from colonial discourse to hybrid identities spanish emigration to latin america in two

Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana

From Colonial Discourse to Hybrid Identities: Spanish Emigration to Latin America in TwoRepresentative TextsAuthor(s): María P. TajesSource: Chasqui, Vol. 35, Special Issue No. 3: Going Transatlantic: Toward an Ethics of Dialogue(2006), pp. 11-25Published by: Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericanaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29742146 .

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FROM COLONIAL DISCOURSE TO HYBRID

IDENTITIES: SPANISH EMIGRATION TO LATIN AMERICA IN TWO REPRESENTA?

TIVE TEXTS

Maria P. Tajes William Paterson University

Reflecting upon the cultural relations between Spain and Latin America, it is impossible to

ignore the historical undertones of the imperialist relationship between them. The advantageous

position of Spain in this unequal exchange has been the common denominator in most recent

treatments of the topic. After all, Spain imposed its language, its customs, and its religion. It has

also been the symbol and representation, distorted for many, of the Western culture that projects itself as an example to be followed. In any case, both the American national narratives that

support a "Europeanization" of the continent and those that propose a search for an identity based

on the essence of pre-conquest America, allude to the colony's need to define itself in counter

position to the empire, though always departing from cultural, discursive, and linguistic parame? ters imposed by the latter. Nelly Richard, in the article "Alteridad y descentramiento culturales"

resorts to theorists such as James Clifford and Edward Said to point to precisely this bipolar

dynamic with respect to Latin America. The axis is always the definition that the center makes

of the periphery: La problem?tica del sujeto colonial releva de un gesto doble: el gesto colonizador

de asignar identidad seg?n la norma occidentalizada de lo Mismo (la identidad por

imposici?n) y el gesto anticolonialista de re-afirmar desde la negaci?n (la identidad

por oposici?n). El trazado en negativo de la figura del Otro delineada por la

cultura dominante es reinvertido por el sujeto colonial en contra-identidad sin

salirse de la tendencia logoc?ntrica a dicotomizar el continuum humano en contras?

tes nosotros-ellos y a esencializar el "otro" resultante. (212)

Theorists such as Patricia Seed highlight, in turn, the importance of cultural manifestations that

break, and even invert, the traditional classifications of center and margin. This type of cultural

production adds to the post-colonial theoretical dialogue new loci of enunciation, borrowing Wal?

ter Mignolo's terminology, and allows for the insertion and study of traditionally marginal and

marginalized discourses. Seed refers, above all, to the recent phenomena of local influence in the

transnational culture and vice versa; however, the present article proposes a greater temporal

retrocession that could insert into the post-colonial theoretical dialogue an old but forgotten fissure within dichotomous interpretations (Seed 147).

11



12 From Colonial Discourse to Hybrid Identidies

The fissure arises from the mass migratory exodus of Spaniards to Latin American countries, a contact that is rarely considered when studying relations between Spain and Latin America. The

exodus had its peak from the end of the 19th century to the Great Depression, and continued

thereafter with decreasing intensity1. This contact is marked by ambivalence. On the one hand, as subjects constituted by a Eurocentric ideology, emigrants are conscious of the power historical?

ly exercised by Spain in the New World and know the identity that the colonizer has assigned to the colonized. On the other hand, their situation as emigrants turns them into the Other whose

identity is threatened by and in turn threatens the host. In this manner, Otherness is double for

Spaniards: they represent the foreigner that threatens national identity and unity, and also embody the colonizer for whom that national identity has been outlined by foundational narratives. The

literary production centered on the theme of Spanish emigration to the new continent establishes,

then, another locus of enunciation in the debate on the relations between Spain and Latin Ameri?

ca.

It is from that fissure between the two worlds that the present study is formulated. It will look

at the negotiation of identity of the Spanish emigrant to Buenos Aires in two representative texts, two novels of emigration published almost a century apart. The first, Jos? Costa Figueras' Las

fraguas de la fortuna, preceded by a first part in 1917 entitled La sugesti?n de Am?rica, was

published under the general title o? Espa?a en ultramar It is important to note that at the begin?

ning of the 20th century, Buenos Aires was one of the cities with the highest growth index. In

fact, in 1914, New York was the only city on the continent that surpassed the Argentine capital in population, much of which had been born in Europe. Of the more than 1.5 million people in

Buenos Aires that year, almost 307,000, or 19.5% of the total population, had been born in Spain

(Moya 149). Costa Figueras' novel becomes, then, extremely relevant due to the significance that

emigration holds for turn-of-the-century Argentina. The second novel is Jorge Fern?ndez Diaz's Mam?, published in 2002 in the midst of an

economic crisis, when emigration regains relevance in Argentina. This time, a significant portion of the population embarks on an exodus towards the countries that had been a source of emigrants at the beginning of the century, Spain among them. The fact that both novels originate during times of migratory apogee, although in opposite directions, suggests the interest of a comparative

study. The contrast between discourses, narrative techniques, and the negotiation of discursive

authority in both texts could outline points of change and re-negotiation in the socio-economic,

political, and cultural relations between both countries, and postulate, at the same time, a further

alternative to Manichaean interpretations of post-colonial background.

Three ways of narrating the contact: the Chronicles of the Indies, the literature of the

"indianos," and the literature of emigration to America

It becomes indispensable to contextualize the literature of emigration within the broader

corpus of literature of contact that includes both the Chronicles of the Indies and texts centered

around the figure of the "indiano." The literature of emigration stands considerably distant from

*For detailed demographic data on this migratory process, see Jos? Moya's Cousins and

Strangers, Nicolas S?nchez Albornoz's Espa?oles hacia Am?rica: la emigraci?n en masa, 1880

1930 (Spaniards towards America: The Mass Migration) and Jes?s Garcia Fernandez's La emi?

graci?n exterior de Espa?a (The Exterior Migration of Spain).



