Trova and poverty: socio-historical representations in the popular music of Argentine Patagonia.

Abstract

This article analyzes the sociohistorical representations of poverty constructed in four songs composed between 1967 and 2000: “"Huellita de humo",” by Celedonio “Chele” Díaz; “"Lata y madera",” by Nelson Ávalos; “"La Paloma",” by Ramón Queipul; and “"Como dos perros",” by José Luis Álvarez. This qualitative and comparative study is grounded in social history of culture and oral history. The analysis draws on song lyrics, semi-structured interviews, audio and audiovisual recordings, personal documents, periodical publications, digital and non-digital archives, and field notes. Through content analysis, representations of poverty were identified in relation to habitat, work, exposure to the elements, and dignity. The findings show that the songs refer to a shared historical process that began with the violent annexation of Mapuche-Tehuelche territory by the Argentine National State, shaping unequal social relations and shared experiences of poverty. The study concludes that Trova in Patagonia constitutes both an object of study and a historiographical source capable of broadening our understanding of social inequalities by producing historically situated interpretations of the experiences of those who live them.