THE PEASANTS OF EL CEIBAL AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE. LAND RIGHTS AND PRECARIOUS LAND TENURE IN SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA
THE PEASANTS OF EL CEIBAL AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE. LAND RIGHTS AND PRECARIOUS LAND TENURE IN SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA

Summary/Abstract: It was June 2005 at El Ceibal, a peasant community located in the north of the province of Santiago del Estero, Argentina. A judicial edict had penetrated this peasant world, forcing change on all symbolic objects: the judicial language perforated the cognitive structures of the subalterns; the peasants’ low voices (Guha 2000) transformed into high counter-hegemonic voices; the monotonous monologue of the litigation was altered by polyphony; some female voices, suffocated by chauvinism, found ways to transform themselves into high public voices. On June 27, 2005, just two days before the set date, the judge ruled to suspend the auction. Those “with no part” (Rancière 1996) would now be counted as participants. The subalterns could take advantage of this: soon they would own titles to the land they believed to be theirs.

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