Mar?a P. Tajes 13

the two other kinds of mediating narratives between Spain and the American continent. It is true

that all of them have contributed to the construction of the Other and, in so doing, have con?

structed themselves. However, the assignation of authority, the audience at which each is aimed, and the objectives of the texts themselves differ significantly.

As it is widely known, the Chronicles are texts created in America, about America, and for

Spain. Elena Huber and Miguel Guerin analyze the descriptive rhetoric of these documents and

postulate that they rely on a double author and receptor. The chronicler engraves in the narration

his subjective vision of reality, and in turn, creates a collective testimony that represents the

whole group of explorers. The narrative sections are directed towards the king with the purpose of convincing him that the achieved work merits reward, suggesting that searching for and

discovering riches represents one of the greatest measures of value in assessing the success of the

expedition. Conversely, the Spaniards as a community are the recipients of the descriptive parts of the Chronicles. By describing, the chroniclers create and communicate the American socio?

cultural space to those who have never witnessed it. The process of describing is also an individu?

al strategy that allows the chronicler to re-insert himself in the discursive space of the metropolis in order to observe and describe the Other (269).

The subjective construction of the Americas as an inextinguishable source of riches becomes

established in the Spanish worldview and motivates a considerable number of Spaniards to seek

fortune on the new continent. It is around them that the literature about "indianos" revolves.

These are texts written by Spaniards, for Spaniards, and about the life of the protagonist in Spain after a successful return. As early as the beginning of the XVII century, Covarrubias offers in his

Tesoro de la lengua castellana o espa?ola an interesting definition of the word: "El que ha ido

a La Indias, que de ordinario, ?stos vuelven ricos" (665). The Diccionario de la Real Academia

Espa?ola maintains Covarrubias' definition in one of the meanings of the word: "d?cese tambi?n

del que vuelve rico de Am?rica" (www.rae.es). What stands out here is that, as in the chronicles,

the abducted riches remain in the background of the American experience. Even though the act

of returning constitutes an integral element to the concept of "indiano," this homecoming, as

James D. Fern?ndez2 argues in his study of the literary type, never quite results in complete social reinsertion.

In contrast with the former two ways of narrating the contact, the literature of emigration tends to be framed within the adopted country. However, both the origin and the intended desti?

nation of the text denounce the unstable, uncertain, and hybrid nature of the migratory process.

Many of the texts on emigration to America were written by emigrants, as is the case of Jos?

Costa Figueras, who will be discussed later. Others result from direct observation of Spanish

emigrants in the adopted country, made by Spaniards in transit. Miguel Delibes' Diario de un

emigrante, a product of the author's trip to Chile, illustrates this tendency. The Cuban Miguel

Barnet, with his testimonial novel Gallego, contributes a text about Spanish emigration from the

point of view of a citizen of the adopted country, though including Spanish voices and sources.

And finally, in the past few years, a new variety of literature of the Spanish emigration has

emerged, written by members of the second generation. Through it, the children of Spanish

emigrants seek to recuperate or immortalize the experiences of their parents and/or those of their

community. Jorge Fern?ndez D?az, the other author studied here, is one of these children who

2James D. Fern?ndez makes a detailed analysis of the "indiano" as a literary type in the

article "'Am?rica is in Spain': A Reading of Clarin's 'Borona.'"




discover vestiges of their identity as individuals and as Argentines in the emigration of their

ancestors.

The audience for the Spanish emigration texts is extensive. The texts are directed towards the

Spaniards that stayed in Spain, in order to narrate an American experience as subjective as that

of the Chronicles, though more focused on the processes of adaptation and uprooting than on

treasure hunting. They also find attentive readers in the emigrant community, which on many occasions will be depicted and interpreted by these texts. Another possible recipient is the Latin

American population of the host country, invited to know the Other?the foreigner3?from the

perspective of his own cultural parameters, which in many occasions have already assimilated

elements from the adopted country. The "indiano" is such because he returns, but for the emigrant the return supposes an aspira?

tion that is seldom achieved and rarely with a fortune. The explorer and the "indiano" are both

triumphant Spaniards in the Americas and living reflections of the empire, but the emigrant

displays a relationship with Latin America that is more marginal than glamorous, more conquer? able than victorious. It is not surprising then that in spite of the scope of literary production on

emigration and the importance of its authors, the studies done in Spanish on the topic are almost

non-existent. Nigel Rapport and Andrew Dawson in Migrants of Identity contribute to a possible

explanation by considering the stories of those displaced. The displaced exist today as construc?

tions lacking a discursive community to welcome them, precisely because they are among thou?

sands of narratives of the non-displaced that monopolize power: "Their stories would remain

'untold' because they would clamor for attention alongside millions of others; while those in a

position to make their stories heard are deliberately suppressing them, or at least ensuring that

it is their own that are instead broadcast, disseminated and recorded" (30). It is true that, in the

Spanish case, the narratives of emigration did not find a discursive community willing to study them. This is not due to the bad quality or reputation of the writers,4 many of them already well

established authors, but instead responds to a lack of interest in confronting the marginal, power?

less Spain they depict. In order to maintain national idiosyncrasy, those in power found that

creating a "collective amnesia" was more convenient than confronting the fact that for every rich

"indiano" there were thousands of failed returnees, and still many more seeking a space in the

adopted community.5

3For texts written in the regional language, the audience is limited to the inhabitants who

speak the same language, both in Spain and in the emigrant community; and for texts written

about the emigration by non-Castilian speakers, idiomatic differences also reduce the number of

readers.

