"At the level of most political science literature on urban poverty and clientelism, this work is genuinely pathbreaking. Combining the best of 'thick description' ethnography with a sense of more global processes at work in a society, Auyero uses the most up-to-date analytical frameworks to interrogate an object of study that has rarely--if ever--been so addressed. This is a book to be reckoned with over the next few years and beyond."--Daniel James, author of "Dona Maria's Story: Life History, Memory, and Political Identity "

Acknowledgments ix
Who Is Who in the Peronist Network xiii
Introduction: The Day of the Rally
Complaining about T-shirts on Peron's Birthday 1
1. "They Were Mostly Poor People"
Poverty and Inequality in Contemporary Buenos Aires 29
2. "Most of Them Were Coming from Villa Paraiso"
History and Lived Experiences of Shantytown Dwellers 45
3. "They Knew Matilde"
The Problem-Solving Network 80
4. "We Will Fight Forever, We Are Peronists"
Eva Peron as a Public Performance 119
5. The "Clientelist" Viewpoint
How Shantytown Dwellers Perceive and Evaluate Political Clientelism 152
6. "They Were All Peronists"
The Remnants of the Populist Heresy 182
Conclusions
Problem Solving through Political Mediation as a Structure of Feeling 205
Epilogue
Last Rally 215
Notes 219
Bibliography 237
Index 255

Javier Auyero is Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Professor of Latin American Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin.