![\"Joven](\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Maria-Isabel-Sanchez-Dansey-hija-de-Tona-a-los-15-anos.-1945-300x400.jpeg\")
<\/a>Maria Isabel Sanchez Dansey – Tona’s daughter – 15 years old. 1945<\/p><\/div>\n
Guaran\u00ed words were forbidden in Dansey\u2019s home. The family, originally from Herefordshire, England, had settled in the confines of Chaco Gualamba, the last territory to be conquered by the Argentine military campaign that devastated the native population and shaped what many boast is the most European nation in Latin America.<\/p>\n
The generation of the 80s, the intellectuals and politicians of the 19th century who designed the foundations of Argentina Potencia<\/i> (Argentine Power), first conquered the Pampa and part of Patagonia in what was called the Desert Campaign (1878 – 1885), a euphemism that allowed them to make the almost one million natives who inhabited the land invisible.<\/p>\n
That must be why in their house they did not drink mate<\/i>, an infusion that the locals had consumed since before the arrival of the Spanish. At the Dansey house, tea was drunk and people sat at the table at the appointed time, properly dressed, hands and face freshly washed. Manners were required and they set the pace of the conversation. If verbal fencing was well regarded, certain rules had to be respected. Children under 13 could not speak to adults unless asked. Conversations took place between peers. Women could give their opinions but not after the patriarch had spoken.<\/p>\n
As mentioned, speaking in Guaran\u00ed was prohibited. My grandfather had a blackboard on his desk where he taught the children English on Saturday afternoons. For each lesson learned, a coin, as if to make it clear where progress and aesthetics were headed.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Maria Isabel Sanchez Dansey – Tona’s daughter – 15 years old. 1945<\/p><\/div>\n
That is how the Dansey family was made, by cultivating their Britishness behind closed doors. Outside, they had to adapt. Partly because it was required in order to deal with the staff and partly because in this performance of measuring against their equals, masculinity was at stake. In the countryside, good manners and a light touch were enough. Locals would never fully respect what a refined (kat\u00e9<\/i>) man said. In the corrals, Don Alberto and his sons drank mate, let fly guasadas<\/i> (curses) and did not hesitate to say guasca<\/i> [1]<\/sup><\/a>(rawhide but also semen)<\/span><\/span>