4Writers in the category of Emilia Pardo Baz?n or Miguel Delibes, among others, wrote about

Spanish emigration, though these texts have been practically ignored by critics or mentioned only

briefly and never as representative of a distinct thematic corpus.

5In Spanish peripheral regions such as Galicia, the literature of emigration has indeed been

thoroughly studied. The difference in the amount of attention dedicated to the topic could be due

to the fact that the periphery tends to associate the migratory exodus with the bad administration

and inequities perpetuated by the central government, and could consequently turn the study of

this movement into a propagandist tool of nationalist tendencies. It is also worth highlighting that

in the past few years, the flux of African and Hispanic-American immigrants to Spanish soil

seems to have awakened interest in the Spanish migratory past within some Spanish circles.



Mar?a P. Tajes 15

Colonial discourse as an instrument of self-defense and negation of the emigrant's mar?

gin alization: Las fraguas de la fortuna de Jos? Costa Figueras

In a necrological article related to the death of Jos? Costa Figueras in the Galician village of

Chantada, written for the magazine Galicia Emigrante, Alberto Vilanova emphasizes?apart from

the good human qualities of the deceased?Figueras' crucial role in Spanish and Galician litera?

ture. The article praises his journalistic work he is and compared to writers such as Otero Pedra

yo. Yet though Costa Figueras published several novels and books of essays, no study of his work

is known to this day. Many will allege that the Galician writer has not been studied due to the

low literary quality of his work. It may be the case that his style is not the most innovative;

however, his texts offer too vivid a portrait of Spanish emigration to Buenos Aires to be ignored.

Besides, the large number of his publications suggests acceptance and popularity among the

readers of the time. Las fraguas de la fortuna is the second of two novels published under the

general title of Espa?a en ultramar. Both novels introduce the same character, Javier Azores, a

young Galician from a good family, but while most of the action in the first book takes place in

Spain, the second one, except for the last chapter, is framed in rurn-of-the-century Buenos Aires.

Though the theme of emigration appears in both works, the present study will focus on Las

Fraguas de la fortuna in order to facilitate its comparison with Mam?, a piece that also explores

emigrants' conflicts in the adopted country. It will allude, nevertheless, to a number of crucial

episodes from Figueras' preceding novel.

Costa Figueras is very conscious of the discourses that emanate from the contact with Ameri?

ca. He utilizes them to negotiate the discursive authority of his text and thus his protagonist with

respect to the old colonies, which are new centers of power before the emigrant. One must not

forget that the chronicler of the Indies, for example, offers an imperial gaze that narrates the

Other from the parameters and the imaginary of the center, while the Spanish emigrant, in spite of having internalized that imperial gaze, occupies a marginal space in the adoptive society. His

narratives are in turn marginal within the Spanish literary canon.

In the introduction, Costa Figueras clearly sets his objective by establishing a direct bond with

the Chronicles: "Describir la acci?n augusta de los que all? tratan de adaptar a la realidad su

prop?sito de obtener la reconquista espiritual de Am?rica para Espa?a" (10). Figueras demands

authority not as the Spanish emigrant from the social, economic, and often cultural margin who

seeks a future in a country that defines itself in opposition to Spain, but as the new "chronicler"

of a second conquest. His pen tries to remove the emigrant from the margin in order to turn him

into an imperial agent. At the same time, the protagonist Javier, far from suffering the vagaries of the typical emigrant, is in a privileged position. First of all, he comes from a wealthy and

educated family who allows him to live comfortably without working. He does not move to

America seeking to improve his socio-economic status but instead to perform the role of observer:

"Interes?banle de modo indefinible a Javier Azores el estudio de cuanto refer?ase al los benefi?

ciarios del nuevo pa?s: las idiosincrasias, los g?neros de vida, los aspectos" (11). What's really

important here is that Javier appears as a kind of ethnographer, an impartial observer of a reality that he views through an imperialist gaze rooted in the past and without a concrete justification

Nevertheless, this interest is forged in a Spain that is no longer an emigrant-producer margin, but

is now a receiving center. Thus, admitting a past that no longer depicts the country's current

reality does not challenge the established national identity.




in the present. Based on those observations, he attempts to write a novel about his impressions of Argentina, which could very well look like the one Costa Figueras offers to his readers.

Resorting to imperialist discourse, the novel tries to "make Spanish" all the symbols of the

young Argentine identity that function as elements of cohesion and promotion?borrowing Benedict Anderson's terminology?of an imaginary consolidated national community: the history, the national heroes, even the revolution and the flag. The novel uses the imperialist discursive

technique of consistently infantilizing the colony, stigmatizing it as daughter of the empire: Observa bien este pueblo en embri?n, Azores. Te gustar?. Es un pueblo infantil.

A?n no perdi? ninguna de las ilusiones. (12)

Hijos de Espa?a eran los argentinos. Hab?an heredado sus virtudes, su idioma, su

alma. (75) The mother, Spain, symbolizes the space from which the emigrant has distanced himself through his trip, but also the origin repudiated by the architects of independence. This is why the impor? tance and even the existence of Argentine history are undermined and the heroes of independence ridiculed. Thus, Javier reflects on the statues erected in honor of the fathers of the revolution:

A?n la historia de Argentina no era historia, tampoco le hac?a falta; ten?a la de la

madre, la gran historia de la familia de naciones. Javier ten?a por injusticia el

hecho de que los h?roes de olvidadas revoluciones de juguete, al uso paraguayo,

compartiesen con los artistas de genio en conato, el lugar correspondiente a las

grandes figuras de epopeya, a los dioses de la religi?n, del arte. No contaba en

Buenos Aires Col?n con un monumento digno de su gesta colosal. Tampoco Cervantes dispon?a de una simple ofrenda de laurel. Uno dio a Argentina el solar; otro leg? al mundo espa?ol un C?digo susceptible de regular la inmortalidad del

idioma. (107) He plays down the importance and originality of the Revolution by again infantilizing the Argen? tine nation:

