Political Exile in Latin America (Latin American Studies)

Introduction

Since independence, political exile—as both expulsion and expatriation—has been a major mechanism of exclusion widely used and abused by Latin American states. Resulting from political persecution but stopping short of annihilating the opposition, exile represents a pattern of politics built upon exclusion. While rooted in colonial practices, its recurrent use after independence has contributed to reinforcing the exclusionary rules of political systems. In the 20th century, a major transformation occurred in the structure of exile, when it transformed from a selective mechanism mostly involving political, social, and cultural elites into a mass phenomenon, correlated with the democratization of politics and the opening of public spheres to sectarian political participation. In this latter stage, the international and transnational arenas also became increasingly prominent. The recurrent use of exile reflects ongoing challenges to the structure of power in exclusionary political systems and limited democracies. States have expelled their own citizens and residents while simultaneously providing sites of asylum for persecuted individuals of other lands. This Janus-face of states, which adopt selective and often disparate policies of displacement and asylum, constitutes a challenging domain of research into the relationships of state politics and civil society in the Americas. The contradictory nature of the policies of asylum and exclusion has prompted analyses both at the level of institutional strategies and in terms of the challenges that migratory processes pose to the reshaping of collective identities and competitiveness over access to resources. An equally fascinating and still largely uncharted area of research is that of the partial return of exiles. The many facets of exile have prompted multidisciplinary approaches to this phenomenon; there are studies that stress exile as a political and sociological phenomenon, while others tackle it from psychological, anthropological, and cultural perspectives of discussion.

General Overviews

Political exile, a major political practice in some of these societies and historical periods, is still an under-researched topic. While ubiquitous and fascinating, until recently—with only minor exceptions (Caldwell 1943, Johnson 1951, Tabori 1972)—it was conceived as somewhat marginal for the development of these societies and studied in the framework of traditional concepts and concerns in history, law, and the social sciences, as in Luna 1962. More recently, theoretical developments have been prompted in connection with new concepts and paradigms. Thus, in the 1980s and 1990s scientists working in comparative politics and political theory—respectively, Shain 1989 and Shklar 1998—made major contributions from the perspective of shaken state loyalties and reconstructed commitments; and in the 1990s and 2000s we find attempts, such as Safran 1991 and Sheffer 2003, at analytical systematization closely connected with transnationalism and diaspora studies, addressing Latin America partially or approaching it comprehensively. The latter works will be singled out later on (see Recent Collective Works and Panoramic Studies).

Caldwell, Robert G. “Exile as an Institution.” Political Science Quarterly 58.2 (1943): 239–262.
DOI: 10.2307/2144917Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Caldwell underscores the longstanding importance of exile as a Latin American political institution, tracing the origins of the institutionalization of exile both to classical philosophers who advocated banishment and to preexisting Spanish legal codes that institutionalized exclusion. Classical antiquity and philosophy, thus, sought to legitimize what was already in existence. Colonization further institutionalized exile, often incorporated into the penal codes of states.
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Johnson, John J. “Foreign Factors in Dictatorship in Latin America.” Pacific Historical Review 20.2 (1951): 127–141.
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This study analyzes the genesis of caudillo politics in Hispanic America and sees asylum and exile as stemming from the rigid caste system and the will to reach “a cooling of tempers,” while representing clemency and leniency. Caudillos used the real or imaginary threat of the opposition across the border to justify a concentration of powers and militarization. It has been partially reprinted in Hugh M. Hamill, ed. Caudillos: Dictators in Latin America (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992, pp. 195–202).
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Luna, David Alejandro. El asilo político. San Salvador, El Salvador: Editorial Universitaria, 1962.
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This is a historical-juridical analysis of the figure of political asylum, anchored in natural rights and their positive elaboration; tracing its historical bases to antiquity and its development as territorial asylum and later on as diplomatic asylum.
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Safran, William. “Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return.” Diasporas 1.1 (1991): 83–99.
DOI: 10.1353/dsp.1991.0004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Safran stresses the necessary qualifications for a dispersed network of minorities to be a diaspora. According to Safran, exile/expatriation and the subsequent collective consciousness orientated to a real or mythical place of origin are basic traits, leading to his determination that Hispanic or Latino communities in the United States, particularly the Mexicans, hardly qualify, while the Cubans are part of a diaspora.
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Shain, Yossi. The Frontier of Loyalty: Political Exiles in the Age of the Nation-States. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.
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This book suggests that exiles move the frontier of loyalty abroad upon interacting with their countrymen in the diaspora and impacting home and host societies. Shain examines exiles’ attempts to mobilize their compatriots abroad; their relations with the internal opposition to the home regime; the interaction between political exiles and the international community; and the home regime’s responses to the challenges that exiles represent.
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Sheffer, Gabriel. Diaspora Politics: At Home and Abroad. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511499432Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Sheffer argues that diaspora dates from antiquity, further outlining how diasporas attempt to assimilate into their host countries while simultaneously maintaining close ties with the homeland. Discussing a wide variety of ethno-national diasporas, from Mexicans in the United States to the Portuguese in France, the author presents their commonalities, including formation processes and their often-tense relationships with their home and host countries.
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Shklar, Judith. “Obligation, Loyalty and Exile: The Bonds of Exile.” In Political Thought and Political Thinkers. Edited by Judith Shklar and Stanley Hoffman, 38–72. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
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Shklar analyzes exile in terms of the severed political obligations of governments towards citizens, and the parallel ties of loyalty, fidelity, and allegiance that exiles may carry out abroad. These posthumous papers suggest a research program on the public implications of exile, indicating that its singularity derives from the existential reflexivity and shattered political obligations of those expelled by their governments.
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Tabori, Paul. The Anatomy of Exile: A Semantic and Historical Study. London: Harrap, 1972.
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This is an encyclopedic historical and semantic study of the forms and conceptions of exile by a Hungarian émigré and intellectual, who wrote it not for the expert or the academic, but rather to bring public attention to the deep historical and cultural breadth of the phenomenon and its multiple manifestations that make any attempt at clear-cut identification so difficult.
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Recent Collective Works and Panoramic Studies

Closely related to analytical developments stressing the perspective of recent history and the growing attention to diasporas and transnationalism, Latin American exile has become a burgeoning area of study. At this stage we find panoramic works on specific communities of exiles by Yankelevich and Jensen 2007; Dutrénit Bielous, et al. 2008; and Sanhueza and Pinedo 2010; also, works on sites of exile such as Yankelevich 2002 or Garciadiego and Kouri 2010, systematic approaches on a continental basis like Sznajder and Roniger 2009, and collaborations across disciplinary boundaries such as Viz Quadrat 2011 and Roniger, et al. 2012. Roniger 2011 provides an analytical review of diverse research lines undertaken in recent years.

Dutrénit Bielous, Silvia, Eugenia Allier Montaño, and Enrique Coraza de los Santos. Tiempos de exilios: Memoria e historia de españoles y uruguayos. Colonia Suiza, Uruguay: Textual, 2008.
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A collection of three insightful analyses on the massive exilic and migratory experience of Uruguayans worldwide, paying attention to: how leaving the home country allowed many to continue being active in politics; how time operated changes in the diaspora; how the networks created have triggered back-and-forth movements of relocation; and the slow process of construction of a memory of exile.
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Garciadiego, Javier, and Emilio Kouri. Revolución y exilio en la historia de México: Homenaje a Friedrich Katz. Mexico City: Era/Colegio de México y Universidad de Chicago, 2010.
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The fourth part of this collection (pp. 519–856) of studies in homage of historian Friedrich Katz contains fifteen essays that stress the centrality of exile in the history of Mexico; it includes case studies reflecting the various periods when Mexico generated waves of exile and as it offered or denied a place of refuge for those escaping persecution elsewhere.
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Roniger, Luis. “Destierro y exilio político en América Latina: Un campo de estudio transnacional e histórico en expansión.” Pacarina del Sur 9 (October-December 2011): 1–18.
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This is a panoramic assessment of the main lines of development of research in the study of Latin American exile and of the singularity of political exile. It identifies various lines of research, notes the relative lack of development of theoretical approaches, and suggests lines of future research.
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Roniger, Luis, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, eds. Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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This collection of historical and comparative essays analyzes the roots of exile in the politics of exclusion and traces its dynamics and profound impact throughout the Americas. The authors propose that the study of exile is closely tied to basic problems regarding the structure of power, national representation, and transnational connections.
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Sanhueza, Carlos, and Javier Pinedo, eds. La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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This is a collection of eleven essays analyzing exile on a long historical canvas, starting with the expulsion of the Jesuits in the 18th century and devoting most essays to late-20th-century political exile. Some of the essays will be covered in specific sections.
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Sznajder, Mario, and Luis Roniger. The Politics of Exile in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511581373Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This work traces systematic variations in the saliency of exile among different expelling and receiving countries, across different periods, paths of exile, and political contexts. It stresses exile as a long-standing yet changing phenomenon, reaching back to its origins and evolution. It also addresses presidential exile, the formation of diaspora communities, and the role of exiles in reshaping the identities of some of these countries.
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Viz Quadrat, Samantha, ed. Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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This collection shows that the study of exile has led to a reassessment of the meaning of democracy and of the emergency laws so widely used and abused by states throughout Latin America. Others address the waves of dispersion, expelling and hosting countries, and how the networks of exile impacted and, in turn, were affected by changes in the international arena.
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Yankelevich, Pablo, ed. México, país refugio: La experiencia de los exilios en el siglo XX. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia—Plaza y Valdés, 2002.
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This is a most comprehensive collection of essays on Mexico as a site of asylum for Europeans, Americans, Spaniards, and Latin Americans. Though analyses of Cuban exiles and Central American refugees are not included, this work is of great interest for those studying Mexico as a country that prided itself in welcoming those fleeing political persecution and dictatorships during the 20th century.
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Yankelevich, Pablo, and Silvina Jensen, eds. Exilios: Destinos y experiencias bajo la dictadura militar. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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This book brings together seven essays on various sites of exile for Argentineans fleeing repression during the 1970s and early 1980s, some of which are reviewed in the section on sites of exile. The introduction by the editors offers an analysis of the shifting place of exile in Argentina’s public agenda and debates.
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Defining the Exilic Condition

The phenomenon of exile exists within a wider spectrum of phenomena of individuals and groups moving across space, time, and culture. The dynamics of such translocation bring exiles close to a series of related phenomena, such as migrants, refugees, beneficiaries of asylum, cosmopolitan vagrants, nomads, and the networks that form diasporas. Although it is often difficult to separate exile from these related phenomena, many studies have been devoted to identify its distinctive political connotation, genesis, and implications. Most of them take a universal approach to categorical elaboration. Representative of this line are Simpson 1995 and Burello, et al. 2011, which address Latin American exile along with many other cases in the framework of reaching a universal characterization of exile. Among works that explicitly focus on the Latin American spectrum of exile are works anchored in literary analysis such as Kaminsky 1999; in history and the history of ideas such as Fey and Racine 2000 or Jensen 2009; and in the social sciences such as Dutrénit Bielous 2006 and Sznajder and Roniger 2009.

Burello, Marcelo G., Fabián Ludueña Romandini, and Emmanuel Taub, eds. Politicas del exilio: Orígenes y vigencia de un concepto. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, 2011.
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This multidisciplinary collection of essays deals with exile in philosophy and sociopolitical theory as well as in aesthetic representation, including chapters anchored in the Latin American experience of forceful migration. Resulting from a 2009 conference at the Universidad Tres de Febrero in Argentina, the work relies on multiple conceptual elaborations.
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Dutrénit Bielous, Silvia. “Introducción.” In El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous, 5–22. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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Of relevance beyond the specific Uruguayan case, this essay stresses that organized political exiles comprised only part of the universe of migrants and expatriates; and that the UNHCR and the diplomats had a variable role in the Southern Cone countries in the rescue of the persecuted. Dutrénit Bielous also discusses exile as commitment and as irrevocable change in life.
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Fey, Ingrid Elizabeth, and Karen Racine, eds. Strange Pilgrimages: Exile, Travel, and National Identity in Latin America, 1800–1990s. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2000.
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The work features essays and articles that detail the experiences of exiles in Europe and the United States. These individuals often emerged with a greater understanding of their homeland and brought back new ideas upon their return. Through first-hand accounts, the work indicates the importance of exile as a powerful way to shape thought and facilitate the exchange of ideas.
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Jensen, Silvina. “Representaciones del exilio y de los exiliados en la historia argentina.” Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe 20.1 (2009): 19–40.
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Jensen reviews the multiplicity of terms addressing the exilic condition in the history of Argentina, emphasizing its recurrence as a way to save lives and preserve freedoms. Jensen analyzes the representations that crystallized in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of ostracism and displacement. Exile emerges as a collective learning process and a space for political struggle.
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Kaminsky, Amy K. After Exile: Writing the Latin American Diaspora. University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
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Kaminsky analyzes the literary outpourings of exile writers from Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay during the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Examining such writers as Luisa Valenzuela, Cristina Peri Rossi, Mario Benedetti, and José Donoso, Kaminsky addresses, among many other topics, linguistic conflicts (of miscommunication and isolation), questions of national identity, the “otherness” of exile, and gender issues faced by female exiles.
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Simpson, John, ed. The Oxford Book of Exile. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
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Stretching the definition of exile and with sources ranging from police records, interviews, letters, and memoirs, the author aims to cover the entire human experience of exile. It relates exile to falling from power; covers communities of exiles and the experience of those driven away from their societies, of those exiled in the own country; as well as the end of exile.
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Sznajder, Mario, and Luis Roniger. “Defining the Exilic Condition.” In The Politics of Exile in Latin America. Edited by Mario Sznajder and Luis Roniger, 11–39. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511581373.002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This chapter places the study of political exile within the broader domain of studies of the exilic condition. It identifies three converging dimensions as the broadest analytical elements denoting exiles: their forceful institutional exclusion and their strong will to retain control of their life; their move to a foreign environment; and their persistent will to return and temporary inability to do so.
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Memoirs, Testimonies, and Biographical Accounts

Individuals forcefully displaced from their homelands and living in exile may typically claim that they are the true representatives of their nation and people. Nonetheless, while abroad, they interact in new environments, become exposed to fellow exiles from other countries, and confront new models of social engineering that transform them whether they like it or not. This poses a major dilemma for exiles at the personal, psychological, familial, and collective level: how to relate to the host society, how to become part of it beyond the instrumental level of everyday life, and how to develop hybrid identities and commitments. The experience in exile challenges them to reconsider the ideals they came with and their notions of both the host country and the homeland that they left behind. This process serves as a crucial vehicle for understanding later transformations in these countries. This is reflected in these accounts and testimonies. Though some overlap exists, we divide these works hereafter into four broad categories, namely, personal memoirs and autobiographies, collective testimonies, biographical accounts written by third parties, and books of documental materials on prominent exiles.

Personal Memoirs and Autobiographies

A profound process of redefinition of individual lives and of cultural and political assumptions takes place during exile, in the diaspora. The first category to consider is that of personal memoirs and autobiographies.

Political Figures

Standing out among the personal memoirs and autobiographies are those written by political figures who are conscious of their previous actions and willing to shape the views of the circumstances that led them into exile, often also within a forward-looking perspective of re-encounter with the truncated past and sometimes implying a future reorientation as public figures. Almeyda 1987 and Pires Avena 2001 also provide information and hindsight into the communities of exiles of the diaspora; Belaúnde 1965, Paiva 1986, Sánchez 1987, and Arrate 2007 include detailed information on political initiatives and shifts while in exile; and Repetto 1949 and Andrade 1995 provide assessments of the conditions and wider implications of exile.

Almeyda, M. Clodomiro. Reencuentro con mi vida. Santiago, Chile: Ediciones del Ornitorrinco, 1987.
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This is a very detailed autobiographical memoir by a leading Chilean Socialist politician who spent a decade in exile. The book describes the vast networks of Almeyda and of the Chileans living abroad and analyzes the nostalgia, changed visions, debates, and practices of the Chilean diaspora.
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Andrade, Roberto. Quien mató a García Moreno? Autobiografía de un perseguido. Vol. 2. Quito, Ecuador: Talleres Abya-Yala, 1995.
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This autobiography of a late-19th-century exiled Ecuadoran political activist provides wider hindsight on the character of exile at that time. It portrays cases of displaced individuals who were supported financially by their party leaders, showing how political networks were crucial for survival, and addresses how Latin American countries had treaties of asylum preventing the forceful expulsion of individuals persecuted for political reasons.
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Arrate, Jorge. Pasajeros en tránsito: Una historia real. Santiago, Chile: Catalonia, 2007.
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Written by a leading figure of the Socialist Party, exiled between 1973 and 1987, this book of recollections, archival materials, and autobiography gives a detailed account of several failed attempts by Arrate and five other exiles to return to Chile in 1984, when their names were still in a blacklist of persons not allowed to enter the homeland.
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Belaúnde, Víctor Andrés. “Diez años de exilio (1921–1930).” Mercurio Peruano (Lima) 457 (1965): 224–234.
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Describing exile during the second, de facto administration of President Augusto Leguía, this is a testimony by an individual who became a leading Peruvian diplomat later in his life.
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Paiva, Mauricio. O sonho exilado. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Achiamé, 1986.
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This book testifies to the multiple sites of exile that many experienced in the years of dictatorship, tracing Paiva’s journey to Argelia, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, and Brazil. Paiva was liberated in the late 1960s together with a group of about forty political prisoners, in exchange for the liberation of a political figure abducted by the Left.
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Pires Avena, Yolanda. Exilio: Testemunho de vida. São Paulo, Brazil: Costa Amarela, 2001.
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Written by the wife of the attorney general of Brazil during Goulart’s administration, the book recounts the difficulties met by prominent exiles such as them, unable to find employment in Uruguay and forced to register weekly at the Brazilian Embassy, allowing the military rulers to control the exile community. Likewise, she reports on the camaraderie and the financial help provided to other exiles.
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Repetto, Nicolás. Labor en el exilio (trece meses en Montevideo). Buenos Aires, Argentina: La Vanguardia, 1949.
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A book by a leader of the Socialist Party of Argentina who found himself imprisoned and went into a short exile in Uruguay after joining the opposition to Perón in Argentina, it accounts his activities abroad and reflections on Uruguay being the democratic model that Argentina resembled in the past and the Spanish Republican exiles as vectors of political and cultural strength.
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Sánchez, Luis Alberto. Testimonio personal: Memorias de un peruano del siglo XX. Vol. 2, El purgatorio, 1931–1945. Lima, Peru: Mosca Azul Editores, 1987.
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This is a book of memoirs by an APRA congressman who was expelled from Peru in 1931 together with other politicians and activists. The book follows him in his years-long serial exile in Panama, Ecuador, Chile, and the United States. Among others, it tells the story of the revolutionary activities of Apristas in Chile in 1936–1940.
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Literary, Artistic, and Intellectual Figures

Individuals active in letters, the arts, and academia also drafted personal memoirs and autobiographies shaped by their periods of exile. Roa Bastos 1987, Mercado 1990, González 1997, and Dorfman 1998 have a strong reflexive character on the transformative life experience of these intellectuals during exile. Valenzuela 1965 and Zabaleta 2003 provide accounts of the female perspectives in exile. Some accounts, such as Neruda 1974 and Orellana 2003, provide very detailed information and hindsight into the wide networks of exiles devoting their lives to letters and the publishing industry.

Dorfman, Ariel. Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
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This is an insightful memoir by Ariel Dorman, describing the many transitions he underwent in his life until the moment of his exile, following his involvement with Salvador Allende’s cultural programs. Dorfman indicates that “the very sanctuary [of exile] that guarantees that a voice has survived, simultaneously cuts that voice off from direct access to the land it is responsible for keeping alive, the land that demands to be transmitted to others” (p. 204).
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González, Josefina. “Josie.” A pesar de todo: Nostalgias y reflexiones de la mujer cubana en el exilio. Miami, FL: Ediciones Universal, 1997.
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This is a book of memoirs and reflections by an academic, who was studying medicine in Havana, when her family moved to the United States in 1962. It stresses the role of exiled women’s commitments to the Cuban cause and their strong civic activism.
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Mercado, Tununa. En estado de memoria. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ada Kom, 1990.
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A book of reflective stories, partly anchored in Mercado’s own biography and her life in Córdoba and Buenos Aires and her subsequent exile in France and Mexico, as reconstructed from the perspective of returning to Argentina. It offers a penetrating window into the fractures of self and othering as resulting from exile and its impact on the loss of one’s former parameters of life.
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Neruda, Pablo. Confieso que he vivido. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Losada, 1974.
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An account of Pablo Neruda’s expatriation until 1952, after being expelled from the Senate and facing a warrant for his arrest, part of President González Videla’s outlawing of Communists in 1948. Neruda testifies to the pressures the Chilean government put on other countries, which in turn harassed and expelled him, unlike the preferential treatment he received in China and Russia. See pp. 245–302.
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Orellana, Carlos. Penúltimo informe: Memoria de un exilio. Santiago, Chile: Sudamericana, 2003.
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Born in Guatemala, Orellana moved with his family to Chile at the age of twelve and worked in the editorial world with various publishing houses. Following the coup by Pinochet, he moved to Europe and spent seventeen years there before returning to Chile. This memoir offers a kaleidoscope of glimpses of individuals and networks of exile.
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Roa Bastos, Augusto. “Fragments from a Paraguayan autobiography.” Third World Quarterly 9.1 (1987): 212–228.
DOI: 10.1080/01436598708419970Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Roa Bastos claims in exile that he was not away from his native country for a single day, as he brought into exile his language. He suggests that repressive regimes open little alternatives for those fighting them; in the dichotomy between external and internal exile, repression may succeed in creating a segregation that only exile may enable to overcome in the realm of culture.
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Valenzuela, Atala. Tiempo en el exilio: Reconstrucción de un diario. Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 1965.
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Valenzuela tells the story of a Guatemalan exile that lost her diary while escaping and wandering in the Americas. Part of a group of thirty-five who found asylum in the Brazilian embassy and moved to exile into the Amazonas, she later moved to Rio and from there to Uruguay and to Valparaiso in Chile, relocating to Costa Rica after three years before returning to Guatemala.
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Zabaleta, Marta Raquel. “Exilio.” Feminist Studies 73 (2003): 19–38.
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A penetrating reflective analysis by an Argentine exile in the United Kingdom, it portrays the different ways she and her husband, a Chilean UN refugee, were treated by solidarity groups and other aid organizations. The article contains many reflections on the transformations that an exiled woman losing her professional identity underwent as she was relegated to the status of wife.
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Collective Testimonies of Selected Sets of Exiles

These works contain first-hand testimonies that illuminate the dynamics of specific networks of exiles tracing their relocation abroad to the repressive policies of their home countries. Hereafter, readers will find a sample of such collective testimonies, focusing on Argentinian, Brazilian, and Chilean exiles.

