ABSTRACT
This article presents commentary to the texts "Popular war: Gauchos and the challenge to Elite power in Northern Rio de la Plata in the Revolutionary Period" by Gustavo Paz and "Free and freed Afro-Descendents and political equality in Portuguese America: Change of status, slavery, Atlantic perspective", by Luiz Geraldo Silva. In it, I emphasize the texts' main arguments and focus my comments on the historiographic and conceptual discussions presented.
Key words
Historiography; popular mobilization; independence wars; Rio de la Plata; River Plate; free and freed Afro Descendents; Portuguese Empire