Pulperías and Contraband Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires Province

Author(s): Richard W. Slatta

Source: The Americas, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jan., 1982), pp. 347-362
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/980726
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PULPERIAS AND CONTRABAND CAPITALISM
IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY
BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE*

HEpulperia,a countrystore and tavern,stood withthe estancia

as the most important socio-economic institutions of the
Argentine pampa. The store served multiple social and
commercial functions (both licit and illicit) and survived into the
twentieth century despite virulent verbal attacks and calls for legislative
restriction from the colonial era on. Some commentators lauded the
pulperia as the outpost of civilization on the savage frontier and
projected the pulpero or proprietor as civilization's lonely representative
in a barbarian world. He supposedly embodied patriotism, culture, and
free enterprise in a hostile, alien environment of anti-social, localistic,
unlettered gauchos-the itinerant horsemen of the pampas. Evidence
weighs heavily in the opposite direction; however, and the pulpero of fact
rather than myth functioned as a contraband capitalist exploiting the
landless rural masses and preying upon ranchers whose livestock
provided the goods for illicit trade. Far from encouraging culture and
civilization on the vast pampa, the pulperia housed excessive drinking
and gambling, prostitution, and served as an arena for violent, often
fatal, knifefights.'

*The author thanks the SSRC, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Fulbright-Hays
Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Program for financial support.

I
Jorge Alberto Bossio, Historia de laspulperias (Buenos Aires, 1972),pp. 243-244, 247; James R.
Scobie, Revolution on the Pampas: A Social History ofArgentine Wheat,1860-1910(Austin, 1964),
p. 62. For a laudatory view of the country store, see Le6n Bouch6, Las pulperias: mojdn civilizador
(Buenos Aires, 1970), passim.

347

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348 ARGENTINE PULPERiAS

The origin of the word "pulperia,"like that of the term "gaucho"and

others relating to the pampa, remains a subject of debate. The polemic
divdes into two opposing camps--Americanist and Hispanist-each
with probing investigations and a battery of experts cited for support.
Americanists, emphasizing New World over Iberian influences in the
formation of Latin American culture, hold that the term derives from
indigenous roots. They cite the word pulque, used in New Spain to
describe liquor fermented from the juice of the agave, and the Mapuche
term pulct , which also refers to liquor, as the likeliest antecedents for
pulperia. Liquor has constituted a staple commodity of pulperia sales
since the earliest records of the institution. Hispanists, on the other hand,
trace the term back to a Latin root-pulpa. According to this etymology,
the store evoled from a small stand where fruitjuices were sold and hence
fruit pulp found. As with most etymological debates, definitive
resolution is unlikely, but the term pulperia dates from at least the
sixteenth century.2
Regardless of its origin, by the nineteenth century the pulperia
representedan influential if humble institution on the pampa. Enjoying a
monopoly over many necessities and consumer items in rural areas, the
pulperia wielded economic power over the gaucho masses. As one of the
few gathering points on the pampa, the store also served vital social
functions. In his publication of "picturesque illustrations" of Buenos
Aires and Montevideo published in 1820, the English painter Emeric
Essex Vidal recorded a description of a typical country store-this one
located five leagues southwest of Buenos Aires:
Thepulperiasare most miserable,dirtyhovels,wheremaybe boughta little
canna[sic, cafia, sugarcane liquor],or spiritdistilledfromthe sugarcane,
cigars, salt, onions perhaps,and so near the city bread,but fartherin the
interior,this last articleis not to be procured;so thatthe traveller,unlesshe
carrybreadwith him, must live, like the country-people,on beef alone.
Thesehuts havetwo rooms,one servingas a shop, the otherfor a lodging-
room. They are generallybuilt on a rising ground, and have a piece of
coloured stuff hung out on a bamboo by way of sign. They are also the
posthouses,havingsome dozensof horsesgrazingin the bottomnearthem.3
Descriptions by other travellers attest to the generally squalid, unkempt,
unprepossessing appearance of the rural stores. Toward the end of the

2Bossio, Pulperias, pp. 13-15, 18-19, 257-261.

3Emeric Essex Vidal, Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, consisting of
Twenty-four Views:Accompanied with descriptions of the scenery, and of the costumes, manners,
&c. of the inhabitants of those cities and their environs (London, 1820; reprinted Buenos Aires,
1944), p. 67.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 349

