Abstract

LENTON, Diana Isabel; PIAGGI, Luis Angel; SELDES, Verónica  and  SALAS, Isabel Del Valle. Disputes over territory during the national and provincial state conformation. The battle of Quera and the demonization of indigenous people. Cuad. Fac. Humanid. Cienc. Soc., Univ. Nac. Jujuy [online]. 2016, n.49, pp.249-270. ISSN 1668-8104.

Categorizations on indigenous claims occurred in Jujuy's highlands averaging the second half of nineteenth century, which triggered Battles of Abra de la Cruz and Quera, led to a series of arguments and justificatory discourses about the actions that provincial and national States deployed on the rebel indigenous populations. This fact contributed to their submission and compulsory incorporation to the nationalization and cultural - territorial homogenization project, accompanying the process of setting up of Argentina "national" identity.           As part of an interdisciplinary research project entitled "Social memory, identity and resistance. Indian question in the Puna of Jujuy in the process of nation - state building (Puna Campaign 1874-1875)", we aimed to analyze the process of indigenous land claims' demonization in that context. Based on primary and secondary sources, we recorded the employment of the communists label to refer to whom demanded for collective ancestral lands. This process of re-signification that local elites did of the ir demands, associated the features attributed to the indigenous, exotic and dangerous, with communal ideology, and political European context.           The interviews show, among other results, the validity and redefinition in collective memory of the circumstances of the defeat of the rebels, and tensions between different interpretations of the facts, fed by the blanket of silence that lasted a century. At present, various militant organizations seek to revitalize indigenous memory, along with projects of territorial reinforcement

Keywords : Puna (Highlands), ; territorial demands; demonization; State Nation; Battle of Quera.