Argentinian Exiles

Baron, et al. 1995 and Bernetti and Giardinelli 2003 offer kaleidoscopes of testimonies, a portrayal of individuals and organizations in various sites of exile. Dorrego and Azurduy 1977 and Boccanera 1999 are books of interviews with intellectuals exiled in Latin America, primarily in Mexico. Guelar, et al. 2002 offers testimonies and narratives of young people who had been exiled during the dictatorship, collected by members of an older generation of exiles.

Baron, Ana, Mario Del Carril, and Albino Gómez. Por qué se fueron. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Emecé Editores, 1995.
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The book offers testimonies of Argentine exiles with varied experiences in the homeland and in exile. Readers can follow the relevance of networking in exile, the serial relocation of many exiles, and the varied conditions of residence and activism in Latin American countries such as Brazil and more distant ones such as France, Spain, or Sweden.
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Bernetti, Jorge Luis, and Mempo Giardinelli. México: El exilio que hemos vivido: Memoria del exilio argentino en México durante la dictadura, 1976–1983. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2003.
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In addition to accounting for major trends in the lives of those Argentineans exiled in Mexico, the book offers insightful testimonies by the authors on the tensions, challenges, and polemics of that community of exiles.
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Boccanera, Jorge, ed. Tierra que anda: Los escritores en el exilio. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ameghino, 1999.
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In addition to writings by Boccanera, this book contains interviews with other Argentine writers exiled in Mexico: Juan Gelman, Cristina Siscar, Osvaldo Bayer, Héctor Tizón, Nicolás Casullo, David Viñas, Eduardo Mignogna, Pedro Orgambide, Alberto Szpumberg, Horacio Salas, and Humberto Constantini, and with Augusto Roa Bastos, the renowned Paraguayan writer living in exile.
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Dorrego, Alejandro, and Victoria Azurduy. El caso argentino: Hablan sus protagonistas. Mexico City: Editorial Prisma, 1977.
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An early account of the plight and whereabouts of Argentine exiles such as Héctor Sandler, Adolfo Gass, Pedro Orgambide, and Eduardo Luis Duhalde. The authors bring in-depth interviews with them, reflecting a disparity of attitudes about the possibility and effectiveness of denouncing and fighting the dictatorship while abroad.
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Guelar, Diana, Vera Jarach, and Beatriz Ruiz. Los chicos del exilio: Argentina (1975–1984). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ediciones del Pais de Nomeolvides, 2002.
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This book compiles the testimonies of young people aged fifteen to twenty, mostly from Buenos Aires, who were exiled during the 1976–1983 dictatorship. The book recounts the experiences of political activism, underground life, and repression that preceded exile. The book also brings letters and texts geared to enable a reconstruction of the experience of those who left their homeland at a young age.
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Brazilian Exiles

Both Uchoa Cavalcanti, et al. 1976 and Oliveira Costa, et al. 1980 were put together in the midst of military rule in Brazil, in the former case even before an amnesty allowing exiles to return could be clearly foreseen—hence the interrogation marks in the book’s title. Oliveira Costa, et al. 1980 compiled dozens of testimonies by Brazilian women who experienced exile, driven by their experiences and reflecting changes in life perspectives.

Oliveira Costa, Albertina de, Maria Teresa Porciuncula Moraes, Norma Marzola, and Valentina da Rocha Lima. Memórias das mulheres do exílio. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Paz e Terra, 1980.
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This book compiles the testimonies of Brazilian women in exile. The editors intended it to cover a wide spectrum of experiences, not focusing just on the political or intellectual realms, but reflecting also the many transformations of daily practices and visions of space and time which were prompted by exile and expatriation in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Uchoa Cavalcanti, Pedro Celso, and Jovelino Ramos, eds. Memórias do exilio, 1964/19?? De muitos caminhos. Vol. 1. São Paulo, Brazil: Livramento, 1976.
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Elaborated by a group of historians, the work offers dozens of close testimonies of the varied paths and experiences of Brazilians in exile. The work was designed before a political amnesty paved the way toward the end of exile, to be an account of the tragic and heroic experience that thousands of Brazilians went through during the dictatorship.
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Chilean Exiles

Montupil 1993 and Bórquez Adriazola 1998 were put together in the first decade after Chile restored its democracy and provide mainly retrospective testimonies on the multiple experiences of Chileans who spent years in exile in continental Europe and the United Kingdom, respectively.

Bórquez Adriazola, Adriana. Un exilio. Talca, Chile: Koorie, 1998.
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A dense emotional testimony by a Chilean exile who lived in the United Kingdom, which illuminates the multiple individual experiences of female exiles, the challenges they faced in exile, and how they reconstructed their lives abroad. Four years later, the author published a collection of Historias de mujeres (Talca, Chile: Los Andes, 2002) partially anchored in some of the stories included in this volume.
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Montupil, Fernando I., ed. Exilio, derechos humanos y democracia: El exilio chileno en Europa. Santiago, Chile: Coordinación Europea de Comités Pro-Retorno, 1993.
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This work includes testimonies of Chileans living in European countries, attesting to an awareness of the advantages of living in an European country, the difficulties of returning to Chile, the many changes exiles underwent (e.g., the perception of time-keeping), experiences little known such as those of being exiled in Denmark or The Netherlands, the experience of exiled Mapuche, and more.
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Biographical Accounts

This subsection includes selected biographical accounts of political figures and intellectuals who were forced by the political constellations of the home countries to take the road of exile. Caula 1998 and Ferreira 2000 provide indsight on the transformation that key Uruguayan politicians underwent in exile. Otero 2001 follows the networks of exiled Brazilian President Goulart. Tello Díaz 1993 portrays the case of exiled Mexican president Porfirio Díaz. Vicuña 2009 and Roca 2005 are essays on Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna and Ismael Viñas, respectively, and their exilic experience and work.

Caula, Nelson. El diario de Enrique Erro: La cárcel, el exilio, la transición. Montevideo, Uruguay: Rosebud, 1998.
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Caula studies ex-Senator Enrique Erro, a politician of the Partido Nacional (Blanco) and one of the founders of the Leftist Frente Amplio. After being exiled to Buenos Aires, he became one of the strongest opponents to a dialogue with the military. The book registers the shift of Erro’s thought from a reliance on armed resistance to contemplating alliances with humanitarian organizations and networks.
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Ferreira, Juan Raúl. Con la patria en la valija: El exilio, Wilson y los años trágicos. Montevideo, Uruguay: Linardi y Risso, 2000.
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Tracing the life and activism of Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, the Blanco leader who managed to escape an almost certain death in 1976 while exiled in Argentina, the book claims that—unlike other interpretations—the Uruguayan exiles like Wilson reached out and led to the reassessment of their national values while fighting the dictatorship abroad.
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Otero, Jorge. João Goulart, lembranças do exilio. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Casa Jorge, 2001.
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Otero explores the life of former Brazilian President Goulart, who resided in exile in Uruguay after being ousted from power by a 1964 military coup. It includes a report of Goulart’s support of other exiles, his political initiatives, and his contacts with the Uruguayan government, as well as a testimony of Brazilian and other Latin American diplomats and their varied reactions to the exiles.
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Roca, Pilar. Ismael Viñas: Ideografia de un mestizo. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Dunken, 2005.
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The author, an expert on Ismael Viñas’ novels, builds an intellectual portrait of him on the basis of interviewing him in Israel. Forced to leave Argentina in 1976, Viñas relocated there, working as a journalist in the Spanish press and reclaiming his voice from exile, until many years later he moved again into expatriation in Miami.
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Tello Díaz, Carlos. El exilio: Un retrato de familia. Mexico City: Cal y Arena, 1993.
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A portrayal of the last years of life of Porfirio Díaz and his close family and associates, after their banishment from Mexico in 1911. Of particular interest is the way Díaz was welcomed in Europe, treated by prominent individuals, helped by the Mexican consuls, and made the subject of many press interviews about the situation in Mexico and his plans to return.
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Vicuña, Manuel. Un juez en los infiernos: Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. Santiago, Chile: Universidad Diego Portales, 2009.
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This is a biographical monograph on Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, a remarkable 19th-century political historian and man of action who experienced banishment himself and wrote books on some of the founding fathers of Chile who experienced exile, such as the Carrera brothers and O’Higgins.
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Biographical Documentation

This section contains books by leading political figures of both the 19th century (Rosas 1974, Martí 2001) and the 20th century (Haya de la Torre 1933, Perón 1996, Ferreira Aldunate 1986), providing documentation on their years in exile.

Ferreira Aldunate, Wilson. El exilio y la lucha. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1986.
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Ferreira Aldunate went to exile in Argentina from 1973 to 1976, when he escaped an assassination attempt and moved to the United States. In 1983 he was designated presidential candidate by the Partido Nacional, but was detained and ostracized until past the elections. This book contains his public speeches, letters, and declarations from 1973 to 1985, representing testimonies of his struggle against the dictatorship.
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Haya de la Torre, Víctor Raúl. Construyendo el aprismo: Artículos y cartas desde el exilio (1924–1931). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Claridad, 1933.
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This book collects essays, notes, and letters by the founder of APRA in May 1924, as he started a years-long exile denouncing the dictatorship of Leguía in Peru and articulating a vision of indo-Americanism and anti-imperialism.
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Martí, José. Writings on the Americas: Reader. Edited by Deborah Shnookal and Mirta Muñiz. Melbourne and New York: Ocean Press, 2001.
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Spending most of his life outside his home country, Martí is a paradigmatic and brilliant figure of late-19th-century exile who lived and died fighting for Cuban late independence from Spain. This reader presents an anthology of his writings, which reflect his serial wanderings, ideas, and persuasive style that transformed him into a leader of the Cuban national spirit of liberation.
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Perón, Juan Domingo. Los libros del exilio, 1955–1973. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Corregidor, 1996.
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Two volumes of writings by the exiled leader of Justicialismo in Argentina, who wandered and finally settled in Spain until his return to Argentina shortly before his death in 1974, to be elected president of his country for the third time. Among the testimonies are “Del poder al exilio” (first published in 1956), “Los vende-patria” (first published in 1958), and “La hora de los pueblos” (first published in 1973). See also El peronismo en sus fuentes.
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Rosas, Juan Manuel de. Cartas del exilio. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Rodolfo Alonso Editor, 1974.
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This book enables to follow Rosas’s exile from his settlement in Southampton, UK, to his death in 1877, a quarter of a century later.
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Psychological and Psychosocial Approaches

Standing out are analyses on the psychological stages of loss and adjustment involved in the process of territorial displacement and life in exile. Among the classical studies are Grinberg and Grinberg 1984, Vásquez-Bronfman 1991, and Vásquez and Xavier de Brito 1993. Casalet and Comboni 1989 approaches the issue of returnees in their work. Aresti 1997 elaborates hindsight on the basis of work with victims of Guatemala’s civil war. Lamónaca and Viñar 1999 is based on the authors’ work with exiles mostly from the Southern Cone. Castillo Vergara and Piper Shafir 1996 as well as Korinfeld 2008 addresses the scars of exile affecting specific age cohorts, such as children and adolescents.

Aresti, Lore. Realidad política y daño psicológico: El exilio. Monterrey, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, 1997.
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This book suggests that testimonies by victims of violence and exile—in her case exiled victims of violence from Guatemala’s civil war—are a most therapeutic tool. If done vis-à-vis professionals of mental health, testimonies of victims enable the “objectivization” of their suffering and may provide some measure of closure, thus opening ground for new beginnings.
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Casalet, Mónica, and Sonia Comboni, eds. Consecuencias psicosociales de las migraciones y el exilio. Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, 1989.
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This book contains contributions by psychotherapists and other mental health professionals who worked with forced migrants and exiles, in both Latin America and Europe. Themes such as those of social death, mourning, and rebirth loom large in these writings. Also included are some writings on psychosocial work with returnees, e.g., in Chile.
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Castillo Vergara, María Isabel, and Isabel Piper Shafir, eds. Jóvenes y procesos migratorios. Santiago, Chile: ILAS, 1996.
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The book recounts and analyzes exile and return experiences of Chilean and Central American adolescents. Designed to study the effects of forced displacement on mental health, it resulted from the cooperation between the Instituto Latinoamericano de Salud Mental y Derechos Humanos (ILAS) of Chile, the Fundación Antidrogas of El Salvador, the Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios de la Familia (Mexico), and the Asociación de Trabajo pro-Salud Integral (Nicaragua).
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Grinberg, León, and Rebeca Grinberg. Psicoanálisis de la migración y del exilio. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1984.
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Representative of many others produced by psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers, this book traces many of the problems of adjustment, personal disarticulation, mental stress, distrust, isolation, and familial dissolution, which many exiles go through as the result of their forced relocation and loss of sense of direction in their lives.
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Korinfeld, Daniel. Experiencias del exilio: Avatares subjetivos de jóvenes militantes argentinos durante la década del setenta. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ediciones del Estante, 2008.
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This book analyzes the experience of adolescents aged fifteen to twenty who were forced into exile at a critical time in their lives. Anchored in psychoanalysis, the work describes the process of traumatization, de-subjectivization, and mourning. The book traces how the different circumstances left behind had a bearing on how the young people managed to cope with the loss and the reconstitution of self abroad.
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Lamónaca, Julio C., and Marcelo N. Viñar. “Asilo político: Perspectivas desde la subjetividad.” In Asilo diplomático en el Cono Sur. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous and Guadalupe Rodríguez de Ita, 84–102. Mexico City: Instituto Mora and Acervo Histórico Diplomático de la Secretaría de Relaciones Internacionales, 1999.
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Two Uruguayan psychiatrists, who spent decades as exiles in Mexico and France, address the twin phenomena of asylum-exile. Tracing their analysis through various phases starting with the political persecution and the search for a way out, they portray the sense of confinement when living in a diplomatic seat waiting to relocate abroad. Their analysis touches on the notions of loss, defeat, and mourning.
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Vásquez, Ana, and Angela Xavier de Brito. “La situation de l’exil: Essai de généralisation fond sur l’exemple de réfugiés latino-américains.” Intercultures 21 (1993): 51–66.
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Based on their work with exiles from South America relocated in France, the authors propose a theoretical approach to the stages of adaptation of any exile, including an initial stage of pain and remorse for being those who left the homeland while others remained; a second stage of adaptation involving transculturation; and possibly a third stage of recognition of shattered illusions and profound questioning.
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Vásquez-Bronfman, Ana. “La malédiction d’Ulysse.” Hermes 10 (1991): 213–224.
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This article sums up the approach fully developed in the book by Vásquez and Ana María Araujo, Exils latino-américains: La malédiction d’Ulysse (Paris: CIEMI-L’Harmattan, 1988). This psychosocial analysis suggests that the Ulysses myth may condense the experience of many exiles, as like Ulysses, exiles confront two dangers: the threats to their lives and the temptations that threaten them with oblivion. Moreover, the article suggests that the myth provides a model of gender roles, which clashes with the findings emerging from the work with female exiles.
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Legal Approaches and Diplomatic Practices

While one can find numerous legal studies on the evolution of the normative of asylum and the policies of Latin American states towards exiles, refugees and migrants, in recent years additional studies have stressed how diplomats and state representatives on the ground possess great leverage to assist or ignore the plight of those seeking for diplomatic protection or territorial asylum. While overlapping, these works are divided here into those departing from legal perspectives and those stressing the diplomatic implementation of policies of asylum.

Legal Perspectives

Legal perspectives are crucial for individuals searching countries willing to welcome them and give them asylum. To ease access on relevant sources, the studies here are divided between those following International Legal Perspectives, including a regional scope, and those anchored in national legislations (see National Legal Perspectives).

International Legal Perspectives

Kirchheimer 1959 represents a long-term historical and universal perspective on asylum. Tanzi 1977 provides a historical perspective on colonial mechanisms in Hispanic America. Yundt 1988, Fischel de Andrade 1998, and Franco 2004 deal with the harmonization of international legal frameworks with Latin American norms of asylum. Other studies such as Arboleda 1991 and Cuellar, et al. 1991 criticize the shortcomings of legal definitions and frameworks to deal adequately with the phenomenon of displaced people, including refugees and exiles.

Arboleda, Eduardo. “Refugee Definition in Africa and Latin America: The Lessons of Pragmatism.” International Journal of Refugee Law 3 (1991): 185–207.
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Arboleda argues that the internationally accepted definition of refugees, enshrined in the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, has proven woefully inadequate in dealing with the millions of refugees worldwide. Paying particular attention to regional agreements like the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, he considers them as key to the implementation of the Convention and Protocol.
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Cuellar, Roberto, Diego García-Sayán, Jorge Montaño, Margarita Diegues, and Leo Valladares Lanza. “Refugee and Related Developments in Latin America: Challenges Ahead.” International Journal of Refugee Law 3 (1991): 482–498.
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While noting Latin America’s enormous body of codified refugee law, the authors argue that the Inter-American system of asylum is fundamentally inadequate in responding to contemporary refugee flows. The authors analyze the defining characteristics of Latin American refugees in the 1980s, showing how these experiences shape current approaches to refugee dilemmas and forecasting solutions for future migration flows.
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Fischel de Andrade, José H. “Regional Policy Approaches and Harmonization: A Latin American Perspective.” International Journal of Refugee Law 10 (1998): 389–408.
DOI: 10.1093/ijrl/10.3.389Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author analyzes regional policy approaches to refugee law and examines the processes of harmonization, how norms and procedures in a variety of legal fields are aligned. He admires the pragmatic approach of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration and argues that regional harmonization of legislation in Latin America is crucial. Fischel goes on to suggest that the UNHCR should play a role in facilitating regional harmonization.
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Franco, Leonardo, ed. El asilo y la protección internacional de los refugiados en América Latina. San José, Costa Rica: ACNUR—Proyecto Universidad Nacional de Lanús-Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, 2004.
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This is a collection of studies analyzing how Latin American countries combine norms of international public rights with regional norms, internal legislation and practices, at different historical moments. It addresses the distinction between asylum and refugee support as seen from the region as well as territorial and diplomatic asylum.
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Kirchheimer, Otto. “Asylum.” American Political Science Review 53 (1959): 985–1016.
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The author views exile as a mechanism (“an institution”) that, in a deeply divided world, sets limits—albeit imperfect, broken, and subject to change—to any government power. The study analyzes its topic from a long-term historical and world perspective, stressing that asylum is a privilege granted or denied, not a matter of right.
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Tanzi, Héctor José. “El derecho penal indiano y el delito de lesa majestad.” Revista de Historia de América 84 (1977): 51–62.
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The article deals with the penalization of rebellions against authority (sedición, rebelión) in colonial times. He stresses that beyond the formal prescription, penalties varied according to circumstances and therefore exile and confiscation of wealth could be applied as alternatives to harsher punishments.
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Yundt, Keith W. Latin American States and Political Refugees. New York: Praeger, 1988.
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Yundt examines political refugees in Central and South America within a larger global framework. He compares the regulatory procedures and institutions by Latin American states for political refugees with the established UN refugee regime. The book also considers regional colonization and immigration legislation and how international organizations have coincided or diverged with the Latin American normatives.
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National Legal Perspectives

Complementing the international and regional legal perspectives we find studies approaching national legislations and the asylum practices of specific countries. Serrano Migallón 1998 and Díaz and Rodríguez de Ita 1999 are perspectives on Mexico, and Foro para la Integración Social de los Inmigrantes analyzes the situation in Spain. Bishop 1951 is representative of works dealing with contentious bilateral cases, such as the protracted conflict between Colombia and Peru around the diplomatic asylum of Haya de la Torre.

Bishop, William W. “Asylum Case (Colombia/Peru).” American Journal of International Law 45.1 (1951): 179–195.
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This article reports on the judicial decision made in an asylum case between Colombia and Peru, presented before the International Court of Justice on 20 November 1950. The Court rejected Colombia’s grant of asylum as not being in accordance with the Havana Convention.
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Díaz, Luis Miguel, and Guadalupe Rodríguez de Ita. “Bases histórico-jurídicas de la política Mexicana de asilo político.” In Asilo diplomático en el Cono Sur. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous and Guadalupe Rodríguez de Ita, 63–83. Mexico City: Instituto Mora and Acervo Histórico Diplomático de la Secretaría de Relaciones Internacionales, 1999.
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Mexico was a country that boasted to be a leader in providing refuge to individuals fleeing political persecution. The authors reflect on the historical development of the figure of asylum both internationally and in Mexico, and elaborate on the distinctions between asylees and refugees, reflecting on whether asylum can be seen as a human right.
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Foro para la integración social de los inmigrantes. Informe sobre la inmigración y el asilo en España. Madrid: FISI, 1997.
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This report provides important information on the Spanish legislation and implementation of immigration and asylum policies from 1968 to the 1990s, as well as on the numbers of individuals requesting asylum and their results, discriminated by countries of origin. Various aspects of assistance to those individuals are also considered, ranging from labor conditions and education to housing, medical access, and citizen participation.
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Serrano Migallón, Fernando. El asilo político en México. Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 1998.
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An analysis by a leading legal expert, tracing the roots and specific characteristics of political asylum—in its various forms, e.g., territorial or diplomatic asylum—as a status recognized by Mexico and other Latin American states. The author stresses that asylum is not an individual right but rather a legal status granted by states selectively to individuals fleeing situations of turmoil and political persecution.
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Diplomatic Perspectives

The works in this section provide a glimpse on the agency of diplomats and other state agents in situations of crisis demanding rescue efforts in Latin America. Calamai 2003 is an account by a diplomat, whose actions remained unknown until 2000, as they run against the directives of the Italian Foreign Ministry. Building on the differential treatment that Chilean and Argentinean residents received at Mexican embassies, Dutrénit Bielous 1999 elaborates on the factors shaping the diplomats’ differential activism. Evans 1952 traces the origin and development of diplomatic asylum in international practice and uses the Colombian-Peruvian case to emphasize its intricacies. On the basis of archival documentation, Rodríguez de Ita 1999 offers an explanation of differences in the number of assisted asylees from the Southern Cone countries, stressing the varied role of Mexican diplomats. Wollny 1991 complements it indicating that the culmination of this pragmatism rests on the fact that asylum regulations have resided exclusively within the domain of executive power.