Re?ase Javier. No era victoria la de vencerse a s? mismos. Irrump?ale en la mente

el recuerdo del per?odo constituyente de la gran patria. La lucha por la indepen? dencia argentina fue una ef?mera guerra civil. Todos los h?roes de la independen? cia eran espa?oles republicanos. Hicieron una revoluci?n para instaurar la rep?bli?

ca. As? Espa?a no extrem? contra ellos la nota guerrera. Eran ingenuos hijos

suyos. Plac?ales entretenerse en la genial travesura de construir una gran naci?n.6

(76) The flag similarly lacks originality and is accused of being "un plagio de la ense?a galaica"

(182). In addition, the novel attacks two of the most distinguished figures of all that represents the "Argentinean." Javier observes that the statue of Rodr?guez Pe?a, far from showing a proud

expression, "con la vista baja, parec?a sentir verg?enza ante el fausto de los palacios construidos

por los emigrantes, modernos conquistadores de Am?rica" (210). He also denigrates and animal

izes the image of Sarmiento when he notices that an animal shelter has adopted the name: "Sar?

miento, el genial pedagogo que acaso escond?a un gran amor a Espa?a tras su animadversi?n a

los espa?oles. Registr?base as? una particular iron?a. En vida Sarmiento consagr?se a zaherir a

6Moya indicates that Maetzu formulates a theory by which he, like Javier, calls the Argentin? ean Revolution a civil war between Spaniards. These theories were very popular among the

Hispanists of the time (356).



Mar?a P. Tajes 17

sus compatriotas de origen. Ya muerto oblig?banle a dar el nombre para la protecci?n de los

brutos" (323). The act of erasing that which is Argentinean is also observed in the semantics employed in

the text. Even though the peculiar accents of different Spanish regions are emphasized on numer?

ous occasions, and some even become phonetic transcriptions, words peculiar to Argentinean

Spanish or transcriptions of the accent from Buenos Aires do not occur. This strategy allows one

to confront two conflicts of authority. In the first, by ignoring the phonetic and semantic peculiar? ities of Argentina, the new country is re-inserted into the linguistic codes of the empire as "the

same," denying, as with the independence symbols, its originality, and recuperating with it the

discursive authority of the Spanish text. In the Spanish national realm, the emphasis on the

accents and the regional stereotypes follows a concrete political agenda with respect to peninsular nationalisms and national identity. Though Figueras asserts a homogenous Spanish identity to

counteract the postulates for independence of the young American nation, he is also aware that

such homogeneity constitutes a discursive construction of the Spanish center, of Castilla, typically

relegated to the socio-political and cultural background, imposed on the peninsular periphery. In

the face of such a scenario, Costa Figueras takes up stereotypes and phonetic peculiarities to

ridicule other peninsular regions and propose a Spain that is not Castilian but Galician.

This attitude may also respond to a tendency of that time that had much broader origins and

motivations. In studying the nature of the Hispanist movement,7 defended by a sector of society in many Latin American countries as a means to strengthen Spanish identity in the face of a

massive migratory influx from other countries, Moya indicates that for the Hispanists, not all

Spaniards were the same. On the contrary, the stereotypes of the different Spanish regions be?

longed to one of two groups: the "Quijotes" were the Castilian and Basque, both pure and superi? or races. Those from other regions were in the category of "Sanchos": the Catalan were the

"Spanish Jews" and anarquists, the Andalusians were also anarquists, rowdy and lazy, and the

Galicians, even though they posed no threat, were accused of being docile and stupid (370). Some authors suspect that the use of the term "gallego" in many Latin American countries

to refer to all Spaniards constitutes a strategy of resistance on the part of those countries, being well-aware of the status of inferiority by which the Galician people are perceived in Spain and

of the reputation for docility and foolishness that Moya mentions. Nevertheless, Costa Figueras claims this usage as evidence of the Galician supremacy over the rest of the Spanish people. The

following quote explains his theory:

Extranjeros e ind?gena terminaron por dar a todos los pueblos espa?oles el dictado

de "gallegos", inconscientemente reconoc?an el triunfo del galleguismo. El vocablo

"gallego" era sin?nimo del vocablo "espa?ol": en la Argentina, todo hijo de Espa? ?a era gallego, desde Col?n hasta el m?s ?nfimo de los catalanes. (181)

This technique of "making Spanish" and thus "making Galician" all that is Argentinean serves,

as suggested before, to coat the text of emigration with vestiges of the imperial authority of the

Chronicles; however, it also fulfills two other functions. The first one is to use the false pretext that Argentina is merely an extension of the Spanish soil, in order to diminish the banishment of

7The Hispanist movement involves a tendency to defend Spanish traditions, influences, and

emigrants as a means of resisting the socio-cultural influence of other nations in Argentina,

especially the Italian. This movement contradicts previous practices of recruiting and preferring

immigrants from other European countries in order to mitigate the Spanish influence and thus

seek to define the nation outside imperialist parameters.




the Spanish emigrant who feels if not orphaned, then distanced and rejected by a "bad mother":

Spain. The second is to continue a Hispanist tradition that seeks to neutralize the influence of

immigrants from other cultures.

