La Virgen de las Nieves en San Carlos de Bariloche: estrategias identitarias para aunar en la diversidad.

Abstract

This paper is a first approximation to the devotion of "The Virgin of the Snows" in San Carlos de Bariloche, located to the Northwest of Patagonia argentina. This work analycesthe social representations that the marian devotion, shaper of the local identity, elaborated in tension with the symbolically built territory. The hypothesis said that the religious practice of the marian devotion generate identities and build territories. In this sense, the article is organized in two parts: first, describes the historical process of devotion in the town and then, in the second part, develops through the concrete cultural practice of devotion and pilgrimages, the social identity and territories built where "The Virgin of the Snows" symbolizes the search for unity in the diversity and in the fragmentation.