Identificar y reclutar al subalterno. Las filiaciones de policía (Buenos Aires, década de 1820)

Abstract

In this paper we present a scarcely explored documental type, the filiations made on soldiers, corporals and police guards by the urban and rural commissioners in Buenos Aires during the 1820s. We pursue a double objective: firstly, to give account of the existence, conservation and the main characteristics of this type of written sources; secondly, to analyze the reasons why Police Department agents, installed since 1821 in Buenos Aires, used this written record. In order to do so, and after an introduction, we dedicate an article´s section to describe a series of filiations contained in the Police collection of Sala X of the Nation’s General Archive (Argentina). In the next section, we address its production context, marked by the organization of Buenos Aires as an autonomous entity, and we trace, based on three affiliations and a note presenting them (made by commissioner Juan Bautista Perichon and sent to the Police Department) which we transcribe as an annex, the recruitment problems that police experienced towards the middle of the 1820s. The final reflections serve as a bridge to open possibilities and future exploration paths.

Keywords

• Filiations
• police
• recruitment
• identification
• Buenos Aires
• 1820s.