Love & Authority in Argentina (19th c) Ferreyra Sons v. Pedro
Sueldo [Civil Lawsuit] After the Rosas regime ended in 1852,
hundreds of families throughout Argentina hoped to make claims
on property and wealth that had been taken away from them during
the Rosas years. However, many heads of these families were
elderly or deceased. This left the younger generation to
continue their family's efforts. This restitution suit, first
filed in Córdoba province in 1852, pitted the young sons of
Vicente Ferreyra against Pedro Sueldo, an ex-judge who accused
the Ferreyra family of being Unitarians during the early 1840s.
Sueldo jailed many of the family's older male members,
confiscated their lands and animals, and liquidated their
assets. In 1852, the Ferreyra sons faced numerous challenges in
recovering their family's property. Legally, they were not
adults and had very little standing in the civil actions. In
addition, most of the witnesses that they brought forth could
not remember important details of the case. They