Calamai, Enrico. Niente asilo politico: Appunti e riflessioni sul lavoro nell’ Argentina dei desaparecidos. Rome: Editori Riuniti, 2003.
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Written by an Italian diplomat who served in Argentina and Chile in the 1970s, this book highlights the tensions between the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ reluctance to intervene on behalf of asylum seekers and the diplomats’ actions. Once back in Argentina from a short visit to Chile in 1974, Calamai constructed an underground network to help the persecuted to escape a most certain death.
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Dutrénit Bielous, Silvia. “Sobre la percepción y la decisión políticas de aplicar el asilo diplomático: Una reflexión desde experiencias latinoamericanas.” América Latina 22 (1999): 111–118.
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The author calls attention to three sets of factors conditioning the granting of asylum. First is the willingness of a country’s administration to recognize asylum for individuals looking to escape political persecution. Second is the atmosphere and internal politics in the country of reception. Finally, and most important, is the perception of urgency and human rights of the diplomats.
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Evans, Alona E. “The Colombian-Peruvian Asylum Case: The Practice of Diplomatic Asylum.” American Political Science Review 46.1 (1952): 142–157.
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Evans highlights the Colombian-Peruvian Asylum Case, decided by the International Court of Justice, as drawing attention to the complexities of international law as relating to diplomatic asylum and of its uses in international relations.
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Rodríguez de Ita, Guadalupe. “Experiencias de asilo registradas en las embajadas mexicanas.” In Asilo diplomático en el Cono Sur. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous and Guadalupe Rodríguez de Ita, 133–153. Mexico City: Instituto Mora and Acervo Histórico Diplomático de la Secretaría de Relaciones Internacionales, 1999.
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Around 1,200 individuals found a refuge in Mexican diplomatic seats in the Southern Cone countries, as they sought to escape political persecution in the 1970s. Yet, the huge difference in the number of individuals escaping Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay for a Mexican asylum depended primarily on the role played by individual diplomats in saving residents from certain repression and possibly death.
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Wollny, Hans. “Asylum Policy in Mexico: A Survey.” Journal of Refugee Studies 4.3 (1991): 219–236.
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Wollny examines Mexico’s evolving attitude towards asylum, focusing on migration waves like that of refugees from Europe during World War II, Latin America’s Southern Cone in the 1970s, and Central America since the beginning of the 1980s. Wollny argues that Mexico’s asylum policy has not traditionally been based on humanitarian concerns but rather political affinities and national priorities.
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Historical and Sociopolitical Analyses

The practice of forceful territorial displacement existed since colonial times and has persisted into the 21st century. Hereafter, sections trace works devoted to various periods in the evolution of territorial displacement, banishment, and exile.

Colonial Banishment and Displacement

Forceful territorial displacement was used within the boundaries of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires as part of the administration of justice and social regulation. Known as destierro in the Spanish realm and degredo or desterro among the Portuguese, it was used against those who, through their actions, disturbed public peace or were perceived as a menace to their community. Territorial displacement from and within the Americas was used in a selective way, provided that the reason for punishment was serious enough. Under conditions of lack of manpower, displacement served both the function of sending the offender far away from his or her community and providing marginal areas with labor sources. Borderlands benefited from the forced displacement of individuals who reinforced the military defense of the settlers. Within Brazil as well, as analyzed by Pieroni 2000, forced territorial displacement was used to push the frontier further away from the coast. From Mexico, individuals were mainly sentenced to forced labor in the Philippines and other regions of Spanish America, particularly Puerto Rico, where they were drafted in the construction of fortresses and other public services. In the late 18th century, many individuals were also forcefully enlisted into the colonial army, which suffered from an acute lack of manpower, as studied by Haslip-Viera 1999, while massive displacement was still used, as in the decision to expel the Jesuits from the Americas, as illustrated by Giménez López 1997 and Pinedo 2010 among others. In parallel, Herzog 1995 and Scardaville 1977 showed that, locally, territorial displacement served as a mechanism of social order and an escape valve. During the disintegration of the Spanish Empire, this possibility remained open to those rebels who were part of the social elites and was denied to those belonging to the popular classes and nonwhite ethnic groups, as discussed in Lovera De-Sola 1992 and Roniger and Sznajder 2007.

Giménez López, Enrique, ed. Expulsión y exilio de los jesuitas españoles. Alicante, Spain: Universidad de Alicante, 1997.
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Traces the process of expulsion and displacement beyond the Americas, focusing particularly on the more than 5,000 Hispanic American (and Spanish) Jesuits expelled to Italy. Among other interesting findings, it indicates that 14 percent of them left the vows until 1773 as a first step to be allowed to return to their home countries.
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Haslip-Viera, Gabriel. Crime and Punishment in Late Colonial Mexico, 1692–1810. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.
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A study of the administration of penal justice in late colonial Mexico City, revealing that a considerable number of convictions were based on the administrative and labor needs of the Crown and private entrepreneurs; and that the punishments—among them convict labor and military draft—were applied in less than systematic ways, especially towards those suspected of subverting the social order.
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Herzog, Tamar. La administración como un fenómeno social: La justicia penal de la ciudad de Quito (1650–1750). Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1995.
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It claims that in densely-knit colonial communities, territorial displacement was an effective mechanism for carrying out justice and getting rid of problematic individuals. Faraway social networks would not stand in the way of justice. A broad analysis of membership is provided by Herzog’s Defining Nations: Immigrants and Citizens in Early Modern Spain and Spanish America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
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Lovera De-Sola, Roberto. Curazao, escala en el primero destierro del Libertador. Caracas, Venezuela: Monte Avila Editores, 1992.
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A well-documented study of the social context that enabled Simón Bolívar to flee to exile after the failed insurrection led by Miranda. It stresses the class bias and relevance of networks as mediating structures. It also traces Bolívar’s whereabouts in exile, including the assistance provided by Mordechay Ricardo, himself a scion of a family of Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain centuries earlier.
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Pieroni, Geraldo. Vadios e ciganos, hereges e bruxos: Os degradados no Brasil colonia. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Bertrand, 2000.
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A short analysis of late medieval and early modern Portuguese use of degredo (expulsion) by the Crown as part of imperial policies, including the relocation of individuals to Brazil. See also Pieroni’s analysis of the marginal sectors expelled in Os excluidos do Reino. Brasilia: Editora da Universidade de Brasilia, 2000.
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Pinedo, Javier. “El exilio de los jesuitas latinoamericanos: Un creativo dolor.” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Edited by Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 35–58. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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The work traces the formation of Latin American identities from afar, as exemplified by many Jesuits who, relocated mainly to various regions of Italy and Spain, wrote patriotic portrayals of the lands they were forced to abandon in the late 18th century.
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Roniger, Luis, and Mario Sznajder. “Los antecedentes coloniales del exilio político y su proyección en el siglo XIX.” Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe 18.2 (2007): 31–51.
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This analysis traces the transformation of exile from an administrative and social mechanism of imperial and local control into a political phenomenon with independence. It claims that colonial antecedents provided an attitudinal and networking basis for the adoption of exile as a major mechanism of regulating elite competition for power and institutional exclusion following political independence.
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Scardaville, Michael C. Crime and the Urban Poor: Mexico City in the Late Colonial Period. London: University Microfilms International, 1977.
DOI: 10.5962/bhl.title.44765Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This sociological analysis of crime and the urban poor in late colonial Mexico City finds that the sentence of translocation was mainly used against those convicted of lack of sexual restraint and violation of the night curfew. Scardaville discovers that there was a positive correlation between young, bachelor offenders and the use of translocation. In addition, territorial displacement was used particularly against migrants from the provinces.
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Statehood and Political Exile in the 19th Century

The demise of the Spanish Empire and the shift in the locus of authority in the Portuguese realm, leading to state independence in the Americas, created a frantic competition for power that positioned exile as a key recurrent mechanism in the politics of exclusion. Restricted at first to elite circles and later expanding to broader strata in tandem with political participation, displacement from a home territory came to be expected as a natural consequence of political defeat. It was not uncommon for the founding fathers of the new states, as well as for many of their followers, to find themselves forced into exile. For many of them, it was a temporary interregnum before returning to resume power with a changing constellation of forces. While abroad, they would come to embody a political alternative for the home country and reflect on the historical path of their nations, while also contributing to the development of the host countries and sometimes transforming into peons in the tug-of-war for the redrafting of state commitment and boundaries. The recurrence of exile would also create the need for international agreements on asylum, which started in Latin America as early as the 1860s. The formation of diasporas of desterrados was another of the important consequences of the widespread use of exile throughout this period, so we distinguish hereafter between studies focusing on exile relocation in South America and those analyzing exile in Europe.

Exiled in the Americas

Reflecting the elitist character of exile in this period, many works follow the exile of prominent political figures and intellectuals. Representative are studies on Artigas by Hammerly Dupuy 1951, on Santander by Rodríguez Plata 1976, on Vicuña Mackenna by Rénique 2005 and Vicuña 2009, and on Martí by Rumazo González 1993. The exile of Benito Juárez is documented in Juárez 1964. Other studies, such as Katra 1996 and Amante 1997, present collective portraits of Argentine exiles and expatriates moving abroad during Rosas’ rule.

Amante, Adriana. “El exilio en Brasil en la época de Rosas.” In Arte y espacio. Edited by Oscar Olea, 149–166. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1997.
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Using the correspondence of individuals such as Juan María Gutiérrez, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and José Mármol, this short contribution reveals the lack of satisfaction of the Argentine exiles in the Brazilian human landscape. Although praising Brazil’s nature and noting the opportunities open to other Argentines with entrepreneurial motivations and some capital, the exiles preferred the Pacific countries as more fit to their intellectual inclinations.
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Hammerly Dupuy, Daniel. “Rasgos biográficos de Artigas en el Paraguay.” In Artigas. By Ediciones de “El País”, 287–289. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones de El País, 1951.
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This is one of several accounts portraying the life decisions of Artigas, the leader of Uruguayan self-determination, exiled for years in Paraguay, ruled then by Gaspar de Francia. The analysis looks at the circumstances that determined his exit and forced stay abroad and at Artigas’s unwillingness to return to the homeland once the conditions that prompted his exile changed.
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Juárez, Benito. Benito Juárez: Documentos, discursos y correspondencia. 2 vols. Mexico City: Secretaría del Patrimonio Nacional, 1964.
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The volume contains the documents detailing how the central government dictated the relocation and the later exile of Benito Juárez in 1853 and how he tried in vain to counter the decision, writing in a very elaborated and respectful way about his being a citizen supporting the social and political order. See especially Volume 1 (pp. 791–803) and Volume 2 (pp. 7–13).
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Katra, William H. The Argentine Generation of 1837. London: Associated University Presses, 1996.
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This is an authoritative study of the Argentine Generation of 1837, who—driven by the idealistic goal to revitalize their environment after decades of civil turmoil—found themselves ostracized and escaped abroad, to Montevideo and then many of them to Chile. In exile they matured until Rosas lost power and they were able to return and participate in the reconstruction of Argentina.
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Rénique, José Luis. “Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna: Exilio, historia y nación.” Ciberayllu 18 (2005).
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An analysis of how exile shaped the great questions that Vicuña Mackenna studied in the 1860s and 1870s. Having experienced exile himself and aware of the role exile played in the lives of many of Chile’s founding fathers, exile led him to engage in the historical analysis of the development of Chile, highlighting the harm done by ostracism and pointing out the need for reconciliation.
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Rodríguez Plata, Horacio. Santander en el exilio: Proceso-prisión-destierro, 1828–1832. Bogota, Colombia: Editorial Kelly, 1976.
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This account details the story of Gran Colombia’s Vice-President Francisco de Paula Santander’s persecution by President Bolívar and his years in exile, until he could return after Bolívar’s death to become president of the recently created Republic of New Granada (Colombia).
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Rumazo González, Alfonso. “José Martí.” In Ocho grandes biografías. Vol. 2. By Alfonso Rumazo González, 407–661. Caracas, Venezuela: Ediciones de la Presidencia de la República, 1993.
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This account describes the multiple wanderings and serial displacements of José Martí, a leading figure in the Cuban struggle for independence. It reports on the sequential moves of Martí across the Caribbean and to Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, and the United States, in his attempts to energize the Cuban diaspora in the fight for independence.
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Vicuña, Manuel. Un juez en los infiernos: Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. Santiago, Chile: Universidad Diego Portales, 2009.
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This is a monograph of Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, a political historian and man of action, who experienced banishment himself. Motivated by a vision of reconciliation beyond narrow enmities, among other works he wrote biographies of Chilean political figures of various ideological orientations, many of whom suffered exile.
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Exiled in Europe

Studies paid special attention to France as a pole of attraction for 19th century exiles, living there among many other visitors and sojourners of the countries of origin. Barman 2000 focuses on the Brazilian exiles and Estrade 1984 on the Cubans. Guerra 1989 analyzes the Latin American communities in Paris according to social, occupational, and vocational categories. Barman 1999 represents a study of Emperor Pedro II, including his last years in exile.

Barman, Roderick J. Citizen Emperor: Pedro II of Brazil, 1825–1891. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
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In Barman’s monograph focusing on Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, Barman argues Pedro’s role in shaping the Brazilian nation. Chronicling his political rise and fall, Barman also examines the military coup in 1889 that overthrew Pedro II and exiled him to Europe. The work offers valuable insights into the political use of exile as a means of punishing former dignitaries.
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Barman, Roderick J. “Brazilians in France, 1822–1872: Doubly Outsiders.” In Strange Pilgrimages: Exile, Travel and National Identity in Latin America, 1800–1990s. Edited by Ingrid E. Fay and Karen Racine, 23–39. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000.
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Barman explores the wave of Brazilians who migrated to France from 1822 to 1872, revealing their divergent motivations for leaving the homeland and documenting the challenges they faced—including separation, culture shock, language barriers, financial struggles, and loneliness. Barman invokes Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “cultural capital” to argue that Brazilians capitalized on their time in France upon their return to Brazil.
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Estrade, Paul. La Colonia Cubana de París 1895–1898. Havana, Cuba: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1984.
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Estrade analyzes the Cuban networks in late-19th-century Paris. The Cubans had various motivations for coming there: some came to simply stay in Paris, while many others fled the island due to repression. The book traces the work of Ramón Betances and other activists, the connections between the Parisian Cubans and those in the United States, and the impressive press production of the diaspora.
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Guerra, François-Xavier. “La lumière et ses reflets: Paris et la politique latino-américaine.” In Le Paris des étrangers. Edited by André Kaspi and Antoine Marès, 171–182. Paris: Editions de l’Imprimérie nationale, 1989.
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This work stresses the overwhelming cultural weight of Paris in the imaginary of Latin Americans in the 19th century and into the 20th, the increasing numbers of Latin Americans settling in Paris, and overall the impact of the experience of those there on the countries of origin. The study analyzes various categories of residents, including diplomats and exiles.
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20th-Century Political Exile

In the 20th century, exile continued to be a major institutionalized mechanism of exclusion throughout Latin America, with two increasingly important transformations. One was the expansion of its use as a correlate of the expansion and democratization of politics; and the other was the increasing relevance of the international and transnational area in the exile equation, as analyzed by Roniger 2010. Instead of silencing the voice of the exiles following exit, the combination of new public media and the increasing relevance of transnational networks—some of them imbued by internationalist ideas and other by an ethics of solidarity—turned exile into a window of opportunity for magnifying the voice of those who were persecuted. Among early figures with such impact are Haya de la Torre, analyzed by Cossío del Pomar 1939; Sandino, as studied by Wunderich 1989; and Juan Bosch, subject of Kury 2000. La Botz 1998 covers the case of the slackers and US exiles of the early 20th century relocating to Mexico. Studies such as Cockcroft 1976 have also been conducted on exile networks such as those on the precursors of the Mexican Revolution, the Central American Unionists and Apristas, analyzed by Pita González 2009, and the Cubans in Mexico, studied by Morales Pérez and del Alizal 1999. Latin American countries also provided in this period to varied extents sites of asylum for those persecuted in Europe, as in the case of the Spanish Republicans relocating in Mexico, which I shall detail in a subsection (see Sites of Exile in Latin America and Beyond).

Cockcroft, James. Intellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976.
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Originally published in 1968, Cockcroft studies the group of Liberal activists who in the early 20th century went into Texas and dreamed of political change in Mexico. The book traces their dissent over claims of leadership and how after splitting, the faction of Ricardo Flores Magón contacted anarchists in the United States and developed plans for an armed revolution. These intellectual precursors influenced Madero, as he later adopted these tactics.
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Cossío del Pomar, F. Haya de la Torre: El indoamericano. Mexico City: América, 1939.
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An account of how the wanderings in exile of Haya de la Torre—after he was deported in 1919—shaped his ideas and organizational efforts, including the founding of APRA in 1924, and his studies and travels, until returning to Peru as the APRA candidate for the presidency of Peru. See also Salisbury, Robert, “The Middle American Exile of Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre.” The Americas 40.1 (1983): 1–15.
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Kury, Farid. Juan Bosch: Entre el exilio y el golpe de Estado. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Cocolo Editorial, 2000.
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Kury writes a biographical account of the colorful writer and politician of the Dominican Republic, who spent twenty-four years in exile in the Caribbean and Central America (1938–1961) and was elected to the presidency of his home country in December 1962, until a military coup deposed him in September 1963, forcing him again into exile.
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La Botz, Daniel Herbert. “Slackers: American War Resisters and Communists in Mexico, 1917–1927.” PhD diss., University of Cincinnati, 1998.
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In this thesis, La Botz claims that the extent of draft evaders and resisters may have reached the number of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions, many of whom moved to Mexico because of territorial contiguity and the relative ease of escaping the US system in that country emerging from the Revolution.
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Morales Pérez, Salvador, and Laura del Alizal. Dictadura, exilio e insurrección, 1952–1958. Mexico City: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 1999.
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The authors chronicle the attempts by the Batista government to convince the Mexican administration and the Mexican police to constrain their steps, and the increased sympathy of Mexicans with the cause of those fighting Batista. Using detailed diplomatic reports and archival documents, the authors have reconstructed multiple aspects of the presence of the Cubans in Mexico until their successful return to the island.
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Pita González, Alexandra. La Unión Latinoamericana y el Boletín Renovación: Redes intelectuales y revistas culturales en la década de 1920. Mexico City: El Colegio de México y la Universidad de Colima, 2009.
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Pita González studies one of the periods of greater displacement and transnational activism of intellectuals and others, epitomized by the Unionistas in Central America and the Apristas coming out of the Andean region. Their exiles and wanderings, along with their impressive publication of cultural periodicals, are reflected in this book.
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Roniger, Luis. “Exilio massivo, inclusão e exclusão política no século XX.” DADOS: Revista de Ciências Sociais (Rio de Janeiro) 53.1 (2010): 35–65.
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Roniger analyzes exile’s shift from an elite phenomenon to a massive trend by the 20th century. He claims that this process occurred in tandem with the enlargement of political participation and mobilization and subsequent regional repression. Twentieth-century exile has typically been the counter-face of inclusionary pressures in the context of unequal and hierarchical societies and political systems sustained by exclusion.
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Wunderich, Volker. Sandino en la costa: De Las Segovias al litoral Atlántico. Managua, Nicaragua: Nueva Nicaragua, 1989.
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This is a classic detailed work on the exile and wanderings of the Central American freedom fighter of the early 20th century, analyzing how his experiences and thoughts evolved through his serial exiles.
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Spanish Exiles in Mexico

Mexico has emerged as a site of asylum for various communities of exiles; among them, the Spanish Republicans who escaped Franco’s victory in the civil war. Much research has been devoted to this group of exiles. Fagen 1973, Matesanz 1999, and Pla Brugat 1999 are studies portraying the political and social conditions of their reception in Mexico, while Pla Brugat 2008 adds six other sites of relocation and thus provides a basis for comparative analysis of Spanish exiles in the Americas. Faber 2002 and Faber 2003 trace the exiles’ intellectual evolution. Balibrea 2007 covers their impact on post-Franco Spain. Civera 2011 studies their impact on the Mexican educational system.

