History paper by Némethy, Judith Kesserű
New York University

Exiled Hungarians in Argentina: The Formation of a Community

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper presents the cultural activism of a group of Hungarian émigrés who fled their homeland following Soviet occupation at the end of World War II and arrived in Argentina around 1948. It deals with the intellectual activity of these exiles, especially through their cultural and educational institutions. Within five years of their arrival as dispossessed “D.P.’s,” they founded a Hungarian Center (“Centro Húngaro”) that housed, among others, a theater group, a free university, a cultural and scientific academy, a weekend school, and scout troops. At the same time, new periodicals appeared, and a substantive number of books banned in Hungary were published. I argue that it is due to the work of these institutions that the community flourished and is vital to date, in spite of its isolation and lack of reinforcement through new emigrant waves, of its hostile relationship with the government of the People’s Republic of Hungary, and of a series of Argentine economic crises that forced many of its members to re-emigrate.
I also discuss the impact the exiles had on their descendants, contending that as a result of the strong cultural foundations laid by them during their first twenty years of emigration, third- and fourth-generation Hungarian-Argentines have maintained to this day a strong cultural and ethnic identity, while fully integrating into Argentine society at large.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judith Kesserű Némethy is Clinical Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in History (Hispanic Studies) from the University of Szeged. She is President and Program Committee member of AHEA, Executive Committee member of the Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris, and administrator of scholarship applications to the Balassi Institute's Hungarian Language and Cultural Studies program for students of Hungarian descent.