The Slaughter Yard (Spanish El matadero, title often imprecisely translated as The Slaughterhouse, is a short story by the Argentine poet and essayist Esteban Echeverría (1805–1851). It was the first Argentine work of prose fiction. It is one of the most studied texts in Latin American literature. Written in exile and published posthumously in 1871, it is an attack on the brutality of the Federalist regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas and his parapolice thugs, the Mazorca.
In the story, the protagonist is seized by a crowd of brutal slaughtermen for belonging to the political opposition, and dies.