Las escuelas agrícolas salesianas en el proceso de territorialización estatal de la Patagonia y la formación de su sistema educativo

Abstract

In order to reconstruct the history of Patagonia from a perspective that places the school system at the centre, it is inevitable to focus attention on the social and educational contribution of the Salesian Congregations, Salesians and Hijas de María Auxiliadora, which began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In Patagonia, in fact, the Congregations assumed a relevant role, showing a missionary and educational monopoly since 1880, although in some areas and at different times, there were tensions with State officials due to the set of lay laws passed between 1881 and 1884. In this contribution we will adopt a territorialist view developed in the context of Swiss and Italian geography to analyse the Salesian agricultural schools in Patagonia, as a result of the material transformation carried out by the Salesian Congregation -focusing on the agricultural school "San Miguel" in General Roca- within the framework of the formation of the state educational system and in the context of the promulgation and application of the national law 1420 of 1884