Ethnic History, Nationalism and Transnationalism in Argentine Arab and Jewish Cultures

The role of ethnic histories of Arab and Jewish Argentines, the turcos and rusos, is explored here in the context of a strongly assimilationist Argentine state. In Argentina assimilation meant embourgeoisement, and concern over ethnic respectability led both communities to assume the role of moral guardians and cultural brokers policing their ‘own’. The evolution of Argentine Arab and Jewish ethnic identities highlights the ambiguity of ethnic categories in the context of increasingly polarized class politics. Ethnic history has been written and forged by the successful in the context of exclusionary discourses which never permitted Arab and Jewish Argentines to pursue pluralist politics.