PESTICIDEEXPOSURE AND CARE IN THEGREENBELT OF THECITY OF CÓRDOBA (ARGENTINA): RELATIONALPRACTICES AND ACTIVITIESDEPLOYEDBYWOMENFROMHORTICULTURALISTFAMILIES.

Abstract

In the green belt of the city of Córdoba (Argentina), the orchard-home of horticulturalist families are configured  as a scenario of continuous exposure to the pesticides used, which predisposes them to chronic and acute intoxications. Caring allows sustaining, recovering and reproducing people's lives; it is assigned to women and,  together withthem, it results in minoritized bodies and activities. This paper seeks to identify the relational practices and activities of care deployed by women living in these scenarios, focusing on those that contribute  to the reduction of the previously documented exposure. A feminist qualitative approach, observational participation and ethnographic interviews with adult women and men are carried out. Several situations that constitute the life of horticultural families are described, which reaffirm the previously documented scenario of  exposure to pesticides. In it, women deploy a variety of activities and relational practices that contribute to the health care of themselves and members of the nuclear and extended family. We argue that tracing, making  visible, contacting and expanding the experiences of care contributes to destabilize, at least a little, the residual  value that capitalist patriarchy imposes on feminized bodies, processes and spaces.