In spite of the apparently fervent patriotism of the work and the techniques employed to deny or minimize the distance from the native soil, certain resentment towards Spain's indifference

becomes obvious in several occasions. Javier laments, for example, the absence of political

representation for emigrants, and the little interest that Spain manifests towards its emigration. These kinds of complaints form a type of chorus or lament in most of the texts of the emigration, both continental and intercontinental: "Dol?ase Azores de que Espa?a mirase su emigraci?n con

indiferencia. Olvid?base Espa?a de los espa?oles disidentes. Los espa?oles disidentes so?aban,

empero, con rendir a Espa?a sus pensamientos, con socorrerla en sus desventuras con afianzar

en el extranjero su prestigio" (352). As Julia Kristeva points out in Strangers to Ourselves when

she theorizes the symbolic relationship of the emigrant with the mother land, the former lives

distanced from a mother that has rejected him even though he refuses to admit this due to the

pain that it entails. Javier does admit to this reality when he meditates on the parties and religious festivities of Spaniards in Buenos Aires: "As? afianzaban en el coraz?n el sacro amor a la tierra

cuna, a la inolvidable tierra que tal vez no tuvo para muchos de los romeros entra?as de madre"

(143). Following the psychoanalytic theoretical thread proposed by Kristeva, just as the distancing of the idyllic period of identification and communion with the mother leads the child to reformu?

late his identity in relation to new parameters and surroundings, similarly the emigrant, far from

the motherland, looks for ways to negotiate his identity within the adoptive society. If refusing the national emblems yields the Argentine soil as part of Spain, in attacking the

immigrants arriving from other countries, the Spaniards attempt to distance themselves from the

foreign community in order to reduce their Otherness through a supposed fraternity with the

Argentinean people. This tendency responds to a Hispanist phenomenon mentioned earlier, by which at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Argentineans resort to

identifying with the Spanish tradition in the face of the increasing influence of other emigrant

groups. Moya indicates, for instance, that a social-Darwinist discourse existed against Italy at this

time, whose immigrants were accused of deteriorating the race descended from Spaniards (349). The Hispanist trend rescues the figure of the conqueror as hero, re-interprets key figures that

criticized Spain (as in the case of Sarmiento), in order to tone down their theories, and tries to

define national identity in schools without directly attacking Spanish imperialism. We have

already seen practices of this sort in Las fraguas de la fortuna. Even in the preceding novel, La

sugesti?n de Am?rica, there appears an incident condemning the educational system that places the children of the Spanish emigrant in an ambivalent position towards a homeland that is both

loved by their parents and loathed by their compatriots8. This incident is led by Antonio, Oliva?

res' eldest son and Javier's best friend in Buenos Aires. The young man comes home with signs of having been in a fight. When his parents voice their concern, he tells them that when his

Italian teacher saw he was wearing two rosettes, one with the Argentinean flag and the other with

the Spanish, he immediately ordered him to take off the Spanish one. The teacher also proceeded

8Before Abascal, a South American doctor and descendant of Spaniards, Javier reflects on

the third generations again using the image of the mother: "Espa?a dejaba emigrar a los hijos ?ti?

les. As? perd?a los nietos; los nietos patriotas de otras patrias, ciudadanos de las patrias de A

m?rica. No engendraba Espa?a separatistas, pero era abuela de separatistas" (202).



Mar?a P. Tajes 19

to inform the students that "los espa?oles nada ten?an que hacer aqu?, que los hab?an arrojado los

argentinos de Sud Am?rica" (259). Antonio aggressively defends his parents' homeland:

Le dije que los leg?timos argentinos eran espa?oles, no italianos. As?, en su car?c?

ter de espa?oles, poblaron Am?rica, fundaron la Argentina. Por eso hasta los

italianos ten?an en la Argentina algo de espa?oles. Le hice ver que aun ?l mismo, cuando quer?a insultar a los alumnos, como yo, se ten?a que valer del castellano.9

(259) The argument gains greater momentum when the school is divided into three sides: the "His?

panists," the neutrals, and the Italians. A classmate of Antonio's establishes a Hispanist's agenda:

"hay que obligar a todos los cretinos importados en Am?rica a respetar a Espa?a." At the end, a teacher, the daughter of a Spaniard, identifies with and defends them (261).

Many specialists denounce similar incidents in Buenos Aires classrooms. Xavier Castro

describes his experience in the article "Problem?tica da consideraci?n social dos inmigrantes

gallegos na sociedade porte?a":

En la escuela se enteraba al galaicoporte?o que gente como sus padres- "espa?oles" "godos"

"realistas" gallegos, en fin- hab?an esclavizado a la Patria Argentina. Ella (la profesora) nos

hac?a proclamar, con aire festivo y prematuramente viril, que 'nosotros' hab?amos echado a

los espa?oles, molestos intrusos..." (123)

There are many occasions where the novel denies the foreign condition of the Spaniards. An

example occurs when Astrada and Olivares, both emigrants, state that "s?lo hab?a en Argentina dos clases de ciudadanos: espa?oles y extranjeros" (82). However, there is also a search for

Argentinean approval of the Spaniards' superiority over other immigrants in the country: "La m?s

sana de las emigraciones era la espa?ola. Los espa?oles emigrantes ten?an m?s aptitud para

v?ctimas que para expoliadores. Reflej?base la veracidad del aserto en los diarios. Los argentinos lo sab?an. El personal para sus caseros menesteres de confianza eleg?anlo preferentemente entre

gente espa?ola" (82, 127). We can see, then, that in spite of the attempt to eliminate Otherness, neither the emigrant nor

the host attain complete independence from it. Therefore, by the end of the novel, the alienation

of the main character and his circle of friends becomes ever more obvious. The clearest example is embodied in Olivares, Javier's best friend, who is Spanish and has a house, a large family, and

an extended group of friends in Buenos Aires. All of these allow him?or so he thinks?to live

comfortably in a country that for him, as well as for Javier, is no more than an extension of

