Between Dictatorships and Revolutions: Narratives of Argentine and Brazilian Exiles (2025)

Between Dictatorships and Revolutions

2014

This article analyzes transnational migrations triggered by the dictatorships in Argentina (1976-1983) and Brazil (1964-1985), with attention to the repre­sentations associated to exile in these countries and in the Latin American context of the second half of the 20th century. The empirical data used are the memories narrated by Argentines who took exile in Brazil and by Brazilians exiled in Mozambique. By exploring the plurality of meanings that these authors attribute to their migratory experiences, we seek to understand how different political conjunctures in the countries of origin and destination implied varied forms of living and understanding exile. In a comparative per­spective, the case studies also explore how the experience of exile was forged not only in relation to specific national and migratory contexts but also in relation to transnational social fields.O presente artigo propõe analisar migrações transnacionais impulsionadas pelas ditaduras argentina (1976-1983) e b...

Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in Latin America

Latin American Perspectives, 2007

The Unintended Consequences of Exile: The Brazilian and Chilean Cases in Comparative Perspective, 1964 – 1990

Left History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Historical Inquiry and Debate, 1969

Exile, Transnational Life, Return, and Diasporas: The Southern Cone Experience

Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, 2023

This article analyzes the experience of massive exile during the last wave of dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and particularly the process of partial return to the home countries. Given the dramatic and unparalleled institutional breakdown that affected these societies, each in different ways and at varying degrees, the text addresses what limits, difficulties, or shortcomings the former exiles encountered upon their return; what the impact of returnees was on their respective national landscape; and how the transnational experience of those displaced individuals affected the home institutions, politics, and national culture upon their return to their home countries. Finally, it explores how the home countries have addressed and related to the persistent diasporas of co-nationals abroad, particularly those with academic and professional credentials.

Citizen-Victims and Masters of their Own Destiny: Political Exiles and their National and Transnational Impact

Exiles have been victims of a form of institutional exclusion that characterized many polities in Latin America. This article puts forward two claims. First, that until recently their displacement was largely dismissed as basis for recognition of victimhood. In the Cold War era, this was due primarily to the exiles’ own perception of being militants willing to forego a personal sacrifice for their cause, an image they personified against the accusations of treason and betrayal of the nation that those in power projected onto them. Later, this lack of recognition of exiles as victims was retained due to the concentration of attention on prototypical victims of repression such as the detained-disappeared or the long-term political prisoners. The second claim put forward is that, while ignored as victims, exiles remained agents of their own destiny and reclaimed their abrogated national identity and citizenship. Being displaced and having lost the political entitlements of citizenship, they were forced to come to grips with past defeats, face present challenges, and reconstruct their future. It was under those conditions that exile had not just constraining effects, but also expanding effects. Exile also provided windows of opportunity to change statuses, upgrade skills, discover strengths, and develop new relationships. It thus often became a transformative experience, a kind of aggiornamento, which is analyzed here focusing on some of its impacts on the reconstruction of Southern Cone societies in post-dictatorial times.

The Politics of Exile in Latin America

2009

The Politics of Exile in Latin America addresses exile as a major mechanism of institutional exclusion used by all types of governments in the region against their own citizens, while at the same time these governments often provided asylum to aliens fleeing persecution. The work is the first systematic analysis of Latin American exile on a continental and transnational basis and on a long-term perspective. It traces variations in the saliency of exile among different expelling and receiving countries; across different periods; with different paths of exile, both elite and massive; and under authoritarian and democratic contexts. The project integrates theoretical hindsight and empirical findings, analyzing the importance of exile as a recent and contemporary phenomenon, while reaching back to its origins and phases of development. It also addresses presidential exile, the formation of Latin American communities of exiles worldwide, and the role of exiles in shaping the collective identities of these countries. Mario Sznajder holds the Leon Blum Chair in Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also Research Fellow at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Among his works are the books The Birth of Fascist Ideology (with Zeev Sternhell and Maia Asheri), Constructing Collective Identities and Shaping Public Spheres: Latin American Paths (coedited with Luis Roniger), and The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile and Uruguay (with Luis Roniger). He has also published numerous articles on Fascism, democracy, and human rights. Luis Roniger is Reynolds Professor of Latin American Studies at Wake Forest University. A comparative political sociologist, Roniger's publications include books such as Patrons, Clients and Friends (with Shmuel N. Eisenstadt), Hierarchy and Trust in Modern Mexico and Brazil, The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone (with Mario Sznajder), The Collective and the Public in Latin America (coedited with Tamar Herzog), and Globality and Multiple Modernities (coedited with Carlos Waisman). He is currently completing a book on Transnational Politics in Central America.

