Objective:

To approach the life of workers in the typographic sector in a Colombian provincial city during the first third of the twentieth. Focusing on the printing task from the worker's perspective, this study presents some of the main mutations experienced in the printing workshops and in the trades of the local printing field, areas modified at the pace of technological advances but also as consequence of the urban dynamism of the beginning of the century.

Methodology:

The methodological guidelines, product of the interaction between the history of written culture and social history, are implemented in this inquiry through a thorough search of primary sources, the press, memoires, and official documentation.

Originality:

The reconstruction of the practices and experiences of the agents who participated in the production of printed matter has not been approached with the sufficiency required by a central theme for the understanding of the printing phenomena in particular and of cultural and social processes at a higher level.

Conclusions:

Recognizing technicians and operators as essential agents of the printing process, this research manages to collect and interpret elusive information about their diverse facets, such as labor practices and sociabilities inside and outside the workshop and the beginnings of collective actions as a guild, in the stage of the establishment of printing capitalism in the country.