Harvard University
As Argentina reorganized after the fall of Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1852, the new president, General Justo José de Urquiza, commissioned a distinguished French scientist, Martin de Moussy, to undertake an extensive study of the geography and population of Argentina (1). With such a broad mandate, it is not surprising that, in July of 1856 (2), Moussy and his companion, Benjamin Poucel, were intrigued while in Tucumán by the rumor that there was a woman in Salta who had a story to tell. They traveled four days on muleback to meet "La Heroína del Bracho." Poucel wrote to Félix Frías (July 25, 1856) of his exciting discovery that
Moussy and Poucel were by no means the first travelers to circulate Agustina Palacio's remarkable story: it seems to have been passed around in manuscript form throughout the 1850's; a young Italian visitor quotes extensively from his notes on a trip to Salta. He met with "la Heroína del Bracho" and was very impressed by her story, which he quotes at length, saying that in these citations "séame permitido emplear las palabras mismas de Agustina, que en un diario manuscrito que tuve entre mis manos, trazó con palabras sencillas la historia de aquella época de su vida." (Mantegazza, 184).(4).
In the twentieth century, there have been at least two editions of Agustina Palacio’s story: Aventuras y desgracias de la señora de Libarona en el Gran Chaco, a 1946 Zig-Zag (Santiago, Chile) book (5), and a 1925 Buenos Aires edition, Infortunios de la matrona santiagueña doña Agustina Palacio de Libarona, la Heroína del Bracho, put out by La Asociación Nacional Damas Patricias Argentinas de Santiago del Estero. Numerous articles and history books have referred to Agustina Palacio, but without including any bibliographic references. Abelardo Arias’ 1971 bestseller, Polvo y espanto, retells the Agustina Palacio story, although some of the factual, historical basis for his novel may have been drawn from Luis C. Alen Lascano’s Juan Felipe Ibarra y el Federalismo del Norte. (6)
The story told by "La Heroína del Bracho"
Agustina Palacio’s story begins abruptly (7), as a nearly generic, timeless testimonio, a personal testimony of injustice suffered, an account which names names and allocates blame. Autobiography is utilized on behalf of a class action suit; tyranny must not be suffered in silence.
Libarona and Unzaga, the judge who had encouraged people to sign the petition drawn up by Libarona, were dragged off tied behind horses. They survived the battering and other mistreatment, but a detachment of soldiers moved them farther and farther into the outback of the Chaco, beating them and playing sadistic jokes at regular intervals: "les ataban a un árbol y les anunciaban que iban a matarlos a lanzadas. Tales eran los órdenes que Ibarra había dado" (I, 22). Libarona managed to smuggle occasional messages home, stressing that Agustina should not try to visit him:Exaltada por la indignación y el dolor, y sin pensar ya en mí, me fuí en derechura al campamento donde descubrí al punto a mi marido medio desnudo, atado a un palo, a dos pasos de un cuerpo de guardia, sufriendo los rayos de un sol ardiente, con la cabeza descubierta y el rostro y los ojos manchados de tierra. En cuanto me distinguió prorrumpió en lágrimas que ni siquiera podía enjugar con sus manos que estaban atadas. Quise acercarme a él, pero el centinela me lo impidió, y en vano le imploré y le ofrecí dinero. Le pedí que tomara mi pañuelo del cuello y cubriese con él la cabeza de mi esposo; tampoco quiso. Después le supliqué me permitiera al menos que me colocara delante de mi marido para abrigar un poco su cuerpo con mi sombra, pero el bárbaro no quiso atender a mi súplica. Entonces, exasperada, me lancé a mi marido, y el soldado de un culatazo me arrojó al suelo y me pegó con tanta fuerza que creí me había roto el brazo. [...]
A los prisioneros que estaban atados de pie en el campamento les habían dado el espectáculo de uno de sus amigos que yacía por el suelo envuelto, o mejor dicho, estrechamente encerrado en un pellejo de buey muy duro que le obligaba a encorvarse; sus huesos estaban medio rotos, su semblante estaba inyectado y negro de sangre, y se agitaba y rodaba a un lado y otro con gemidos lastimeros. Ibarra que se presentaba de tiempo en tiempo a gozarse en la vista de esas torturas, creyó que aquel movimiento de su víctima podía ser para ella una especie de alivio, y así fue que mandó hincar en la tierra dos filas de estacas y ordenó que colocasen al infeliz en el estrecho intervalo que las separaba a fin de que le fuera imposible moverse. [...]