Political Exile in Latin America

Latin American Perspectives, 2007

Political exile is a major constitutive feature of Latin American politics. It has contributed to the establishment of the rules of the political game on a transnational basis, both before and after the consolidation of states. It is linked to the tension between the hierarchical structure of these societies and the political models that predicated participation, the process of fragmentation and conflictive territorial boundaries, and the evolution of factionalism into modern politics, spurring civil wars, political violence, and polarization. This article analyzes exile as a selective elite mechanism, its transformation into a mass phenomenon, and the creation of communities of Latin American exiles and expatriates, influential in the framework of transnational politics.

Exile Communities and Their Differential Institutional Dynamics: A Comparative Analysis of the Chilean and Uruguayan Political Diasporas

2007

resumen El artículo se concentra en la pluralidad de las experiencias de exilio político tal como se manifiestan en las comunidades de exiliados chilenos y uruguayos en la segunda mitad del siglo veinte. Enfocándose en las dinámicas de exilio como la interacción entre el país expulsor, el exiliado(a) y el país anfitrión, el artículo elabora dos fenómenos básicos: primero, el hecho de que los lugares de exilio pueden devenir, a través de las acciones de los exiliados, en comunidades de exilio, si como en uno de los dos casos analizados los exiliados logran movilizar y representar a los residentes en su conjunto. El artículo elabora la dinámica diferente que se da en este proceso en las dos comunidades, donde problemas personales y comunales se desarrollan y son tratados paralelamente a las actividades públicas relacionadas al exilio político. segundo, analiza la transición de una estructura trilateral de exilio hacia una cuadrilateral, cuando la arena internacional y global se transforma en una importante dimensión de las actividades políticas de los exiliados. abstract By focusing on the experiences of the chilean and uruguayan exile communities settling abroad during the last wave of dictatorship and repression in the 1970s, this article suggests ways to analyze exile communities in the late 20th century. By focusing in the dynamics of exile as the interaction between the expelling country, the person forced into exile and the host country in a changed international environment, it elaborates two basic phenomena: first, the fact that the sites of relocation (lieux d'exil) may become communities of exile (milieux d'exil). the article discussed the conditions effecting this transformation for the case of the chileans, as the exiles managed to galvanize their co-nationals through their actions and be the vectors representing the plight of the displaced, in parallel to personal and communal problems, which develop and are addressed in parallel to public activities related to the condition of political exile. second, the article discusses the structure of exile, which in this period undergoes a transition from a three-tiered into a four-tiered structure, as the international and global arena became an added major dimension conditioning the options and political activities of the exiles. palaBras clavE • comunidades de exilio • lugares de exilio • Exilio político • diásporas • arena global • dictaduras militares * the research that serves as a basis for this article has been supported by grants from the harry s. truman institute for the advancement of peace at the hebrew university of Jerusalem and the social and Behavioral research fund of Wake forest university. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article for their learned and useful comments and suggestions. mario sznaJdEr, luis ronigEr 44

Introduction: The Politics of Exile

The Politics of Exile in Latin America, 2009

Political Exile and Identity Construction: The Case of Political Exiles from Latin America to Israel, 1970-2004

In: Collective Identities, States and Globalization: Essays in honor of S.N. Eisenstadt, 2010