The memory of ordinary, everyday intercultural or interreligious relationships, in brief
Buenos Aires is a city built on immigration, and the city celebrates its mix of cultures. Here, artists, activists and religious leaders – including the Pope – have found common cause, inspired by a spirit of friendship and neighbourhood forged in the face of divisive political and social realities.
The context in which these relationships made a difference at the time
This multicultural reality, long evident in a European form in the city’s linguistic blend of Spanish and Italian, and in the development of tango by Jewish and Christian musicians and dancers, is now also evident in new forms of cross-cultural culinary innovation drawing in Asian, African and Latin American influences – restaurants have created Peruvian-Chinese cuisine, for instance. Poor immigrant communities in Argentina’s capital city come from across the world, sometimes living in particular areas, often living in mixed barrios. The city government has promoted its multicultural make-up in the last two decades. In earlier periods, immigrants faced the expectation that they would integrate culturally, and among enlightened progressives there was often an expectation that minorities would leave behind their old-fashioned personal and communal identities. At neighborhood level, on the other hand, children of different backgrounds – Christian, Jewish and Muslim – meet at school, and some tell of their experience of communities embracing religious and cultural diversity. This is often alluded to in presentations of the Pope’s childhood in the immigrant neighborhood Flores, and of his determined friendship with Jewish and Muslim clergy from the city. Religious solidarity has also made a practical difference to human rights campaigning, as it did under successive Rightist regimes, when campaigners (such as the novelist Borges) opposed political antisemitism, and when campaigners such as the mothers of the disappeared (the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) were targeted by the authorities. Through an account of the development of a barrio identity forged around support for local football teams, Joel Horowitz has noted how the distinctive idea of neighbourhood solidarity in the city is partly the result of outside economic interests, rather than being a direct reflection of neighbourly solidarity.
What has happened since, which makes the memory valuable
The city’s increasing diversity is now celebrated, and at the same time academics and campaigners remain focused on the ways in which inter-group relations are entangled with the struggles of the poor and the marginalised, or the minoritised. Pope Francis has modelled a positive embrace of the diverse neighbourhood, and of friendships which embrace difference in the pursuit of the common good. In many barrios, memories of intercultural and interreligious relationships can make an important contribution to a sense of what it means to be local. They are a social good, or a form of social capital, which feature in memories about the difficulties people experience through their lives, and which can be important when individuals, families and communities look back with pride at what they have achieved.
How might the memory be used in bringing people together in practice now?
The Memory Bank team welcome reflections from anyone with an interest in sharing memories in order to promote good futures, in the city or elsewhere. In what ways do you see the memories of multicultural and multireligious solidarity in Buenos Aires can be used, perhaps in teaching about the value of multicultural heritage and diversity, or to promote peace and understanding, or to teach lessons about small-scale, local social and economic cooperation?
Additional context/Some additional reading
Michelle Natolo,Stephanie Natolo, ‘Promoting cultural diversity in Buenos Aires through colectividades: The case of Buenos Aires Celebra’. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lamp.12251
JOEL HOROWITZ, ‘Football Clubs and Neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires before 1943: The Role of Political Linkages and Personal Influence’, 2014. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/football-clubs-and-neighbourhoods-in-buenos-aires-before-1943-the-role-of-political-linkages-and-personal-influence/1E8BE563FE290EDFE166C0D65421CC8F