Balibrea, Mari Paz. Tiempo de exilio: Una mirada crítica a la modernidad española desde el pensamiento republicano en el exilio. Madrid: Editorial Montesinos, 2007.
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Balibrea focuses basically on the impact of the Republican exiles on the thought of post-Francoist Spain and its democratic modernization, by studying individuals like Eduardo Nicol, a Catalan philosopher, María Zambrano, the essayist and philosopher, and Max Aub, the French-Spanish writer who worked closely with other exiles such as Luis Buñuel.
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Civera, Alicia. “Exile as a means for the meeting and construction of pedagogies: The exiled Spanish Republican teachers in Mexico in 1939.” Paedagogica Historica 47.5 (2011): 657–677.
DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2011.602515Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Civera examines exile as a means for exchanging pedagogical ideas and models, arguing that the exiled Spanish Republican teachers in Mexico in 1939 were able to substantively impact the educational system. Establishing three new private schools in Mexico City, these teachers were able to introduce a wide variety of new pedagogical ideas—including new textbooks, teaching style, and the incorporation of new educational initiatives.
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Faber, Sebastiaan. Exile and Cultural Hegemony: Spanish Intellectuals in Mexico (1939–1975). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002.
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This book examines the Spanish Republican exiles’ ideological evolution in the historical context of Spanish and Mexican politics from the early 1930s through the 1970s, stressing their ultimate shift to a more liberal, apolitical stance based on their embrace of nationalism and misplaced illusions of pan-Hispanist grandeur, alongside the increasingly authoritarian Mexican regime and the international climate of the Cold War.
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Faber, Sebastiaan. “Between Cernuda’s Paradise and Buñuel’s Hell: Mexico through Spanish Exiles’ Eyes.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 80.2 (2003): 219–252.
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Faber assesses the interpretations of Mexico by the Spanish exiles who arrived during the Spanish Civil War. As Faber details, Spanish exiles in Mexico were both surrounded by the familiar and the foreign—a similar language, customs, and architecture within a radically different social environment. Specifically, Faber studies these contradictions within the works of Villa, Rejano, Cernuda, and Buñuel.
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Fagen, Patricia W. Exiles and Citizens: Spanish Republicans in Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973.
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Fagen focuses on the Spanish Republican intellectuals and professionals that fled to Mexico, arguing that they had a profound effect on its academic and cultural spheres and, simultaneously, supported associations that helped keep the memory of Republican Spain in exile. Fagen also compares the Spanish Republican exile in Mexico and the European intellectual emigrants to the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Matesanz, José Antonio. Las raíces del exilio: Mexico ante la Guerra Civil Española, 1936–1939. Mexico City: Colegio de México and UNAM, 1999.
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This book analyzes how the government of President Cárdenas and Mexican society reacted so strongly in support of or opposition to the Spanish Republic and describes the politics of exile and reception of the most prominent political, cultural, and military exiles. Political agendas and struggles, diplomatic efforts, and military developments are pieced together in portraying the impact of government, unions, the press, and intellectuals.
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Pla Brugat, Dolores. Els exiliats catalans: Un estudio de la emigración republicana española en México. Mexico City: INAH-Orfeó Català de Mèxic, 1999.
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This is a social history of the conditions and political context of reception of thousands of Catalan refugees in Mexico. The book follows how, starting in 1939, Mexico received about 8,000 refugees out of the 23,000 in French camps, in spite of the largely reactionary positions of the Spanish community of Mexico, and the process of their accommodation in the host society.
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Pla Brugat, Dolores, ed. Pan, trabajo y hogar: El exilio republicano español en América Latina. Mexico City: Librería del sueño igualitario, 2008.
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A comprehensive collection of studies on Spanish Republican refugees that relocated to seven Latin American locations: Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, led by Pla Brugat’s introduction.
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Exile in the Cold War Era

Ameringer 1974 and Machado 1979 are early studies on how the Cold War era repression of mobilized sectors of the population by authoritarian regimes prompted an expansion of escape, expatriation, and exile throughout Latin America and in many more sites of asylum than before (see also Sites of Exile in Latin America and Beyond). For dissident Cubans, the natural choice was the United States, as reflected in works such as Calvo and Declerq 2000, or Haney and Vanderbush 1999. Decades earlier, Mexico had been a preferred site of relocation for those fleeing McCarthyism in the United States, as described by Anhalt 2001 and Schreiber 2008. This period also witnessed the full effects of repression and natural calamities on the creation of massive flows of refugees, e.g., from Central America (see also Exile Communities, Transnational Activism, and Politics). Meyran 1996 studies how a sense of Latin American identity was recreated in exile, while Green 2009 analyzes how advocacy networks of solidarity expanded, buttressed by the crystallization of Western concerns with human rights violations in the late 1960s and 1970s (see also Sites of Exile in Latin America and Beyond: United States). All the above gave full resonance to exiles in world politics, to a point when massive exile lost its raison d’être with democratization toward the late 1980s and early 1990s. Yet, with the return of democracy, exile did not disappear completely (see also Presidential Exile and Democracy).

Ameringer, Charles D. The Democratic Left in Exile: The Anti-Dictatorial Struggle in the Caribbean, 1945–1959. Miami, FL: University of Miami Press, 1974.
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This is a definitive study of the Democratic Left in the post-WWII period and its exile and diaspora of the 1950s. They created political organizations and helped create an image of the dictators as evil. Ameringer offers a very detailed perspective on various parties in exile, some very organized as Acción Democrática of Venezuela, and others organized more loosely around groups of resistance and networks.
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Anhalt, Diana. A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates in Mexico, 1948–1965. Santa Maria, CA: Archer, 2001.
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This is a personal account by the daughter of exiles that escaped McCarthyism by relocating to Mexico. It provides a kaleidoscopic portrayal of the diverse networks of American communists and sympathizers, artists, spies, and Hollywood types who moved to Mexican exile fleeing the Communist witch craze in the late 1940s and 1950s.
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Calvo, Hernando, and Katlijn Declerq. The Cuban Exile Movement: Dissidents or Mercenaries? Leichhardt, Australia: Ocean Press, 2000.
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The authors describe the book as an exposé of the Cuban American National Foundation and anti-Castro groups, investigating the possible links of prominent Cuban exiles to the CIA and their involvement in terrorist activities against Castro. Covering mostly the first twenty years of Castro’s rule, the book is based on interviews with some of the main figures of the US Cuban exile movement.
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Green, James N. A pesar de vocés: Opososição à dictadura brasileira nos Estados Unidos, 1964–1985. São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras, 2009.
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Green explores the networks of solidarity that were constructed in the United States following the arrival of Brazilian exiles after the military coup. Relying on numerous testimonies, official documents, and other primary and secondary sources, Green claims that these networks were only partially effective yet laid the foundations for the full recognition of human rights as one of the bases of the global agenda.
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Haney, Patrick J., and Walt Vanderbush. “The Role of Ethnic Interest Groups in U.S. Foreign Policy: The Case of the Cuban American National Foundation.” International Studies Quarterly 43.2 (1999): 341–361.
DOI: 10.1111/0020-8833.00123Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The authors focus on the work of the Cuban American National Foundation, a special interest right-wing Cuban group, during the 1980s. While also providing an overview of ethnic interest groups in US foreign policy, they consider the origins of the CANF, its relationships with the government, and the tactics they employed for success.
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Machado, Cristina P. Os exiliados. São Paulo, Brazil: Editora Alfa-Omeg, 1979.
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This book analyzes the Brazilian exiles relocating to Latin America and beyond in 1964–1979, assessing the early choice of Uruguay and Chile as site of residence for Brazilian exiles. While Goulart supported some exiles, many others had difficulties making a living, and moved to other countries. The book claims that Brazilians assumed a Latin American identity following their encounter with other Latin Americans abroad.
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Meyran, Daniel. “La diaspora Latino-Américaine comme prise de conscience d’une identité nationale Latino-Américaine.” In Les réseaux des diasporas. Edited by G. Prévé Takis, 249–255. Nicosia, Cyprus: KIKEM, 1996.
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As the title indicates, the author claims that the exile of hundreds of thousands and their life in the diaspora during the Cold War (re)created a new notion of being Latin American, with the consequent sense of solidarity and a distinctive style reflected in the poetry and literature of exile.
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Schreiber, Rebecca Mina. Cold War Exiles in Mexico: U.S. Dissidents and the Culture of Critical Resistance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
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In the wake of increased repression during the 1940s and 1950s in the United States, a wave of writers, artists, and filmmakers fled to Mexico. Schreiber documents the work of these exiles in cities like Mexico City and Cuernavaca, demonstrating how their artistic collaborations formed a counterculture against US repression. Schreiber also reveals the influences of these exiles on other artistic and political movements.
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Sites of Exile in Latin America and Beyond

Latin American countries have witnessed various forms of displacement and expatriation, ostracism and exile, with many of their citizens and residents fleeing abroad. Individuals persecuted for political reasons, or fearing for their lives and bodily integrity, were displaced within their home countries (punished with relegación) or forced to move beyond their borders. At the same time, these countries have long provided refuge and asylum to those escaping persecution both in Latin America and beyond. During recent decades some of these sites were still close to the home country and others, as far removed as Mozambique and Angola, Australia and Israel, Sweden and the USSR, or as remotely expected as Morocco. Hereafter, we include studies conducted on some of the major sites of exile, arranged by country.

Argentina

Paredes 2010 and Sánchez 2011 study how Argentina has long received exiles fleeing from authoritarian and repressive regimes in neighboring countries. Roger 1989 and Pasolini 2010 are representative of studies tracing the experience of those relocating to Argentina as they fled from fascism and Nazism in the 1930s.

Paredes, Alejandro. “Exiliados en la frontera: La marginación y el temor a la persecución de los chilenos en Mendoza, Argentina.” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Edited by Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 77–104. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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Being across the border from the home country rendered escaping Chileans susceptible to repression by the security and counterintelligence units. On the other hand, they were able to traverse the border, retain closer ties and awareness with changes in the Chilean political landscape, and benefit from the assistance and protection of the Ecumenical Committee of Social Action between 1973 and 1992.
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Pasolini, Ricardo. “The Antifascist Climate and the Italian Intellectual Exile in Interwar Argentina.” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 15.5 (2010): 693–714.
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Pasolini analyzes the relationships between Italian Jewish intellectual exiles in Argentina and antifascist Argentine intellectuals in the 1930s, arguing that the Italian intellectuals relied more on employment opportunities than political networks to establish themselves and that links with antifascist Argentine groups came later. However, Pasolini shows that Italian intellectuals did receive support from the Argentine antifascists, particularly through the Free College of Higher Studies (CLES).
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Roger, Olga Elaine. Exile in Argentina, 1933–1945: A Historical and Literary Introduction. New York: Peter Lang, 1989.
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Roger follows German-speaking exiles in Argentina during Nazi rule, tracing their real-life difficulties and work. The author claims that their political activities were far more important than their literary achievements. This work was motivated by the author’s conviction that as a continent of exile, Latin America received limited attention in the field of exile research.
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Sánchez, María Antonia. “Exilados paraguaios na Argentina: 1976, antes e depois.” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 141–168. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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Argentina became a pole of attraction for Paraguayans fleeing the home country even before Stroessner assumed power in 1954. Often combined with economic hardship, still systematic repression was the main factor pushing thousands to flee to Argentina and other neighboring countries. The study has also some quantitative data on the number of Paraguayans relocated in Argentina from 1869 to 2001, and their political organizations.
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Brazil

In the early 20th century, Brazil’s image became a pole of attraction for Blacks in the United States that thought the country might become their Eldorado. Meade and Pirio 2012 analyzes the factors that made such a project unviable. Other studies document how later on various groups of exiles chose Brazil as their site of relocation: German intellectuals (Andress 2009), the opposition to the Portuguese Estado Novo (Mansur da Silva 2009), and the Argentinian exiles fleeing the long arm of the last dictatorship (Viz Quadrat 2007). Coinciding with the latter displacement, Viz Quadrat 2011 analyzes the escape and exile of Brazilians living under military rule in 1964–1985.

Andress, Reinhard. “The German Exile Experience in Brazil from the Perspective of Arnold Van Gennep’s Les rites de passage.” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Neueren Germanistik 68.1 (2009): 133–151.
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Andress discusses German exiles that migrated to Brazil, fleeing National Socialism. By using Van Gennep’s approach to rites of passage (1909), the author shows how the German exiles followed a likely pattern involving subsequent phases of separation, transition, and incorporation. Using this perspective, Andress illuminates the exilic experience of the German intellectuals who fled to Argentina.
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Mansur da Silva, Douglas. “A oposição no exílio e a memória da ‘resistência’ ao Estado Novo em São Paulo.” Migrações (Lisboa) 5 (2009): 239–254.
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The author analyzes the dynamics of social relations and conflicts that characterized the opposition against the Portuguese Estado Novo by those exiled in Brazil, also covering developments in leadership after the end of the Portuguese dictatorship. It points out that tensions remained among leaders competing for legitimacy around the construction of memory and the promotion of images of the Portuguese presence in Brazil.
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Meade, Teresa, and Gregory Alonso Pirio. “African Americans in Search of the Brazilian ‘Eldorado.’” In Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Edited by Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, 35–51. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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This study traces the case of African Americans looking to escape discrimination by choosing expatriation in Brazil in the 1920s, showing how African Americans became attracted to the vision of a country offering migrants acceptance, only to be stymied by the combined efforts of the FBI, the Brazilian immigration service, and the Brazilian consults in the United States.
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Viz Quadrat, Samantha. “Exiliados argentinos en Brasil: Una situación delicada.” In Exilios. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen, 63–102. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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Why leave a country under military dictatorship to settle in another country also ruled by a military dictatorship? This is the core question that this article tries to answer through a review of the host state’s priorities and the realities of the individuals crossing the border and then staying in Brazil, returning to Argentina, or moving to third countries.
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Viz Quadrat, Samantha. “Da Argentina para o Brasil: De uma dictadura a outra.” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 169–204. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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This study reflects the paradoxical experience and sense of Argentine exiles fleeing a dictatorship and relocating to a welcoming society, which nonetheless was living under dictatorship. The proximity to the home country, the possibility of crossing borders, and the existence of networks enabling the integration are mixed in testimonies attesting to the impossibility of mobilizing openly against the home dictatorship.
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Canada

There are not many studies on Latin American exiles in Canada. Del Pozo 2010 and Del Pozo Artigas 2004 (cited under Chilean Diaspora) shed light on the case of the Chileans who settled there.

Del Pozo, José. “Los caminos a Canadá: Emigrados y exiliados chilenos a Montreal, 1955–2006.” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Edited by Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 191–210. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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Canada became a refuge for those escaping repression starting with the 1973 coup in Chile. The very arrival of exiles created its own dynamic of chain-migration, although the author indicates that migration continued at relatively high levels after the restoration of democracy, thus drawing attention to the newcomers’ other motivations as well as economic and legislative changes in Canada.
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Colombia

More than a million persons were internally displaced in the 1990s; also, hundreds of thousands left Colombia as a result of the protracted violence and civil war. Manrique Reyes and Orozco Abad 2001 and Salcedo Fidalgo 2008 are representative of analyses of territorial displacement and forced internal exile as contributing to the reconstruction of networks and formation of ethnic and social movements. Vásquez Santamaría and Escobar García 2012 focuses attention on the plight of displaced Black women; and Helg 2011 adds understanding on the articulation of Afro-Colombian movements against the background of violence, legal provisions and international appeals.

Helg, Aline. “El desplazamiento forzado de los afrodescendientes del Pacífico colombiano: pasado y presente.” In Expulsados, desterrados, desplazados: Migraciones forzadas en América Latina y África. Edited by Martín Lienhard, 171–194. Madrid, Spain: Iberoamericana, 2011.
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A long-run analysis of Afro-Colombian territorial displacement in the Pacific region and some of the changes operated more recently in the articulation of strategies by the displaced as a result of constitutional and legal provisions (e.g., the 1993 Ley de Negritudes) and appeals to international organizations.
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Manrique Reyes, Alfredo, and Iván Orozco Abad. “Éxodo de colombianos.” Revista de Estudios Sociales (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) 8 (2001): 107–110.
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A UN official and a Colombian academic assess the character and dynamics of the massive exile of Colombians to countries such as Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, and the United States, reflecting on the role of international agencies and the attitudes of host states and societies.
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Salcedo Fidalgo, Andrés. “Defendiendo territorios desde el exilio: desplazamineto y reconstrucción en Colombia contemporánea.” Revista Colombiana de Antropología 44.2 (2008): 309–335.
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Drawing on testimonies, this article analyzes the impact of the civil war on the internal displacement and exile of indigenous, Afro-American, and peasant sectors in Colombia. It traces the complexities of a politics of remembrance as part of the construction of ethnic and social movements, operating as distinct from prevailing narratives of humanitarian neutrality.
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Vásquez Santamaría, Jorge Eduardo, and Bibiana Escobar García. “The Displaced Black Women in the Armed Conflict in Colombia: Some Memoirs of the Victims.” Proceedings ARSA (Proceedings in ARSA: Advanced Research in Scientific Areas) 1.1 (2012): 1086—1093.
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The article traces the personal consequences of internal displacement on Afro-Colombian women. According to the authors, Colombia has ranked second in the world in terms of the magnitude of human displacement resulting from a decades-long civil war. While providing statistical and legal information, the work also presents testimonies of Black women, part of a sector constituting over 10 percent of those displaced due to the armed conflict, and until recently mostly ignored by public opinion.
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Cuba

Dutrénit Bielous 2010 brings attention to factors shaping the experience of exile, such as the time that passed since going abroad and its impact on the political optimism or resignation of various groups of exiles.

Dutrénit Bielous, Silvia. “Facetas del exilio: Uruguayos en Cuba y México.” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Edited by Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 139–164. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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This study focuses on the distinguishing factors of Cuba as host country, namely, a large percentage of political activists among the exiles, the greater extent of commitment of the displaced toward Socialist causes, and a significant gap between those who arrived directly after the 1973 “defeat” in Chile and those who arrived after living in exile in third countries, primarily Argentina.
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Dominican Republic

Kaplan 2008 and Wells 2009 focus on the relocation of German-speaking Jews in the Dominican Republic under Trujillo. Milgram 2003 places the Dominican Republic case within the wider framework of Latin American policies towards the refugees of Nazism.

Kaplan, Marion. Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosúa, 1940–45. New York: Museum of Jewish Heritage, 2008.
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Kaplan provides a comprehensive history of the small colony of German-speaking Jews in the Dominican Republic. Though her story is focused on this Jewish enclave, she also provides insights into challenges surrounding refugee issues, migration, and exile around the world.
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Milgram, Abraham, ed. Entre la aceptación y el rechazo: América Latina y los refugiados judíos del nazismo. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2003.
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This book includes essays that analyze the migratory policies of the Latin American and Caribbean countries toward the European Jews attempting to flee the atrocities of Nazism from 1933 to 1942.
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Wells, Allen. Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR, and the Jews of Sosúa. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.
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Wells traces the establishment of an agricultural settlement on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic in 1940 for refugees escaping Nazi persecution in Europe. It recreates the protracted relocation of 757 refugees and provides a well-researched analysis of Trujillo’s motivations and the interplay between Trujillo, Jewish relief agencies, and the US administration against the background of European repression and persecution.
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France

Very early on, Paris and France became major poles of attraction for exiles and Latin Americans in general. Kaspi and Marès 1989 provides a long-term perspective on this trend since the 19th century. Taracena Arriola 2000 traces the intellectual influences and modes of operation of AGELA, the student organization founded in the 1920s. Sáenz Carrete 1995 is a study of political exiles starting with the first arrival of the Brazilians after the 1964 coup and the waves of other South American exiles through the late 1970s. Allier Montaño and Merklen 2006 analyzes the Uruguayan networks of the 1970s and 1980s, while Franco 2007 and Franco 2011 focus on the Argentine exiles during the dictatorship.

Allier Montaño, Eugenia, and D. Merklen. “Milonga de andar lejos: Los que se fueron a Francia.” In El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous, 340–367. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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This is a study that stresses the tensions between the exiles’ public life, which changed radically, and the pressures of private life of Uruguayans living in the dense networks of their exilic community in France. A chronological section is followed by a thematic analysis.
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Franco, Marina. “Between Urgency and Strategy: Argentine Exiles in Paris, 1976–1983.” Latin American Perspectives 34 (2007): 50–67.
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X07302906Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of the political activities of Argentine exiles in Paris during the dictatorship: their resistance efforts and the connections they established with the victims of repression in Argentina to raise awareness and maintain solidarity. Heavily employing human rights rhetoric, the exiles presented themselves as nonpartisan, independent of any one political affiliation, rather choosing to present a united front against the dictatorship.
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Franco, Marina. “A ‘solidaridade’ ante os exílios dos anos 1970: Reflexões a partir do caso dos argentinos na França.” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 91–115. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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Franco stresses that there is nothing natural in the emergence of advocacy networks and urges researchers to emphasize the specifics in their analysis. Franco discusses the case of the Argentine exiles, the sensibility to humanitarian causes created by the reception of Chilean exiles, and the denunciation of Pinochet’s dictatorship. See also Franco, “Una arena pública para los derechos humanos,” in Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, eds. La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio (Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010, pp. 117–138).
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Kaspi, André, and Antoine Marès, eds. Le Paris des étrangers. Paris: Editions de l’Imprimérie Nationale, 1989.
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This work compiles a collection of learned essays reflecting the attraction of Paris throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to Latin Americans, both bon vivants, students, and exiles. Standout essays are Chritiane Séris’ analysis of the Hispanic American intellectuals between 1890 and 1914 (on pp. 299–312) and François-Xavier Guerra’s historical analysis of the impact of Paris on Latin American politics (on pp. 171–182).
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Sáenz Carrete, Erasmo. El exilio latinoamericano en Francia, 1964–1979. Mexico City: Potrerillos Editors, 1995.
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The book analyzes many aspects of the waves of exile arriving from Latin America to France starting with those fleeing Brazil after the 1964 coup and followed by the Chilean, Argentinean and other nationals. It also includes an account of the work of non-governmental organizations such as the UNHCR-ACNUR and the CIME.
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Taracena Arriola, Arturo. “Latin Americans in Paris in the 1920s: The Anti-Imperialist Struggle of the General Association of Latin American Students, 1925–1933.” In Strange Pilgrimages: Exile, Travel and National Identity in Latin America, 1800–1990s. Edited by Ingrid E. Fay and Karen Racine, 131–146. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000.
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Though drawn to Paris for a variety of reasons, young Latin Americans recognized their shared interests as they sought companionship in the city. Taracena analyzes how anxiety over US designs in Latin America moved them to unite as an anti-imperialist movement, which turned Augusto César Sandino’s struggle in Nicaragua into a search for continental integrity and dignity.
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Israel

Israel served as an unlikely place of relocation for most Leftists willing to escape state repression by moving into exile in the 1970s and 1980s. Sznajder and Roniger 2005 and Sznajder and Roniger 2007 approach the puzzling relocation of about 350–400 escapees, studying the procedures, mechanisms, and routes of escape managed by the Israeli diplomats in Argentina. Gazit 2005 is a sociological analysis of the reconstruction of identity of those exiles. Rein and Davidi 2008 is a case study of the Argentines’ political involvement during the 1978 World Soccer Cup.

Gazit, Orit. “No Place to Call Home.” In Political Exile, Estrangement and Identity: Processes of Identity Construction among Political Exiles from Latin America to Israel, 1970–2004. Shaine Working Papers 11. Jerusalem: Shaine Center for Research in the Social Sciences, Hebrew University, 2005.
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Writing in Hebrew, Gazit studies the wave of political exiles that fled Latin America for Israel between 1970 and 2004, analyzing the processes of erosion and reconstitution of their former identities. She recorded the accompanying sense of displacement and loss of exile, and how gradually out of initial estrangement and alienation crystallized various new forms of identity construction with recombined old tropes.
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Rein, Raanan, and Efraim Davidi. “Deporte, política y exilio: Protestas en Israel durante la Copa Mundial de Fútbol, Argentina 1978.” Estudios Sociales (Santa Fe) 35 (2008): 34–53.
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With a relatively large community of immigrants (including several hundred exiles), the Argentine community of Israel used the occasion of the World Soccer Cup of 1978 to bring awareness to the repression in their country of origin, in spite of close relations between Israel and Argentina.
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Sznajder, Mario, and Luis Roniger. “From Argentina to Israel: Escape, Evacuation and Exile.” Journal of Latin American Studies 37.2 (2005): 351–377.
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X05009041Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Sznajder and Roniger offer an analysis of the 350–400 Argentinean citizens who fled to Israel during the last military dictatorship. The article examines both the demographics of those who fled to Israel, most of them unaffiliated with Israel or Zionism. The article also contains statistical information on the exiles, based on original archival material on two-thirds of those who escaped from Argentina.
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Sznajder, Mario, and Luis Roniger. “Un extraño sitio de exilio para la izquierda Argentina: Israel.” In Exilios. Compiled by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen, 21–62. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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The article analyzes the factors that facilitated the escape of several hundred Argentine citizens with Leftist sympathies and a record of political activism to Israel. The convergence of individual factors and the commitment or lack of commitment of Israelis stationed in Argentina as representatives of the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are analyzed on the basis of oral testimonies and archival materials.
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Italy

Italy turned out to be a site of exile of consequence for the reformulation of political projects of both the exiles and the host country. Bernadotti and Bongiovanni 2004 focuses on the political importance of Argentine political exile, even though in numbers it was smaller than the exile of Chileans, Brazilians, and Uruguayans. Stabili 2013 analyzes the Chilean exile community of Italy, highlighting the background of the emergence of the Concertación por la democracia, the coalition of parties that elected Patricio Aylwin to the Presidency of Chile in December 1989.

