El Matadero is set in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early 1930s. It is noted that the story takes place during Lent.... early Spring. Echeverria talks about the scarcity of meat due the the religious observance of Lent, and the fact that meat purveyors only brought enough cattle to the city for the very young and the sick, who were excused from observing lent by Papal Bull.

Because of heavy rainfall and flooding, the church preached the end of the world, the children and the old were without meat, and the Unitarians (unbelievers) were frightened. The fact that the slaughterhouse was unable to deliver meat left the city of Buenos Aires in chaos.