San Patricio en Buenos Aires : narrativa, celebraciones y migración

The first part of this presentation deals with St. Patrick’s celebration in Buenos Aires city, from 2005 to 2010. María Inés Palleiro, Verónica Banzhaf, Vanesa Civila Orellana, Flora Delfino Kraft, Mara Morado, Txarito Naya, Patricio Parente and Mercedes Tella,with the revision of Analía Canale propose an approach to such celebration as an example of “invention of tradition” both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. With the theoretical guidelines of Folkloristics, Social Anthropology, Semiotics, Cultural Studies and Discourse Analysis, the authors analyze the ways in which St.Patrick’s Medieval Irish celebration is recontextualizated synchronically in different events, in the Latin American urban context of Buenos Aires city from 2005 to 2010. Such events include both the Catholic religious ritual as well as the popular celebrations in pubs and even along the streets, and the “Celtic Festivals” which take place in theatres, in a special kind of performance, with music and dance. The study also focuses on the parodic carnivalization processes of this celebration in different channels of discourse, such as the virtual discourse of the World Wide Web and the commercial advertisements, in which the aim of drinking beer is proposed as the main goal of StPatrick’s Day. The authors analyze as well some diachronic aspects dealing with Irish history and Irish memory, from the earlier periods of medieval culture, up to the migratory movements, along with the changes of the celebration fin Buenos Aires from 2006 to 2010. By means of this analysis, they point out the dynamics between localand global, dealing with the narrative construction of differential identity of the Irish migrant community in the heterogeneous cultural context of Argentinean culture. This study also contains some introductory remarks about St. Patrick’s celebration in local and global dimensions by Diarmuid Ó Giolláin and a general comment to the first edition by Ana María Dupey. The second part deals with different subjects connected with this initial proposal. This part is divided in four sections, regarding St.Patrick between Folklore and Literature, Extraordinary beings and intercultural connections in narrative expressions, Past and present of St. Patrick’s celebrations, and Festivals and Cultural Performances in Buenos Aires city. The first section includes four chapters. In the first one, entitled “From the St. Patrick’s Medieval European Purgatory to contemporary folk narrative: orality, literacy and social memory” , Maria InésPalleiro deals with contextual changes of a folk narrative pattern both in Medieval written texts and in Argentine oral narrative. In the second one, “St. Patrick’s legend in Medieval texts: a cross-cultural tradition”, Verónica Banzhaf analyzes the cross-cultural Catholic and “celtic” tradition in two Medieval versions of St. Patrick’s legend. In the third chapter, “St. Patrick: from Purgatory to celebration”, Susana Artal studies the inclusion of popular items, especially traditional comic images, in the medieval Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii translated by Marie de France. In the fourth chapter, “St. Patrick in Cervantes’ literary production”, Alicia Parodianalyzes St. Patrick’s influence in Cervantes works, both in in the Persiles, the Exemplary Novels and in The Quixote, when Quixote himself descends to the caves of Montesinos. The second section, referred to St. Patrick’s celebration between past and present, contains the following four chapters, from five to eight. In the fifth one, entitled “The construction of Irish-Argentinean community in Buenos Aires: past and present of St. Patrick’s day in Buenos Aires: the narrative dimension of celebrations and rituals “, Elisa Palermo considers St. Patrick’s festival as a symbolic space where Irish descendants construct their ethnic identity, linked with the migratory past, in the Argentinean context. In the sixth chapter, “St. Patrick’s Day: legend and popular festival”, Flora Delfino Kraft analizes different aspects of St. Patrick’s Day dealingwith “drinking rhetoric” as it appears in Internet. In the seventh chapter, “Out of ordinary beings in Medieval preaching texts and in Argentinean folklore”, Patricio Parente compares the discursive construction of extraordinary beings such us goblings in Irish Medieval tradition and in Argentinean oral narrative. In the eighth chapter,“St. Patrick’s celebration in Buenos Aires 2010”, Vanesa Civila Orellanaand Mara Morado analize both rural and urban commemorations of St. Patrick’s day in Buenos Aires, from the religious way of celebrating as told by a Catholic priests, to the “party time” in Irish pubs of the city centre. They deal as well with migrant cultural heritage and patrimonialization processes regarding this celebration ofIrish community in Argentina. The third section, dealing with miraculous healings and supernatural beings, contains two chapters. These chapters, whose linkagewith St. Patrick’s Day is more flexible– are included in a CDROM. In the ninth chapter, “Elves and tattos: iconic representations of group identity”, Elena Hourquebie links the micronarrative of tattos among Argentinean adolescents closed in a correctional institutewith European icons of Celtic mythology. The author considers these icons, such as elves and goblings, as signs of personal identity attached to a group culture of transgression. In the tenth chapter, “A small history: memory and identity in oral versions of personal experience”, Patricia Coto de Attilio studies the textualisation process of the ideological context in oral folk narratives. The last section deals with “Celebrations, festivals and cultural performances”. In the first chapter, “Some remarks in the history of Celtic music in Argentina”, Norberto Pablo Cirio explores the factorsinvolved in the recreation of Celtic music and offers some remarks about its history in Argentina, related to the dynamics of “the invention of tradition”. In the last chapter, “The returning of Carnival in Buenos Aires cultural performances”, Analía Canale focuses the attention in the “revival” processes of popular artistic expressions related to cultural policies in urban contexts, such as murgas that take place in Buenos Aires during Carnival celebrations and also in St. Patrick’s day.All these contributions are focused in different aspects of the rhetoric construction of tradition, related to St. Patrick’s celebration. This celebration is thus considered as a metaphoric expression of the differential identity of Irish migrant community in the Argentinean context.For technical reasons, the contents of the CD cannot be uploaded.If some of the authors can do it, they are very welcome to upload.