Bernadotti, María Adriana, and Bárbara Bongiovanni. “Aproximaciones al estudio del exilio argentino en Italia.” In Represión y destierro: Itinerarios del exilio argentino. Compiled by Pablo Yankelevich, 49–86. La Plata, Argentina: Ediciones al Margen, 2004.
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The authors analyze Argentine exile in Italy, important for various reasons. First, Italy was the site of relocation for the leadership of Montoneros and the PRT-Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores. Second, the activists in Italy managed to establish a single organization fighting against the home dictatorship: CAFRA. Third, the exiles found themselves in a highly politicized environment that prompted strategizing.
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Stabili, Maria Rosaria. “Exiled Citizens: Chilean Political Leaders in Italy.” In Shifting Frontiers of Citizenship in Latin America. Edited by Mario Sznajder, Luis Roniger, and Carlos A. Forment, 367–384. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2013.
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Following the military coup, Chilean exiles in Italy and their hosting counterparts entered into a close interplay in order to understand the past in Chile and to draw lessons for the future. That interplay specifically contributed to the elaboration of new political strategies for both countries. Concerning Chile, the study shows how the political project for its democratic future was outlined in exile.
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Mexico

Yankelevich 2003, Véjar Pérez-Rubio 2008, and Garciadiego and Kouri 2010 offer a wide and rich gamut of studies of Mexico as a site of asylum and exile. Bankier 1989 analyzes the German exiles and their relationships with the Jews in Mexico during the 1940s. Lida 1997 covers both Spanish migration and the wave of Spanish Republican exiles. Ulanovsky 1983; Blanck de Cereijido, et al. 1999; and Yankelevich 2007 follow the adaptation, internal tensions, and relations of the Argentine exiles who relocated during the 1976–1983 dictatorship.

Bankier, David. “Los exiliados alemanes en México y sus vínculos con la comunidad Judía (1942–1945).” In Judaica Latinoamericana. Edited by Margalit Bejarano, Graciela Ben-Dror, and Yossi Goldstein, 79–89. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1989.
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Bankier assesses the role of German exiles in Mexico, offering a new look at their ties with the Jewish community between 1942 and 1945, at the peak of WWII. Bankier documents their responses to anti-Semitism, showing how their exile was an opportunity for political mobilization within the Jewish community.
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Blanck de Cereijido, Fanny, Sandra Lorenzano, and Pablo Yankelevich. El exilio argentino en la ciudad de México. Mexico City: Babel, 1999.
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Among other interesting findings of this volume is the analysis of the Argentinean psychoanalysts and how their arrival as exiles contributed to bringing this profession to Mexico, their introduction of schools of thought that were not necessarily hegemonic in Argentina, and their ways of integration as professionals in the receiving country.
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Garciadiego, Javier, and Emilio Kouri. Revolución y exilio en la historia de México: Homenaje a Friedrich Katz. Mexico City: Era/Colegio de México y Universidad de Chicago, 2010. 519–856.
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The fourth part of this collection of studies in homage of historian Friedrich Katz contains fifteen essays that stress the centrality of exile in the history of Mexico. In addition to analyses on transnational movements, on the Spanish Republican exiles, on the Polish refugees during WWII, on Central American refugees, and on selected exiles such as Trotsky, Victor Serge, and Leo Zuckerman. (See also Recent Collective Works and Panoramic Studies.)
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Lida, Clara. Inmigración y exilio: Reflexiones sobre el caso español. Mexico City: Siglo XXI and Colegio de México, 1997.
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Lida’s book is divided into two sections. In the first, she provides an overview of the Spanish emigrants in Mexico between 1821 and the Spanish Civil War. In the second section, she offers an analytical perspective at the nature of Spanish exile in Mexico, chronicling the simultaneous “prejudices and generosities” that characterized the interactions between Mexicans and the Spaniards.
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Ulanovsky, Carlos. Seamos felices mientras estamos aquí. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ediciones de la Pluma, 1983.
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Ulanovsky left Argentina twice, both times to Mexico. Ulanovsky followed critically the way in which exiles disdained those whose life paths were not marked by dramatic heroism and persecution. He also addresses the process of integration of Argentineans into the host society, the allure and constraints of the Mexican environment, the mutual prejudices of Argentines and Mexicans, and the climate of criticism and self-criticism.
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Véjar Pérez-Rubio, Carlos, ed. El exilio latinoamericano en México. Mexico City: Centro de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias en Ciencias y Humanidades, UNAM, 2008.
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The product of a 2003 workshop, this work compiles testimonies along with historical and philosophical analyses on Mexico as a country of asylum. Of particular interest are an essay on the Guatemalan exiles by José Luis Balcárcel and a study on the Haitian exiles by Guy Deval, in addition to other studies on more well-known migration waves.
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Yankelevich, Pablo, ed. México, país refugio: La experiencia de los exilios en el siglo XX. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia—Plaza y Valdés, 2003.
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This is one of the most comprehensive collections of essays on Mexico as a site of asylum for Europeans, US citizens, Spaniards, and Latin Americans. Only missing are analyses of the Cuban exile and Central American refugees. This work examines Mexico as a country that prided itself in welcoming those fleeing political persecution and dictatorships in other countries during the 20th century.
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Yankelevich, Pablo. “The COSPA: A Political Experience of the Argentine Exile in Mexico.” Latin American Perspectives 34.4 (2007): 68–80.
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X07302947Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Yankelevich examines the rifts among the Argentinian exiles of Mexico, analyzing various organizations formed by those in exile, primarily the COSPA (Comité de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Argentino) and the CAS (Comisión Argentina de Solidaridad). Yankelevich shows that following the failure of the Montoneros’ counteroffensive, the CAS became the main exile organization of Argentines in Mexico.
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Mozambique

Mozambique is one of the less known places of relocation for Brazilian exiles. Prestes Massena 2009 explains the arrival of these exiles in the context of the simultaneous process of decolonization and political change in Africa.

Prestes Massena, Andrea. “Entrre Brasil e Moçambique: Os caminhos percorridos no exílio.” Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe 20.1 (2009): 67–92.
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Sharing with Brazil the use of Portuguese language, Mozambique attracted many Brazilian exiles as it became independent in the era of decolonization and was in need of skilled labor. Attracted by the idea of constructing Socialism, the exiles found however difficulties in integrating and most of them returned to Brazil as conditions in their home country allowed it.
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Portugal

Freire 2011 follows the diplomatic relationships between democratic Portugal, authoritarian Brazil, and the Brazilian exiles.

Freire, Américo. “Ecos da estação Lisboa: Notas sobre o exílio das esquerdas em Portugal.” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 117–137. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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Freire analyzes how Portugal became an attractive destination for Brazilian exiles following its 1974 democratization. It reveals how the arrival of Leonel Brizola in Portugal, together with the distension of repression within Brazil and a partial amnesty, triggered a rapid process of redefinition of the Brazilian Left in general and the Trabalhismo in particular. It also covers the mobilization of the exiles in favor of a general amnesty in the home country.
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Spain

Due to its historical and linguistic connections, Spain became a major site of exile for Latin Americans. Del Olmo 2007 is an attempt to explain the greater cohesiveness of the Chilean exiles as contrasting with the relative fragmentation of the Argentine exiles in Spain. Mira Delli-Zotti 2004 traces the political activity of Argentine exiles and their integration to Spain. Jensen 2004 follows the specific impact of the Catalan political and social process on Argentine exiles, in the broader Spanish and global context. In addition to its specific historical account, Jensen 2008 also approaches and interprets the relative silence about exile in Argentina as seen from Catalunya. Coraza de los Santos 2003 is a reconstruction of Uruguayan exile experience in the 1970s, while Coraza de los Santos 2007 adds a discussion of methodological aspects in such research.

Coraza de los Santos, Enrique. “Realidades y visiones del exilio uruguayo en España.” América Latina Hoy (Salamanca) 34 (2003): 79–100.
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The article focuses on the Uruguayan exiles of the 1970s, analyzing their insertion into different geographical and representational spaces. It relies on testimonies both of those that remained in Spain after democratization and of those that returned to Uruguay, and on an analysis of the documentation of archives and political and trade union organizations.
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Coraza de los Santos, Enrique. “Los exilios uruguayos en España.” In Memorias de la violencia en Uruguay y Argentina: Golpes, dictaduras y exilios, 1973–2006. Edited by E. Rey Tristán, 197–216. Santiago de Compostela, Spain: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 2007.
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Focusing on Uruguayan exile in Spain, this article reviews core methodological and theoretical debates, stressing some of the obstacles which this type of research faces with regard to sources and availability of documents. The final part of the article examines the more important features of the exile community in Spain.
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Del Olmo, Margarita. “Identidades remendadas: El proceso de crisis de identidad entre los exilados argentinos en España.” In Exilios. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen. 127–146. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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This study, based on interviews conducted in Spain and Argentina in 1986–1988, claims that the personal crisis of Argentine exiles took place prior to relocation, due to changing political circumstances and the massive decimation of the Leftist and Peronist activists that triggered an identity crisis. The author concludes that this led to relative internal fragmentation among the Argentines.
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Jensen, Silvina. “Política y cultura del exilio argentino en Cataluña.” In Represión y destierro: Itinerarios del exilio argentino. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich, 113–156. La Plata, Argentina: Ediciones al Margen, 2004.
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This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the Argentine exile in Catalunya from the perspectives of the exile themselves. It is placed on the interface of the perspective of the individuals, the social and political processes, and the collective representations. It recovers the exiles’ memories, valuing the geographical location of the exiled community and the impact of the Catalan political and social process.
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Jensen, Silvina. La provincia flotante: El exilio argentino en Cataluña (1976–2006). Barcelona: Fundació Casa Amèrica Catalunya, 2008.
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Jensen provides a detailed history of a community of exiles on the basis of their experiences and testimonies. She reviews forms of adaptation, activism, denunciation, political and ideological debates, and the story of those who returned to Argentina and those who remained abroad after the return of democracy in the home country.
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Mira Delli-Zotti, Guillermo. “La singularidad del exilio argentino en Madrid: Entre las respuestas a la represión de los 70’s y la interpelación a la Argentina posdictatorial.” In Represión y destierro: Itinerarios del exilio argentino. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich, 87–112. La Plata, Argentina: Ediciones al Margen, 2004.
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This work attempts to follow both the important role of the exiles in opposing the home repressive government and later on tracking the repressors, as well as the reasons why relatively fewer exiles returned to redemocratized Argentina.
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Sweden

In spite of its importance as a site of asylum, there are few comprehensive studies on Latin Americans in Sweden. Moore 1992 and Canelo 2007 are short analyses that reveal the heterogeneous composition of the communities of Chilean and Argentine exiles, respectively, and the complexities of living in a country where exiles were welcomed yet where integration was rather difficult for adult exiles. Díaz 1993 focuses on the problems of integration and trends of return to Chile or moving to a third country.

Canelo, Brenda. “Cuando el exilio fue confinamiento: Argentinos en Suecia.” In Exilios. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen, 103–126. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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Canelo reconstructs the situation of Argentine refugees and exiles in Sweden. In 1985 there were close to 20,000 Latin Americans in Sweden—a result of the need to escape repression and the liberal asylum and social welfare policies of the government. Up to the 1980s, when the economic crisis led to more restrictive attitudes, the Latin American exiles enjoyed a revolutionary mystique and image in Swedish society.
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Díaz, José A. Choosing Integration: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of the Immigrant Integration in Sweden. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press, 1993.
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Díaz follows the challenges of integration of immigrants into Swedish society, focusing on Chileans, Finns, and Yugoslavs. It claims that while the Chileans are basically political exiles fleeing Pinochet, the latter waves arriving in the 1980s were already motivated by economic considerations. The book offers also interesting data on the process of return and the parallel process of relocation to a third country.
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Moore, Daniel. “Latinoamericanos en Suecia.” In Suecia: Latinoamérica: Relaciones y cooperación. Edited by Weine Karlsson, Ȧke Magmusson, and Carlos Vidales, 161–183. Stockholm: Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos, Monografía No. 24, 1992.
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Moore reviews the special rights of refugees and immigrants to Sweden, differentiating among political exiles, refugees accepted due to humanitarian reasons, the children adopted by Swede individuals, those married to Swedes, students arriving from former Communist countries, and professionals settling on a temporary basis due to labor engagements. Moore refers to those returning to the countries of origin and those that remain in Sweden.
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Switzerland

Bolzman 1989 and Olea Guldemont 1992 look at the challenges of relocation and integration in Switzerland. Gallardo and Waksman 2006 stresses the political impact of being in Geneva. Together, these studies shed light on a little-known European site of asylum for Latin Americans.

Bolzman, Claudio. “Apprendre à vivre en exil: Les réfugiés chiliens en Suisse.” Revue Européenne des migrations internationales 5.2 (1989): 133–144.
DOI: 10.3406/remi.1989.1024Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is an analysis of one of the least-known sites of exile in Europe, stressing the challenges of integration into Swiss society.
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Gallardo, Javier, and Guillermo Waksman. “Uruguayos en la Suiza de Europa.” In El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous, 318–339. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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This contribution stresses the importance of the small community of exiles of Geneva, due to the location there of international agencies and the formation of GRISUR, a group committed to spreading news about Uruguay and creating networks of solidarity.
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Olea Guldemont, Mario. Recuerdos de un exilio en Suiza. Santiago, Chile: Arygo, 1992.
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A book of memoirs with plenty of anecdotes on Chilean exiles and their experiences in Switzerland, an uncommon country of destination for those escaping repression in Chile.
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United States

Poyo 1989 is an historical account of the Cuban expatriates who relocated to the United States in the decades preceding the Spanish-American War of 1898. Castro 1998 is an interesting study on Cubans arriving after Castro’s revolution and the construction of their images as exiles or migrants in the United States. Several studies trace the emerging commitment of journalists and intellectuals, students and academics, religious leaders and members of the US Congress, who engage in advocacy networks protesting repression in Latin America: Green 2003 analyzes the Brazilian exiles and their networks. Calandra 2006 focuses on Chilean and Argentine exiles.

Calandra, Benedetta. L’America della solidarietà: L’accoglienza dei rifugiati cileni e argentini negli Sati Uniti (1973–1983). Rome: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2006.
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On the basis of archival documents and testimonies, Calandra reconstructs the formation of networks of solidarity with the plight of the victims of the Southern Cone dictatorships. Academics, organizational and local community activists joined religious leaders and civil rights activists to create a network of protest committed to denounce the crimes of the Chilean and Argentine rulers and show solidarity with their victims.
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Castro, Max José. “Esplendor de la emigración, miseria del exilio: El destierro cubano en los Estados Unidos.” Revista/Review Interamericana 28.1–4 (1998): 19–35.
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Castro claims that, as a migrant group, Cubans succeeded while their attempt to claim an exilic status struggling to regain the island from Fidel Castro failed. Signs lie in the resilience of the Cuban regime and the ideological isolation of its opponents, and most basically, their inability to develop their own strategy disengaged from that of the United States.
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Green, James N. “Clergy, Exiles and Academics: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States, 1969–1974.” Latin American Politics and Society 45.1 (2003): 87–117.
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Green argues that between 1969 and 1974, exiled Brazilians—along with US clergymen and academics—raised the issue of human rights violations in Brazil under the military dictatorship to US public opinion and political circles. These activists created an advocacy network that helped isolate the military regime and consolidate a broader solidarity movement for political freedom in Latin America.
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Poyo, Gerald E. “With All, and for the Good of All”: The Emergence of Popular Nationalism in the Cuban Communities of the United States, 1848–1868. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 1989.
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Poyo examines the process of emergence of nationalist or pro-independence thinking among Cubans, focusing on the émigré communities of the United States in the fifty years before the Spanish-American War. Poyo traces how the elite liberal annexationist ideology of the 1840s–1850s became a popular nationalism with potentially radical implications for the future republic.
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USSR and Communist European Countries

Among the few accounts on exile in European Communist countries are Buriano 2006 on Uruguayans relocating to the USSR and Rodríguez Elizondo 1996 on Chileans in the German Democratic Republic.

Buriano, Ana. “URSS: Paradojas de un destino.” In El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous, 257–294. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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On the basis of oral testimonies, this study reconstructs the experience of Uruguayans who settled in the USSR, particularly in Ukraine and Uzbekistan between 1973 and 1984, their expectations and ways of adaptation.
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Rodríguez Elizondo, José. La pasión de Iñáki. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1996.
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A literary account of experiences of exile in the German Democratic Republic, which provided asylum to Chilean Communist after Pinochet took power, yet “regimented” its asylees, creating great disappointment among them.
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Venezuela

There has been little systematic research on Venezuela as a site of asylum for Latin Americans. Both Wschebor Pellegrino 2006 and Arocena 2000 trace the experiences of Uruguayan exiles in that country.

Arocena, Rodrigo. “Ciencia y exilio en América Latina: El caso de los matemáticos uruguayos en Venezuela.” Boletín de la Asociación Matemática Venezolana 7.1–2 (2000): 67–78.
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A reflection on the importance of exile on scientific development, with particular attention on the group of mathematicians who, part of the dismantled Instituto de Matemática y Estadística (IME) of the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, were forced to take the road of exile.
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Wschebor Pellegrino, Isabel. “‘Nuestro Norte está en el Sur’: Venezuela.” In El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous, 373–384. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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This chapter recounts the experience of three Uruguayan exiles, stressing the highly diverse experiences of individuals relocating there, the solidarity of the Venezuelan people, and the process of return. The work also reflects the phenomenon of exiles moving from one country to another, something we define as “serial exile.”
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Exile Communities, Transnational Activism, and Politics

The dynamics of exile communities have been a central focus of research, particularly with the last waves of exiles. As thousands of individuals moved abroad to escape persecution in the 1960s–1980s, the diasporas of Latin Americans spread throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Some places attracted only minor concentrations of individuals, while other locations provided formal or informal asylum to thousands of co-nationals, among them political exiles, and in turn the formation of communities of exiles would attract new waves of politically persecuted individuals and groups. Studies approach many issues, starting with the ambiguity regarding the quantitative dimensions of the problem and extending to questions regarding the inner dynamics of relationships and commitments within the diaspora communities and whether exiles turned into the vectors of political representation of those co-nationals abroad.

The Argentine Diaspora

These studies provide an overview of the Argentine diaspora, as shaped and impacted by political exile. Lattes and Oteiza 1987 provides a long-term perspective on the various waves of exile and migration since the coup against Perón in 1955. Yankelevich 2004 brings together case studies on many of the major sites of exile of Argentines forced to move abroad during the 1976–1983 dictatorship. Jensen 2010 is a study of the political and discursive struggle between last wave of exiles and the military dictatorship in the home country. Basualdo 2007 focuses on working-class and trade-union exiles. Sosnowski 1988 portrays the transformation of the cultural domain during the 1970s and 1980s and reveals the rift opened between exiles and those intellectuals and academics that stayed in Argentina. Yankelevich 2012 discusses the methodological and archival problems that a study of the Argentine exiles worldwide poses to researchers.

Basualdo, Victoria. “Una aproximación al exilio obrero y sindical.” In Exilios: Destinos y experiencias bajo la dictadura militar. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen, 186–208. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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Basualdo studies the exile of Argentinean members of the working class and the trade unions. Many of them, after spending time in prison, were released under the condition of going into exile. The life stories included show that many of the activists went through a serial exile, that is, they moved from one place of exile to another, due to different reasons.
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Jensen, Silvina. Los exiliados: La lucha por los derechos humanos durante la dictadura. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Sudamericana, 2010.
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Jensen follows the confrontation between the military governments and the communities of exiles who fled abroad to affirm their interpretation of reality and history. Jensen examines the controversies around human rights and human rights violations, and stresses how both the military and the exiles were fully conscious that whoever dominated the historical narrative would control the future of their society.
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Lattes, Alfredo E., and Enrique Oteiza, eds. The Dynamics of Argentine Migration (1955–1984): Democracy and the Return of Expatriates. Geneva, Switzerland: UNRISD, 1987.
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This report examines patterns of migration to and from Argentina between 1955 and 1984. Divided into two sections, the report looks at both the “historical context” of the country’s migration and the “main dimensions” of the migration. Second, the report employs three case studies to assess Argentine emigration, the assimilation of Argentine immigrants, and public opinion on the subject of emigration.
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Sosnowski, Saúl, ed. Represión y reconstrucción de una cultura: El caso argentino. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1988.
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A collection of essays by leading Argentine intellectuals and academics, who reflect on their cultural creation during repression and exile, as well as the difficulties of healing the schism created in Argentina’s culture between the intellectuals who stayed in the country during the military dictatorship and those who fled abroad to save their lives and continue fighting from their new countries of residence.
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Yankelevich, Pablo. “Exile and the Argentine Diaspora: Issues and Problems.” In Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Edited by Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, 198–213. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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Yankelevich addresses two issues in constructing a comprehensive approach to the history of exile in Argentina: the quantitative dimension of exile and the diversity of the political experiences. It stresses that conflict was inseparable from the political activity of individuals in exile and the settings of relocation differently affected the ability of exiles to continue fighting and reconstruct their lives.
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Yankelevich, Pablo, ed. Represión y destierro: Itinerarios del exilio argentino. La Plata, Argentina: Ediciones al Margen, 2004.
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The book brings together contributions on Argentine exiles fleeing their home country and relocating to France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and the United States. It was published as Argentina was about to enter the third decade of return of democracy, and aimed to rely and transcend the testimonial literature so abundant in the preceding years, while exile remained a largely ignored topic.
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Argentinians in Mexico and France

This subsection focuses on the Argentines who chose Mexico or France as their site of relocation. Studies on Argentine exiles in Mexico include Bernetti and Giardinelli 2003, a detailed portrayal of the exiles and their activities in Mexico written by two exiled intellectuals; Yankelevich 2009, a historical reconstruction of the internal dynamics of this community starting in 1974, when the cycle of violence in Argentina pushed many to leave; and Yankelevich and Jensen 2007, which compares Argentine exiles living in Mexico to their peers who relocated to Catalunya. Franco 2007 and Franco 2008 are specific studies on the Argentine exiles in France.

