Gangitanos in Azul. Family scenes of community reading at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

The article reconstructs a story, preserved through intrafamilial oral transmission, of a community reading scene at the beginning of the 20th century, within a gangitan family (Palermo, Italy), migrated to Azul (province of Buenos Aires) at the end of the century XIX. This work analyzes the actors, purposes, spaces, times and material supports of the practice to contribute to the historical memory of reading in an agricultural community in Alluvial Argentina from the perspective of life stories. We discuss the hypothesis that refers to the illiterate immigrant and, on the contrary, we affirm, through the documentation under analysis (population censuses, letters, photographs, family writings), that the practice of community reading draws on a tradition transferred by migrants from
their native land: the reading circle. We propose to analyze this practice as a symbolic mediator in the construction of individual and collective subjectivities.