Irlandesi d'Argentina

parafrasando una vecchia canzone di Ivano Fossati ecco
un'articolo che mi é stato mandato all'interno di una newsletter sull'immigrazione irish in argentina


AN IRISH-ARGENTINIAN by Henry Ennis
====================

I'm writing to you from Buenos Aires city,
Argentina, South America.

I'm an Irish citizen, born in the Pampas and very
proud of having the Irish citizenship. I'd like
to tell you about my family history. My
grandparents and great-grandparents left Ireland
for USA in 1864. On account of the great violence
at that time they went back to Ireland. A short
time later they sold out their property and
decided to travel to the Rio de La Plata area
where their future promised to be better, but
they had to put up with the different language
and customs.

As usually occurs with immigrants in the whole
world they were cheated but they managed to
overcome difficulties working hard and making
great sacrifices. They joined other people from
Eire and they settled down starting new cities
and towns. In Buenos Aires province you can find
many cities that have Irish names and you can
also find many ranches - 'estancias', whose
names are closely connected to the green emerald
isle.

They lived isolated from the other inhabitants
trying to maintain their language and customs in
a very desolate surrounding. Something quite
noteworthy is that the English spoken here has
a great number of obsolete expressions used 130
years ago, and many times the English language
spoken is a literate translation from Gaelic.
On account of this immigration about 5000 Irish
people landed on these shores, that's why
Argentina has the biggest number of people from
Irish origin, of course not counting the English
speaking countries. The Irish have contributed a
lot to farming and animal husbandry and to the
country's prestige. It has been so important that
the high classes have accepted the Irish names
and so they have intertwined. There's more to
this, thanks to my uncle Dr Hubert Ennis, who at
the time was the legal advisor to the government,
his partner Dr J. Richards, my father and some
of their friends managed to make Argentina the
first nation in the world to recognize the
Republic of Ireland!

But this pride ends here. Because of bureaucratic
matters introduced by politicians I can't
transmit my citizenship to my wife or children.
I became a citizen after getting married and
having children. That's why my pride ends in
myself. Nevertheless my children have been brought
up following the Irish tradition, and to my
personal satisfaction they can play Irish music
and even step dance.

There is an embassy in Argentina, very few in the
staff and so very poor performance. I never get
any information about events nor promotions. My
personal impression is as if there were no
diplomatic representation. There is one Irish
Senator whom I've never met and I don't know what
party he belongs to, whose name is Joe O'Toole,
he gets in touch with me every now and then.
Thanks Senator O'Toole for regarding me as a
citizen.

Henry Ennis
Argentina