In the last years before the independence revolutions erupted in the Río de la Plata, decisions made in Buenos Aires, the capital of the viceroyalty, were largely ignored on the frontiers. One example among several documented cases is that of Gualeguay, a small town in the province of Entre Ríos. In 1802 a group of town councilmen dared to defy the viceroy in support of a local hacendado. Three times these men, barely able to sign their own names, defended him in his bid to be reelected as mayor, which was strictly prohibited by law. A year or so later another councilman, apparently more aware than his colleagues of the possible implications of such actions, explained to the viceroy that “in these parts . . . most of the inhabitants have scant knowledge of the respect and veneration that is owed to Your Excellency’s great dignity.”1
Certainly the region...
