Abstract:
This work critically retrieves the history of Barrio Eva Perón, one of the largest in the city of San Luis, through its neighbours’ oral narratives and the analysis of secondary sources. This research work is framed within a wider research project in the field of Community Social Psychology called “Promoting health community and sexual and reproductive health in women and adolescents in popular sectors. A gender issue”. The process of analysis is divided into two parts. The first one describes the emergence, growth and development of the neighbourhood and its first institutions in the light of the political events of the time. The second part focuses on the neighbours’ oral testimonies about how they experienced the process of emergence of their neighbourhood and how they see it now. Following the concepts of community strengthening and participation, we also analyse how their experience in self-managing and building their own houses was a way to contribute to the knowledge of San Luis social reality. Methodologically, our work fits into the Participatory Action Research (PAR), which is a dynamic, flexible and complex process that requires the use of different techniques: diaries and field notes, home visits, participant observation, documentation techniques and oral testimonies.