[Santiago] Herrera, que era el verdadero jefe de la insurrección, había logrado sustraerse a todas las pesquisas, pero por fin fué cogido y herido a sablazos. Cuando le ataron, Ibarra mandó que le apretaran mucho la cuerda sobre sus mismas heridas. Le aplicaron el suplicio del retobado con refinamientos de una inaudita crueldad. Pusieron el cuero en redondel, obligaron a Herrera a sentarse en medio, y después de haberle metido la cabeza entre las piernas cosieron en su derredor el cuero apretando su cuerpo, para lo cual se sentaron encima algunos hombres. Cuando la bola de cuero que contenía a Herrera quedó reducida al menor volumen posible, la ataron a un caballo por medio de una cuerda y la llevaron saltando por las calles. ¿Quién sabe en qué momento exhaló Herrera el último suspiro? [I, 19-21}
Throughout the 1850’s, Agustina Palacio lived in Salta, where she had become famous as "la Heroína del Bracho," as a woman with a story to tell. There is no evidence that she told her tale before the death of Ibarra (1851) and the overthrow of Rosas (1852) made it not only safe but laudable to speak ill of the tyrants. Agustina Palacio was celebrated as the model of a dedicated wife, and widely admired for her feisty opposition to Ibarra. Like Camila O'Gorman, also a famous emblematic figure of resistance to Rosas, Agustina Palacio became a public symbol of unjust victimization. Both were tremendously popular stories in part because they are tragic love stories where beautiful young women are made to suffer by cruel tyrants because of their loyalty to their men. In both stories, steadfast young women embody the most admirable virtues of the nation, of the unitario resistance and opposition to bloody federal bullying. Camila and Agustina are young wives who are willing to sacrifice all comfort and security in order to follow their chosen men into a deathmarch emblematic of the nation's violence. For their men, they give up being good daughters and good mothers in order to dedicate themselves to being fully good wives. Their men die. Although Camila is pregnant, she is executed by a vengeful caudillo. Agustina, too, is a young mother, but Ibarra is depicted as taking pleasure in her torment and suffering, although he takes care to let her impose it upon herself. He gives her official permission to visit Libarona in prison camp, and to accompany him on the deathmarch through the Chaco: "¡Que vaya esa loca al Bracho y la roben los salvajes, si esa es su voluntad!" (I, 27), she reports him as saying as he issued her an official pass. She frequently remarks with bitterness that Ibarra blocks her efforts to civilize their condition in the Chaco: he stops delivery of food and medicine, refuses to let her brother accompany her, orders her garden to be dug up, and forces them to move on whenever they get comfortably settled. But Ibarra stops short of allowing her to be personally harmed. The soldiers mistreat their prisoners, but she does not report that they ever touch her. When she mentions how much they all feared Indian attacks, Agustina Palacio recounts that
The 1925 and 1946 texts
The 1946 Aventuras y desgracias de la señora de Libarona en el Gran Chaco and the 1925 Infortunios de la matrona santiagueña doña Agustina Palacio de Libarona, la Heroína del Bracho reproduce the same basic version of the story, but the latter was edited with some care: corrections were made in accordance with Agustina Palacio's own notes and in consultation with the version of her story she dictated to her brother-in-law Santiago Libarona (see note 6) and then revised. Some of the corrections are factual: Ibarra's minister was named Gondra rather than Gallo, the tortured man is named Julio rather than Zulio, "un destacamento" is more specifically "la primera división del ejército de Oribe," and, most importantly, it is clarified that it was not Rosas himself who visited Santiago del Estero in 1840, but "el temible Oribe" and the whole incident of that visit is revised. Other corrections significantly change a reading of the text, and since they presumably reflect Agustina Palacio's wishes and her own emendations of the text, it is interesting to look at them closely. There are five differences that seem particularly significant: 1) omission of a hint that Ibarra had been one of Agustina Palacio's rejected suitors; 2) omission of a paragraph which discusses a brief visit that Rafaela Carol de Unzaga made to the Chaco; 3) addition of explanatory notes and description of how Agustina Palacio felt both at the time and as she told the story later; 4) hundreds of minor changes in word selection and in how she refers to her husband, called "don José" in the Aventuras text, but either "Libarona" or "José María, mi marido" in Agustina Palacio's revision (the Infortunios [I] text most often quoted here); and 5) inclusion of a substantial number of photographs and letters.
