Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance: The Irish in Argentina PDF
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linguistic diasporas, narrative and performance The Irish in Argentina Sarah O’Brien Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance “Based primarily on scores of interviews, this book masterfully blends Irish migration studies with oral history and social linguistics. The result is a powerful analysis of changing ethnic identities among members of an Irish diaspora com- munity which, unlike the Irish in the United States, was unique in its location in a non-English-speaking country and therefore historically privileged in its lin- guistic and cultural affinity to the British imperial and capitalist forces that long dominated Argentina and yet which ironically had first subjugated Ireland and instigated its mass migrations. O’Brien sensitively explores these and other iro- nies and contradictions in this very important and often deeply moving book.” —Kerby A. Miller, Curators’ Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri, USA Sarah O'Brien Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance The Irish in Argentina Sarah O’Brien Trinity College Dublin Dublin, Ireland ISBN 978-3-319-51420-8 ISBN 978-3-319-51421-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51421-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940990 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: Front cover image © Lina Chan Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgments The research and writing of this book underwent a long period of ges- tation, during which I was kept afloat by the advice and direction of many colleagues and friends. I am especially indebted to Kerby Miller, Edmundo Murray, Juan José Delaney, Laura Izarra, former colleagues in Mary Immaculate College and Northern New Mexico College, and cur- rent colleagues in Trinity College Dublin. Vital points of contact in Argentina provided assistance and orienta- tion during the investigative phase of this book. These include the Irish embassy in Buenos Aires, the Society of Saint Joseph, the Irish Catholic Association, the Federation of Irish Societies, the staff and administration of Cardinal Newman College and Stella Maris College, Hurling Club and the Fahy Club. My parents, Jim and Maria O’Brien, are sources of inspiration and their provision of that most elusive of concepts, home, gave me the cour- age to go out into the world and to attempt to fulfill my role in it. Also, I am grateful for the generosity and support of Gemma and Gerard King, who granted me reign of their cottage in Liscannor, Co. Clare during the last months of the editing process, the solitude of which ultimately saw this project through to fruition. My time spent interviewing the Irish descendants in Argentina between 2010 and 2012 will be remembered with greatest pleasure. The memories v vi Acknowledgments of these rich experiences remind me of the relevance of this study, and the gratitude that I owe to these participants cannot be fully expressed. This book is dedicated to them. Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 L anguage, Memory and Diaspora 9 3 D o They Not Know What I Want to Say? 29 4 T o Nowhere, to Any Place 47 5 A n Affected Life 77 6 Getting on with the Neighbors 93 7 E ating Our Words: Food, Language and the Preservation of Identity 111 8 F estivalizations of Irish Ethnicity 135 9 P ost-Peronism and the Collapse of Community 153 vii viii Contents 10 Conclusion 173 Glossary 187 Bibliography 189 Index 197 1 Introduction Why collect stories? After all, stories are based on human memory, and human memory, in both its collective and individual form, is not only fallible but is also compromised by its mediation through a physiological and cultural need to survive.1 Furthermore, human memory does not fol- low the linear form so valued by conventional scholars of migration and diaspora, because we do not remember our human experiences chron- ologically. Claudia, the irritated protagonist of Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger narrates her life story on the basis that: There is no chronology inside my head. I am composed of a myriad Claudias who spin and mix and part like sparks of sunlight on water. The 1 I found Oona Frawley’s discussions of how our understanding of cognitive memory can be applied to collective and cultural memory very helpful during my own search for information on the sub- ject. Illuminating too is the Irish Memory Studies network, hosted by University College Dublin, particularly their podcasts and seminars that they have developed around Memory Studies in the Irish historical context. Frawley, O., 2010, Irish Cultural Memory, History and Modernity: Memory Ireland, v. 2: New York, Syracuse University Press, Frawley, O., 2014, The Famine and the Troubles: Memory Ireland, v. 3: New York, Syracuse University Press. For the webpage of Irish memory studies see Pine, E., 2016, Irish Memory Studies Network in I. M. S. Network, ed., University College Dublin. © The Author(s) 2017 1 S. O’Brien, Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51421-5_1 2 Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance pack of cards I carry around is forever shuffled and reshuffled; there is no sequence, everything happens at once.2 The incompatibility of the kaleidoscopic nature of memory with the aca- demic attachment to chronology has led, in large degrees, to the exclusive application of the written record to explorations of the past, with let- ters, newspapers and census records confidently cited as though they were immune to the idealizations and biases of their authors. This literacy- based history must also be thematic, made to fit under logical subhead- ings and therefore dismissive of the deviant cases that might challenge its hypothesis. I first began to struggle with these methodological and sty- listic norms while completing my doctoral dissertation on Irish migrant oral narrative in Britain, since its thematic organization necessitated the piece-mealing of sections of oral narratives among diverse chapters and the dismantling of what I saw to be holistic narrative performances into decontextualized segments of quotation. Such compartmentalization not only disregarded the poetics of the narrative but also commoditized it, by mining for its facts and subject matter and therein destroying the natural ecology in which identity, in all its temporality and contradictions, was contained. When I quoted a piece of conversation as an auxiliary source to the documents that I had unearthed in Birmingham’s library or reli- gious archives, I inevitably implied it as finite and ordained it with a sense of the absolute that in fact does not exist in human experience. Percy eloquently notes the constantly shifting sands of identity when he states: I don’t think human relationships are fully comprehensible. They can clar- ify for small, beautiful moments, but then they change. Unlike a scientific experiment with rigorous controlled parameters, our lives are boundless and shifting. And there’s never an end to the story. We need more than sci- ence – we need storytelling to capture that complexity, that kind of incomprehensibility.3 Thus, a determination to stay loyal to the full participation of the nar- rator over the demands of methodological convention partly m otivated 2 Lively, P., 1987, Moon Tiger. Harper & Row, New York 3 Percy, J., 2014, Life Keeps Changing: Why Stories, Not Science, Explain the World, The Atlantic.
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