Bernetti, Jorge Luis, and Mempo Giardinelli. México: El exilio que hemos vivido: Memoria del exilio argentino en México durante la dictadura, 1976–1983. Bernal, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2003.
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This is a collective portrayal of the Argentine exiles in Mexico, detailing various phases and aspects of their insertion, daily life, struggles, and internal networks, including analysis on how the presence and activities of the exiles affected the terms of bilateral relationships between Mexico and Argentina; concludes with the return of democracy in Argentina in 1983 and its impact on the exiles.
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Franco, Marina. “Solidaridad internacional, exilio y dictadura en torno al Mundial de 1978.” In Exilios: Destinos y experiencias bajo la dictadura militar. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen. 147–186. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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The 1978 World Cup in Argentina was a critical moment for the exile diaspora in their mobilization of networks of solidarity against the dictatorship back home. Franco covers the efforts of the Argentine exiles abroad before the tide shifted—in Europe at least—toward impending changes in the Central and East European countries in the 1980s.
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Franco, Marina. El exilio: Argentinos en Francia durante la dictadura. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Siglo XXI, 2008.
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While the Argentine exiles in France were less prominent than those in other sites of asylum, they were important in terms of political activism. Franco reviews the attempts by military rulers to infiltrate the exile circles in France, indicating their importance in transnational campaigns. Of particular relevance are chapters focusing on key moments of tension in the struggle over domestic and international public opinion.
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Yankelevich, Pablo, Ráfagas de un exilio: Argentinos en México, 1974–1983. Mexico City: Colegio de México, 2009.
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Written by a leading historian of recent Latin American exile, the study reconstructs the exiles’ sociodemographic profile and reviews the role of the Mexican diplomats, as well as the exiles’ associational spaces and political practices, and the sharp internal divisions and controversies. The book also includes an analysis of the reconstruction of identities following the refuge they found in Mexico.
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Yankelevich, Pablo, and Silvina Jensen. “México y Cataluña: El exilio en números.” In Exilios: Destinos y experiencias bajo la dictadura militar. Edited by Pablo Yankelevich and Silvina Jensen, 209–251. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros del Zorzal, 2007.
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This study focuses on the issues in reaching a quantitative assessment of the size of the Argentine exile communities of Mexico and Catalunya, including that only part of the exiles—in some cases a minimal part—had a formal status as asylees and refugees, even though many others saw themselves as exiles. The study also covers the social and professional composition of these diaspora communities.
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The Brazilian Diaspora

Studies of the Brazilian diaspora are among the richest in testimonies and information. Rollemberg 1999 reconstructs the multiple paths, stages, and dual waves of exile through first-hand accounts. Sales 1999 also contributes to a collective portrayal of the exiles. Jurema 1978 is a study which includes a focus on deposed President Goulart, written by his former Minister of Justice, himself the son of an exile of the 1930s. Prestes Massena 2009 describes how Brazilian exiles were attracted to Mozambique, by the prospects of building Socialism, while many of them had experienced marginalization in their initial European sites of residence. Rabêlo and Rabêlo 2001 is a text written by individuals who experienced long exile and approach a variety of sites of relocation, incluidng less conventional sites such as New Zealand, China, Albania, and Guinea-Bissau.

Jurema, Abelardo. Exílio. João Pessoa, Brazil: Acauá, 1978.
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Jurema focuses on Brazilian exiles and particularly the case of former president João Goulart. The work reveals the important hindsight that for a long time exile did not imply necessarily the end of a political career in Latin America but rather the aggrandizement of the image of a politician who can return to the homeland with greater global understanding and experience.
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Prestes Massena, Andreia. “Entre Brasil e Moçambique: Os caminhos percorridos no exílio.” Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe 20.1 (2009): 67–92.
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Employing interviews with returnees, Prestes depicts the story of a little-known case: that of exiles coming from Brazil or their European sites of asylum to Mozambique, a Portuguese-speaking territory in Africa that attained its independence under the leadership of the Socialist FRELIMO. Prestes analyzes the experience of those exiles that were mostly attracted by the prospects of building Socialism in an African environment.
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Rabêlo, José Maria, and Theresa Rabêlo. Diáspora: Os longos caminhos do exilio. São Paulo, Brazil: Geração Editorial, 2001.
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Reflecting the experience of exiles settling in more and less conventional countries including New Zealand, China, Albania, and Guinea-Bissau, the authors tell their own experience of sixteen years in exile in Bolivia, Chile, and France and their return to Brazil, about which they started thinking as soon as there were talks about the adoption of a political amnesty in the home country.
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Rollemberg, Denise. Exílio: Entre raízes e radars. Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil: Editora Record, 1999.
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Rolemberg presents a comprehensive history of Brazilian exile from 1964 to 1979, based on testimonies of exiles worldwide. It traces both the mourning for what was lost as well as the process of personal and political transformation and development that many experienced abroad. It covers both the public activities of some of the exiles against the home dictatorship as well as challenges upon return.
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Sales, Teresa. Brasileiros longe de casa. São Paulo, Brazil: Cartez Editora, 1999.
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This book reviews the various waves of migration of Brazilians, including the wave of exile that brought the exit of an estimated 3,000 individuals during the dictatorship. The book claims that most of them returned to Brazil following the political amnesty.
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The Central American Diasporas

Carr 2012 shows how in the 1930s exiled activists were driven by commitments to anti-capitalist ideas including socialism, communism, and anarchism, which led them to shape their identities and support transnational activities and political projects. In the early 1980s, thousands of Guatemalans fled the civil war, seeking refuge in Mexico and the United States. Hamilton and Stoltz Chinchilla 1991 is a macro-analysis of territorial displacement and migration. Manz 1988, O’Dogherty 1989, and Montejo 1999 analyze Guatemalans displaced and fleeing into Mexico, while Burns 1993 focuses on Guatemalans arriving in the United States. Though at times exceedingly moralistic, Compher and Morgan 1991 depicts the needs of the Salvadoran exiles and refugees. Allié and Reyes 2012 brings the story of the Garifuna people of Central America.

Allié, Alí, and Ruben Reyes, dirs. Garifuna in Peril. Los Angeles: Aban Productions, 2012.
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Expelled from the island of St. Vincent by the British in 1797, the Garifuna are a missed people of West African and Arawak roots, spread throughout Central America and the United States. Through a personal lens, the film addresses some of the cultural and territorial challenges they face nowadays. In Garifuna, English, and Spanish; 99 mins.
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Burns, Allan F. Maya in Exile: Guatemalans in Florida. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.
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Burns focuses on a particular wave of the Guatemalan exodus, those who migrated to Indiatown, a small agricultural town in Florida. Burns studies how these immigrants adapted to life in the United States. Relying on the immigrants’ voices, Burns not only illuminates their political and social background but also considers the effects of US immigration policy on these refugees.
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Carr, Barry. “‘Across Seas and Borders’: Charting the Webs of Radical Internationalism in the Circum-Caribbean.” In Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Edited by Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, 217–240. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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Carr embarks on a comprehensive historical analysis of the radical activists and insurgent intellectual exiles and their sometimes overt, but more often clandestine, agitations in Central America and the wider Circum-Caribbean region during the early 20th century. The study describes how throughout their travels, the revolutionaries and activists constructed networks not grounded in nation-states, but rather imbued with an intensely internationalist worldview.
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Compher, Vic, and Betsy Morgan. Going Home: Building Peace in El Salvador: The Story of Repatriation. New York: Apex, 1991.
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Compher and Morgan’s text represents a unique approach to academic studies of refugees—combining photographs, interviews, and excerpts from traditional poems and lyrics of protest songs to relate the role of Christian missionaries in the repatriation of Salvadoran refugees between 1980 and 1988. Portraying the Church as a hero, the authors ultimately fail to give a well-rounded examination of the challenges of Salvadoran refugees.
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Hamilton, Nora, and Norma Stoltz Chinchilla. “Central American Migration: A Framework for Analysis.” Latin American Research Review 26.1 (1991): 75–110.
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This is a review article on Central American migration wave, which by the 1980s was motivated by both economic and political reasons. The article reviews theoretical issues as well as migration patterns and cycles. Emphasis is placed on changes and dislocations resulting from global trends such as capital penetration and the changing dynamics of world capitalism.
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Manz, Beatriz. Refugees of a Hidden War: The Aftermath of Counterinsurgency in Guatemala. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
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Manz analyzes the effects of the brutal military counterinsurgency campaign in three Indian regions in northern Guatemala. In particular, Manz focuses on the situation of Guatemalan refugees in southern Mexico and the “prospects” for their repatriation. Relying on extensive fieldwork in Guatemala, Manz provides valuable insights not only into the Guatemalan conflict but also on the potential for peace and repatriation for the refugees.
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Montejo, Víctor. Elilal: Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
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Written by a Mayan expatriate and anthropologist, this work details some of the thousands of Mayas who were forced to leave their homelands and escape Guatemala’s repression starting in the late 1970s and in the 1980s. Montejo tells their story through a combination of autobiography, history, political analysis, and testimonies. A last chapter addresses the process of return until the mid-1990s.
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O’Dogherty, Laura. “Mayas en el exilio: Los refugiados guatemaltecos en Mexico.” In Memorias del Segundo Coloquio Internacional de Mayistas, 17–21 de agosto de 1987. Vol. 1. Edited by Ivan Šprajc, 213–217. Mexico City: Centro de Estudios Mayas de la UNAM, 1989.
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This short presentation stresses that the number of people settling in Mexico exceeds by far the number of individuals seeking or granted asylum, indicating the need to differentiate between the official and unrecognized refugees.
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The Chilean Diaspora

Wright and Oñate Zúñiga 2007 tackles the political dimensions of exile. Rojas Mira and Santoni 2013 assesses the impact of the different sites of reception of Chileans on the networks of solidarity and the politics of exiles. Angell and Carstairs 1987 adds information on demographics and sites of exile. Kay 1987, Arrate 1987, and Wright and Oñate Zúñiga 1988 build on testimonies gathered while Pinochet was still in power. Sznajder and Roniger 2007 compares the dynamics of Chilean exile networks to those of the Uruguayans. Del Pozo 2004 offers case studies on various sites of exile, including a statistical appendix and bibliography.

Angell, Alan, and Susan Carstairs. “The Exile Question in Chilean Politics.” Third World Quarterly 9 (1987): 148–167.
DOI: 10.1080/01436598708419966Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article examines Pinochet’s deliberate use of forced exile as a political instrument, while arguing that exile has been long used in Chile along with amnesties. The study also considers both the demographics of the exiles and the sites of exile. It takes a brief look at the return of the exiles, emphasizing that their politicization abroad often had ramifications for Chilean politics.
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Arrate, Jorge. Exilio: Textos de denuncia y esperanza. Santiago, Chile: Instituto para el Nuevo Chile, 1987.
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Written by Arrate, an attorney and economist, university professor, economic adviser for President Allende, and vice-president of CODELCO, who also went into exile in Europe, this is a book of testimonies and reflections on the Chileans abroad by a prominent Socialist. In 1984, he was part of the “group of six,” formed by individuals who attempted three times to enter Chile and were deported again and again.
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Del Pozo Artigas, José, ed. Exiliados, emigrados y retornados: Chilenos en América y Europa, 1973–2004. Santiago, Chile: RIL Editores, 2004.
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This work features a collection of essays on various aspects of the Chilean exodus during the dictatorship, including a chapter on various categories of Chilean migrants and exiles; chapters on the Chileans in Sweden, France, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada; and a chapter on return. A statistical appendix and a comprehensive bibliography are of particular relevance and interest.
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Kay, Diana. Chileans in Exile: Private Struggles, Public Lives. London: Macmillan, 1987.
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Kay conducted research in Scotland in 1979 and 1980, during which she interviewed thirty-five Chilean exiles. This book was one of the first works on exile in the United Kingdom. In addition to drawing attention to the problem of reconciling the public and private lives of exiles, Kay also highlights the different experience of female and male émigrés.
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Rojas Mira, Claudia, and Alessandro Santoni. “Geografía política del exilio chileno: Los diferentes rostros de la solidaridad.” Perfiles latinoamericanos 41 (January–June 2013): 123–142.
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This is an analysis of the Chilean diaspora and its different cultural, political, and geographic settings, impacting the construction of networks of solidarity with the Chilean people and the reformulation of political projects among exiles.
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Sznajder, Mario, and Luis Roniger. “Exile Communities and Their Differential Institutional Dynamics: A Comparative Analysis of the Chilean and Uruguayan Political Diasporas.” Revista de Ciencia Política (Chile) 27.1 (2007): 43–66.
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This analysis compares the differential impact and dynamics of two of the largest diasporas created during the last wave of repression in the Southern Cone. The article claims that, even though all diasporas are internally differentiated, those in which political exiles became the pivotal voice of those relocated abroad—like the Chileans—managed to sustain broader international pressure and transnational solidarity.
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Wright, Thomas C., and Rody Oñate Zúñiga. Flight from Chile: Voices of Exile. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.
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Relying on testimonies of Chilean exiles, Wright and Zúñiga compile testimonies of those who fled the Chilean military dictatorship in the 1970s. The work reveals the tremendous impact exile often had on these families—frequently causing the collapse of marriages and the disconnection between the homeland and the adopted country. In addition, the work chronicles the estrangement and alienation the exiles feel upon return.
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Wright, Thomas C., and Rody Oñate Zúñiga. “Chilean Political Exile.” Latin American Perspectives 34 (2007): 31–49.
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X07302902Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Wright and Zúñiga highlight the centrality of forced exile as a deliberate political tool of Pinochet in Chile during his military dictatorship. An unanticipated effect of this strategy, however, was the politicization of these exiles while they were abroad. Upon their return beginning in the mid-1980s, the exiles helped to reshape Chilean politics, contributing to the ousting of Pinochet and the reconfiguration of parties.
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The Cuban Diaspora

This is one of the most researched exile diasporas. The selected entries are merely representative of a much wider corpus of research. Fagen, et al. 1968 analyzes the first wave of exiles that left following the Revolution. Works written much later (e.g., Masud-Piloto 1996 and Pedraza 2007) distinguish the various waves of newcomers, or—as in García 1988 and Torres 1999—their impact on the political system. Tweed 1997 covers the cultural imprint of the Cuban exiles, while García 1998 and Vargas Llosa 1998 delve into the internal tensions and divisions of the Cuban American community.

Fagen, Richard R., Richard A. Brody, and Thomas O’Leary. Cubans in Exile: Disaffection and the Revolution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1968.
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Based on a sample of Cubans who relocated to Miami in the first wave of exile (1959–1962), this book reconstructs the factors behind their exile from the island after the Revolution. It indicates that, although some were clearly opposed to the direction of the new government, most were not driven by ideological convictions against Communism but rather by the impact or fear of changing life conditions.
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García, F. Chris, ed. Latinos and the Political System. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988.
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This book compiles twenty-seven essays that examine the political involvement of the three largest groups in the Latino population—Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Puerto Ricans. García’s work, in particular, examines how the Cuban exiles, upon their arrival to the United States, gradually became extremely involved politically. Advocating what he defines as a co-existentialist approach, Cuban exiles began opting to call themselves a “community.”
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García, María Cristina. “Hardliners vs. ‘Dialogueros’: Cuban Exile Political Groups and United States-Cuba Policy.” Journal of American Ethnic History 17.4 (1998): 3–28.
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García’s work analyzes the political mobilization of the Cuban émigrés to the United States, who boast one of the highest levels of public involvement among migrant groups. The vast majority of the Cuban exile community in South Florida holds conservative, anti-dialogue, views towards Castro, though García focuses on the growing schism within the exile community, between the hardliners and the dialogueros.
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Masud-Piloto, Felix Roberto. From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants: Cuban Migration to the U.S., 1959–1995. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996.
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This book provides a synthetic history of Cuban migration to the United States, starting with the waves of those fleeing the Cuban Revolution who, through their successful integration in the latter country, shaped the image and impact of the Cuban American community for years to come. The work also provides some succinct comparison with the Haitian and Central American refugee crises.
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Pedraza, Silvia. Political Disaffection in Cuba’s Revolution and Exodus. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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This book analyzes four waves of Cuban exile: the elite, the petite bourgeoisie, the Marielitos, and the Balseros, describing their singularities and commonalities. It also discusses the various exile organizations formed, including the Cuban-American National Foundation and the Cuban-American Alliance Educational Foundation. The author considers the varying levels of political mobilization among the four waves of exiles, attributing these to the exiles’ economic, political, and cultural origins.
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Torres, María de los Ángeles. In the Land of Mirrors: Cuban Exile Politics in the United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
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This study traces the politics of Cuban exiles since the Cuban Revolution, while also examining greater issues of diaspora communities and nationalism. It examines the evolution of the Cuban community in the United States, but particularly in Miami, considering the diversification that took place in the 1970s, the increasing political mobilization of the 1980s, and the Cubans’ impact on Miami itself.
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Tweed, Thomas A. Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shine in Miami. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
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Tweed claims that Cubans in Miami express an attachment to their imagined homeland, what he calls a “diasporic nationalism” in which the bonds to the native place are crucial for their collective identity. Being neither entirely forced nor fully voluntary, their displacement has led to symbolically construct a common past and imagine a common future, while their religious symbols bridge the homeland and the “new land.”
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Vargas Llosa, Álvaro. El exilio indomable: Historia de la disidencia cubana en el destierro. Madrid: España Hoy, 1998.
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Vargas Llosa compiles fascinating personal testimonies by key figures of the Cuban diaspora in the United States. It identifies a paradoxical trend in the Cuban community and particularly among the hardcore dissidents of the Cuban-American National Foundation: while pressuring US institutions, they have managed to project their national pride, their cause, and rhetoric more vehemently in the public sphere of that country.
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The Haitian Diaspora

Loescher 1992 offers a discussion of the Haitian refugees in the context of broader historical-comparative perspectives. Mitchell 1994 analyzes the US policy on a span of over two decades, while Zucker and Fink Zucker 1996 compares US policy toward Haitians with the policies devised toward Cubans.

Loescher, Gil, ed. Refugees and the Asylum Dilemma in the West. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992.
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The essayists examine the historical background of refugee and asylum issues in the West, focusing on Western governments’ responses to refugee movements. Ultimately, the authors argue that policy makers should focus on solving root issues that spur refugee movements. A section of this book discusses the Haitian refugee problem.
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Mitchell, Christopher. “US Policy toward Haitian Boat People, 1972–1993.” Annals of the American Academy of Political Science 534 (1994): 68–80.
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Mitchell examines the policy of “interdicting” Haitian vessels seeking refuge. This policy entailed the Coast Guard escorting the Haitian vessels back to the island. Mitchell argues that this policy of returning refugees, despite their requests for political asylum, may increasingly become the mainstream.
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Zucker, Norman L., and Naomi Fink Zucker. Desperate Crossing: Seeking Refuge in America. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp, 1996.
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The author examines the range of influences that played into the US response to the Cuban and Haitian refugee influxes under Castro and Duvalier. The authors look into the role of the fall of the USSR, public pressure, and financial concerns in determining how the United States approached the Haitian and Cuban refugees.
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The Mexican Diaspora

Dissident Mexicans usually crossed to the United States, either escaping after defeat or carrying plans to reconvene forces and return, as reflected in these studies. Cockcroft 1976 and Lerner Sigal 2000 give accounts of the Magonistas and Madero, and Lerner 2001 provides an account of the Villistas.

Cockcroft, James. Intellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976.
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Originally published in 1968, the book gives an account of the networks of early-20th-century Liberal activists and intellectuals who crossed into Texas and planned to launch a revolution against Porfirio Díaz from the United States. Their vision and tactics influenced Francisco Madero.
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Lerner, Victoria. “Exiliados de La Revolución Mexicana: El caso de los Villistas (1915–1921).” Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos 17.1 (2001): 109–141.
DOI: 10.1525/msem.2001.17.1.109Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This work follows the Villista exiles that fled Mexico for the United States between 1920 and 1940. Lerner examines how they escaped Mexico, how they adapted politically and economically in the United States, and how they acted upon their return to Mexico. Lerner argues that the political activities of the Villista exiles in the United States transformed the political situation in Mexico.
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Lerner Sigal, Victoria. Exilio e historia: Algunas hipótesis generales a partir del caso de los mexicanos exilados por la Revolución Mexicana (1906–1920). Working Paper No. 7. Chicago: University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies, Mexican Studies Program, 2000.
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The author reviews the various waves of Mexican exiles in 1906–1920 that relocated to the United States and often returned, starting with the followers of Francisco Madero and the Magonistas in the years preceding the Revolution. It places these waves in historical perspective, describing their insertion in the country of destination, the role of exile journalism, and the political organizations of exiles.
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The Paraguayan Diaspora

In spite of its comparatively large size, this diaspora—with a concentration in the neighboring countries—has been one of the least researched in the region, probably due to the long-term policies of infiltration, spying, and repression carried out for decades by the regime of Stroessner. Lewis 1968 is a political analysis of the shifting strategies of the Febrerista party, whose leadership was barren from providing any material rewards to its activists and followers and whose chances of returning to power vanished after the armed rebellion of 1947. Moreno 1992 and Sánchez 2011 pay particular attention to the Paraguayan exiles in Argentina, a primary site of their diaspora. Moyas Cobos 1989 brings information on exiled political associations of Paraguayans in Argentina in the 1980s.

