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HERNÁN OTERO
segregated cities in the world.” In fact, the average level of ethnic segregation
around 1910 was half or a third that of cities in the United States. Although
there were significant concentrations of immigrants in Buenos Aires, as a
result of primary social networks, there were no ghettos in the sense defined
by the Chicago School of Sociology. The enormous weight of Europeans in
the population of the city (51% in 1914) should have made immigrant quarters
less necessary.
Another illustration in the same direction is given by the conventillos
(tenements). As is suggested by the 1887 Buenos Aires census, the typical
tenement was multiethnic with a large majority of foreigners (especially men)
and a significant portion of Argentinians (mainly women). Clearly segregated
along social lines but without a strong evidence of ethnic segregation, the
conventillos encouraged a kind of “melting pot” at the bottom of the social
pyramid. This fact is important if we consider that a quarter of Buenos Aires’
population lived in tenements at the end of the 19 century.
Similarly to endogamy, spatial segregation decreased clearly in majority
groups between 1887 and 1914 and was higher in groups defined by religious
beliefs. Obviously, a statistical approach has important limits because the
ethnic quarter (such as the Italian neighborhood of La Boca or the Jewish
quarter of Once) is also defined by a symbolic dimension that includes the
presence of ethnic icons like associations, celebrations, and especially
perceptions of other groups and the host society.”
The third crucial dimension regards the volunteer associations of
immigrants, a classic indicator of structural and informal assimilation.
This matter has been studied following two perspectives: the endogenous
model (case studies based on lists of members and minutes books) and the
exogenous model (statistical analysis of memberships). This second model,
based on censuses and surveys, allows us to incorporate the concept of the
ethnic nucleus, defined as the proportion of members of associations of a
given migratory community.“
As is well known, communities had a complex and dynamic set of
permanent institutions (associations, schools and journals), but there were
also periodic activities: celebrations (such as the 12 October in the Spanish
community, a national holiday in Argentina since 1917), religious and secular
parties, tributes to national heroes (such as Garibaldi and Mazzini in the
Italian case), parades and street meetings.
2 Moya, Cousins and strangers, 181. See also Otero and Adela Pellegrino, Sharing the City:
Residence Patterns and Immigrant Integration in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, in Baily
and Miguez (eds.): Mass Migration to Modern Latin America, Wilmington, Scholarly
Resources Inc., 2003, 81-112.
Devoto: The origins of an Italian neighbourhood in Buenos Aires in the mid-nineteenth
century, The Journal of European Economic History, Vol. 18, 1989, 37-63.
4° Otero: Historia de los franceses, 252-263.
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