A hanging or the brothel: some alternatives for the indigenous women allocated in Buenos Aires, 1883

Abstract

In contrast to the propaganda legitimating the allocation of indigenous women, which spread stories of favored "little Indian women" benefiting from their captivity, we find in the sources stories of extreme need, begging, subjugation, as well as individual rebellions, successful and failed escapes, and at a larger scale, a fierce transgenerational fight to bring their people back together. Here, we analyze a suicide case and others of sexual abuse and exploitation. The main source is about a woman allocated at a private residence in Buenos Aires who committed suicide. By contrasting the aforementioned file with other documents, we learn about the exposure to abuse suffered by these indigenous women, the contradictory ideas around their motherhood in the public debate and among the promoters of these allocations, and the existence of brothels housing these recently allocated chinas in the downtown area of Buenos Aires city (República Argentina) in 1883.