century, the Scottish traveler and raconteur Robert B. Cunninghame

Graham penned a description of the pulperia not unlike that of Vidal. He
recalled:
a low, squat,mud-builthouse,surroundedby a shallowditchon whichgrew
stunted cactuses, and with paja brava sticking out of the abode of the
overhangingeaves. Brown,sun-baked,dusty-looking,it standsup, an island
in the sea of wavinghard-stemmedgrasses....4
Inside the humble shack resided the pulpero and his family surrounded
by his wares. Pulperos, in the eyes of many observers, suitably matched
their wretched surroundings. Jose Antonio Wilde found most to be of the
lower class, with little education beyond the rudiments of arithmetic, and
of indifferent dress. They resembled their rustic patrons in appearance,
clad in shirt sleeves with no jacket and wearing the traditional chiripd (a
baggy, diaper-like cloth tucked between the legs and held in place by a
stout belt or tirador) instead of trousers. By the 1880s, the pulpero,
according to an Englishman living on the pampa, was still "usually a
coarse, unwashed, unkempt, podgy man, scantily attired in shirt,
trousers, and alpargatas" or crude sandals. During the nineteenth
century, Basques, Italians, and other foreigners largely superceded
creoles and Spaniards as pulperos in the countryside. Foreigners also
served as clerks and merchants in the towns growing up in many parts of
the pampa.5
As Vidal noted, the pulperia generally consisted of two small rooms.
The saloon or public section held but a few crude chairs fashioned from
hide and bones and perhaps some wooden tables and benches. A sturdy
counter topped by a grill of wooden or more often iron bars separated the
saloon from the pulpero and his wares. This iron grate protected the
pulperia's stock of goods from theft and the owner from attack by irate or
drunken patrons. Cunninghame Graham described the significance of
the bars and the variety of merchandise sold in the store.
Behindthe woodengrating,sign in the pampaof the eternalhatredbetwixt
those who buy and thosewho sell, some shelvesof yellowpine,on whichare
piled ponchos from Leeds, a ready-madecalzoncillos,alpargatias,figs,

4 Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, "La Pulperia," in: Thirteen Stories (London, 1900),
reprinted in The South American Sketches of R. B. Cunninghame Graham, ed. John Walker
(Norman, 1978), p. 62. For a commentary on Cunninghame Graham and the Walker edition, see
Richard W. Slatta, "A Scottish Hidalgo Among Gauchos," Amdricas, 32:9 (September 1980), pp.
46-47. Other descriptions of pulperias appear in Bossio, Pulperias, pp. 48-51.
5Thomas A. Turner, Argentina and the Argentines: Notes and Impressions of a Five Year's
Sojourn in the Argentine Republic, 1885-1890 (London, 1892), p. 200; Bossio, Pulperias, pp. 62-63,
200; Martiniano Leguizam6n, Recuerdos de la tierra (Buenos Aires, 1896; 2nd. ed., 1957), p. 217.

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350 ARGENTINE PULPERiAS

sardines,raisins,bread-for breadupon the pampaused to be eatenonly at

pulperias--saddlecloths, and in the cornerthe botilleria,wherevermuth,
absinthe,squarefacedgin, Carl6n,and vino seco stand in a row, with the
barrelof Braziliancafia, on the top of which the pulpero ostentaciously
paradeshis pistol and knife.6
William Henry Hudson, a skilled Anglo-Argentine naturalist and writer,
grew up in the counties of Quilmes and Chascomiis in Buenos Aires
province. In his volume of childhood reminiscences, Far A way and Long
Ago, he enumerated the provisions of a pulperia during his youth in the
1840s.
People of the surroundingcountry came to buy and sell, and what they
broughtto sell was "theproduceof the country"-hides and wool andtallow
in bladders,horsehairin sacks, and native cheeses. In returnthey could
purchaseanythingtheywanted-knives, spurs,ringsfor horse-gear,clothing,
yerba mate and sugar;tobacco, castor-oil, salt and pepper,and oil and
vinegar,and such furnitureas they required-iron pots, spits for roasting,
cane-chairs,and coffins.7
A folkoric poem titled "La pulperia"likewise listed the sundries arrayed
on shelves behind the bars and offered for sale at the country store.
Viveres,loza, botellas
Cuchillos,ollas y jarros
Asadoresy sartenes
Hachas,tenazosy clavos,
Medicinasy otras drogas
G6neros,ropas,calzados,
Batonadurasde plata
Estribos,aperas,lazos
Y otra multitudde objetos
Heterogeneosy raros.8
Riding and working equipment, liquor, tobacco, and yerba mate
composed the most important and popular items sold. The latter two
commodities constituted the gaucho's "vices" and he considered them
indispensible. Thomas A. Turner noted in 1892 that "Argentines are
great smokers. Everone smokes-from the little urchin newly breeched
to the old man tottering on the brink of the grave."9 Smoking took on the
further significance of marking the true man much as did horsemanship

6Cunninghame Graham in Walker, "Pulperia," p. 63; Bossio, Pulperias, p. 49.

