"Javier Auyero proves that you can go home again--and that with the proper experience elsewhere you can see more than you would have noticed if you had never left. Returning to his native Argentina as a sympathetic, well trained observer of political conflict, he shows us how intense personal lives and passionate political participation connect with each other. Auyero tells stories of Argentinian political and economic crises from an entirely fresh perspective."--Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University

5. The Lived 1993: The Coming and Making of the Explosion 115
6. The Lived Sixteenth: The Feast and the Remains of the Riot 137
7. Nana’s Life: “Thirty-six Years of Crap” 153
8. Contested Memories 172
Conclusions: Ethnography and Recognition 191
Appendix. On Fieldwork, Theory, and the Question of Biography 201
Notes 209
References 217
Index 229
About the Series ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: On the Intersection of Individual and Collective Biographies and Protest 1
Part I. The Picketer 15
1. The Day before the Pueblada: A Town on the Edge 29
2. Laura’s Life: “How Did I Fall So Far?” 48
3. Being-in-the-Road: Insurgent Identities 60
4. After the Road: Contentious Legacies 89
Part II. The Queen of the Riot 101

Javier Auyero is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of Poor People's Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and the Legacy of Evita (Duke University Press), winner of the 2001 Best Book award from the New England Council of Latin American Studies (neclas) and a finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award.