Tensions, relationships and ruptures. Ranqueles and unitario refugees in the Southern Border of Córdoba (1836-1851)

Abstract

The paper examines the connections between the social and the interethnic conflict in the Southern Border of Córdoba (Argentine Confederation) between 1836 and 1851. It does so based on an analysis of the relations between the Ranquel indigenous groups and the unitarios who sought refuge in the tolderías of the Mamil Mapú, in the central pampa. It claims that these relations would have limited the exercise of territorial sovereignty by the Government of Cordoba as the forces that moved from the interior involved the depopulation of the southern border causing the resettlement of its inhabitants in safer areas within the same Cordoba jurisdiction. The study is based on the documentation of the Government Fund of the Historical Archive of the Province of Cordoba (AHPC) and the Secretariat of Rosas of the General Archive of the Nation (AGN). It also takes into consideration the Memoirs of Colonel Manuel Baigorria and the former captive Santiago Avendaño, as well as the Provincial Censuses of 1822 and 1840.

Keywords: Southern Border of Cordoba, Ranquel indigenous groups, unitario refugees, articulation.