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Days were getting brighter in late September 1917, announcing the much-awaited warm weather that would put an end to Comodoro Rivadavia's cold and windy winter. Located in the San Jorge Gulf, in central Patagonia, the port town was the commercial and transportation hub that linked the ranches of the western Chubut territory with the rest of the country. It was also a bustling service and commercial center that benefited from its proximity to the ring of company towns that had sprung since the discovery of rich oil deposits just a few kilometers to the north in 1907. The largest of these company towns was built by the Argentine state and, ten years later, was home to close to half the area's population.¹ As the main commercial, service, and transportation center, Comodoro Rivadavia was full of activity, and its streets were busy with locals and out-of-towners from distant rural settlements and nearby oil towns. The early spring of 1917, however, witnessed a movement of a different kind, signaling the beginning of important social transformations. A diverse, multiethnic group of oil workers from the state-owned company town took to the streets of Comodoro Rivadavia asking for improvements in working conditions and denouncing the company in harsh terms.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137024671_5

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