Hungarian jewish inmigrants in Mexico: identitarian dilemmas

Authors

  • Frida Staropolsky-Shwartz UNAM

Abstract

The unique character of hungarian jews that came to Mexico in the first half of the Twentieth Century, show a range of identity referents reflecting subjective positions regarding their feel, identification and belonging. The complex situations derived through time from experiences on a personal, family and jewish community level, where marked by dilemmas created by an ongoing tension between being Jews and belonging as citizens. Witnesses to violent scenarios, more of exclusion than inclusion from Hungarian society, they found in Mexico a space of survival, residence and permanence. Different identity problems are analyzed qualitatively, based on the life stories of fourteen hungarian jewish immigrants, that were part of a thirty two case research done between 2005 and 2012.

Keywords:

Jewish Hungarian Identities, Sense of belonging, migrations, ethnicity, nationalism, exclusion, inclusion.