Spain. Nevertheless, towards the end of the novel, an agonizing Oh vares admits the source ofthat

sadness in his eyes that has been observed on numerous occasions. In spite of the friends, the

children, and the meals that remind him of Spain, Olivares has not attained peace, nor has he lost

the feeling of disjunction. Thus, he admits that "los que abandonan la patria no ganan la paz del

sepulcro" and advises the protagonist to return to his country. Javier challenges the dangers that

the World War poses for ships and takes his family to Spain after admitting that "H?dasele

insoportable el suplicio de ser extranjero" (333). However, as the ocean liner leaves the Buenos

Aires port, Javier suddenly realizes an unpredictable fact: the return is impossible now that the

abandoned spatial-temporal reality no longer exists. The emigrant is unable to recover his identity

9In these statements one sees reminders of the imperialist discourse and the resistance to it

found in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Recall that Caliban even says that he learned the language of the colonizer to be able to curse him. Later, Rod? and Retamar use these characters to each

formulate proposals of Latin American identity.




as it was before the trip, that is to say, the protagonist becomes an indiano, a misfit by definition:

"en la mente del hidalgo grab?se la convicci?n de que iba a vivir en lo futuro conturbado por una

nostalgia eterna, incurable" (353). Once home, and in spite of the apparent harmony of the young men's new life devoted to the family and the contemplation of his own land, he grows nostalgic, as he had well predicted, when remembering those other Spanish emigrants less fortunate than

he: "Acaso ellos jurament?banse para volver, a la par que impulsaban la rueda de la fortuna. Ve??

anse expuestos a morir en el paisaje de los aparatosos para?sos, de los deleznables omb?s, de los

jerem?acos sauces laciamente melenudos que aparentaban llorar de tristeza frente a la desolaci?n

de las pampas. Era bello morir en el propio paisaje" (374). The novel that intended to appropriate the imperialist discourse for the narration of emigration

ends up admitting that the reality of the emigrant is a constant struggle to alleviate the feeling of banishment and orphanhood. Within the literature of the "indianos," this emigration text,

doomed to discursive marginalization, clearly conveys that only a handful is victorious in that

struggle. Not even the privileged, who like Javier Azores get a chance to return and find stability in the place of origin, can ever forget their experience or their companions in it. The novel

postulates, in turn, strategies that depend on the discursive and ideological parameters of the

moment, under which there remain vestiges of the colonial past, for negotiating the emigrant's

identity and that of the text itself.

From imperialist discourse to textual hybridity: Jorge Fern?ndez Diaz's Mam?

Unlike Costa Figueras' novel, Jorge Fern?ndez D?az' Mam? (2002) begins a groundbreaking

project linking Spanish immigration to Argentina during the first half of the 20th century with

the recent mass wave of Argentinean returnees to Spain in the wake of the economic crisis. In

proposing this connection, the text rescues the testimony of the "Arge?oles"10 and poses its

inclusion in the national memory during a particularly receptive moment for the Southern Cone

country, when a large part of the middle class faces the possibility of emigration as the only way to avoid hunger and incipient penury. Thus, the testimony of emigrant parents and grandparents takes on national relevance and ceases to be perceived as a marginal discourse. This explains the

high number of sales o? Mam? in Argentina, where it has already gone into the ninth edition.11

If Costa Figueras takes refuge in the colonial past in order to soothe the alienation of the emi?

grant and his lack of authority on Argentinean soil, Fern?ndez D?az, both an Argentinean and a

Spaniard, proposes hybridity as the only way to narrate the inter-continental connection. This

connection emerges from the move of Spaniards towards Argentina and is sealed by a recent

inversion of the flow. Mam? is, therefore, a hybrid fermented in the gap between two continents

in order to fill the fissures of personal and collective memory, using the combination of testimo?

ny, autobiography, journalistic report, and ekfrastic devices in a text that is as much a hybrid as

the identities of its characters.

The novel is narrated in the first person by Jorge, a son of Asturian emigrants, who decides

to inquire into his mother's life after she admits that her testimony has made her psychiatrist cry. The personal memories of the son follow his mother and father's testimony, often in the form

10W6rd that designates Argentineans (arge) of Spanish origin (?oles).

"The text has also been welcomed in Spain, where it has reached the fourth edition.



Mar?a P. Tajes 21

of literal quotes, the family's oral tradition, and images of the moment, as well as others recalled

by the characters. The author-narrator is aware of the abandonment that emigration brings about,

as well as of the identity conflicts that it elicits, especially when there is a colonial bond between

the country of origin and the adopted country. With this in mind, Jorge describes how Carmen, the protagonist and mother, undergoes an experience involving the Argentinean educational

system that is very similar to the one already observed in Las Fraguas de la fortuna. It occurs

when, as a 16-year old, starving, rachitic and almost illiterate newcomer, she enrolls in the second

grade level of a school for adults:

tuvo que aprender de cero los mapas y sobre todo las guerras de Independencia como se aprenden en las primera clases: con buenos y malos y blancos y negros.

Los buenos eran los argentinos y los malos eran los espa?oles, y hab?a que abrazar

con denuedo esa gesta, festejando las batallas ganadas y odiando a los godos

despreciables... (61) Carmen's experiences highlight the hardship of reconciling the Spanish and Argentinean identity, since the foundations of Argentina originate, precisely, in discourses of independence forged in

response to and rejection of the Spanish colonization.

