Minority Children and Their Places of “Reform and Correction” in Colombia (1900-1930)

Abstract

This article outlines some characteristics of institutional spaces for containment andsupport of children categorized as minor under conditions of poverty, abandonment andsocial risk, during the first three decades of the twentieth century in Colombia. Throughthe revision of press articles, a Salvationist project can be evidenced which is includedin legal, medical, and pedagogical discourses that define not only corrective/repressiveactions —as it has frequently been postulated in the studies on children on that time—but also compassionate/re-educational actions. In the core of this combination the categoriesassociated with childhood are rearranged, among which there is that of “minors”acquiring life in the legislation and in spaces of institutional containment (childrencourts, correctional homes, agricultural farms).