Fictions, Documents and Stories: the Representations of Prostitutes in Fuegopatagonia

Abstract

This article presents a preliminary research experience that contrasts different documentary and audiovisual sources regarding the history of women in Fuegopatagonia, specifically on the topic of prostitution. The aim is to analyze the representation of prostitutes through different axes, taking into account the specific approaches of each analyzed piece. On the one hand, the fiction-featured film La Tierra del Fuego se apaga (Emilio Fernández, 1955); on the other, the recovery of Petrona Morel’s voice from the raw footage of an interview produced in the nineties for the television program Punto y Coma (Ushuaia). The analysis is contextualized through oral history sources and archival material recovered by different researchers on the topic in this region.