7 William Henry Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life (New York,
1918), p. 19.
8 Manuel F. LAngara,Los gauchos: Cuentos y costumbres de estos habitantes de las pampas de
Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1878; 1943), p. 13.
9Turner, Argentina, pp. 137-138.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 351

or skill with the lasso or bolas. General William Miller, crossing the
pampas in 1818, declined a cigar offered him by a gaucho. Another
gaucho opined that the general "knows absolutely nothing; why, he
cannot even smoke."'0 For the gaucho, smoking marked the "civilized"
man. Mate (Ilex paraguariensis), a plant of the holly family, furnished
another essential vicio for the gaucho and for most Argentines. As
William MacCann noted at mid-century, Argentines "usually take mate
early in the morning; indeed they are drinking it throughout the entire
day." " The caffeine-rich beverage provided one of the main elements in
pampean nutrition-the other being quick-cooked beef with lots of fat
(asado). Gauchos purchased these necessities, grown in northern
Argentina, southern Brazil, and Paraguay, at the country store and
enjoyed beef free for the taking.
Besides supplying the meager basics of pampean life, the pulperia also
served as a social center amid the solitude and isolation of the great
Argentine plain. The extensive nature of pampean ranching and the
persistence of latifundia dictated the dispersion of rural society and low
population densities. Rural dwellers found temporary respite from the
solitary plain at the country store. A guitar usually hung from the store
wall, and a patron would entertain with a few plaintive folksongs. Vidal
found little to commend gaucho music during his visit in 1819:
Everypulperiais providedwitha guitar,and whoeverplayson it is treatedat
the expense of the company. These musiciansnever sing any other than
yarabys(yaravies),or Peruviansongs, whichare the most monotonousand
dismal in the world. The tone is lamentable,and they always turn upon
disappointedlove, and loversdeploringtheirpainsin the deserts;but never
treatof lively, agreeable,or even indifferentsubjects.

A few years later another Englishman, Robert Proctor, noted that

almostall the peasantsin thiscountryplay on that instrument.Themusicof
the Pampasis dull, melancholy,and monotonous,butitsjingle in thesewild
deserts,in the absenceof bettersounds, is not unpleasant.12

10General William Miller, Memoirs of General Miller, in the Service of the Republic of Peru, 2
vols., ed. John Miller (London, 2nd. ed., 1829), I, 161-162.
11William MacCann, Two Thousand Miles' Ride Through the Argentine Provinces, 2 vols.
(London, 1853; reprinted, New York, n.d.), I, 24; Daniel Granada, Resefia histdrico-descriptivade
antiguas y modernas supersticiones del Rio de la Plata (Montevideo, 1896), pp. 219-234; Amaro
Villanueva, El mate: Arte de cebar (Buenos Aires, 1960), pp. 31-34.
12Vidal, Picturesque Illustrations, p. 69; Robert Proctor, Narrative of a Journey across the
Cordilleraof the Andes, and of a Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of Peru, in the Years1823 and
1824 (London, 1825), p. 11.

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352 ARGENTINE PULPERiAS

While many gauchos could strum a few chords and sing folksongs, the
skilled payador or troubadour stood in a class by himself. He excelled at
improvisational, poetic, musical duels (payadas) that offered
consummate entertainment and allowed participants to exhibit the full
range of their musical and creative talents. Quick wit, double entendre,
and clever repartee distinguished the best of the payadores.13According
to El Correo Ilustrado of September 1, 1877, a wandering singer could
always find food, drink, and shelter in exchange for a few welcome tunes.
The pulpero welcomed the payador whose presence would draw more
patrons to hear the performance.
The pulperia offered gossip, news, and companionship in addition to
entertainment. Rural people learned of current events from folksongs
(often heavily laced with political commentary) and from an occasional
literate person who could read aloud from the newspaper. A ranch
worker would find out which estancias were hiring seasonal day laborers
for round up, branding, shearing, and other tasks. A rancher could
perhaps discover the whereabouts of stray livestock or learn what prices
his animals should bring at Liniers market in Buenos Aires. The gaucho's
deep-seated individualism precluded the pulperia from becoming the
true social club, but it did offer an arena for brief, intermittent contact.
The short reunion of gauchos for singing, talking, drinking, and
gambling at the rural tavern marked a distinct departure from the
customary solitary, migratory existence of pampean horsemen.14
Where liquor flows cheaply and plentifully, violence frequently erupts,
and the pulperia was no exception. Government officials from the
eighteenth century on complained of the drunkenness and fighting that
characterized taverns in town and country. Fights often developed out of
disputes over cards and other popular games of chance. As MacCann
observed, the gauchos' "chief amusement is card-playing, and they are
confirmed gamblers." Truco, the favorite card game, included much
bluffing, witty table talk, and hidden signalling between players that
provided a forum for clever repartee so popular among the pampa's
inhabitants. Gauchos also played taba wherein participants threw the

13Domingo Gaustino Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants;or,
Civilization and Barbarism, trans. Mrs. Horace (Mary) Mann (New York, 1868; reprinted, 1971),
pp. 41-45; F61ixColuccio, Diccionariofolkldrico argentino, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1964), II, 356-361.
14Miguel A. Lima, El estanciero prdctico: Manual completo de ganaderia (Buenos Aires, 1876),
p. 233; Bossio, Pulperias, pp. 56-57.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 353

knuckle bone of a cow, with the resulting heads or tails (suerte or culo)
determining the winner.'5
All gauchos carried knives. As Ezequiel Martinez Estradaexplained in
his provocative X-Ray of the Pampa,
it makes possible food wheneverneeded, shelter from the sun and rain,
tranquilityduring sleep, faithfulnessin love, assurancealong dangerous
roads,and confidencein oneself.

