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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-IsraeliPalestinian-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,
