Gateways of Entry and Exit.
Until the mid-1950s, European migrants to Argentina arrived by the hundreds
of thousands through the gates of the Hotel de Inmigrantes complex in
the Port of Buenos Aires (above). The former complex now houses an immigration museum, historical archives, and the offices of
the Direccion Nacional de Migraciones.
Today the children, grandchildren and great-children of past immigrants walk through the doors
of European consulates seeking the assurance of an ancestral nationality (the Spanish consulate is pictured below).
The Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (CEMLA) operates a
database generated from passenger manifestos up to the late 1920s (pictured above).
CEMLA personnel assist people seeking information about their ancestors
for geneaological and/or nationality application reasons. I did field
work among people consulting the CEMLA database at its headquarters in
the "Victoria Sailor's Home".
The Politics of Italians and Spaniards Abroad.
Italian campaign posters in Buenos Aires, April 2006 (Photos courtesy of Jon Fox). Italians abroad were allowed to vote in a parliamentary election for the first time and credited with changing electoral outcomes. Spaniards have exercised the franchise from Argentina for many years. Pictured below are the offices of a Spanish political party in Buenos Aires
Latin Americans in Spain.
Latin Americans constitute the fastest growing population of migrants
in Spain and often congregate in neighborhoods like Lavapiés in Madrid (pictured above). Investigators at the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas have documented Spaniards preference for Latin American migrants ...
...and their dislike of African migrants (Cea D'Ancona 2004).
A new politics of migration in Europe.
Immigrants protesting discriminatory labor practices and Spanish immigration policy...
...and drawing from a common cultural reservoir (note the use of Mafalda,
a political Charlie Brown like character popular in Latin America) to protest a
range of social ills, including globalization and discrimination
against immigrants