The knife to the gaucho was "not part of the costume but part of the body
itself. It pertains more to the man than to his apparel, more to his
character than to his social status."16Numerous visitors to the pampa
attested to the ubiquitous and dangerous presence of the facdn or long
sword-like knife on the pampa. In the early 1820s, Robert Proctor noted
that gauchos stuck their facones into the pulperia counter when gambling
at truco or taba. If provoked, however, they would grab their weapons,
wrap a poncho around an arm as a shield, and commence a murderous
duel.
Theydo not grasptheirknivesas we shoulddo, butplacingtheendof the heft
in the palm of the hand,they stretchtheirfingersand thumbdowntowards
the blade;theythusbringthe pointin a straightlinewiththeeye,andfenceas
with foils.7

Police records abound with cases of assault, injury, and death from
pulperia knife fights. Police in Bahia Blanca in 1850 arrested a Tandil
man, Mariano Santa Cruz, in a store run by Lucia Varela. After arriving
in town some months before driving a herd of cattle, Santa Cruz
remained in Bahia Blanca unemployed. Local police charged him with
beating a horse in the door of the pulperia and with cutting another man
seriously on the hand in a drunken brawl. Convicted and sentenced to a

15Ricardo E. Rodriguez Molas, "La pulperia rioplatense en el siglo XVII (ensayo de historia
social y econ6mica)," Universidad, 49 (1961), pp. 124-127;Bossio, Pulperias, p. 32; MacCann, Two
Thousand Miles' Ride, I, 47; Coluccio, Diccionario, II, 472-473; Granada, Resenia,p. 272; Langara,
Los gauchos, pp. 16-19; Jorge Paez, Del truquiflor a la rayuela; Panorama de los juegos y
entretenimientos argentinos (Buenos Aires, 1971), pp. 35-42; Octavio P. Alais, Libro criollo
(Costumbres nacionales) (Buenos Aires, 1903), pp. 102-103.
16Ezequiel Martinez Estrada, X-Ray ofthe Pampa, trans. Alain Swietlicki (Austin, 1971),pp. 52-
53.
17Proctor, Narrative, p. 16; Richard W. Slatta, "Rural Criminality and Social Conflict in
Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires Province," Hispanic American Historical Review, 60:3 (August
1890), p. 464; Alexander Caldcleugh, Travels in South America during the Years 1819-20-21;
Containing an Account of the Present State of Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and Chile, 2 vols. (London,
1825), I, 179-180.

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354 ARGENTINE PULPERiAS

term at the central prison at Santos Lugares near Buenos Aires, Santa
Cruz escaped enroute across the pampa.'s
Drunken or enraged patrons most commonly assaulted one another,
but pulperos and government officials occasionally suffered attacks. In
1852, Segundo Lescano killed Luis Rodriguez, a pulpero in the county of
Vecino, and fled. The killer did not rob the store so the precise motivation
for the assault remains unclear. A decade later, a rural official met death
at a pulperia in rural Tandil, the "Estrella del Sud." Cornelio Benites
knifed to death the alcalde of Nogales de Arroyo Chico on New Year's
Eve, 1861. The incident, according to witnesses, followed a "discussion"
between the two men.'9 Such attacks on a pulpero or official provoked
massive manhunts for the perpetratorwho generally fled to the sparcely
inhabited Indian frontier to escape prosecution.
Liquor, a knife, and the pulperia formed the essential elements of
many rural homocides. Manuel Viliarino, a Chivilcoy rancher,suggested
in 1856 that alcohol be banned from country stores. He asserts that 99
percent of "homocides, woundings and disorders"occurred at pulperias
which he termed "veritable pigsties of immorality and crime." Eighty of
every one hundred gauchos, according to Viliarino, bore scars inflicted
during knife fights at pulperias. Juan Hannah, an estanciero from
Ranchos, seconded these sentiments and added that the country taverns
also corrupted rural youths with their variety of vices and violence.20
Provincial criminal records bear out the opinions of the ranchersalbeit
in more temperate form. Drunken brawls at pulperias figure prominently
among reported cases of death and injury with knives-and later in the
century with firearms. Carlos Lamee, an agronomist for the provincial
government, condemned the widespread abuse of alcohol in ruralsociety
and decried it as the root of most crimes committed. The rural expert
particularly lamented the destructive effect of excessive drinking and
gambling upon the ruralfamily-already a fragile, tenuous institution on
the pampa. Thomas A. Turner, an Englishman unsympathetic to
Argentina and the Argentines, charged that the "fearful beings" of the
countryside spent all their time "hangingabout the dreary pulperias"and

