Based on the first ethnography of urban political clientelism ever carried out in Argentina, this paper focuses on the public performances of female political brokers belonging to the Peronist Party. Drawing on the analytical tools provided by cultural sociology and the anthropology of performance, the paper explores the way in which brokers, through their “presentation of the self,” attempt to foster impressions in their audiences and construct a particular sociodicy of their social place. When appearing in public, brokers (as other politicians) have a plethora of motives for trying to control the image the audience receives of the situation. The article examines some of the common techniques of impression-management utilized by the brokers in front of their audience (mostly poor people), each time they grant a favor, every time they hand out a food package or a needed medicine.
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