Transcripción, análisis y reflexiones metodológicas a partir de un expediente criminal inédito

The record here transcribed is part of the Criminal Justice Section of the Historical Archive of Tucuman (Argentina). The process began in February 1795 when don José Pascual Alurralde, mayor of the Brotherhood of San Miguel, issued an indictment to investigate the violent events that had happened recently in the pueblo de indios of Tolombón, as a result of which a soldier had been badly wounded. From this record, we propose the following aims. On the one hand, to make available to other colleagues a series of unpublished data relating to the situation of Tucumán’s pueblos de indios during the late colonial period. On the other hand, to briefly analyze and discuss some aspects emerging from the record that allow us to complete the end-of-the-century scenario outlined by other authors, and to rebuild what happens with an indigenous population of the area in a period of profound change and thus to think over the limits of the entity “pueblo de indios”. Finally, we present some methodological pondering on the possibilities and limitations of such documents as well as over the perspective of the analysis proposed here