When Libarona was first imprisoned in a town some distance from Santiago del Estero, Agustina Palacio was beside herself with worry and anxiety. She prayed and fretted and went to see Oribe to beg him to help, and it is then that she wondered what Ibarra was up to.
An even more interesting suppression is the complete omission in the 1925 edition of any mention of Unzaga's wife's visit to El Bracho. In the Aventuras text, perhaps in response to a question by Poucel, Agustina Palacio says
The 1925 text omits many of the explanatory notes which presumably were felt to be helpful to nineteenth century European readers who were unfamiliar with Argentina. In their place, more personal notes are inserted. Added to the description of retobado torture, where men are sewn into cowhides, we hear that "un vecino de Santiago, Don Carmen Romero, que vió pasar la bolsa de cuero arrastrada desde la cincha de un caballo, al preguntar y ser informado de lo que contenía, cayó desmayado." (I, 20). The personal and local anecdote has replaced the perspective of European scientific inquiry. When Agustina Palacio’s text mentions how upset and depressed she felt when she traded wetnursing an Indian baby in exchange for food, a 1925 note adds "Algunas personas recuerdan que doña Agustina se consternaba y lloraba cuando contaba este episodio" (I, 37). When she finally goes home to her family, we are reminded that "En el manuscrito ya citado, Doña Agustina cuenta que tardó mucho tiempo en curarse de la hinchazón de las manos y de los males que le acarrearon tantos sufrimientos"(I,48). A long 1925 note about Unzaga’s execution is again localized: "Cuentan los ancianos pobladores de esa Villa, la desperación de Unzaga...y el terror que produjo a la población, que pasó en vela la noche, pasmada ante semejante salvajismo" (I, 50).
Agustina Palacio’s choice to refer to her husband as Libarona or as "José María" or "mi marido" also makes the story more personal: she seems to take possession of her own narrative more fully in the 1925 version. The material included with her text provides testimony that her story is true, and the photographs show townspeople of Santiago del Estero who were involved in some way with the story, although they may not be mentioned in the narrative. A photograph of an older man is labeled "Señor de la Cruz Herrera, que protegió secretamente a la heroína Agustina Palacio de Libarona, en sus infortunios en el desierto" (I, 51) and a picture of a stolid younger couple is labelled: "Señor Zacarías Herrera y su esposa Eladia Contreras Maldonado. El señor Herrera a la edad de 18 años, burlaba la vigilancia del tirano Ibarra, y conducía provisiones a la heroina, mandado por su señor padre don José de la Cruz Herrera, a altas horas de la noche. 1840 a 1841." (I, 53) The Herrera family is not mentioned in Agustina Palacio’s text, which minimizes any assistance she may have received, instead emphasizing the amazing courage, tenacity and inventiveness with which the young woman managed to survive in the wilderness and care for two invalids.(16)
La Heroína del Bracho
In Benjamin Poucel’s panegyric 1856 letter to Félix Frías, he exclaims that
Notes
(1). This study was motivated by Argentina's (and Urquiza's) desire to promote immigration. In an 1855 speech to Congress, Urquiza discussed the desireability of creating favorable publicity for the country: "Bien conocido es por el gobierno que el medio más eficaz de llamar la inmigración extranjera es el de dar conocimiento de nuesto rico suelo tan privilegiado por su extensión, feracidad y benignidad del clima, y para obtener también inmensos resultados que en otros sentidos debe dar un trabajo descriptivo y estadístico de la República, celebró por ello un contrato con persona [Martin de Moussy] de reconocida competencia, a fin de que visitando y estudiando todas las provincias de la Confederación, hiciese una descripción de todo lo más importante con respecto a la geografía propiamente dicha, el suelo y su naturaleza, a las producciones de los tres reinos, el clima, a la población bajo el aspecto fisiológico y moral, a las vías de comunicación y comercio, en general." (Valenti, 44-45) Moussy traveled, often in the company of the French geographer and writer Benjamin Poucel, from 1854 to 1859, when he returned to France and published his monumental Description géographique et statistique de la Confédération Argentine.
