reaching their 1st birthdayv. If we add to child abandonment the infant mortality rates registered in the period , it is possible to get an idea of the importance that desamparo had for the former inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires. To this situation we should add the effects created by the raising of troops. The members of the families in Buenos Aires were entering a period marked by the the British expeditions, the 1 Settling relates to a stable income and the access to a home of ones one, that is to say with definitive rooting. 2 By Reproduction I mean not only the capacity to conceive but also the transformation of food, the making of clothes, alphabetizing children, houseworking, household heading. 3 It is not possible to calculate the number of those given to step families, even though the number would be larger than the one of the exposed children. struggle for independence, the conflicts with the caudillos of the Revolution, the struggle between Unitarians y Federals; quarrels in response to the new caudillismo caused by the confrontations with Buenos Aires and finally the segregation of Buenos Aires from the of the Confederation in the decade of 1850. These actions would cause an important decline in the number of native men thus affecting the present and future domestic organizations. Among the marriages or complete de facto marital unions (couples with children), the absence of men turned women into the household heads and workers. Even though the desamparo and militarization had a strong impact on the reproduction, the absence of jobs that support the geographical mobility of the native population in addition to the low geographical mobility of women have allowed me to take into account factors that would contrarily collaborated with the settling of the population. In the first place, the accented imbalance between the sexes turned native women into a means of rooting for the foreign population. It is not possible to doubt of the natural function that native women of any territory fulfill. As mentioned earlier, the militarization provoked a strong decrease in the male population as the age group and sex data indicates where we can see that among the men between 15 to 54 years old the masculinity relation was of 52.4, that is to say 52 men every 100 women4. (Place Table 1 here) The men that survived were endogamous, nevertheless their low number left a number of Buenos Aires women (white, mestizo and brown) who in the face of the foreigners uprooting became a direct means to the rooting of the population.vi Hernn Otero (2001) approaches the problem by expressing [Among] the native population men were more endogamous than women. This difference allowed native women to be the ones that related through marriage with foreign men, thus creating/establishing the bridge between both groups.vii Bridges connect two shores that is why we should consider the space, the rootedness. Former female inhabitants of Buenos Aires, by relating to an immigrant, linked the foreign upr (...truncated)