Divisas and Deberes: Women and the Symbolic Economy of War Rhetoric in the Río De La Plata, 1810–1910

From the outbreak of the wars for independence in the Río de la Plata to the 1910 centennial celebration of independence, color-coded headbands known as divisas served as means of identifying political affiliation, necessary accoutrements for battle, symbols bearing war cries, and powerful icons that attested to and participated in the politicization of popular classes. In most cases divisas were handmade and sewn by wives and mothers, making these ribbons the touch of love that soldiers took into hate-filled fights. The ribbons were also emblems of deberes—duties. Divisas provide a unique index of how popular political sentiment reached deep into Rioplatense society, and they offer a glimpse into the world of female duty in the elaboration of a symbolic economy of war. Through writing with the needle and their central role in the confection of symbols, women not only developed parallel forms of literacy; they also participated in political discourse during wartime that the state could not ignore after the end of battle. Manifestations of the political agency women achieved appear in the impact of female affect, and in the formal, public education of women as model mothers in the home and model teachers in the school.