(2). A May 1861 letter from Martin de Moussy to the French translator of the story, M. F. Denis, casts doubt on the exactness of the date, because he verifies the truth of Agustina Palacio's tale and says "Yo he tenido la honra de ver a esa heroína del amor conyugal en agosto de 1857, a donde se ha retirado con su familia; pero entonces no me hallaba bien al corriente de su admirable historia, y sólo algunos meses después estando en Tucumán y en Santiago del Estero, teatro de los sucesos, me fué confirmada por varios testigos oculares la veracidad de aquella relación; además estas deplorables aventuras son de notoriedad pública, y los habitantes de esta última ciudad se enorgullecen de su heroica compatriota." (Palacio, Aventuras, 54-55) Is it possible that Poucel may have seen her in 1856 and Moussy in 1857? This same letter from Martin de Moussy is also quoted (undated, different translation) at the end of the 1866 Madrid La Vuelta al mundo edition, which also comments that "muchos viajeros franceses han tenido el honor de ver en estos últimos años a la ilustre y heróica doña Agustina. Uno de ellos, Mr. Benjamin Poucel, bien conocido por los grandes servicios que ha prestado a la ciencia y a la industria, ha obtenido de esta señora, no sin repetidas instancias, la relación cuyo estracto acaba de leerse" (346).
(3). The story was widely circulated by La Tour du monde, Paris, 1863, and in other editions. The preface of the 1925 Buenos Aires edition of the story says that a Paris edition of La vuelta al mundo was published by the newspaper El Correo de Ultramar, and "se sabe que esa publicación fué reproducida en muchas partes y en algunos lugares de España fué entregada como texto de lectura en las escuela primarias." (Palacio, Infortunios, 10) It would be interesting to know whether the Paris La Vuelta al mundo text (which I have not seen) is the same as the Madrid La Vuelta al mundo text (which I have seen, and which is not the basis for the two twentieth century editions discussed here).
(4). Paolo Mantegazza's description of his visit to Agustina Palacio is fascinating both in its similarities to and its differences from the 1866, 1925 and 1946 texts (all of which give Poucel as their source). Allowing for the differences in vocabulary caused by his writing the story in Italian (translated back into Spanish by Juan Heller and published in 1916 as Viajes por el Río de la Plata y el interior de la Confederación), most of the quoted passages are virtually identical to the Poucel texts, but there are quite a number of additional details and descriptions which would have enhanced the Poucel versions, unless there were space constraints in the newspapers where they were first printed. The Chilean (Zig-Zag, 1946) text appears to translate the original Le Tour du monde text (possibly also the ParisLa vuelta al mundo text?), since the preface says that "Habiéndonos sido imposible proporcionarnos en París el texto original español de donde se ha vertido al francés la interesante relación de estas aventuras, nos vemos obligados a traducirla de este último idioma, lo que creemos oportuno advertir contando de antemano con la indulgencia del lector por las faltas involuntarias en que podamos incurrir en esta ingrata tarea. (M.U.)" (Palacio, Aventuras, 9) What the Zig-zag edition does not specify is the first publication date (etc.) of the M.U. translation it is reproducing. My guess is that the M.U. translation is a 19th century one, which found its way back to Santiago del Estero and came to be considered the text, reedited with extensive revisions and corrections by the 1925 committee, and published in Buenos Aires. If the M.U. translation came out in the 1860's (which seems likely since he refers to the "reciente obra" by Demersay on Paraguay, which was published in Paris, 1860-64), this would account for Agustina Palacio being able to make additions and emendations Although the 1946 Zig-zag text is 95% identical to the version published in Buenos Aires in 1925, the 1925 text ws clearly not consulted because they would have copied the changes made by Agustina Palacio herself.
