The letter said that my wife had died.Bigamy in Argentina in the era of Mass Migration.

BJERG MARIA

Chicago

Congreso; 41st Meeting of the Social Science History Association; 2016

Social Science History Association

Among the massive wave of immigrants arriving in Buenos Aires in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century, Andresa Barrachina and Rafaela Trovetto -the protagonists of the stories told in this chapter- came searching for their husbands, discovered they had committed the crime of bigamy, and sought justice in Argentinian courts. Their trajectories illustrate how emotional content pervades transnational relationships and, more significantly, allow us to glimpse into the multiple meanings of love and its mutations into a myriad of other -less positive- feelings. In the context of migration and family -a site of intimacy and affection, but also one of disagreement, contest, deceit and heartbreak-, the experience of bigamists and betrayed spouses unveiled the complexities of leaving one?s family and of being left behind.