(Of cities and mills: the dispute for space in the lowlands of Jujuy, Argentina)

Abstract

The present work carried out a historical reconstruction of the urbanization process of the city of Liberator General San Martin, Ledesma, and San Pedro de Jujuy, both belong to the homonymous department in the province of Jujuy in Argentina, where the performance of the sugar mills was highlighted, since from them the urban configuration began and conflicts over land ownership were triggered and continue to the present day. On the one hand, we dedicate ourselves to exploring and describing the processes of formation and growth of both cities, based on qualitative fieldwork and, on the other hand, a bibliographic review, personal and institutional documents, with which we were able to highlight that both are cities surrounded by land, whose majority property belongs to the sugar mills. The stories of the cities are strongly impregnated with the vicissitudes of the development of the sugar industry in the lowlands of Jujuy, since the emergence and subsequent growth of the incipient towns, transformed into the two most important urban centres, after the capital of the province, was produced by the installation of these industries at the end of the 19th century. They are cities that grew in the light of popular demands, the business interests of the mills, and the interests of the party-political sectors. The work expresses the results of the conflicts and tensions over the land, in the relationship between the need for space for the construction of houses and the need to continue with the agro-industrial exploitation of sugar cane.