Lewis, Paul H. The Politics of Exile: Paraguay’s Febrerista Party. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
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Lewis studies the Paraguayan Febrerista party, which reached power in 1936, only to find itself in exile three years later. After General Stroessner issued a political amnesty, some leaders and activists returned but were barred from participating fully in politics and remained at the whims of the dictator. Lewis follows the dwindling of commitment among exiles and the parallel rise of factionalism and ideological cleavages.
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Moreno, Alicia Sonia. “Reflexiones acerca del éxodo paraguayo.” In Aproximaciones a un mismo tema en Paraguay: Migración, exilio y retorno. By Comité de Iglesias para Ayudas de Emergencia (CIPAE), 5–35. Asunción, Paraguay: CIPAE, 1992.
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This is an analysis of the expectations and results of massive Paraguayan migration to Argentina that kept flowing in the 1980s. Based on a survey of Paraguayan residents, the study offers an approximation to the juridical situation, housing conditions, occupational insertion, and social participation of the Paraguayans in the neighboring country.
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Moyas Cobos, Epifanio A., ed. Exilio y resistencia: Los movimientos políticos de exiliados paraguayos en Argentina: Declaraciones y crónicas desde 1983 hasta la caída de Stroessner. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Alberto Kleiner, 1989.
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This is a collection of declarations and documents published by the political associations of Paraguayans in Argentina following the decision by Stroessner in December 1983 to allow the return of exiles to Paraguay. Among them are documents published by the Asociación Nacional Republicana, the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, the MOPOCO, the Movimiento Paraguayo de Liberación “José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia,” and a chronicle on the return of exiles.
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Sánchez, María Antonia. “Exilados paraguaios na Argentina: 1976, antes e depois.” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 141–168. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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The longevity of the Stroessner dictatorship along with the series of political changes in Argentina—including several democratic openings—explains why the neighboring country became an appealing destination for Paraguayans fleeing the home country due to political repression and economic hardship. The study also has quantitative data on the number of Paraguayans relocated in Argentina from 1869 to 2001 and their political organizations.
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The Peruvian Diaspora

The territorial contiguity and conflicts in the Andean area shaped an early and persistent presence of exile and expatriation from Peru. Melgar Bao 2012 provides a panoramic picture of Peruvian exile from Republican times, the Chilean occupation, and the times of Nicolás de Piérola and Leguía. Martín 1972 follows the Peruvians deported in the early 1880s to Chile as a result of Peru’s defeat in the War of the Pacific. Bergel 2009 and Cosío del Pomar 1939 analyze the case of Haya de la Torre and the APRA. Melgar Bao 2003 traces the networks of populist exiles from Peru in the 1930s and 1940s. Luque Brazán 2009 studies the exile networks of Peruvians in Chile in the 1990s and 2000s.

Bergel, Martín. “Nomadismo proselitista y revolución: Notas para una caracterización del primer exilio aprista (1923–1931).” Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe 20.1 (2009): 41–66.
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This article claims that the first exile of Raúl Haya de la Torre and his close activists had a formative role in making APRA a leading movement in Peru and abroad. Bergel attributes it to the nomadic experiences of the exiles and their emphasis on praxis as the core of the intellectuals at the vanguard of the struggle for Latin American liberation.
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Cosío del Pomar, F. Haya de la Torre: El indoamericano. Mexico City: Editorial América, 1939.
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This is a detailed study of the whereabouts of Haya de la Torre, published close to his return to Peru in the 1930s. The book follows his banishment to Panama in 1919 and reviews his periods of exile and travel in the Americas and Europe, his revolutionary activism, and the development of his vision for the Americas.
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Luque Brazán, José Carlos. “Los refugiados peruanos y sus asociaciones políticas en Santiago de Chile (1990–2006).” Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe 20.1 (2009): 93–116.
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In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Peruvians constituted a majority of those seeking asylum in Chile. The article follows their associational and political organization and particularly their growing impact as Peru granted in 2001 the right of vote to nationals residing abroad.
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Martín, José Carlos. Peruanos deportados por Chile en la Guerra del Pacífico. Lima, Peru: Editorial Universitaria, 1972.
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This is a short historical account of the Peruvians deported by Chile in the early 1880s, in the framework of the War of the Pacific.
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Melgar Bao, Ricardo. Redes e imaginarios del exilio en México y América Latina: 1934–1940. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libros en Red, Colección Insumisos Latinoamericanos, 2003.
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This book traces the reconstruction of intellectual and political networks of populist exiles from Peru and Caribbean countries in Lima and Trujillo, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires, La Paz and Mexico in 1934–1940. It also analyzes the tense relations and connections between these exiles and the Left allied to the Comintern, forged within the framework of the anti-fascist popular front.
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Melgar Bao, Ricardo. “Exile in the Andean Countries.” In Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Edited by Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, 100–118. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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This is an initial attempt to draw a long-term analysis of exile from Peru and to a lesser extent, Bolivia and Ecuador. The work reviews key moments in Peruvian history and their correlate forms of exile: the origins of the Republic, the Chilean occupation, and the times of Nicolás de Piérola and Leguía. Some sections are devoted to indigenous and female exiles.
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The Uruguayan Diaspora

Put together by a Uruguayan historian who moved to Mexico and became part of the Mexican academia, Dutrénit Bielous 2006 is the most comprehensive collection of studies on this diaspora. Coraza de los Santos 2007 relates to the construction of collective narratives on the Uruguayan exile. Markarian 2005 traces the transformation of Leftist activists in exile. Trigo 2003 follows Uruguayan migrants and exiles that relocated to the United States.

Coraza de los Santos, Enrique. “Quién hablará de nosotros cuando ya no estemos? Historia y memoria del Uruguay del exilio a partir de un análisis bibliográfico.” Studia Historica. Revista de Historia Contemporánea (Salamanca) 25 (2007): 191–222.
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This article indicates that Uruguay constructed its identity as a country of immigrants, but from the second half of the past century a strong process of emigration has occurred, reinforced by the forced relocation of those persecuted by the military dictatorship. The author claims that exile has received less attention. Thus, at least in the Uruguayan case, exile has been relatively absent from social and historical memory.
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Dutrénit Bielous, Silvia, ed. El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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This collection approaches Uruguayan exile from a wide range of analytical and empirical angles. The first part traces the experiences of Uruguayans in multiple sites of exile, while the second covers experiences in Venezuela and Sweden, and the third part compiles essays on human rights activism, culture, family life and the second generation, and the elaboration of loss and reconstruction of memory (see also Dutrénit Bielous, et al., 2008, cited under Recent Collective Works and Panoramic Studies.)
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Markarian, Vania. Left in Transformation: Uruguayan Exiles and the Latin American Human Rights Networks, 1967–1984. New York and London: Routledge, 2005.
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A nuanced historical analysis of the reorientation of the Uruguayan Leftist exiles, as they interacted with transnational networks and engaged later on in transitional politics toward the return of democracy. The book explains the piecemeal and partial transition from their traditional ideological and heroic visions to human activism through the experience of the exile communities as receivers of international solidarity.
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Trigo, Abril. Memorias migrantes: Testimonios y ensayos sobre la diáspora uruguaya. Rosario y Montevideo, Uruguay: Beatriz Viterbo Editora y Ediciones Trilce, 2003.
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This book is built upon thirty-six interviews of Uruguayans living in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, combined with six essays on different angles of life abroad. More driven by the optic of migration studies in the framework of global disparities in development than of exile, the work provides important testimonies on the collective memory of Uruguayans abroad and the struggles over its construction.
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The Venezuelan Diaspora

Melgar Bao 1997 analyzes the Venezuelan networks of exiles and the solidarity they felt in Mexico, a country they saw also in utopian terms following its social and political revolution. McBeth 2007 details the support the Mexican government provided to those exiles in the 1920s and early 1930s. In-depth studies of the more recent waves of expatriation and exile are sorely needed.

McBeth, Brian S. “Foreign Support for Venezuelan Political Exiles during the Regime of Juan Vicente Gómez: The Case of México, 1923–33.” Historian 69 (2007): 275–304.
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McBeth examines the role of Mexico in intervening against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez in Venezuela during 1923–1933. During this period, the Mexican government provided significant financial and armed support to Venezuelan exiles to overthrow the Gómez dictatorship.
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Melgar Bao, Ricardo. “Utopía y revolución en el exilio venezolano en México.” Paper delivered at the Latin American Studies Association meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, 17–19 April 1997.
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Melgar approaches a major 20th-century exodus of Venezuelans, that of exiles leaving the country during the Juan Vicente Gómez dictatorship (1908–1935), and their relocation to Mexico. It claims that beyond the juridical distinctions currently adopted to distinguish refugees, asylees, desterrados, those without a homeland, and others, all Venezuelans displaced for political reasons by Gómez’s dictatorship shared the same sense of loss and struggle.
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Presidential Exile and Democracy

Two principal and fledgling lines of research have developed in this respect. One is the study of presidential exile, which has recently been expanded from monographs on the exile of specific heads of state (e.g., Marett 1969, Zarco 1973, Iglesias Mata 1995) to a continental analysis involving quantitative and qualitative methodologies, as represented by Sznajder and Roniger 2009. The other, equally incipient and in need of further study, as in Roniger 2010, is the use of exile by democracies and the provision of asylum and refuge by authoritarian regimes.

Iglesias Mata, Dumar. Eloy Alfaro: 100 facetas históricas. Quito, Ecuador: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Núcleo de Manabí, 1995.
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This account of the exile wanderings of the Liberal Ecuadorian political figure who was twice President of Ecuador (1895–1901 and 1906–1911) indicates the transnational solidarity provided by the late 19th century by Liberal and Masonic circles to members escaping from other Latin American countries.
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Marett, Robert. Peru. London: Ernest Benn, 1969.
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This book contains many details on the fate of exile that prominent figures of Peruvian politics and society faced, from José de la Riva Agüero, José de la Mar, Augustín Gamarra, Andrés Santa Cruz, Ignacio Manuel Vivanco, Nicolás Piérola, Francisco García Calderón, José Pardo, Augusto Leguía, Hildebrando Casto Pozo, Andrés Belaúnde, Haya de la Torre, Manuel Prado, and Fernando Belaúnde.
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Roniger, Luis. “Exilio político y democracia.” América Latina Hoy (Salamanca) 55 (2010): 143–172.
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While the literature assumes a correlation between authoritarianism and exile, on the one hand, and democracy and asylum, on the other, this article challenges this view and discusses the more complex interactions between exile and democracy. It shows that democracies have generated exile and that also authoritarian regimes have provided sites of asylum for those fleeing from their own countries.
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Sznajder, Mario, and Luis Roniger. “Presidents in Exile.” In The Politics of Exile in Latin America. By Mario Sznajder and Luis Roniger, 256–285. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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A first quantitative analysis of the exile of incumbent and past presidents of all Latin American countries since independence, covering such topics as the death of exiled heads of state; the variable impact of presidential exile; the timing, duration, and possible effects on political lives; expulsion and reception of displaced presidents; and variations among countries and across centuries.
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Zarco, Isidoro. “El exilio: Ingrato destino de nuestros ex gobernantes.” In El pensamiento vivo de Isidoro Zarco. Edited by César Brañas, 125–129. Guatemala City: Editorial José de Pineda Ibarra, 1973.
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This is a short yet impacting account of the ostracism of many of the former Guatemalan heads of state and a reflection on the constrained options and exile that many of those seen as competitors for power have faced in 20th-century Guatemala.
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The Impact of Exile

A highly significant focus of research, in which disciplinary approaches still dominate partial analysis, is that of the formative role of exile, or to put it otherwise, its impact. Such impact is important within various domains, which are reviewed by subsections below. First, exile shapes the struggle over the redefinition of collective identities, an area which authoritarian visions have been challenged with varied success by exiles (e.g., Rollemberg 2007, cited under Reshaping of Identities). Second, in the domain of new social and cultural ideas and practices, which—adopted by exiles while abroad—may have influenced the home countries following political revamping and the return of some of the exiles (e.g., Roniger 2009, cited under New Social and Cultural Ideas and Practices). Related to the latter, studies also draw attention to the realm of connections with international networks and institutions that may open the home countries to processes of globalization or alternatives to it (e.g., Markarian 2006 and Markarian 2012, cited under New Social and Cultural Ideas and Practices).

Reshaping of Identities

Bolzman 1993 stresses how exile had a transformative impact on the lives of Argentineans who moved to Spain escaping repression. Rollemberg 2007 discusses how being abroad enabled Brazilian exiles to transform themselves. Del Olmo 2002 traces the bifurcated paths of those who moved to exile. Calandra 2005 discusses theoretical and methodological issues related to the trans-generational transmission of post-traumatic experiences. Likewise, Yankelevich 2006 discusses methodological and substantive questions on exile as life-changing experience, derived from his analysis of the Argentine exiles (see also Gender and Exile).

Bolzman, Claudio. “Los exiliados del Cono Sur: Dos décadas más tarde.” Nueva Sociedad 127 (1993): 126–135.
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This article stresses that the migration of Southern Cone citizens, which started as a temporary phenomenon of individuals fleeing their countries’ dictatorships in the 1970s, turned two decades later to a permanent feature in Spain. This transformation has implications for the reshaped identities of the South Americans in Spain and for the relationships between Spain and Latin America.
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Calandra, Benedetta. “Entre el Sena y el Rio de la Plata: Memoria e identidad de los chicos del exilio argentino en Europa (1976–83).” DEP: Deportate, esuli, profughe: Rivista temática di studi sulla memoria femminile (2005): 1–11.
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Focusing on testimonies and life stories of some of the young human rights activists who set up the organization of HIJOS, this article reflects upon theoretical and methodological issues related to the trans-generational transmission of post-traumatic experiences, processes of fracture and reconstruction of personal and collective identities, and the concept of exile as historiographical category.
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Del Olmo, Margarita. La utopía en el exilio. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2002.
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This book is based on the life experiences of eighteen exiles in Spain and Argentina between 1985 and 1989, conducted around questions on the impact of exile on the reconstruction of cultural identity and life perspectives. The last part contains personal accounts of those who returned to Argentina, while the earlier parts focus on those who evolved resulting from their exile in Spain.
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Rollemberg, Denise. “The Brazilian Exile Experience: Remaking Identities.” Latin American Perspectives 34.4 (2007): 81–105.
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X07302948Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Rollemberg presents an account of the Brazilian diaspora through testimonies, looking at how day-to-day life in exile prompted a redefinition of individual and collective identities. Studying the exile condition and its implications—fear, loss of roots and references, distress—the author also illuminates how beyond survival, exile opened new opportunities for reflection, free thought, and change.
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Yankelevich, Pablo. “Exilio y dictadura.” In Argentina, 1976: Estudios en torno al golpe de estado. Edited by Clara E. Lida, Horacio Crespo, and Pablo Yankelevich, 205–231. Mexico City: Colegio de México, 2006.
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This is a synthetic assessment of the extent, forms, and long-term implications of the last wave of exile generated by the 1976–1983 Argentina dictatorship. The chapter raises methodological issues—such as the difficulty of quantifying the number of exiled individuals—and substantive questions, such as exile as a defining experience.
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New Social and Cultural Ideas and Practices

This is one of the most intriguing and less systematized areas of exile research, in need of further efforts. Roniger 2009 suggests, on the basis of historical and recent examples, that the displacement forced a reflective standing that prompted shifts in political commitments and institutional perspectives. Carr 2012 portrays how patriotism and transnationalism became intertwined through the practices and networks of early-20th-century radical activists and insurgent intellectual exiles in the Circum-Caribbean region. Sanhueza 2010 provides a historical case emphasizing individual transformation. Markarian 2006 and Markarian 2012 study the impact of exile on the redefinition of political priorities and representations, along with the limits of such transformation on the home country. Vicuña Mackenna 1936 provides a personal account of such a process by a Chilean 19th-century intellectual and agent of change. Jedlicki 2001 focuses on the construction of memory and its trans-generational transmission among late-20th-century Chilean exiles.

Carr, Barry. “‘Across Seas and Borders’: Charting the Webs of Radical Internationalism in the Circum-Caribbean.” In Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Edited by Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, 217–240. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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Carr’s study emphasizes how transnational networks of radical activists and insurgent intellectual exiles were a significant presence in early 20th century Central America and the wider Circum-Caribbean region. Driven by internationalism, anti-imperialism, and other ideas, they crossed borders and seas to carry out their struggle against the various countries’ dictatorships.
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Jedlicki, Fanny. “Les exilés chiliens et l’affaire Pinochet: Retour et transmission de la mémoire. Cahiers de l’URMIS 7 (2001).
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Jedlicki analyzes how contemporary developments such as the house arrest of Pinochet and his possible extradition to Spain in 1998 recreated among Chilean exiles the process of ongoing confrontation with the legacy of human rights violations and lack of accountability for the deeds of the military government. Interesting sections deal with the structural shaping of memory and issues of trans-generational transmission of memory.
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Markarian, Vania. “From a Revolutionary Logic to Humanitarian Reasons: Uruguayan Leftists in the Exile and Human Rights Transnational Networks.” CLAEH 1 (2006): 85–108.
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Markarian examines the politicization of Uruguayan leftist exiles in the 1970s, highlighting some of the key moments for transnational human rights networks, including the stand of former senator Zelmar Michelini, Amnesty International’s international campaign, and the 1976 hearings on Uruguay before the US Congress. Markarian also analyzes how Uruguayan exiles couched their criticisms of the military regime in human rights rhetoric.
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Markarian, Vania. “Uruguayan Exiles and Human Rights: From Transnational Activism to Transitional Politics, 1981–1984.” In Exile and the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas. Edited by Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich, 264–285. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2012.
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The article analyzes a puzzling development: that, in spite of succeeding in getting international attention in the late 1970s, the Uruguayan exiles’ commitment to human rights activism did not substantially affect politics inside Uruguay in the transitional period of the early 1980s, when traditional politicians took the lead.
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Roniger, Luis. “El exilio y su impacto en la reformulación de perspectivas identitarias, políticas e institucionales.” Revista de Ciencias Sociales (Universidad de Costa Roca) 125.3 (2009): 83–101.
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The article traces how displacement from a home country has invariably led many to engage in a reflective process leading to shifts in political commitments and institutional perspectives. Analysis is based on both historical and recent cases of political exiles, emphasizing the effects of forced relocation on the collective horizon of Latin American societies.
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Sanhueza, Carlos. “Isidoro Errásuriz y el exilio como búsqueda de sí mismo.” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 59–76. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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This work reconstructs the exile of a Liberal intellectual of 19th-century Chile, who went into exile in the United States and Germany and experienced his forced displacement both in terms of pain and of biographical formation, to solidify an ideological position and a way to narrate it publicly.
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Vicuña Mackenna, Benjamín. Páginas de mi diario durante tres años de viaje, 1853, 1854, 1855. Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1936.
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This is an account reflecting on exile experiences by a leading 19th-century Chilean historian and man of action, who wrote books on the exile of the Carrera brothers and the exile of Bernardo O’Higgins. Later on, as major of Santiago in 1872–1875 he played a key role in Chilean modernization alongside the so-called generation of 1842 that had also been exiled.
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Gender and Exile

Various studies indicate that exile has had a significant input on the politics of gender and long-lasting effects on gender and family relations. Neves-Xavier de Brito 1986 addresses the feminist organizations created in exile. Equipo Praxis 1987 is an analysis of the situation of Latin American female exiles in Spain. The cases of Chilean women exiles in the United Kingdom and Canada are approached by Kay 1988 and Shayne 2009, respectively. Rebolledo 2010 focuses on the experiences of Mapuche women in exile. Some studies indicate that upon returning to the home countries, women who experienced shifts in gender roles and expectations have had to face the reinsertion in networks that did not fully condone the changes, thus opening ground for protracted negotiations (e.g., Celedón and Opazo 1987, which studies the situation of female returnees to Chile; see also Returning from Exile or Staying Abroad). Almendros and Jiménez Leal 1984 indicates that gender (specifically the treatment of homosexuals in Cuba) becomes politicized in exile as any other topic sustaining the criticisms of the home country’s regime.

Almendros, Néstor, and Orlando Jiménez Leal, dir. Mauvaise conduite or Improper Conduct. Paris: Antenne-2, 1984.
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This documentary interviews Cuban exiles on the treatment of homosexuals, social and political dissidents, and their placement and treatment in concentration camps in Cuba, established under the policy of Military Units to Aid Protection. In the second part of the film, interviews, particularly those conducted with exiled intellectuals, lead a shift from testimonies of gay oppression to claims of general oppression under Castro. In French and Spanish; 112 min.
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Celedón, María Angélica, and Luz María Opazo. Volver a empezar. Santiago, Chile: Pehuén, 1987.
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Based on interviews conducted in 1985, this book presents the stories of women who returned to Chile, many of them without their husbands. It portrays how upon return, many of these women mobilized to petition the authorities while they were conflicted over whether to promote integration in their children or nurture the “mythical” remembrance of what they left behind.
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Equipo Praxis. “Aproximación a la situación de la mujer inmigrante y exiliada en España.” In Jornadas sobre “emigración, exilio y mujer,” 21–37. Madrid: Editorial IEPALA, 1987.
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This analysis focuses on exiled and migrant women in Spain, tracing aspects like their legal status, employment situation, civil and family status, and associational life and activism. It reveals that until the mid-1980s, most of the 95,000 Latin American women managed to survive without working as maids or prostitutes (more frequent among other immigrants), but still faced legal constraints that hindered employment.
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Kay, Diana. “The Politics of Gender in Exile.” Sociology 22.1 (1988): 1–21.
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Kay examines the experiences of Chilean exiles in Britain after the military coup d’etat in 1973, exploring the differing experiences of female and male exiles. Kay argues that gender would determine their degree of involvement in public and private spheres, finding that exile particularly shaped women’s attitudes toward domesticity and marriage and often gave them a platform to articulate their grievances.
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Neves-Xavier de Brito, Angela. “Brazilian Women in Exile: The Quest for an Identity.” Latin American Perspectives 13.2 (1986): 58–80.
DOI: 10.1177/0094582X8601300204Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Neves-Xavier de Brito explored the quest for identity of Brazilian women in exile, following the hypothesis that exile served as a critical influence on the construction of identity. On the basis of interviews with forty Brazilian women and secondary source documents, the author shows the “social significance” of the feminist organizations crafted in exile.
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Rebolledo, Loreto. “Mujeres y mapuches cruzando fronteras: Identidades y exilio.” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Edited by Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 165–190. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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On the basis of testimonies by women and by Mapuche, the author reconstructs how those forced to leave Chile due to political activism had, once abroad, to define and redefine their gender and ethnic identities due to the challenges exile posed to their daily experiences out of the home country.
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Shayne, Julie D. They Used to Call Us Witches: Chilean Exiles, Culture, and Feminism. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
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Shayne explores the role of Chilean women exiles in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, during the 1973–1990 dictatorship. Relying on interviews, Shayne illuminates their attempts to organize resistance from abroad, and in particular, their reliance on feminism to develop their movement. Shayne relays feminism as a powerful rallying point around which female exiles often organized their causes.
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Literary Analysis and Criticism

Within literary and cultural studies, a major line of analysis has focused on the universal meaning of the experience of exile, both imposed and self-imposed. Yet, within Latin America the phenomenon of works completed by exile writers, poets, and other authors is vast. A very incomplete list of writers, poets, and essayists who suffered exile, intended only to provide a glimpse of this immensely vast phenomenon, could start in the early 19th century with Juana Manuela Gorriti, an early feminist voice in exile, and would include such figures as José Martí and Pablo Neruda; Alejo Carpentier and Miguel Angel Asturias; Jorge Amado and Augusto Roa Bastos; Tununa Mercado and José Donoso; Rómulo Gallegos and Héctor Tizón; Cristina Peri Rossi and Alicia Kozameh; Pedro Shimose and Daisy Zamora, among many others. The literary analysis and criticism on Latin American exile authors is mainly anchored in 20th-century writings reflecting the pronounced impact of the political repression and military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. The subsections start with works of general and theoretical relevance, followed by feminist writings and a series of subsections of works anchored in the exile literatures of various societies of the Americas. This section starts with two analytical subsections on general and theoretical analyses and reflections by exiled authors, followed by subsections on the authors from specific countries in the Americas.

