Autonomy and sovereignty in the uses of the notion of “people”: the cabildo and the governor, political disputes around the Provisional Statute in Tucumán in 1815

Abstract

At a time when the central government of Rio de la Plata expressed the willingness to take ownership of sovereignty, people of Tucuman became involved in political disputes over the oath of the Provisional Statute of 1815. Historiography did not sufficiently investigate the motivations of the agents involved. The analysis of the conflict from the point of view of the uses of the notion of “people”, allow to argue that the choice of alignment with Buenos Aires, although it was the dominant one since the Bourbon’s reforms, was not the only alternative considered by the people of Tucuman.