Oldal 16 [16]
ARCHERS, HUMANISTS AND STORKS: THREADING ARGENTINE IDENTITY ISSUES
Argentina, traditionally a country opened to massive migrations, has been
and continues to be some kind of giant laboratory of identities. Argentinians,
almost snobs in these questions, tend to experiment with different identities.
In this sense, Argentina, more than just a “melting pot”, is a sort of a test
tube over a Bunsen burner. It could be said that being Argentinian is, in some
ways, like being under constant boiling. Neither could Borges have written
his famous stories among the suburbs of Buenos Aires and the universe, nor
would Tomas Abraham be here today to discuss this subject, if both had
grown up elsewhere.
The key of the contemporary problem around identity is the geometrical
growth of opportunities to choose and combine freely different elements to
enrich our identities. More people are more capable of deciding new identities
in matters of genre, nationality, physical features or religion, which used to
be traditionally a conclusive way of identification. This means that identity is
today much more an election than a destiny.
The problem is that this “identity frenzy” may produce fears and tensions.
For example, the worldwide allegations directed at the great Argentine-Israeli¬
Palestinian-Spanish musician Daniel Barenboim about his “multiple identity”
are frequently seen with no sympathy and arouse strong controversy.
Opening ourselves to thinking about identity means at the same time
thinking about how to open our own identity, a dialogue about how to allow
ourselves to change, a key attitude to adapt to surrounding changes and
new situations. That includes, naturally, the analysis of the founding period
of nationality in countries like Argentina, which means the second half of
the 19'% century and the first half of the 20" century, which is crucial to
understanding how to deal with contemporary identity problems. In other
words, the understanding of identity construction processes is necessary in
any deconstruction endeavor.
Countries like Argentina and Hungary, which have been constitutively
conceived under the sign of diversity, possess a natural tendency and
responsibility in contributing globally to this theme, which should not be
taken for granted. I mean that the many jokes about Argentine and Hungarian
identity uncertainties must be rather appreciated as assets than seen as debits.
Moreover, since the 19'* century’s bilateral migrations, Argentina and
Hungary have been developing a special sort of mixed identity, which I like to
compare with what the great Hungarian poet Mihaly Tompa said about the
storks which fly each season between north and south, and I quote: “thank
your destiny that gave you two homelands”. For me that is an unbeatable
symbol of the many Argentine-Hungarians that come and go restless between
the two countries.
For that reason, I am proposing to create a platform of dialogue between
Argentina and Hungary around a question which is inherent to both countries,