From childhood, Jorge notices the differences between his family's environment and the

society in which he lives. In fact, he often turns to these differences to explain behaviors that

differ based on socio-economic matters rather than issues of nationality. Thus, when he compares the behavior of the prostitutes that live at his godmother Mimi's guest house with that of the

Spanish women that he knows, the boy attributes "esas diferencias a la nacionalidad: las argenti? nas eran alegres, las espa?olas sufridas" (15). Therefore, he views happiness as a trait pertaining to the native Argentineans, rather than the typical behavior of a prostitute, and he views Spaniards in turn as long-suffering.

Jorge speaks from an ambivalent, yet privileged position that allows him to serve as a com?

municative channel between Spanish emigrants and Argentineans, since both co-exist in him. In

his mediating role, the son tries to mitigate, with an explanatory voice clearly geared towards the

Argentinean reader, the differences that could bring about Argentinean disapproval. He meticu?

lously describes, for instance, the geographic location of the Asturian villages and towns, even

going as far as providing concrete coordinates: "...un vergel ubicado en el sudoeste de Europa

y al norte de la Pen?nsula Ib?rica, entre los 42? 54' y 43? 40' de latitud norte y los 4o 31' y 84'

de longitud oeste del Meridiano de Greenwich. Asturias es una extensi?n de 10.565 Kil?metros

surcada por peque?as rasas costeras..." (39). He also defines Spanish and Asturian terms that

could interfere with proper comprehension. Thus, the reader learns that "guichada" is a "vara

larga con punta afilada a cuchillo," and "h?rreo" describes a "suerte de granero de altos pilotes

y tejas a cuatro aguas donde se guardan, a un par de metros de altura, los frutos de la tierra" (39,

78). In contrast to his treatment of Spanish geography, the narrator mentions streets, neighbor?

hoods, regions, and characters of the Argentinean life without pausing to provide any explanatory comments. This suggests that he presupposes an Argentinean public already familiar with the

details but, at the same time, adds an element of uncertainty to the non-Argentinean reader, who

could feel nothing but foreign to the narrative. The reader from Spain, where the novel has

already attained its fourth edition, will share with Carmen the feeling of abandonment during her

arrival at Buenos Aires, and with Jorge the inquisitive gaze towards the society of Neuqu?n, the

Argentinean city to which he moves because of work. Furthermore, the use of words and idioms

peculiar to Argentinean Spanish in Mama contrasts with the absence of such discursive devises




in Las fraguas de la fortuna. This corroborates the irrelevance of colonial discourses in Mam?,

confirming it as a text that celebrates what is hybrid and different.

In spite of the son's voice seeming to appeal more to the Argentineans, in several occasions

he succumbs to his hybrid identity and allows for it to surface through Freudian slips, which

causes an oscillation between Spanish and Argentinean vocabulary. One of these linguistic swings takes place between the words "papa" and "patata," during the recounting of an event that hap?

pened in Asturias at a time prior to the birth of the narrator. The two cases follow:

Teresa sigui? y sigui?, y de golpe mi abuelo estall? en un alarido: tom? el plato lleno de papas y lo tir? al suelo. (31)

Algunas veces cocinaban un potaje de arvejas, patatas y garbanzos... (44)

Because this is not a case of literal quotes, which normally are differentiated in the text by the

use of italics, one would expect that the narrator uses the word "papa" or "patata" in both cases, or maintains "patata" to emphasize the voice of a Spanish speaker. Nevertheless, the oscillation

between these terms points to a spontaneous phenomenon typical of hybridity. The second

occurrence, even more obvious, happens while recounting the aunt's reaction to Carmen's pitiful

appearance in Madrid years before her emigration to Buenos Aires:

En casa de Mar?a, como siempre, no se usan bragas. La verdad es que no ment?a:

ni Carmina ni su madre usaban bombacha bajo las polleras negras, y el aspecto

general de la chica era t?trico. La t?a le compr? tres bragas, un vestido, una vincha

y unas sandalias azules. (48) The voice of the Spanish aunt, in italics, employs the term "bragas" and, immediately the first

person narrator explains the word and the situation, using Argentinean vocabulary: "bombacha"

and "pollera." The interesting fact is that, in the following sentence, the narrator takes up the

Spanish term "braga" as a member of a list also including "vincha," a word of Quechuan origin that is only used in the Southern Cone.

The mediating role of the narrator, however, is not limited to that of a discursive bridge between the emigrants' community of origin and that of their destination. Fern?ndez D?az is also

aware of his mediating role between two very different socio-cultural levels: that of his parents,

representative of the typical Spanish emigrant, and that of the well-educated Argentineans: "Yo

quer?a que mis hijos adolescentes, las amigas de mi madre y mis amigos intelectuales pudieran leerlo y sentirlo por igual".12 In order to carry out this project, he will resort to a discourse that

strays from the more established Latin American literary canon, because Fern?ndez D?az feels that

traditional literary forms are inadequate for formulating his "truth," the truth of the son of a silent

and silenced collective:

?ltimamente todo lo que escrib?a me sonaba falso. 'Falso' en el sentido que ha?

blan de falsedad Hemingway, Melville y otros. Buscando escribir 'la verdad,' escribir con sinceridad profunda, abandon? las aventuras ex?ticas para llegar a la

aventura m?s ?ntima: la que hab?a vivido mi propia madre. Buscaba crear mi

propia tradici?n y mi territorio, para luego s? largarme a escribir en esos l?mites

una nueva novela. (Interview with Fern?ndez D?az)

1 interview granted by Jorge Fern?ndez D?az to the author of this article, which will be pub?

lished shortly in the magazine Br?jula.



