LOS PRESIDIOS EN LA NUEVA GRANADA. ENTRE LAS REALIDADES MATERIAL Y JURÍDICA, 1820-1837

Abstract

This article presents research results on presidios in Nueva Granada (Colombia) between the Independency and the Penal Code of 1837. We start with a double query on the situation of these institutions in their material reality on one side and their ideological existence within the legal framework on the other. Such query is framed within a preoccupation with the distance between both realities: between the “ought” of law and the “is” of material life. The research unfolded through the contrast between sources that account for the legal structure of presidios in the form of laws, codes, decrees on one side and the evidences of their material existence in the form of reports and official communications on the other. The article delivers an outlook on presidios situation in Nueva Granada during the years of early republic formation.