18Mauricio Diaz, letter of May 6, 1850, Bahia Blanca, legajo Juez de Paz de Azul, 9-4-4, Archivo
Hist6rico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires "Ricardo Levene," La Plata, (hereafter AHPBA).
19Justice of the Peace of Vecino to Felipe Vela, Justice of the Peace of Tandil, March 19, 1852,
"Policia 1852," Archivo Hist6rico Municipal de Tandil, (hereafter AHMT); Police report, legajo
1862, AHMT.
20Buenos Aires Province, Comisi6n de Hacendados del Estado de Buenos Aires, Antecedentesy
fundamentos del proyecto de cddigo rural (Buenos Aires, 1864), pp. 145, 151.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 355

"getting drunk at one pulperia and then riding away to the next." Even
horsemen too drunk to stand still managed to ride, according to the
Englishman.21Even observers more sympathetic to rural Argentina than
Turner found little to commend the country taverns.

Enterprisingpulperos utilized a variety of ploys to attract customers to

drink and trade at their establishments. The death of a small child, for
example, inspired a celebratory wake or velorio del angelito. The dead
child, according to Roman Catholic dogma, ascended directly into
heaven without sin; hence, country people gathered to drink, dance,
feast, and celebrate the event. A pulpero sometimes rented the tiny corpse
and placed it in his store to draw a large, festive crowd. The pulpero kept
the corpse cool to preserve it as long as possible and thereby prolong the
festivities and increase the profits.22

Women of easy virtue provided another attraction at many pulperias

that also functioned as brothels. Cunninghame Graham described the
prostitutes of one rural tavern.
Fromthe rush-thatched,mud-walledrancheriaat the back,the women,who
always haunt the outskirtsof a pulperia in the districtsknown as tierra
adentro, Indiansand semi-whites,mulatresses,and now and then a stray
Basqueor Italiangirl, turnedout, to sharethe quantitytheyconsideredlove
with all mankind.
But gin and politics,with horses'marks,accountsof fights,and recollec-
tions of the last revolution,kept men for the presentoccupiedwith serious
things,so thatthewomenwereconstrainedto sit andsmoke,drinkmate,plait
each other'shair (searchingit diligentlyall the while),and waituntilCarl6n
with vino seco, square-facedrum, cachaza,and the medicatedlong-wood
broth,whichon the pampapassesfor vinofrancs, hadmademensensibleto
their softercharms.23

The "itinerant madam" with her troupe of women also traveled the
countryside and stopped near pulperias. The arrival of their oxcart
signalled a fiesta of drinking and dancing. Gauchos, prostitutes, and
others would perform a wide range of traditional dances-the gato,
pericdn, zamacueca, triunfo, media caiia, and vidalita. After the dancing,

21See Juez de Crimen, 1872, AHPBA; Turner, Argentina,

p. 45; Carlos Lem6e, El paisano:
Reflexiones sobre la vida del campo (Buenos Aires, 1887), pp. 23, 30, 35-37; Alcides d'Orbigny,
Viajesa la Amirica meridional realizado de 1826 a 1833, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1945), II, 497-498.
22Alfredo Ebelot, La pampa, costumbres argentinas (Buenos Aires, 1943), pp. 13-16; Augusto
Ra61 Cortazar, Folklore argentino (Buenos Aires, 1959), pp. 199-238.
23Cunninghame Graham in Walker, "Pulperia," pp. 63-64; Bossio, Pulperias, p. 61.

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356 ARGENTINE PULPERIAS

men purchased candles of varying lengths that determined how long they
could remain with the women in small tents erected for the purpose.24
The gaucho, living in a chronically specie-short economy, usually paid
for drink, women, or supplies at the store with hides, wool, ostrich
feathers, animal grease, and other "fruitsof the country." In barteringfor
his meager necessities and "vices"he frequently became indebted to the
sharp-penciled pulpero who kept accounts with an arcane system of little
marks or rayas. The complex, non-standardized Spanish system of
weights and measures made deception simple and commonplace. Thus
the gaucho found his quantity of ostrich feathers or hides out going far
toward meeting his desired purchases. Recognizing the problem of
dishonest weights, the rural code of 1865 charged local authorities with
inspecting scales and measures at pulperias. Short weights or measures
could bring a fine of two thousand pesos.25The pulperia also functioned
as a pawnshop that extended the gaucho further credit but also denied
him some of his few possessions--spurs, quirt, and other riding gear,
lasso, bolas, poncho, and invaluable knife.26
Small wonder that when a rampaging horde of gauchos indiscrimi-
nately attacked immigrants on New Year's Day, 1872, in the southern
county of Tandil, two of their targets were foreign-owned stores. At the
establishment of an Englishman named Thompson, the nativistic mob
killed the clerks, William Gibson Smith, and his wife, Elena Brown
Smith, both in their mid-twenties, and William Sterling, another
employee. Further on, the xenophobes struck the unfortunate Basque
family of pulpero Juan Chapar and murdered him, his wife, two
daughters aged four and five, and a five-month old son. All had their
throats slit. Significantly, they also destroyed Chapar's account books
that recorded the mysterious marks indebting the rural native to the
foreign merchant. These marks-miniature symbols of the new
capitalistic ethic spreading across the pamp-exemplified the
dependence and exploited condition of the gaucho in the face of the most
immediate representativeof Argentina's burgeoning export capitalism-

