"The letter said that my wife had died": Bigamy in Argentina in the Era of Mass Migration

Abstract

Andresa Barrachina and Rafaela Fioretto were just two of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants arriving in Buenos Aires between the 1880s and the 1920s. Unlike many of their fellow travelers seeking work or adventure, Andresa and Rafaela left their homes looking for their husbands, discovered they had been betrayed by their husbands’ bigamy, and sought justice in Argentine courts. Their stories illustrate how emotions pervaded transnational relations, and how multiple meanings of love and its mutations into myriad other, less positive, feelings shaped migration. In the context of migration and family—a site of intimacy and affection, but also one of disagreement, contest, deceit, and heartbreak—bigamists and betrayed spouses reveal the complexities of leaving one’s family and of being left behind...