(5). Lea Fletcher, editor of Feminaria magazine in Buenos Aires, first called my attention to this text. Lily Sosa de Newton has been most generous with her wealth of information and documentation.
(6). Alen Lascano says: "Ha reconstruido este momento del drama histórico santiagueño el gran novelista argentino Abelardo Arias en su consagrada novela Polvo y Espanto, cuya factura documental se inspiró en nuestro libro Juan Felipe Ibarra y el Federalismo del Norte, con la fidelidad digna de una pluma magistral." (Alen Lascano, Historia de Santiago del Estero, 327). However, Alen Lacano's Juan Felipe Ibarra y el Federalismo del Norte does not mention Agustina Palacio at all and the book downplays the whole incident in a few pages of general discussion which justify and condone Ibarra's rage and punitive measures.
(7). Although both editions reproduce the La vuelta al mundo text, the 1925 Infortunios makes corrections and removes certain references, as well as adding some additional material. The preface explains that in the edition being used as basic text, "aparecen algunos errores, muy explicables en el viajero francés que la redactó, a quien escapaba el recuerdo preciso de algunos detalles de los sucesos y del medio en que ocurrieron, que es posible emendar con el relato que de los mismos infortunios hizo doña Agustina a su cuñado don Santiago Libarona, que en manuscrito, corregido por mano de ella, se ha tenido a la vista." (Palacio, Infortunios, 10). In this 1925 text, two paragraphs are added to the beginning, to provide more background.
(8). The 1925 Infortunios will henceforth be abbreviated as I. The 1946 Zig-zag edition will be abbreviated as A. The 1866 edition will be referred to by date.
(9). In Juan Felipe Ibarra, Alen Lascano portrays Santiago de Palacio, Agustina's father, as a supporter of Ibarra. In 1831, Palacio stood in Gobernador for Ibarra (118) and in 1832, Palacio begged Ibarra to return to the Governorship (119).
(10). Various historians tell this story differently: Libarona’s involvement in the rebellion may have been substantial. Alen Lascano dismisses him as "este curioso petimetre que ha trascendido por la fortaleza de su esposa" in Historia de Santiago del Estero (323). In Juan Felipe Ibarra y el Federalismo del Norte, Alen Lascano says that Rodríguez and Libarona organized the "sublevación interna" (153) which Ibarra had to destroy violently "para logar la sobrevivencia eterna de la patria." (156) What is certain is that as Agustina Palacio tells the story (in all the versions discussed here), her husband is a blameless victim of a cruel tyrant.
(11). Not surprisingly, Agustina Palacio is profoundly ambivalent about Indians. It must have been humiliating to feel herself dependent upon their goodwill. For a well brought-up young lady from the city, nursing an Indian baby must have been, as she says, a deeply distressing reversal of usual roles. In the 1925 text, she cuts some insulting adjectives; when a friendly Indian warns her about an impending Indian attack, for instance, the 1860s text read "una india, una china" (A, 30) but the 1925 is simply "una india" (I, 30). One of the most bizarre people she encounters is described as a mestizo, and it is unclear whether or not she attributes his rudeness, ugliness and dim-wittedness to his racial mixture: "Era un mestizo, hijo de un salvaje del Chaco y de una blanca. Su fisonomía era enorme de alta y ancha; su nariz era tan aplastada que casi tocaba por cada lado sus orejas, sus labios parecían dos morcillas, y apenas se veían sus ojos que se asemejaban a los del jabalí. Sus manos, sus pies y sus pantorrillas eran de una gordura espantosa. Yo me detuve estupefacta y helada, pues no sabía qué criatura era aquella que estaba viendo. Sin embargo, recogí mis fuerzas para preguntarle cómo me podría procurar un poco de agua, y me respondió con rudeza que no tenía más que ir a los Bañados, a cuatro leguas de allí, donde él también iba; y dicho esto se alejó murmurando." (I, 41)
