“Our Streets Swarm With An Infinity Of People In Need”. Perspectives And Conceptions About Mendicity: Córdoba (Argentina), Out Of The 19 Th Century And Into The 20 Th

Abstract

This work is framed within a line of investigation dedicated to the study of “the world of the poor” in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, between 1870 and 1930. It seeks to reconstruct how they experienced the great transformations of the time, especially the intense process of modernisation, the rapid urbanisation, the growing state institutionalisation, and the continuous economic growth.

In that context, the objective of this study is to advance in the reconstruction of the images, and their underlying conceptions, of beggars and mendicity present in Córdoba at the turn of the 20 th century, with an emphasis on those images and conceptions going around in the local press.

Among the main conclusions, it is established that mendicity was basically conceived of as a personal and moral issue. However, and in spite of the persistence of that conception in the entire period, at the end of it, there started to emerge new perspectives and conceptions, more nuanced and complex, which aimed at a social causality and, therefore, a collective responsibility in the phenomenon of mendicity.

Keywords:  poor, mendicity, social history, Argentina, 1870/1920