ABSTRACT
The arrival in Europe of a massive political exile from the dictatorships of the Latin American Southern Cone, particularly from Uruguay (1973–1985), Chile (1973–1989) and Argentina (1976–1983), is not only a milestone of the region’s history, but can be framed in the context of the end of revolutionary political militancy in the twentieth century. In the second half of the twentieth century, the exile came to reflect the new leading role of the middle class in society and in the political system. Moreover, such exiles ended up becoming what can be called a mass phenomenon. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of middle-class members, mostly educated people with diverse levels of militancy, undertook an exile’s path where demands, expectations, problems, and individual desires very soon overcame militancy. This happened even more so in Western European societies, where individual and human rights discourse had an earlier relevance than in the Southern Cone. By contaminating and modifying the political discourse in Latin America, “the exile” contributed to shifting the revolutionary perspective towards a new perspective where human rights became fundamental. The shift from a once revolutionary grammar of politics and style of life, to a democratic discourse of accountability for human rights, and the conditions for immigrants from an historiographical perspective is the main topic of the chapter.
