Abstract

CARMAN, María. The invention of ethnicity and the clearing of squatters in Buenos Aires' Abasto Neighborhood. Intersecciones antropol. [online]. 2006, n.7, pp.387-398. ISSN 1850-373X.

Although a large majority of squatters of buildings and empty lots in the Abasto neighborhood of Buenos Aires come from inland provinces in Argentina, both the state and the rest of the population have historically imagined them to be undocumented Bolivians and Peruvians. What happens when the Bolivians and Peruvians that also live in Abasto are "rediscovered," in recent years, by local authorities? In effect, confronted by the increasing refinement of cultural rivalry between cities, Peruvians and Bolivians are no longer considered as those who "steal jobs from Argentinean people," but have become valued as juridical subjects and citizens of a cosmopolitan Buenos Aires which welcomes with approval its quota of exoticism. The aim of this paper is to identify the arguments used in this invention of ethnicity and their connections with "territorial purification" and the removal of "undesirable inhabitants" from this barrio of Buenos Aires.

Keywords : Squatters; Cultural competence; Invention of ethnicity; "Purification of the territory".

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