Doña María's Story

Life History, Memory, and Political Identity

Author: Daniel James
ISBN: 9780822324928

In this remarkable book historian Daniel James presents the gripping, poignant life-story of Doña María Roldán, a woman who lived and worked for six decades in the meatpacking community of Berisso, Argentina. A union activist and fervent supporter of Juan and Eva Perón, Doña María's evocative testimony prompts James to analyze the promise and problematic nature of using oral sources for historical research. The book thus becomes both fascinating narrative and methodological inquiry. Doña María's testimony is grounded in both the local context (based on the author's thirteen years of historical and ethnographic research in Berisso) and a broader national narrative. In this way, it differs from the dominant genre of women's testimonial literature, and much recent ethnographic work in Latin America, which have often neglected historical and communal contextualization in order to celebrate individual agency and self-construction. James examines in particular the ways that gender in

Publisher: Duke University Press
Publish Date: 2000

Subjects: History / Latin America / General, History / Latin America / South America, Social Science / Women's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Cross-Cultural Center (Location: Biography (BIO))