Although it would not be precise to say that Uruguayans in Buenos Aires are not part of the so-called “undesirable migratory flows”, this group has nevertheless made an effort not to be assimilated in the “Achilles’ Heel of the melting pot”. Building upon a multi-site ethnographic research, this article approaches the social processes of distinction and justification undertaken by Uruguayans inhabiting in Buenos Aires in order to distinguish the irmigratory trajectories from other ones. Such processes and efforts are analyzed in terms of the relation to the meanings and practices associated to what this group calls “a rioplatense brotherhood” – and their limits – between the mid 1940s and today. In sum, the article sets out to analyze these relationships based on the interdependencies between the mobilization of certain national narratives, Argentina-Uruguay bilateral relations and the structural inequalities in the region.
migration; distinction; rioplatense brotherhood; Uruguayans; Buenos Aires