Emotions and Migration in Argentina at the Turn of the 20th Century

Description

Revealing the lives of migrant couples and transnational households, this book explores the dark side of the history of migration in Argentina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using court records, censuses, personal correspondence and a series of case studies, María Bjerg offers a portrayal of the emotional dynamics of transnational marital bonds and intimate relationships stretched across continents. Using microhistories and case studies, this book shows how migration affected marital bonds with loneliness, betrayal, fear and frustration. Focusing primarily on the emotional lives of Italian and Spanish migrants, this book explores bigamy, infidelity, adultery, domestic violence and murder within official and unofficial unions. It reveals the complexities of obligation, financial hardship, sacrifice and distance that came with migration, and explores how shame, jealousy, vengeance and disobedience led to the breaking of marital ties. Against a backdrop of changing cultural contexts Bjerg examines the emotional languages and practices used by adulterous women against their offended husbands, to justify domestic violence and as a defence against homicide. Demonstrating how migration was a powerful catalyst of change in emotional lives and in evolving social standards, Emotions and Migration in Early Twentieth-century Argentina reveals intimate and disordered lives at a time when female obedience and male honour were not only paramount, but exacerbated by distance and displacement. This book tells stories with unhappy denouements that reveal how migration transfigured the anatomy of marriage bonds. When men left, and women remained behind waiting, and commitment to the migratory strategy emerged as the essential conditions to keep marital love alive and cope with anxieties, fears of abandonment, loneliness, and longing. However, when husband and wife finally reunited the contrasts between expectations and reality caused disillusionment and prevented the couple from rekindled the relationship and recovering the languages of intimacy. When the expectations of material progress remained unfulfilled or when the man and woman’s experience of adjustment to the receiving society diverged conflict and mistreatment ended up taking over the relationship. The shared project that had motivated the transatlantic venture would lose its meaning and become a reason for reproaching and regretting. Then, love, that united husbands and wives, ended up surrendering to pain, resentment, anger, revenge, contempt, and hate. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Land of Prosperity The dark side of progress 2 Promise, Wait, and Betrayal The Spanish seamstress, a woman of discreet feelings A cold marital bed An irascible Italian woman in a cosmopolitan city Widowers of the living 3 Breaking the Sacred Vows Vengeance Shame Compassion 4 The Anatomy of Everyday Hatred The poverty and the rage The women’s money 5 The Passion of Jealousy While Virginia was sleeping The tailor’s nervous temperament Emotional styles 6 Killing for Love The man who loved too much Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index