ABSTRACT
This study analyzes the role played by urban social imaginaries in the historical construction of police identity in Buenos Aires. Based on a body of writings produced by high-ranking officers and humble street cops throughout the 20th century, it reflects on the enduring link between the symbolic universe of the police force and cultural expressions closely associated with the city. It underscores the role of direct experience as the ultimate source of police legitimacy, while examining different expressions of this connection: the construction of an “intimate” history of the city, the exhibition of a “male” knowledge of the rough edges of urban life, and the linguistic command of lunfardo, the language of the underworld.