(12). It could not have been more than four or five months, but she says "No me había descalzado hacia un año a fin de estar siempre pronta de noche para cuidar a mi esposo o para huir de los indios." (I, 48)
(13). Raúl A. Juárez, in his admiring biography,Vida de Felipe Ibarra, comments that Ibarra reacted fairly and generously: "Pudo haber enchalecado o fusilado a Unzaga y Libarona que estaban en el complot de asesinarlo y prefirió desterrarlos." (318) Juárez suggests that Libarona was a weak man who was easily broken by a little rough treatment. He lists 1842 (?) "novedades de El Bracho. El encargado del Fortín le escribe: 'Pongo en conocimiento de V. E. que el Salvaje Unitario desterrado en esta Frontera Livarona está loco de atar pues cuanto se descuida la Mujer sale disparando por los montes y para más no se le entiende lo que habla y está tan flaco que parece esqueleto'. Efectivamente, el condenado había enloquecido. Su esposa, abnegadamente había ido a asistirlo. Vivían en una choza junto con Unzaga, y solos debían cotidianamente procurarse el sustento, disponiendo para tal fin de un caballo y una escopeta. En ese chaco tenían libertad parente en sus vidas; más padecían las dureza del medio salvaje, que era su cárcel, y la hostilidad de algún burdo guardián. Por ende, ella sufría más que ellos el cambio operado, de niña rica y mimada a esa vida rural áspera y dura. Aún más, hora padecía el maltrato que dábale su marido, cuyo trastorno mental lo había vuelto furioso." (303) Juárez lists Feb. 11, 1843 (?) a the date of Libarona's death and says that "su esposa, años después, hizo redactar sus memorias de aquellos días luctuosos" (305) and he complains that she "incurría en inexactitudes que hasta hoy se las tiene por ciertas" (305) though he does not seem to have seen the 1925 corrected text of the Infortunios. Juárez speculates that Unzaga was repentant for all the trouble he had caused Ibarra, and that after her husband's death "doña Agustina dejó aquel agreste lugar, despidiéndose de aquellos restos amados, para volver a la ciudad, junto a sus hijas y a los suyos que la esperaban ansiosos, después de haber cumplido voluntariamente - pues en ningún momento fue castigada por pena alguna - un acto de abnegación ejemplar, que efectuábalo periódicamente, alternándolo con estadías en la ciudad." (305) Juárez is emphasizing that Agustina Palacio visited her husband voluntarily, that it was never construed by Ibarra as being punitive of her, and, finally, that her visits were intermittent rather than continuous, as her own text describes. Juárez has strong feelings that Libarona and Unzaga deserved their punishment, although Ibarra's rightful vengeance (for the death of his brother in the attempted rebellion) "imitó ...a la inhumanidad que cumplieron a su hora los jefes unitarios que se autotitulaban de 'la ilustración y la cultura’" (306).
(14). Alen Lacano does not mention Agustina Palacio, but does discuss Ibarra's very unhappy marriage and admits that he had "algunos amoríos" (Juan Felipe Ibarra, 56).
(15). Although, of course, by omitting all discussion of Rafaela Carol’s brief stay, she does not give her credit for trying, either. In general, Agustina simplified her story whenever possible, in the changes reflected in the 1925 text. For more discussion of these issues of frontier survival as well as a fuller comparison of Agustina Palacios' texts and the story as it appears in Abelardo Arias' novel Polvo y espanto, which depicts Rafaela Carol very negatively and promotes Agustina as the perfect wife see Lea Fletcher "Mujer y frontera."
