Abstract

DE MARCO, Celeste. Sons of sin or of no one: A story of child abuse, community and the press in 1920s rural Northern Patagonia. Rev. Pilquen. secc. cienc. soc. [online]. 2021, vol.24, n.3, pp.64-78. ISSN 1851-3123.

Between 1927-1928, Carmen de Patagones (Province of Buenos Aires) was shocked by the appearance of a 14-year-old farmhand who horrified the town to its very core with his sordid story of abuse and captivity. By examining this particular case, this study aims to reveal some of the (mis)adventures of rural childhood in Argentina s Northern Patagonia. Using a microanalytical approach centered on content analysis, this paper reconstructs the events and arguments attributed to the protagonists and their actions by the local press, which transformed plot twists into an extraordinary news article, in order to reveal that, in addition to presenting common social discourses about minority and child abandonment, the case also sheds light on the conditions and scarcities of rural childhoods marked by orphanhood, neglect and obscurity.

Keywords : Minority; Childhood; Press; Rural; North Patagonia.

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