Leaving the tobacco properties and settling again. The case of tobacco workers from Salta (Argentina)

AGUERO GALA

Estocolmo

Congreso; Biennal European Association of Anthropology; 2018

European Association of Anthropology

Mobility is a dynamic intrinsic to rural spaces, mainly of workers who move seasonally through the tobacco properties. In a current context of urbanization, a historical perspective is essential to understand the current social dynamics of the arrival of new inhabitants and the displacements of the former ones, since these are inscribed in processes of long duration.In the case of El Encón (Argentina) tobacco properties have been disappearing since 1980 in the context of an economic reconversion and the advance of the urbanization of a capital city that expands on its borders. However, an economic or urban perspective is not enough to understand the complexity of this socio-spatial reconfiguration process. Here we propose a work in historical perspective, which shows the ways in which the space of the property has been constructed -as a physical and as a social space-, as a starting point to understand its current disappearance.In this sense, the property is defined more precisely as a social configuration. There, the workers not only worked, but lived with their families as part of a agreement with the owner. The properties began to close in 1980 and this process culminated in 2014 with the conversion of the last property into a private neighborhood. In this context, it is interesting to inquire into the reasons why the former workers are re-settling staying in the locality and in what way their personal trajectory of mobility affects these choices.