Caporales, Polcas, Sikuris and Hip Hop: Cultural Consumption and Social Participation among Second-generation Latin American migrants in Argentina

GAVAZZO, NATALIA

Pecs

Congreso; VIIth Biennal MESEA Conference “Travel Trade and Social Transformations”; 2010

How does spatial mobility affect migrants and their identification practices and how does this impact on the second generation as part of both the diaspora and the national society where they were born? Do they use the matrixes of their parents' identities or do they feel uo to a certain point more "native"? And more importantly still is the question whether this affects their possibilities of social participation?  Taking these questions into account, this paper will examine how second-generation Latin Americans in Argentina identify themselves in terms of national identity and how they use diverse cultural consumption practices, mainly dance and musical, to express meaningful messages to the general society. It will be proposed that each of those practices represent different ways of processing that identification, "heritage" and at the same time of communicating other claims and ideologies. On empirical terms, the paper will focus on second-generation Paraguayans and Bolivians because they constitute the two largest immigrant communities in Argentina. Both communities have a long history in the country and appear to be part of the current national society, mainly because they have second, third and even fourth generations of descendants. However, a country like Argentina, even up to the twenty-first century perceived and imagined as a ‘nation of immigration, Bolivian and Paraguayn migrants are not being included into that national imagination based on a melting-pot model of inclusion. In contrast to the nineteenth century flows, the current migrants that Argentina receives are now from other Latin American countries. These new immigrants suffer discriminatory experiences that include being blamed for unemployment, insecurity and even for drug trafficking. How does this affect their identification practices and their social participation in Argentina? What do they do to fight it? Focusing the analysis on their Argentine-born children, this paper proposes that these two communities share common grounds in terms of negative stereotypes and discrimination; although other factors like practices of identification and strategies of fighting against it differ between them. So, describing the uses of some of their preferred cultural consumption practices, the focus will be put on those descendants of immigrants that are currently participating, on one hand, in civil society organization related to the defense of their citizenship rights; on the other hand, in the collective projects that they create for expressing and valorizing their "migratory heritage". Why do they participate in those organizations? What social activities do they carry on in order to promote the recognition of these identities? How is music and dance helping them to express their ideas and to struggle for change?