Formosa: tierra prometida-tierra arrasada. La Argentina de los márgenes (1884-1955)

In times of Modern Argentina (1880-1930) marginality is part of the agro- export model; structured around Buenos Aires port and the Pampas livestock-cereal, the recipient of massive immigration, growing urbanization and foreign investment concentration. Marginality does not always mean isolation. This is the case of Argentinean Gran Chaco situated in northeastern Argentina, crossed by 3 railways and major waterways, which communicate with the powerful metropolitan littoral. Formosa, bordering Paraguay, is still a postponed territory in the Argentinean Gran Chaco. The land tenure system goes with desertification. Natural resources preservation together with heterogeneous productive models joins the scarce technology. Livestock and deforestation turned the promised land into a devastated land, full of precarious squatters, short term exploitations and soil intensive use. This historical study refers to a specific case of occupation and construction of the space, interrelating with national government alternatives and the logical territory together with its heterogeneous people and precarious economy, without a local rooted bourgeoisie or obtained profit reinvestment. The aim is to describe and interpret the survival conditions in times when Formosa was a National Territory.