The London School of Economics and Political Science Performing Welshness in the Chubut Province of Patagonia, Argentina Lucy Ellen Trotter A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of The London School of Economics and Political Science for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, September 2020 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MRes/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of the thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. The thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. All names have been changed, except in cases where the individual is a public figure or gave consent to their real name being used. All translations in the text are the author’s own, except when clearly stated. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 93,333 words. 2 For my parents, With love. 3 Abstract In 1865, a group of 153 Welsh settlers emigrated to Argentina, following an offer from the Argentine government of 100 square miles of land on which to live, with the hope of creating a little Wales away from Wales, free from the influence of the English. The thesis explores the historical and present day implications of this emigration through an ethnographic account of how and why Welshness is created, sustained, and performed in the Chubut Province of Patagonia, Southern Argentina. The thesis is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the village of Gaiman and surrounding areas with a community of Welsh Patagonians who live in the Chubut Province. It argues that individual and collective subjectivity (of both the Welsh self and the broader community as Welsh) was performatively constituted in the settler colony through the dynamics of seeing and being seen, and through the dynamics of hearing and being heard. In making this argument, it moves beyond the sole focus on linguistic and visual metaphors in work on subjectivation, to consider the possibility and implications of a musical subjectivation, seeking throughout to draw out the tensions between the personal relations of belonging created by this subjectivation and the broader political power dynamics in the performance of Welshness. The argument unfolds through an ethnographic analysis of several different encounters: encounters between Indigenous Tehuelche (who were the original inhabitants of the land that was colonised) and the Welsh settlers as depicted in media, literature, academia, and through stories told in present-day Patagonia, encounters between tourists from Wales and local Welsh Patagonians in choir rehearsals in Gaiman Music School, encounters between the Welsh Patagonians and their own performances as Welsh as they watch films of 4 themselves during film-nights in Gaiman, encounters between music and community in Gaiman Music School in terms of the role of music in creating a homogenous and coherent Welsh community, encounters between the self and the ideal musical ‘I’ during acts of musical self-cultivation, and finally the heightened performance of these encounters in the annual Eisteddfod (a Welsh festival of the arts) which was held in the province. 5 Table of contents 1. Acknowledgements……………………………………………………..………11 2. A note on translation and vocabulary……………………………….…….13 3. List of figures and illustrations……………………………………………...14 4. Chapter 1………………………………………………………………...….…….16 Introduction: Crafting the self through performance and encounter Introduction: two Welsh ladies………………………………………………16 Fieldwork context and sociological data ……………...…………...….…….20 Research locations…………………………………………………...….……27 Methodology…………………………………………………...….…………30 On being Welsh and white in Argentina……………………………………..34 “You must grow a ‘cara de culo’”: gendered spheres………………………..36 Welsh Patagonia: an ethnographic puzzle……………………………………41 Encounters……………………………………………………………………43 Performance and performativity……………………………………………...44 Subjectivity and subjectivation………………………………………………49 The senses in subjectivity studies ……………………………………………55 Chapter outlines…………………………………………………...….………59 5. Chapter 2………………………………………………………………...….…….65 Contextualising a little Wales away from Wales 6 Introduction: #paithlife………………………………………………….........65 28th July 1865: the landing…………………………………………………...71 The dominant popular narrative of Welsh Patagonia: an empty landscape or friendly relations…………………………………………………...….……..74 An alternative narrative: the Conquest of the Desert and political dichotomies……………………..…………..…………..…………..…..……80 1884 onwards…………………………………………………...….