"Lejos del pueblo, cerca de la gente, del agua, del árbol" Agentes estatales y Territorialidad en El Manso, Río Negro, Argentina

Abstract

This research is situated in El Manso, a commune located in the Andes Mountains in the northwestern region of the Andean-Patagonian forests. It comprises the hamlets of Foyel, Villegas, Manso Medio, and Manso Inferior. It is located in the western part of the province of Río Negro, between the towns of Bariloche and El Bolsón. It encompasses the basin of the Lower Manso River, which begins at its confluence with the Villegas River and extends to the current border with Chile (Río Manso-El León Pass, latitude 41°31'S, longitude 71°51'W). The valleys of El Foyel and El Manso are home to approximately 180 families (550 people), of which 17 (33 people) live on the side of Nahuel Huapi National Park located on the north bank of the Manso River. The municipality has several state institutions: a Justice of the Peace Court (Rio Villegas area), a Civil Registry (El Foyel), the National Gendarmerie (on National Route 40, at the entrance to Rio Villegas, and at the El León border crossing), the Rio Negro Provincial Police (Villegas), and the Forest Fire Prevention and Control Service (SPLIF) in Manso Medio. In addition, the following entities operate in the area: the Pedagogical Support Technical Team (ETAP) under the Ministry of Education, the Agricultural Education Center (CEA No. 3), the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), Environmental Health (part of the El Bolsón Area Hospital), and, until August 2018, the Undersecretariat of Family Farming. Furthermore, the area has three health centers staffed by a doctor, community health workers, and nurses. There are four schools with extended school days, one in each of the villages: three for early childhood education (Primary School No. 92 in Lower Manso, Primary School No. 166 in Rio Villegas, and Primary School No. 181 in El Foyel) and one boarding school (Primary School No. 213 in Middle Manso). A secondary education center with a virtual learning modality also operates on the same grounds as the boarding school. In this research, I worked primarily with state education and health personnel. I chose the school in Lower Manso because I contacted its principal and was enthusiastic about what she told me, especially that most of the teachers, cooks, and custodian are from the area or have lived there for many years. As a child, El Manso was a world of beautiful games, summer, the river, and fried cakes, and I was romantically and naively excited to reconnect with those worlds, thinking it would be easy. In that first instance, I sought to understand the ways in which the children of El Manso, specifically those who attend school number 92, appropriate the place where they live, circulate through it, and inhabit it.