Four Jews, Five Identities: Representation, Popular Culture, and Language Politics in the Making of Jewish-Argentines (Buenos Aires,1930-1945). Open Access
Svarch, Ariel (2016)
Published
Abstract
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mass transoceanic migration radically altered the social, cultural, and economic features of Latin America. The ruling elites of these young nations faced the changing demographics with both high expectations and existential dread. In Argentina, the country with the highest non-native population immigrant population in the region, immigrants placed a central role in the struggle to define national identity. This study analyzes the creation of public representations of Jewish-Argentineness as part of the contested process of establishing Argentine identity. The purported Otherness of Jewish immigrants - defined through language, religion, and both ancient and modern prejudice - as well as their place as the largest non-Catholic minority group established them as the symbolic battlefield where liberal and nativist factions of the country's elite fought to determine the boundaries of the nation. Jewish artists, radio show producers, and translators and publishers of Yiddish literature produced narratives of social and cultural integration and even redefined the meaning of Argentineness to construct xenophobia and anti-Semitism as incompatible, foreign forces. Language - Yiddish, Spanish, or a combination of both - acted as their preferred codification device to address their target audience. These efforts sought to reinforce the identitary construction of immigrants, incentivize their local-born children to resist assimilation and maintain their hyphenated identities, and convince the national elites of the productivity and patriotism of the Jewish-Argentine population. Representations of Jews in the non-Jewish liberal media similarly portrayed members of this ethnic group in a positive light, and argued for the success of trans-generational assimilation. Drawing on extensive archival research and audiovisual records, this study examines representations of Jewish-Argentines in popular culture, produced by both Jewish and non-Jewish cultural agents, to show the power of these public constructions to shape external understandings of minority identity. Analyzing these images and their reliance on constructions of the immigrant's accent, this dissertation highlights the relationship between language and ethnic identity. By comparing representations made by elite and minority cultural producers, this dissertation uncovers ideological and communicational chasms between social groups, and reveals shared underlying understandings between social center and periphery.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Introduction. 1
Setting the Stage: Nation-Building, Mass Migration, and its Consequences. 15
Immigration, Ideological Conflict, and the Challenges of Cosmopolitanism in Modern Argentina. 17
Eastern European Jews Join the Argentine Nation. 23
The Many Constructions of Jewish-Argentines: Institutional Bias, Popular Culture, and the Polysemy of Ethnicity. 30
Language, Identity, Representation, and Cultural History as a Methodological Toolbox. 37
The Ideology of Language and the Language of Gender Dynamics. 43
The Sources of Popular Culture: People of the Book, the Newspaper, and the Radio. 47
Jewish-Argentine Representation, From the Inside to the Outside: Chapter Order and Content. 53
Chapter 1
Jevl Katz, Lithuanian-born Jewish-Argentine Bard: Hybrid Popular Culture and the Intricacies of Belonging. 57
"...One hears of nothing but Jevl Katz": Media coverage, career construction, and the negotiation of ethnic art and politics. 68
On Tour with the Jewish Gaucho. 75
Jevl Katz - man of the (Yiddish) Hour. 84
Recorded and Published. 85
An artist you can take your wife and daughter to see. 87
One Does not Tire of Jevl Katz. 91
Lyrics Analysis. 93
The development of Argentine Yiddish. 94
Conventillos: The Immigrant Connection. 95
Being a Gringo and Becoming Criollo. 98
Conclusion. 103
Chapter 2
We Want the Airwaves: Radio asa Forge of Jewish-Argentine Representations and Samuel Glasserman's Identitary Balancing Act(1937-1942). 105
Creating a Radio Show, Creating Jewish-Argentines: Analyzing Matinee Radial Hebrea. 114
Bringing the Stage to the Radio Studios. 119
Fiddler on the Airwaves. 120
A Matchmaker, a Lawyer, and an Accountant Walk into a Jewish Radio Show. 123
A Star-Studded Program: Guest Appearances and Interviews. 126
The Organized Community in Need of Air (Time): Jewish-Argentine Institutions and Matinee Radial Hebrea. 139
Celebrating Patriotic Dates: Defining and Re-defining Jewish, Argentine, and Jewish-Argentine. 148
How Argentine can Jewish-Argentines be? Gender, the Intermarriage Taboo and the Resetting of Ethnic Boundaries. 156
The Many Roles of Yiddish and Spanish: Language Politics in the Airwaves. 172
Conclusion. 180
Chapter 3
Found in Translation: The Power of the Written Word, Translation as Identitary Strategy, and the Emergence of Cultural Jewish-Argentineness, 1933-1946. 183
Salomón Resnick and JUDAICA. 188
Translation, Curation, and Language: a Recipe for Cultural Identity Representations. 191
The Uses of Translation and the Uses of Language. 194
Translation and the Uses of Literature. 197
Non-Fiction: Borrowing Authority, Establishing. 205
Nobel Laureates, Ancient Hebrews, and Jewish Gauchos: or Why You Should Stop Worrying and Love the Jews. 207
We are Here, We are Jewish-Latin Americans, Get Used to it. 209
Life on the Hyphen: Bridging the Gap between Yiddishists and Integrationists. 216
The Ticking Clock: The Rise of Nazism and JUDAICA's Sense of Urgency. 224
Fighting Fire with Fire: Expelling Anti-Semites from the Argentine Body Politic. 236
Reception, Exoticization, Appropriation. 239
Conclusion. 250
Chapter 4
People of (Jewish-Argentine) Character: Representation, Linguistic Markers of Ethnicity, and Jews as a Liberal Discourse in the Fight for Argentineness. 252
Don Jacobo and Patoff Battle the Nacionalistas: Critica, Mass-Media, and Liberal Populism.. 255
An Immigrant Family Man: Don Jacobo, Jewish-Argentines, and the Success of Trans-Generation Assimilation. 263
The Conversion of Paw and his Newfound Jewish-Argentineness. 270
Moises Patoff, Street Brawler and Horse Whisperer Extraordinaire, Joins Don Jacobo in the Fight against a Rising Argentine Right. 279
Argentine Theater and the Normalization of Jewish-Argentines. 290
Conclusion. 304
Conclusion. 306
Epilogue: A Comedic Jewish-Argentine Superhero, or the Convergence of Ethnic and Argentine in Mass Media. 312
Bibliography. 318
Sources. 334
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