Jews, Gauchos, and other "Others" in Agentina

What is it about?

As the title suggests, “Jewish Alterity and the Myth of the Jewish Gaucho” reflects on Jewish otherness in Argentina by examining the trope of the Jewish gaucho, which the writer Alberto Gerchunuff ushered into being early in the 20th century. Gerchunoff’s deliberate attempt to make the case that Jews could both maintain their Jewishness and be fully Argentine rested on the implicit assertion that by living on and working the land, they could assume the already-romanticized, deeply Argentine identity of the gaucho. However, by the time Gerchunoff wrote Jewishness into the national narrative, the meaning of the gaucho himself was already complicated: he was a national icon infused with the spectral presence of both Blacks and indigenous people in a country that has long insisted on its whiteness. Moreover, the gaucho was a quintessentially masculine figure paradoxically infused with the femininity associated with all forms of subalternity, including indigeneity and, with Gerchunoff’s intervention, Jewishness. This volatile mix of the struggle for belonging and the undertow of alterity keeps the trope of the Jewish gaucho alive and appealing.

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Why is it important?

Stories about Jews in Latin America (both the history of the Jewish diaspora in the region and the stories invented by writers and filmmakers) are not widely known outside Latin America. Here is a chance to learn something about how Jews struggled to become Argentinean without abandoning their Jewish identity.

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