Oy, My Buenos Aires: Jewish Immigrants and the Creation of Argentine National Identity

Oy, My Buenos Aires: Jewish Immigrants and the Creation of Argentine National Identity focuses on the experiences of Jewish (Ashkenazi) immigrants in the city of Buenos Aires during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The introductory chapter describes Argentina's process of replacing its rural character with an urban cosmopolitan image and the role of immigrants (not only Jewish) in that process. In the following six chapters, Nouwen follows Jewish immigrants as they move from Eastern Europe or from Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) agricultural colonies to the city of Buenos Aires, where they engage in various occupations (chapter 2); as the immigrants learned to “deploy markers of national identity” once they had settled in the city (chapter 3); as they settled in neighborhoods and interacted with other immigrant groups (chapter 4); as they became victims and members of criminal groups and interacted with the state and city authorities (chapter...