Acquiring a Voice: The Plebeians Speak in Early Colonial Rio de la Plata

Abstract

The Rio de la Plata, the location itself and the journeys towards that destination, hit by failure and discouragement- helped build a negative discourse but also gave rise to a series of similar scenes that are a direct product of what has not been found. This is how new ways of envisaging this land came to light, as well as the denunciations of European?s excesses. The legal environment is not only the place where these stories of negativity or degradation find their way, but also the space of transition towards the acquisition of an audible voice: the forgotten voice of the plebs. The Rio de la Plata then functions not only as the creator of a discourse of deception but also as a scenario that enables - precisely because of what it denounces - the rising of a voice, which in the 18th century will acquire a force that is preceded here.