(16). The 1866 Madrid La Vuelta al mundo text tells almost exactly the same story in words that are almost all different, as though two translators with very different temperaments and totally dissimilar writing styles had translated the same text. The question is, of course, which text? Agustina Palacio seems to have been a star attraction for European travelers in the 1850's, and they wrote down her story in many different languages, which were published in the originals and in translations all over Europe. The 1866 Madrid text is wordier and somewhat more florid than the 1925/1946 text. It reproduces the errors of fact of the 1946 text which were corrected by Agustina Palacio in the 1925 version. It often offers several words in place of one in the 1925-1946: for instance, it reads "iban a morir degollados o a lanzadas" instead of "iban a matarlos a lanzadas" (I, 22). Sometimes entire sentences are added: 1866: "Ibarra estaba en su puerta dispuesto a montar a caballo. Así que me vió, dijo con grosera rudeza. ¿Qué viene a hacer aquí esa mujer?" vs. 1925/46: "En cuanto me vió, exclamó furioso: ¿Qué quiere esa mujer?" (I, 26) Some of these additions are quite lengthy, but do not really change the story or add substantive information. Sometimes there are extra details, but the translator might have put them in for added effect. In the exchange between Agustina Palacio and the rude sergeant (quoted above), for instance, 1866: "Juro a Dios que no, me contestó el sargento, mirándome horriblemente: no haré lo que usted me encarga; antes bien, si pudiera, la amarraría perfectamente, y luego iría a venderla a algún rico habitante de Montevideo." vs. 1925/46: "¡Oh no lo haré, respondió aquel hombre on una horrible mirada; al contrario, si pudiese o si me atreviera, la ataría a usted y la llevaría a vender a algún richacho." (I, 43). When she gets home and they take her shoes off, the 1866 adds a sentence: "Tampoco me había desnudado más de una vez para lavar mi ropa, y en todo mi cuerpo había señales de un trabajo superior a las fuerzas de una mujer delgada." This rings a little false, since Agustina Palacio demonstrates at length that she pushed her body into doing all sorts of things she didn't know she could do; she wants commiseration, she wants to inspire shock and horror that this was done to her, but she is proud of her accomplishments. On the whole, there is nothing new in the 1866 version, and the wordiness is less striking than the 20th century texts.
Works Cited
Alen Lascano, Luis C. Historia de Santiago del Estero. Buenos Aires: Plus Ultra, 1996, 2nd. ed.
---., Juan Felipe Ibarra y el Federalismo del Norte. Buenos Aires: Ed. Peña Lillo, 1968.
Arias, Abelardo. Polvo y espanto. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1971
Demersay, L. Alfred. Histoire physique, économique et politique du Paraguay. Paris: L. Hachette et cie., 1860-64. 2 vol. and atlas.
Fletcher, Lea. "Mujer y frontera" in Espacios de género: III Jornadas de historia de las mujeres 1994. Rosario (Argentina): Centro Rosarino de Estudio Intrdisciplinario sobre las Mujeres, Facultad de Humanidades y Artes, U.N.R., 1995. Vol. II, 81-87.
Juárez, Raúl A. Vida de Felipe Ibarra. Santiago del Estero, 1968.
Mantegazza, Pablo. Viajes por el Río de la Plata y el interior de la Confederación Argentina. Buenos Aires: Coni Hermanos, Serie Universidad de Tucumán,1916.
Moussy, Martin de. Description géographique et statistique de la Confédération Argentine. Paris, Fernando Didot, 1860-64. 3 Vol. & atlas.
Nuñez Palacio, José Luis. "Agustina Palacio y su romance sin barreras" Revista de La Nación, March 29, 1992.
Palacio de Libarona, Agustina. "Aventuras y desgracias de la señora Libarona en el Gran Chaco (América meridional.) 1840-41," in La vuelta al mundo. Viajes interesantes y novísimos por todos los países. Madrid, Imprenta y librería de Gaspar y Roig, 1866. Vol. V, 331-346.
---., Aventuras y desgracias de la señora de Libarona en el Gran Chaco. Santiago (Chile); Zig-Zag, 1946.
---,. Infortunios de la matrona santiagueña doña Agustina Palacio de Libarona, la Heroína del Bracho. Buenos Aires: La Asociación Nacional Damas Patricias Argentinas de Santiago del Estero, 1925.
Saenz Quesada, María. "Agustina Palacio de Libarona, heroína del amor conyugal." Todo es historia: XXVI, 310 (May, 1993), 70-72.
Valenti, José J. C. Estudio del ambiente social, económico y político en el que actuó el Congreso de 1853. Buenos Aires, 1968.
Vargas, Susana. "Agustina Palacio de Libarona: ‘La heroina del Bracho’" Paula (Buenos Aires) No. 8 (Feb., 1988), 96-99.
Villafañe, Benjamín. Las mujeres de antaño en el norte argentino. Jujuy (Argentina): Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, 1953.