In Search of Argentinidad: Identity Affirming Bodies in Movement in Latino-America
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2016 In Search of Argentinidad: Identity Affirming Bodies in vMo ement in Latino-America Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1630 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] IN SEARCH OF ARGENTINIDAD: IDENTITY AFFIRMING BODIES IN MOVEMENT IN LATINO-AMERICA By Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 i © 2016 Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo All Rights Reserved ii In Search of Argentinidad: Identity Affimring Bodies in Movements in Latino-America by Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________ ________________________ Date Murphy Halliburton Chair of Examining Committee ________________________ ________________________ Date Gerald Creed Executive Director Supervisory Committee: Ismael Garcia-Colon John Collins iii THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK In Search of Argentinidad: Identity Affirming Bodies in Latino-America By Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo Advisor: Murphy Halliburton This project is a multi-sited investigation into the production of Argentinidad (the embodied feeling of Argentine national identity) post the economic crisis of 2001 known as el Argentinazo. A special attention is paid to the role of the body as a culturally and socially mediated site of identity formation. Additionally, this project engages with the intersections of cultural and psychoanalytic theories that have influenced Argentinean self-identity in addition to social identities that are negotiated in moments of personal and national crisis. This project examines the roles and relationships of family and migration within Argentinean diasporic communities originating from the Provinces of Argentina and the suburbs of Buenos Aires and examines their individual and collective (re)settlement practices and rituals within global (Latino) cities such as New York City and Miami. Underscoring these stories are the themes of pain, power, and pleasure. This investigation posits that national identity informs how these groups use, move, care, and (re)present their bodies within identity affirming spaces. iv “This is our last dance…This is ourselves…”-David Bowie v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Creé o Reventá (Believe or Burst) 3 Chapter 1, Part 1: A Guide to Reading this Text: Insights and Backstory 4 Chapter 1, Part 2: Setting up a Mood 48 Chapter 2, Part 2 63 Chapter 2, Part 2: Testimonios 139 Chapter 3, Part 1: Enter the Futbol Mami 163 Chapter 3, Part 2: Golden Dreams, Faded Memories 172 Chapter 3, Part 3: Argentina’s Problem 241 Chapter 3, Part 4: Giving and Taking it (through the) Back 260 Chapter 4: Disorienting Moves 272 Chapter 5, Part 1: The Reproduction of Vulnerability 307 Chapter 5, Part 2: Choosing Yourself 326 Chapter 5, Part 3: Racism and Bettering the Race 357 Chapter 6, Part 1: Healthy Sickness 397 Night Flights by Pablo Gaston Alvarez 430 Chapter 7, Virtually Honest 432 Chapter 8, Part 1: 451 Chapter 8, Part 2: Interview with Performance Artist Susana Cook 479 Chapter 9, Part 1: Inspiration and Conclusions on Loop: 3 Songs 485 Chapter 9, Part 2: Concluding Thoughts on the Anthropologist as Student of Culture 496 Selected Playlists 497 Footnotes 499 Bibliography 512 Bibliography on Queer Argentinidad 533 vi List of Tables Figure 1 Pieces of Me Collage 1 Figure 2 Argentinidad in New York 2 Figure 3 The Words on the Screen (Graffiti) 37 Figure 4 Agustin, Promise Me (Handwritten Note) 44 Figure 5 Las Madres 61 Figure 6 My Mother is my Best Friend’ 161 Figure 7 Domingo en la Plaza 162 Figure 8 Father and Son 171 Figure 9 (Imagined) Argentine National Team 2014 188 Figure 10 Macri es Hambre 196 Figure 11 Asado and Malbec 205 Figure 12 Dreaming Big 208 Figure 13 Argentina Style 216 Figure 14 Don’t Forget the System- Telegram 227 Figure 15 Hincha Love 239 Figure 16 My Dream 240 Figure 17 Strategy 271 Figure 18 El Papa es de San Lorenzo 285 Figure 19 Ni Un Trabajo Digno 306 Figure 20 Mate 355 Figure 21 Mothers Hands and Lalo 356 Figure 22 Petition 396 vii Figure 23 Empanadas 396 Figure 24 Que Viva la Familia y Bowie 398 Figure 25 Torn Flag 484 4 viii Growing up, my father told me bedtime stories every night. They always started and ended with the same words. Había una Vez……. Just like this is just one photo, made of many.....this IS ONE STORY.... Figure 1 Pieces of Me, Collage, a photo by Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo 1 Figure 2 Argentinidad en New York, a