24Edward Larocque Tinker, The Horsemen of the Americas and the Literature They Inspired
(Austin, 2nd, ed. rev., 1967),pp. 27-28; Alais, Libro criollo, pp. 123-124;Stephen Paullada, Rawhide
and Song: A Comparative Study of the Cattle Cultures of the Argentinian Pampa and the North
American Great Plains (New York, 1963), pp. 55-56, 154-161.
25Bossio, Pulperias, pp. 99-100, 240-241; Rural code reprinted in Aurelio Prado y Rojas, ed.,
Leyes y decretos promulgados en la Provincia de Buenos Aires desde 1810 d 1876, vol. 6 (Buenos
Aires, 1878), p. 545.
26Ricardo E. Rodriguez Molas, "Variaciones sobre la pulperia rioplatense," Revista de la
Universidad, 14 (May 1961), p. 139.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 357
the pulpero. The old days of unclaimed, unfenced rangelands and vast
herds of wild cattle and horses when nature's bounty belonged to all
equally for the taking had disappeared. A new ethic of private property,
contracts, and accounting ledgers ruled the pampa.27

Squeezing a few extra pesos with short measures and tricky book-
keeping and catering to the rural population's desire for women, liquor,
entertainment and basic necessities contributed only marginally to the
pulpero's total income. Most of his profit derived from illicit trade in
contraband pastoral goods purchased from gauchos and Indians-no
questions asked. A pulpero confided to Alfred Ebelot, a French engineer
working on the pampa in the 1870s, that "the sale of gin, boots, reins,
wares and everything the gaucho needs is not our true business. It serves
only as a pretext for our operations in wool and hides."28
Contraband trade grew in the Rio de la Plata region throughout the
seventeenth century and blossomed during the eighteenth. The
monopolistic Spanish trade system dictated that goods bound for the
region pass through Portobelo and Lima and then descend the long
overland route by mule and oxcart through Potosi, Salta, Tucumin, and
C6rdoba before finally arriving in Buenos Aires or other coastal cities. A
customs house established in 1622 at C6rdoba aspired to protect the rich
trade monopoly for Lima merchants. This costly, slow, and irregular
trade pattern invited abuse, and Rio de la Plata merchants and officials
skillfully found ways to circumvent restrictions. One merchant recorded
his method of secreting silver from Potosi to Europe during the mid-
seventeenth century.

Aftera voyageof fourmonthswithoxcarts,I happilyreachedthe Rio Lujan,

five leagues from BuenosAires, whereI met my partner,who had arrived
first. He broughtwithhima smalllaunchwhichwe usedto transportmostof
the silversecretlyto our ship.29
John Campbell, writing in 1741, described a common poly utilized by
ship captains to land and trade in contraband.

27Hugo Nario, Tata Dios: El misias de la Lltima montonera (Buenos Aires, 1976), pp. 102, 107,
119-120; Bossio, Pulperias, p. 242.
28Ebelot, La pampa,
p. 133.
29Jonathan C. Brown, A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776-1860 (Cambridge, 1979),
pp. 9-10, 21-26; G. D. Ramsay, English Overseas Trade During the Centuries of Emergence
(London, 1957), pp. 199-206; Sergio Villalobos R., Comercio y contrabando en el Rio de la Plata y
Chile, 1700-1811 (Buenos Aires, 1965), pp. 45-47, 97-100, 107-113;quote from James R. Scobie,
Argentina: A City and a Nation (New York, 2nd ed., 1971), p. 53.

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358 ARGENTINE PULPERIAS

Ships frequentlyapproachthe Spanish Coasts under Pretenceof wanting

Water,Wood, Provisions,or morecommonlyin orderto stop a Leak.The
first Thing that is done in such a Case, is to give Notice to the Governorof
theirgreat Distress,and as a full Proof thereof,to senda veryconsiderable
Present.Bythis MeansLeaveis obtainedto come on Shore,to erecta Ware-
house,andto unladethe Ship.... TheBusinessis effectuallycarriedon in the
Night by a Back-door,and the EuropeanGoods being taken out, Indigo,
Cochineal,Vinellos,Tobacco,andaboveall Barsof SilverandPiecesof Eight
are very exactly packedin the same Cases....30