Mar?a P. Tajes 23

The novel is, in turn, a cultural device that mediates between two migratory experiences: that of

Spaniards to Argentina and that of Argentineans to Spain, forcing the Argentineans to re-live

pieces of a past repressed by the collective memory. Mam? appears literally framed within the Argentine crisis. It begins and ends not with the

mother's emigration, but rather with the "Arge?oles"' return to the country of origin and the

alienation that this second emigration signifies. The first chapter concentrates on the figure of

Mimi, the narrator's godmother, who after having remained in Argentina most of her life, feels

obliged to return to Spain with her brother in order to avoid starvation. Her letters to Carmen

bemoan the estrangement of those that feel foreign in their own native land: "Tengo setenta y dos

a?os y no aguanto los pies fr?os. Quiero estar en mi casa. Aqu? todos se cagan en Dios [...] Si

no me voy de ac? me muero en pocas semanas. Me muero de pena, Carmina" (18). Even when

Mim? and her brother are able to have their own apartment and a certain economic stability derived from the Spanish pensions, they confess to not feeling at home: "Pero no podemos sacarnos de la cabeza el barrio, las calles, los sonidos. Nunca vamos a poder sacarnos de adentro

ese sentimiento. Nunca vamos a poder" (19). The two siblings also denounce the rejection they feel from other Spaniards, who still associate the emigration to America with the myth of the

"indiano." A cruel and incisive question from a neighbor illustrates such disapproval: "?Qu? clase

de personas son ustedes que despu?s de tanto tiempo no han conseguido ser alguien?" (185). The

neighbor, accustomed to the figure of the rich "indiano" who returns surrounded by opulence, is

unable to conceive that emigration to America could end in misery. This is why he concludes that

such failure must be due to the action or inaction of the emigrant and not to the situation in the

adopted country.

Towards the end of the novel, Lucia, Jorge's sister and Carmen's daughter, considers the

possibility of returning to Spain. Her mother reacts with emphatic disapproval: "Hace cincuenta

a?os Espa?a estaba destrozada y la Argentina era pujante...La tortilla se dio vuelta, ?pero qui?n de ustedes puede asegurar que no volver? a pasar, qui?n puede garantizar que no har? la misma

cagada que hice yo y arruinar? de paso a toda su familia? ?Qui?n ha visto el d?a de ma?ana?"

(178). Even though the return to Spain does not materialize, the family experiences first-hand the

effects of this new emigration when they say goodbye to many of their closest friends. The scene

the narrator observes at the airport, when he goes to see his mother off during one of her visits

to the family in Spain, summarizes the situation:

La acompa?? hasta Ezeiza y la dej? junto a treinta o cuarenta arge?oles igualmente consternados. Se reconoc?an con la mirada en la zona de preembarque, todos ellos

eran argentinos en Espa?a y espa?oles en la Argentina, ten?an hijos y nietos en

edad de escapar, ven?an de un desgarro y con toda seguridad iban hacia otro

mientras la ?an de un desgarro y con toda seguridad iban hacia otro mientras la

'Par?s latinoamericana' se desmantelaba y derru?a. (180) Mim?'s words to Carmen during her visit to Spain close the frame of the return, or second

emigration, outlined in the first chapter while suggesting an alternative in the form of resistance:

"Nunca permitas que tus hijos se vayan, Carmina. ?Nunca!" (185)

Finally, it is important to point out a link to another migration, which emerges in the text

through Carmen's critical gaze during her last trip to Spain. She senses a fraternal bond between

the returning emigrants and the African immigrants in Spain. Upon observing the indifference

of the "true Spaniards," which makes her feel more distant than ever from her compatriots, her

son captures the event. "Sentada sobre su valija, mam? observaba a los africanos vendiendo

alfombras y a los verdaderos espa?oles hablando intrascendencias, y se sent?a una marciana"




(180). This feeling of "not-belonging" corroborates Carmen's disconnection from compatriots that

have forgotten too quickly their migratory past, and establishes a bridge of communication

between different collectives united by the condition of displacement.

Conclusion

Recently, as many critics have begun to analyze the phenomena of displacement framed

within globalization, it is becoming of great interest to recover texts and discourses related to the

topic that were once relegated to oblivion. As historian Jos? Moya correctly asserts, the Spanish

emigrant in Latin America is a cousin and a stranger, heir to the colonizer and marginalized in

the old colony. This reality enriches the study of the history of intercontinental relations between

Spain and the New World, but at the same time sets a precedent for Latin American immigrants

currently reaching Spain in search of opportunities very similar to those sought by the protago? nists of the novels studied here. In this manner a channel of communication can be established, as Fern?ndez D?az suggests, between Spain's emigrant past and its present as a recipient of

immigrants with a mission to reduce or eliminate intolerant and xenophobic behaviors.

Works Cited

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?a, 1918.

?. La sugesti?n de Am?rica. Barcelona: Aguafuertes, 1917.

Castro, Xavier. "Problem?tica da consideraci?n dos galegos na soceidade porte?a." Revista da

comisi?n galega do quinto entenario 4 (1992): 121-30.

Covarruvias, Sebasti?n de. Tesoro de la lengua castellana o espa?ola. Madrid: Editorial Castilia, 1995.

Delibes, Miguel. Diario de un emigrante. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1965.

Fern?ndez, James D. "America Is in Spain: A reading of Clarin's Borona." Bridging the Atlantic.

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Kristeva, Julia. Strangers to Ourselves. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.

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?. The Darker Side of The Renaissance. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.

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Mar?a P. Tajes 25

Richard, Nelly "Alteridad y descentramiento culturales." Revista chilena de literatura 42 (1993): 209-15.

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from colonial discourse to hybrid identities spanish emigration to latin america in two

Documents