photo by Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo 2 Introduction: Creé o Reventá (Believe or Burst)1 This dissertation is a multi-sited exploration into the production of Argentinidad, which is best described as the embodied performance of Argentine identity. I travel into this text through imagined and real spaces that exist in memories, experiences, relationships, and beneath the skin. I also consider identity in relation to space as a destination because it is in constant movement. I highlight the ways in which emotions blur the boundaries between subject and anthropologist. This is just another story about the unpredictability of life and how our deepest emotions compel us to live through them. This is a story about pain, pleasure, and power as told through the memories and embodiments of crisis within Argentina and beyond its borders as well. I cast a spotlight on how families are impacted by immigration within “identity affirming spaces.” Again, some are real, some are imagined, but all matter. Rather than provide a traditional introduction, I instead offer a guide to reading this text. I explain my methods and choices as they relate to my intentions, sensibilities, and techniques. I also provide context to this project in an effort to set up a mood and paint a backdrop. This work should make you feel “a certain kind of way.”2 This is not an anthropological aptitude; this is just a significant part of my many selves that you will meet in this work. I could disguise, or “front” about my life and sound more in tune with this discipline’s authoritative voices, but that would be against my personal religion. I want to share my journey into becoming an anthropologist, but without ever losing my “other” privilege. I chose not to summarize the chapters in this project because how this text is read is completely contingent on the identity of the reader in relation to me. The value of my 3 contribution to anthropology is subjective and relative. The “moral” in this story will be many and often conflicting. I rather just provide a framework. How you read this text is also in relation to who I am, what I represent, and this matters. By providing insight into my own identity, I felt ease in talking about the identity of others who I realized were not all that different than me. One important lesson I have learned about Argentina is that only the best and the worst are worthy of praise and condemnation, of honor and shame, and of glory and crisis. This is learned through the bodies we see, the ones we remember, and the ones that have left or disappeared. However patriarchy inflicts control over our bodies and the choices we make about them and through them. It also engenders the violence that is done to them, which is a recurrent theme in this work. Murphy Halliburton writes about this dilemma, about how do we “do right” by the people who share with us their lives and histories during fieldwork. This can be challenging especially when bodies are central to the narrative. He shares, “While I was getting to know the world of health and illness in Kerala, the prospect of presenting information about this world in a way that aligns with the theoretical interests of social science seemed like doing violence to the complex reality of people’s lives, a sentiment many ethnographers develop during fieldwork” (Halliburton 2009:91). As an ethnographer, I was very cautious to not evoke mistrust or suspicion, because given the history of Argentina and the cultural significance of competition, it was imperative for everyone to feel that we played on the same team. This ethnography is about how passion can empower and provide pleasure but it can also be painful as seen in religious experiences. I highlight throughout this work how individual and collective identities determine how passion, power, and pain are embodied. Since I take all of my relationships seriously, especially the one I am forming with you as 4 reader, I am compelled to share not only my thoughts but also my feelings. If you finish this work, independently of what you think about it, you know the many parts of me that have influenced the type of anthropology I practice and my rules of engagement (on and off the field.) The Argentine writer, Julio Cortázar wrote in Around the Day in Eighty Worlds (1967), “In quoting others, we cite ourselves.” This could not be truer; in fact, it is a guiding principle and indicator for understanding this story. Who I cite and what, what is written and that which is not, what is meant to be and what is an error or oversight, all of it matters.