Besides silver from Potosi, pastoral goods from the bountiful herds of
wild cattle and horses figured prominently among profitable contraband;
indeed, illicit trafficking formed the basis of fortunes. The frequent
appearance of the phrase "high and powerful contrabandist" in colonial
documents attests to the profitability and acceptability of illegal
commerce.3 Pulperos composed an important link in the contraband
trade network because of their proximity to the supply of livestock
products on the pampa. Purchasing goods from Indians and gauchos for
a fraction of their market value, pulperos could resell the hides, wool,
skins, and animal grease at a handsome profit to a "high and powerful
contrabandist" in Buenos Aires. The portefio merchant would then
exchange the produce of liquor and slaves from Brazilor industrial goods
from England. Contraband capitalism formed an important, active part
of the ruraleconomy and stood as a source of irritation to rancherswhose
cattle and sheep furnished the produce. Illicit trade constituted the basis
of fortunes for some pulperos who went on to become wealthy
landowners themselves.32
Pulperias volantes or itinerant stores proved especially active in
contraband activities. Traveling peddlers purchased hides and wool with
no concern for brands, ownership, or proper documents. Cries for the
abolition of itinerant stores accompanied persistent rancherdemands for
the prosecution of rustlers. Many estancieros owned pulperias on their
ranches, disliked the competition offered by traveling merchants, and
viewed the pulperias volantes as lightning rods attracting rustlers and
vagrants. Provincial Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829-1852), who
championed the interests of the ranching elite, issued a decree on

30John Campbell, A Concise History of Spanish America (London, 1741),pp. 278, 284-286, 316-
318, quoted in Madaline Wallis Nichols, The Gaucho: Cattle Hunter, Cavalryman, Ideal of
Romance (Durham, 1942; reprinted, New York 1968), pp. 29-30.
31Nichols, The Gaucho, p. 31.
32Rodriguez Molas, "Variaciones," pp. 139-141; Bossio, Pulperias, pp. 200-201.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 359

February 21, 1831, prohibiting the itinerant stores. The provinces of

Corrientes and Santa Fe passed similar prohibitions in 1833 and 1836
respectively, but the vastness of the great plain made enforcement
difficult and the peddlers continued their illicit traffic.33
Charges against the pulperias persisted after the overthrow of the
Rosista dictatorship in early 1852. On December 13, 1853, La Tribunaof
Buenos Aires editorialized that "mercachifles en la campafia" (rural
peddlers), operating without licenses, competed unfairly against
legitimate merchants and offered a ready market for ill-gotten produce.
On April 22, 1854, La Tribuna again complained that even though the
traveling stores had been forbidden, they continued to operate with
impunity in most parts of the province. The paper urged the vigorous
application of the law and the assessment of stringent fines for violation.
Two years later ranchers again voiced complaints in response to a
governmental inquiry about a proposed provincial ruralcode. Ignacio F.
Correas affirmed that wandering merchants served as the "principal
means by which stolen goods are introduced into the city." The
estanciero urged their abolition and found his sentiments seconded by
Venancio Casalins from Ranchos.34
Rancher demands for better protection from rustlers and
contrabanding peddlers took legal form in articles 43 through 47 and 294
through 301 of a comprehensive rural code enacted late in 1865. Article
43 required that anyone purchasing rural produce, whether a "neighbor
in the countryside, pulpero, peddler, or representative of some
commercial house from the city," maintain records of all transactions.
Rural officials could demand to inspect such records at any time. Articles
294 through 301 specifically regulated "stores and itinerant pulperias."
The code permitted traveling merchants to continue operating provided
that they obtain required licenses granted free of charge. Lack of the
necessary license could result in a fine of one thousand pesos, half to be
paid to an informer, if any. Itinerant peddlers could not sell liquor,
however, and could be assessed a fine of one-third the value of any
alcohol discovered among their wares. Article 301 required that
purchased hides bear the brand of the owner or the countermark of a
previous purchaser.35

33Justice of the Peace of Las Flores, Report of December 31, 1851,document 4, 21-2-4, Archivo
General de la Naci6n, Buenos Aires (hereafter AGN); Gast6n Gori, Vagos y mal eniretenidos:
Aporie al tema hernandiano (Santa Fe, 1951), p. 80.
34Buenos Aires Province, Comisi6n de Hacendados del Estado de Buenos Aires, Aniecedentes,
pp. 69, 170.
35Prado y Rojas, Leyes y decretos, pp. 509, 544-545.