………...86 Present day situation: Welsh and Indigenous communities in Chubut………91 Conclusions: empty lands, multiculturalism, and the creation of Welsh Patagonia…………………………………………………...….……………..98 6. Chapter 3………………………………………………………………...….….102 Performing Patagonia under the gaze of the Welsh other Introduction: a Patagonian choir rehearsal………………………………...102 Escuela de Música Gaiman (Gaiman Music School) ………………………110 “If you’re going to visit, it has to be this year!”: tourism in Chubut……….113 Imagining Wales through the national anthem……………………………..117 The dynamics of seeing and being seen: under the gaze……………………124 Performing Patagonia under the gaze of the Welsh other…………………..126 “Tut tut, we aren’t being very Welsh”: performing Patagonia for officials...135 “Why have they dressed like elephant hunters?”: laughter and power……..139 Conclusions: the potentiality of the gaze…………………………………...145 7 7. Chapter 4……………………………………………………………...….……...148 Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most Welsh of them all?: film as mirror Introduction: two awkward moments………………………………………148 The politics of representation and the scholarly gaze in Welsh Patagonia...153 Self-awareness of the performance of Welshness………………………….157 Viewing the performance of the self: S4C’s Galesa……………………….163 Face to face with representation……………………………………………170 Film: the metaphorical mirror stage? ……………………………………...172 Peers as mirrors: “I can’t see how I look but looking at you…we must all look so strange!”……...………………………………………………………….175 Conclusions: “do you feel Welsh?” ……………………………………….179 8. Chapter 5………………………………………………………………...….….183 “The community is a family and the choir is the glue”: music and belonging Introduction: soundscapes and subjectivity…………………………………183 “Que cantamos?”: choir rehearsals in Gaiman Music School………………189 “The brothers of Wales and the Colony uniting in song” ………………….194 “I feel SO uplifted!”: Y Gymanfa Ganu…………………………………….202 Inspired and inspiring others: the musical cycle……………………………207 Conclusions: sound and the subject………………………………………...215 8 9. Chapter 6………………………………………………………………....….…222 “Music helps you to live”: musical self-cultivation in Welsh Patagonia Introduction: “It just goes like this…it’s really simple” …………………...222 “The reason I play…”: Musical therapy……………………………………228 “Oh, I can’t do that time, I have therapy”: therapy in Argentina…………...234 Musical values: the ideal ‘I’…………………………...……………………239 Gaiman Music school: who gets to sing? …………………………………..244 Conclusions: power, value, and manipulation ……………………………..247 10. Chapter 7………………………………………………………………...….…251 ‘Eisteddfodamos’: The Eisteddfod as ritual performance Introduction: enjoyment and work at the Chubut Eisteddfod………………251 Contextualising the Eisteddfod: Wales……………………………………..258 Contextualising the Eisteddfod: Patagonia…………………………………263 “Is there peace?”: success and potential slippages in the ceremony of the chairing……………………………………………………………………...270 “Someone needs to get rid of that awful dog”: actual slippages in the 2016 Gorsedd……………………………………………………………………..278 “Relaxing into the music”: enjoyment, flow, and subjectivation…………...281 Moments of disgruntlement: The politics of inclusion and space at the Chubut Eisteddfod…………………………………………………………………...286 Conclusions: slippages and moments of disgruntlement…………………...292 9 11. Chapter 8……………………………………………………………….………297 Conclusions: performing Welshness in the Chubut Province Singing to the sweet colony………………………………………………...297 Multisensory subjectivation………………………………………………...300 “Of course I feel Welsh” …………………………………………………...305 12. Bibliography……………………………………………………………….…..307 13. Appendices……………………………………………………………….……..340 10 Acknowledgements The writing of the thesis was made possible through the support of my interlocutors in Patagonia, my PhD supervisors, my family, my friends, and my colleagues at both the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Aberystwyth University. The research was supported by a 1+3 scholarship from the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain (ESRC) and a maternity leave grant from the ESRC from April 2018 to April 2019. The ESRC also supported my event ‘A Piece of Wales in Patagonia’ as part of their annual Festival of Social Science in November 2018. The thesis could not have existed without the participation of my interlocutors in Chubut. To my friends in Patagonia, who welcomed me into their community and lives with open arms as though I was one of their own, thank you, for all that you taught me and continue to teach me, for the time we spent together and for trusting me to tell your story. I am immensely grateful