Table Of ContentImmigration and Acculturation
in Brazil and Argentina
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Immigration and Acculturation
in Brazil and Argentina
1890–1929
May E. Bletz
immigration and acculturation in brazil and argentina
Copyright © May E. Bletz, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10019-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the
world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-28632-4 ISBN 978-0-230-11351-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230113510
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bletz, May E.
Immigration and acculturation in Brazil and Argentina : 1890-1929 / May
E. Bletz.
p. cm.
1. Brazil—Emigration and immigration. 2. Argentina—Emigration and
immigration. 3. Acculturation—Brazil. 4. Acculturation—Argentina. 5.
Brazil—Foreign relations. 6. Argentina—Foreign relations. I. Title.
JV4672.A2B54 2010
305.9'06912098109041—dc22 2010002672
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: October 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction 1
1 In Sickness and in Health 17
2 Purifying the Urban Landscape: Processes of Immigration,
Acculturation, and Resistance in Buenos Aires 53
3 Negotiating New Identities: Argentina of the Centennial 83
4 Brazil and Its Discontents: Romero and Torres 115
Conclusion: Whiteness of a Darker Color 145
Notes 149
Bibliography 167
Index 177
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Foreword
The idea of this monograph probably started on a trip to São Paulo
almost ten years ago. On a rainy afternoon I decided to visit the
Museu da Imigração, which used to be the Hospedaria de Imigran-
tes (Immigrant’s Hostel) built between 1886 and 1888, in the Brás
district. This hospedaria targeted to accommodate and forward to
the plantations the immigrants who arrived here under the respon-
sibility of the provincial government of São Paulo. Nobody had
ever heard of the place. I went there once by subway but had to
leave, afraid of the neighborhood. The next day, I took a taxi, and,
armed with a detailed but as it turned out inaccurate map, about
two hours later the friendly driver and I made it. Living in New
York City at the time, I was fascinated by the contrast between this
neglected Immigrant’s Hostel and Ellis Island. That São Paulo had
been an immigrant city was very obvious, with its Middle East-
ern, Italian, and Japanese restaurants. Apparently, Brazilians treated
their ethnicity differently, I decided, and I wondered how and why.
Recently, I Googled the museum and checked their Web site,
which did not exist when I was there. A professional site, with a
part in English, praises the museum’s importance. The site claims
the museum retains ship boarding lists, recording logs of sponsored
immigrants, “calling” letters (to bring parents and relatives to Bra-
zil), legal proceedings of colony units, as well as personal docu-
ments and diaries donated by some immigrants plus eight thousand
photographic images, among negatives and originals. Furthermore,
the site states, several immigrants and their offspring, organized in
clubs and communities, have elected the building of the memorial
as a reference and meeting place, strengthening the ties between the
past events and the present-day use. The Sector of Oral History of
the Memorial do Imigrante is a collective testimony by immigrants
viii foreword
from more than sixty nationalities, who arrived here in search of a
better life.
The point is not so much whether the memorial in São Paulo
will succeed in becoming a tourist attraction similar to Ellis Island,
but rather, how cultural practices of identity formation continually
shift. After years of neglect, the memorial has been rediscovered
by Paulistas who want to officialize their immigrant origin. But
nowhere was it mentioned that though that particular neighbor-
hood, Bráz, started out largely Italian, today it is mostly populated,
according to the taxi driver, by newer immigrants, nordestinos, peo-
ple from Northeast Brazil. This continual recreation of traditions is
the point of departure for this work.
Libraries have been written on immigration from a sociological
and historical perspective, rarely from a cultural studies perspective.
I discovered I had to come up with different keywords and knit
together a corpus. Among the most helpful books I used were the
works of Beatriz Sarlo on Argentine modernity and Hugo Vezetti’s
work on Argentine psychiatry, in which he explains the relation
between immigration; the outsider; and the fear of contamination.
Both works include discussions on people such as Ricardo Rojas
and Ramos Mejía.
On the Brazilian side, I was asked to review Jeffrey Lesser’s Nego-
tiating National Identities, which helped me tremendously in envi-
sioning this project. Lesser taught me to see how cultural practices,
including racist discourses and actions, are neither reducible to
nor intelligible in terms of class exploitation alone. In short, these
“whitening” practices had a reality of their own and cannot simply
be reduced to an economic base.
Obviously, there are gaps in this study that need to be filled by
future scholars. A wise outside reader for Palgrave recommended I
abstain from discussing Sarmiento’s works in great detail. Sadly, I
had to cut out the part on the wonderful Roberto Arlt, whose enig-
matic prose deserves much more space than I would have been able
to give him in this work. I chose certain representative intellectuals,
based partly on availability, relevance, and my own taste, but I am
fully aware that many others could be mentioned as well.
I have many people to thank for their help with this project. Jane
Koustas and The Humanities Research Fund at Brock University
foreword ix
enabled me to do research in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
in the summer of 2006. Originally, this work started as a PhD
dissertation I wrote at the Department of Spanish and Portu-
guese at New York University. I am deeply grateful for the valu-
able comments and suggestions by George Yudice of the University
of Miami, Mary Louise Pratt, Gerard Aching, Marta Peixoto, and
Ana Dopico of New York University. A very big thank you to Sônia
Roncador of the University of Texas at Austin for all her enthusiasm
and for introducing me to the works of Júlia Lopes de Almeida;
to Jason Borge of Vanderbilt University for showing me how to
present my project to publishers; and to Joseph Pierce, who did a
wonderful job editing the manuscript. I also thank my editors at
Palgrave Macmillan—Julia Cohen and Samantha Hasey—for their
enthusiasm and professionalism. And to all my friends and family
who have supported me over the years—you know who you are—
thank you.