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360 ARGENTINE PULPERiAS

Even the restrictions of the far reaching rural code failed to halt the
lucrative trade between pulperos and gauchos and Indians. A
Chascomiis newspaper, La Unidn del Sud, on August 25, 1872, repeated
the persistent charge that most peddlers were contrabandists who
encouraged livestock thefts by offering a ready market. Alvaro Barros, a
military commander on the southern frontier, reported that pampean
Indians had informed Provincial Governor Adolfo Alsina that pulperos
willingly purchases stolen goods. This open-minded and open-handed
entrepreneurshipencouraged Indians to raid frontier ranches and drive
away livestock.36 The Argentine Rural Society, organized in 1866 to
promote the interests of wealthy provincial ranchers, charged in mid-
1873 that "around pulperias that are multiplying in the countryside," one
finds hordes of rustlers that exist by stealing from neighboring
estancias.37
But the simple scenario of unscrupulous pulperos preying upon
hapless ranchers fails to encompass the complexities of pampean society.
Many estancieros owned pulperias operated by resident managers on
their vast holdings. Pampean latifundism dictated the wide dispersion of
the rural population so that a rancher-owned pulperia enjoyed a trade
monopoly over the surrounding countryside. The nearest neighboring
ranch and store might be several leagues distant. For example, in 1848,
the estate of Francisco Llera (Cafiada Grande ranch in the county of
Navarro) included among other things 220 cattle, 70 horses, orchards of
poplar and peach trees, and an adobe pulperia.38To the south in Tandil,
Antonio Nufies ran a pulperia in Arroyo Chico belonging to the wealthy
Senillosa family. In some cases estancieros and pulperos cooperated to
control the illegal trade in their region. Influential ranchers were
implicated in livestock rustling in many instances in Buenos Aires and
neighboring C6rdoba province. In 1873 members of the Argentine Rural
Society candidly admitted the collusion between wealthy ranchers and
government officials in the illicit hide traffic. Thus the dishonest pulpero
enjoyed the cooperation, support, and protection of powerful members
of rural society.39

36Alvaro Barros, Fronterasy territorios de las pampas del sur (Buenos Aires, 2nd. ed., 1975), pp.
95-98, 117-122.
37Anales de la Sociedad Rural Argentina, 7:8 (August 31, 1873), p. 257.
38Diario de la Tarde, February 1, 1848, p. 1 (Buenos Aires), copy in TribunalesCivil 1848, Letter
A, no. 57, Document 14, AGN.
39Document dated June 26, 1862, Copiador de notas del juez de paz de Tandil, 1862-1863,
AHMT; Police reports, 1862, AHMT; Slatta, "Rural Criminality," pp. 466-467; Silvio R. Duncan
Baretta and John Markoff, "Civilization and Barbarism: Cattle Frontiers in Latin America,"
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 20:4 (October 1978), p. 609.

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 RICHARD W. SLATTA 361

Jose Hernandez poetically delineated the illicit union of members of

the rural power structure in his epic poem of social protest, Martin
Fierro, published in 1872. Describing the sad plight of the forced recruit
in the frontier militia, Hernandez indicated the exploitation of soldiers
by the pulpero and military commander.
And we'd struggleback along the track
With our horseswindedsore.
Some ostrichfeatherswe might bringin,
Or if we werelucky, perhapsa skin,
That we'dtradefor what we neededmost,
With the rascalthat ran the store.
The Colonel'sbosom friendwas he,
And a thunderingbarefacedthief
He sold his goods at a sinful rate,-
Whenwe broughthim feathers'twasweightfor weight
Of tobacco or 'yerba';--everyoneknew
That he halvedwhat he made with the Chief.40
Pulperos shared common class interests with large landowners,
justices of the peace (often ranchers), and military commanders, who
shared a common desire to exploit the labor of the gaucho in a variety of
ways. Landowners required seasonal ranch workers to round up, brand,
castrate, and herd their livestock. Civil authorities needed the subjugated
gaucho as an obedient voter to support official candidates in rigged
elections. Military officers wanted the skilled cavalrymen to fight in
foreign and civil wars and particularly to defend the property of the
landed elite against Indian incursions on the long, vulnerable frontier.
Pulperos needed the gaucho to gather illicit goods (and suffer the gravest
risks) that provided the profitable goods for contraband trade.
On balance, the pulperia can be heralded as the vanguard of civili-
zation on the pampa only if one holds a cynical view of the values and
activities encompassed by civilization. Its essential economic function of
supplying the rude necessities of life to the rural population and of
rendering temporary respite from the isolation and solitude of the great
plain cannot be denied. Against these positive economic and social
services must be weighed the pulperia's central role in contraband
capitalism and as an arena for drunkenness, gambling, prostitution,
violence, and death. In offering a ready market for illegal pastoral goods,
the pulpero encouraged the lawlessness and thefts on the pampa that

4?Jos6 Hernandez, The Gaucho Martin Fierro, Adapted from the Spanish and Rendered into
English Verse by Walter Owen (Buenos Aires, 1960), pp. 31-32.

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362 ARGENTINE PULPERIAS

deeply troubled urban politicians in Buenos Aires. In response to the

problem and to the political influence of large landowners, portefio
politicans constructed a strangulating labyrinth of repressive legislation
directed against the gaucho not the pulpero. The full weight of the law
bore down upon the gaucho and doomed him to extinction by the latter
decades of the century.41 The pulpero's relationship to the gaucho in
nineteenth century Buenos Aires province forms yet another sad chapter
in the pampean horseman's oppressed existence.
North Carolina State University RICHARD W. SLATTA
Raleigh, North Carolina

41 Slatta, "Rural
Criminality,"passim.

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