Theoretical Analyses

These works provide in-depth theoretical or analytical hindsight on the existential experience of marginalization and the tensions it creates, especially for writers rooted in the language of communities that were silenced by repression and underwent processes of cultural transformation in which the exiles played only a tangential part while abroad. It has been suggested that exile is a recurring and particularly pervasive motive in Latin American literature and theoretical analyses have been elaborated on that basis. Outstanding contributions such as Da Cunha-Gabbai 1992; Méndez-Faith 1992 (cited under Paraguayan Writers); Lagos-Pope 1998; Goldberg 2002; McClennen 2004 and Bocchino, et al. 2008 explore the connections between the exilic condition and the character of the exiles’ work. For instance, Goldberg 2002 suggests that nostalgia for the homeland, struggles over personal and collective identity, and the paradoxes of the exilic condition have often translated into powerful creative works. Additional works such as Kaminsky 1999; Fernández Bravo, et al. 2003 and McClennen 2004 deepen analysis of specific authors and texts, while also conducting thematic elaborations: Bachmann 2002 provides a thematic analysis of the work of eleven leading female authors in terms of varied approaches leading their exilic creation.

Bachmann, Susanna. Topografias del doble lugar: El exilio literario visto por nueve autoras del Cono Sur. Hispanica Helvetica No. 13. Lausanne, Switzerland, and Zaragoza, Spain: Libros Pórtico, 2002.
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This book analyzes eleven novels by nine female authors, identifying in their work several distinct approaches to exile: as the contrast between concrete geographical spaces; as a repetition of a previous phase; and finally exile as the universal destiny of humankind. The learned introduction is also worth reading for its analytical value.
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Bocchino, Adriana A., Mónica Marinone, Gabriela Tineo, Emiliana Mercère, Sandra Lorenzano, and Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia. Escrituras y exilios en América Latina. Mar del Plata, Argentina: Estanislao Balder, 2008.
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This collective book analyzes various 20th-century writers, like Augusto Roa Bastos, Luisa Valenzuela, Daniel Moyano, and Humberto Costantini, in an attempt to study the complicated relationship between exile and literary texts. Two contributions claim that Caribbean works portraying slaves’ forced relocation from Africa and their escape from oppressive colonial slave-owners should also be interpreted by the optic of exile.
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Da Cunha-Gabbai, Gloria. El exilio: Realidad y ficción. Montevideo, Uruguay: ARCA, 1992.
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This book claims that many of the most important works of literature were created in exile even if the authors’ theme was not always exile itself. The first chapter provides a good discussion of the exilic phenomenon, while the second part discusses works dealing with both life in exile and the end of it.
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Fernández Bravo, Álvaro, Florencia Garramuño, and Saúl Sosnowski, eds. Sujetos en tránsito: (In)migración, exilio y diáspora en la cultura latinoamericana. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Alianza Editorial, 2003.
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An eclectic yet interesting collection of essays on various forms of mobility and relocation, fractured identities, and discontinued personal landscapes. Some of the essays address the writings of exiles and refugees, such as an essay by Laura Isola on Witold Gombrowicz, who arrived in Buenos Aires in 1939 and stayed twenty-three years in Argentina; or another by Beatriz Resende on internal exile in Brazil.
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Goldberg, Florinda F. “Latin American Migrant Writers: Nomadic, Decentered, Contrapuntal.” In Globality and Multiple Modernities: Comparative North American and Latin American Perspectives. Edited by Luis Roniger and Carlos H. Waisman, 285–312. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2002.
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Goldberg asserts that there is a natural convergence between the exilic condition and literary and artistic mediums. In her work, Goldberg highlights the challenges presented by exile writers: questions of geography, audience, and content (should they focus on political topics or simply use writing as a creative outlet, or are the two inextricably linked for the exiles?).
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Kaminsky, Amy K. After Exile: Writing the Latin American Diaspora. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
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This work analyzes the literary creation of exile writers from Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay during the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Examining such writers as Luisa Valenzuela, Cristina Peri Rossi, Mario Benedetti, and José Donoso, Kaminsky demonstrates how exile and its repercussions had a profound impact on these writers, addressing linguistic conflicts, identity crises, and female writing.
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Lagos-Pope, María Inés, ed. Exile in Literature. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1998.
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Lagos-Pope chronologically arranges a collection of essays that consider the role of exile in Western literary works. The essays examine exile from a variety of perspectives, as both a literal and metaphorical condition. What emerges from the work is the centrality of exile as a perennial historical and political condition, dating back to antiquity.
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McClennen, Sophia. The Dialectics of Exile: Nation, Time, Language, and Space in Hispanic Literatures. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2004.
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McClennen proposes that exile literature should be seen as a series of dialectical tensions about national identity and culture. The book engages in a comparative analysis of three writer-exiles: Juan Goytisolo (Spain), Ariel Dorfman (Chile), and Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay). The study highlights critical dilemmas faced by both these exiles and other displaced individuals, assuming their nationality and being transnational as well.
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Reflections by Exiled Authors

These works are a small part of a corpus of exilic reflections by Latin American authors. Mario Benedetti spent years in exile in Buenos Aires, Lima, Havana, and Madrid, and his work Benedetti 1996 is an indictment of the dictatorship and homage to the solidarity of Latin American peoples. Kohut 1983 brings the reflections of Cortázar, Roa Bastos, and Sarduy in Paris. Partnoy 1988 brings a collection of testimonies and works by female authors about their exile and the circumstances that prompted it. Cabrera Infante 1990 is representative of dialogues that novelists, poets, and journalists maintained after choosing expatriation or being forced to live in exile.

Benedetti, Mario. “Los temas del escritor latinoamericano en el exilio.” In Cultura entre dos fuegos. By Mario Benedetti, 7–14. Montevideo, Uruguay: Universidad de la República, 1996.
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In this essay, originally published in 1979, Benedetti suggests that each exile should become a representative of the home popular culture and a bridge between cultures. Benedetti admits that the insecurity of the exilic condition may encourage short notes and poems, but it does not inspire full-fledged novels or path-breaking essays. Benedetti also advises his fellow exiles to remain involved and write to keep ideals high for the new generations.
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Cabrera Infante, Guillermo. “The Invisible Exile.” In Literature in Exile. Edited by John Glad, 34–40. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990.
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Glad’s work builds off a meeting of a group of novelists, poets, and journalists—all exiles—that met in Vienna to participate in the 1987 Wheatland Conference. Among the essays is Cabrera Infante’s, which explores the commonalities of exiled writers across borders. The work tackles the question of what the writers owe their homeland and linguistic barriers.
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Kohut, Karl. Escribir en París. Frankfurt: Verlag Klaus Dieter Venvert, 1983.
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A book of interviews conducted in 1981 with paradigmatic figures of expatriation and exile: Julio Cortázar, Augusto Roa Bastos, and Severo Sarduy. Combines both an understanding of these authors’ perspectives, as well as a nuanced confrontation with what Paris meant symbolically and de facto for these writers and many other Latin American intellectuals.
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Partnoy, Alicia, ed. You Can’t Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile. Pittsburg, PA: Cleis, 1988.
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In this collection, exiled women from eight different Latin American countries contribute written pieces—articles, poetry, fiction, and correspondence—detailing their experiences, both under oppression in their homelands and in exile. The often-traumatic tales provide a first-hand, unadulterated look at both exile and the harrowing experiences that forced these women to flee into exile.
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Argentinian Writers

The works in this and following subsections organized by country are merely a small sample of a larger corpus of works created in exile and literary analyses on exile writers. Included in this subsection are Cox 1997 and Magnarelli 1997, studies on Valenzuela; Kapschutschenko 1988, on Costantini, Giardinelli, and Martini; Bollig 2006, on Perlongher; and Jara 2005–2006, on Tununa Mercado. Of particular interest is a controversy between Julio Cortázar and Liliana Heker, revealing the rifts opened by the dictatorship between exiles and expatriates and those who stayed in the home country during the Dirty War. The controversy can be followed in Cortázar 1984 and Sosnowski 1988.

Bollig, Ben. “Exiles and Nomads: Perlongher in Brazil.” Hispanic Research Journal 7.4 (2006): 337–351.
DOI: 10.1179/174582006X150966Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Bollig focuses his paper on the exiled Argentine poet and anthropologist Néstor Perlongher, who fled to Brazil in the early 1980s after suffering police persecution. Bollig uses Perlongher’s poetry to study the contradictions of the exile condition; for example, Perlongher’s works fluctuate between celebrating the freedom of exile and the repression in the homeland that it represented.
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Cortázar, Julio. “América Latina: Exilio y literatura.” Cuadernos Americanos (Mexico) 257 (1984): 7–14.
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Expatriated in Paris, Cortázar maintained a heated controversy with Heker, a cultural critic and writer who remained in Argentina during the 1976–1983 dictatorship around his claim that silence dominated the intellectual landscape in Argentina and the subtext that staying there implied making compromises, a claim that Heker strongly rejected. See among others Liliana Heker and Julio Cortázar, “Polémica: Exilio y literatura,” Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, 517/519 (1993).
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Cox, Victoria. “Julio Cortázar y Luisa Valenzuela: Reflexiones en torno a la relación entre la escritura y el exilio.” Alba de América (Buenos Aires) 15 (1997): 298–306.
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This article indicates that for Cortázar and Valenzuela, exile implies a dynamic turn that may allow the individual to engage in self-reflexivity without the easy shortcuts of localism and established networks. Whether the outcome is finding his other self or uncertainty, their writings show that exile operates such a change.
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Kapschutschenko, Ludmila. “Experiencia exílica y proceso creativo en la literatura argentina contemporánea.” In La emigración y el exilio en la literatura hispánica del Siglo Veinte. Edited by Myron I. Lichtblau, 101–109. Miami, FL: Ediciones Universales, 1988.
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An analysis of the work of three Argentine exiled writers: Humberto Costantini, Mempo Giardinelli, and Juan Carlos Martini. The work offers an understanding of their common traits and their different reactions to the exilic experience. The author claims that the core issue in exilic writing is how to overcome the sense of isolation and lack of communication with readers.
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Jara, Sandra. “Escribir(se) fuera de los límites (Sobre En estado de memoria de Tununa Mercado).” Cuadernos del CILHA 7–8 (2005–2006): 7–16.
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A balanced analysis of how the autobiographical and fictional are intertwined in Mercado’s book, to the point that there are the decentering and sense of loss of exile that determine the way the various texts come about, as a reflection on more than one individual
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Magnarelli, Sharon. “Images of Exile/ Exile(d) Images: The Cases of Luisa Valenzuela and José Donoso.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 31.1 (1997): 61–75.
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Magnarelli focuses on the theme of exile in the novels El jardín de al lado by Chilean author José Donoso and Novela negra con argentinos by Argentine author Luisa Valenzuela. Both exiles, Donoso and Valenzuela interweave the theme of exile into these works, and Magnarelli aims to show how forced migration shapes the images and meanings of the text.
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Sosnowski, Saúl, ed. Represión y reconstrucción de una cultura: El caso argentino. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1988.
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The contributions in this collective book put together with democratization revealed the tensions and mutual criticisms of the intellectuals who stayed in the country during the military dictatorship and those who fled to exile abroad escaping repression.
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Chilean Writers

Alegría 1982 is an anthology of the work of three generations of writers in exile. López Calvo 2001 discusses how the 1973 and its sequels impacted Chilean literature. Senkman 2005 analyzes the work of an exile and an expatriate to draw hindsight on testimonial literature and the use of memory and representation of history during exile and after the dictatorship.

Alegría, Fernando, ed. Chilean Writers in Exile. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1982.
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This anthology includes eight short stories by three generations of writers; namely, the generation of 1938 represented by Alegría himself; that of 1950s, represented by Poli Délano, Ariel Dorfman, and Claudio Giaconi: and a third generation who matured as writers in exile or even became writers while exiled: Juan Epple, Leandro Urbina, Alfonso González Dagnino, and Aníbal Quijada.
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López Calvo, Ignacio. Written in Exile: Chilean Fiction from 1973-Present. London: Routledge, 2001.
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López Calvo’s work makes the fundamental assertion that the 1973 military coup in Chile had a profound effect on the writers exiled by the subsequent persecution. He claims that exiles used familiar narrative tropes to combat authoritarianism and create models of democratization, thereby using their literary craft as effective means of resistance.
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Senkman, Leonardo. “Literatura de exilio y la indagación sobre la identidad de narradoras judías chilenas: Memoria e historia de Marjorie Agosín.” Judaica latinoamericana 5 (2005): 265–286.
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In spite of its title, the text approaches both the work of Agosín and of Ana Vázquez Bronfman, raising general issues about testimonial literature and the use of memory and representation of history during exile and after the dictatorship. Bringing together the case of an exile (Ana Vázquez) to that of an expatriate (Marjorie Agosín), raises awareness to a genre that has been little studied.
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Cuban Writers

Álvarez-Borland 1998 and Zidovec 1997 contribute insightful analyses of the process of creation and the forms of representation and expression of Cuban writers, among them Carpentier, Cabrera Infante, and Cristina García.

Álvarez-Borland, Isabel. Cuban-American Literature of Exile: From Person to Persona. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998.
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This book analyzes various narratives about exile in the post-revolutionary period, ranging from a legend by Guillermo Cabrera Infante to works by Cristina García. Through her analysis of a wide range of literary works, Alvarez-Borland reveals the complicated nature of exile and its accompanying emotions of loss and displacement.
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Zidovec, Mirta. “Exilio y choque cultural: La comida como elemento de reacción en la narrativa de Alejo Carpentier.” Alba de América (Buenos Aires) 15 (1997): 289–297.
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The author claims that the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier translated his experiences in exile into narrative fiction in which exile becomes an opportunity of spiritual growth and at the same time, a path of reconnection with their original telluric identity. In this context food becomes a metonym of recuperation of an American identity in the midst of cultural shock in Europe.
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Paraguayan Writers

Méndez-Faith 1992 is a panoramic study of key Paraguayan writers in exile, which has wider theoretical relevance.

Méndez-Faith, Teresa. Paraguay, novela y exilio. Sommerville, NJ: SLUSA, 1992.
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While focusing on the analysis of five novels written by Augusto Roa Bastos and Gabriel Casaccia, the most renowned Paraguayan authors of exile (and mentioning others such as Rubén Bareiro Saguier, Herib Campos Cervera, and Lincoln Silva), the book has theoretical hindsight on the process on nostalgia and critical awareness of writers in exile.
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Peruvian Writers

Valcárcel 1956 is a book of poems by an Aprista in exile and Schmidt 1997 is an analytical study of the exile work of Manuel Scorza.

Schmidt, Friedhelm. “Nada logramos! ¡Lo atestiguamos! ¡Así vivimos!” El exilio de Manuel Scorza en Mexico y en Francia.” Alba de América (Buenos Aires) 15 (1997): 273–279.
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The article analyzes the two “exiles” of Manuel Scorza, the Peruvian writer, the first in Mexico, the second in France. The article ponders on whether the different circumstances made a difference in the views and work of the writer, stressing how important the exilic writers have been on the discourses of history and national culture of all Latin American countries.
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Valcárcel, Gustavo. Poemas del destierro. Mexico City: Ediciones América Nueva, 1956.
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A book of poems written in exile by a companion of José Carlos Mariátegui, Peru’s leading Marxist theoretician of the 1920s, and a lifelong Aprista who predicated education as a way of uplifting the backward indigenous populations of Peru.
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Uruguayan Writers

Dejbord 1998 and Schmidt-Cruz 1998 focus on the work of Cristina Peri Rossi, while Achúgar 1983 is a meta-analysis of the production of literary critique in exile, which challenges truisms about the universal impact of exile on critical analysis.

Achúgar, Hugo. “El exilio uruguayo y la producción de conocimientos sobre el fenómeno literario.” Ideologies and Literature 4.16 (1983): 224–241.
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Achúgar challenges the idea that there has been a Uruguayan literary critique in exile after 1973. The optic is one that compares the intellectual climate in Uruguay before the dictatorship, which was one encouraging literary discussion and critique, to that of post-1973, when politics naturally took over the horizons of exiles and literary critique vanished.
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Dejbord, Parizad Tamara. Cristina Peri Rossi: Escritora del exilio. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Galerna, 1998.
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This analysis of Cristina Peri Rossi claims that writing in exile transforms that condition from one of forced estrangement into a willful strategy challenging the monolithic project of identity of the repressive regimes. Themes such as oppositional spaces, monologues and self-conscience, ambiguity and agency, repression and expression, are some of the tropes that the author elaborates as she analyzes the works of Peri Rossi.
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Schmidt-Cruz, Cynthia. “The Children’s Revolt against Structures of Repression in Cristina Peri Rossi’s “La rebelión de los niños.” College Literature 25.3 (1998): 145–162.
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Schmidt-Cruz analyzes the work of Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi, focusing on both her work while in Uruguay and after her exile in 1972. It argues that in exile, freed from censorship, Peri Rossi’s work assumes a broader thematic range and explores issues of greater political controversy, while using metaphors as means of emphasizing the tyranny of the dictatorship.
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Music, Films, and Fine Arts

These fields comprise a key arena in the struggle for hegemony fought between exiles and those in power who persecuted them and forced their displacement from the home country. Likewise, these media are key building blocks in the process of representation and reconstruction of memory that commences almost immediately after leaving the country, but gains in stature with time. Here below are only some of the many analyses and expressions of these media, most of them related to the last wave of authoritarianism in Latin America and its correlate massive exile, and to the work of Cuban exiles leaving the island. The films selected are not all the works completed by exile film directors, but just those among them that allude in either narrative or subtle form to the phenomenon of exile, its background, and consequences.

Music

Cobos and Sater 1986, Morris 1986, and Neustadt 2004 stress the key role played by music in keeping spirits high among exiles and buttressing the will of those abroad in contesting the home dictators’ narratives, as clearly shown in the analyses of the New Song Movement of Chileans.

Cobos, Ana María, and Ana Lya Sater. “Chilean Folk Music in Exile.” In Intellectual Migration: Transcultural Contributions of European and Latin American Émigrés. Edited by Liliana Sontag, 295–339. Papers of the 31st annual meeting of SALALM. Madison, WI: SALALM Secretariat, 1986.
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Like others who have studied the Nueva Canción movement, Cobos and Sater argue that those who continued to play the Chilean folk music in exile employed the style as a direct means of combating repression under the Pinochet regime. The music, which came to represent freedom and liberty, was a call to rally and fight the dictatorship in exile.
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Morris, Nancy. “Canto porque es necesario cantar: The New Song Movement in Chile, 1973–1983.” Latin American Research Review 21 (1986): 117–136.
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Morris analyzes the political relevance of the New Song Movement, outlawed after the Chilean military coup d’état in 1973. The movement, which developed during Allende’s presidency, came to flourish in exile as a potent symbol of resistance. Recalling both the days of Allende and directly challenging the dictatorship, the New Song Movement allowed musicians to translate metaphorically what they could not directly say.
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Neustadt, Robert. “Music as Memory and Torture: Sounds of Repression and Protest in Chile and Argentina.” Chasqui 33.1 (2004): 128–137.
DOI: 10.2307/29741848Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Neustadt examines the role of the Chilean New Song Movement as a powerful means of resistance. Though the bulk of the article focuses on the domestic progression of the movement, Neustadt also highlights the exiles’ role in keeping the musical style alive while outside the country. However, Neustadt also highlights the tensions between those who stayed and those who left.
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Films and Film Studies

Another key domain of creation in exile was that of films that reflected, many of them in “real time,” the internal dynamics of communities of exiles and the tension many exiles faced between remaining politically involved in the plight for defeating home dictatorships in the hope of returning, and the pull of local challenges and opportunities to part ranks with fellow co-nationals and integrate into the host society. Included below are mainly films but also some of the studies analyzing the films’ production.

Argentine Exile

Films on Argentine exile portray—as in Solanas 2006—the challenges of being forced to live far from the home country and the hurdles those separated by the experience of dictatorship and exile faced upon the restoration of democracy, as represented by Jusid 2005 and Meerapfel 2008. Mira Delli-Zotti and Esteban 2008 is an analysis of Argentine exile through the perspective of the filmography produced on exiles.

Jusid, Juan José, dir. Made in Argentina, 1987. DVD. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Industria Argentina, 2005.
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Made in Argentina presents the story of a family divided by the consequences of the 1976 military dictatorship. One couple that fled to the United States makes a first visit to Argentina after many years abroad. The happiness of re-encounter with the homeland is coupled with harsh memories of the estrangement during military rule and its contemporary sequels of distrust. In Spanish and English with English subtitles; 112 min.
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Meerapfel, Jeanine, dir. La amiga, 1988. DVD. Berlin: Neue Visionen Medien, 2008.
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A story of two best female friends separated during the dictatorship meet again in the first years of restoration of democracy and struggle together for truth and accountability. 108 min.
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Mira Delli-Zotti, Guillermo, and Fernando O. Esteban. “Migraciones y exilios: Memorias de la historia argentina reciente a través del cine.” Revista de Pensamiento e Investigación Social 14 (2008): 83–104.
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Delli-Zotti and Esteban utilize a frequently overlooked medium, films, to analyze Argentine exile. Using a selection of films that focus on exiles, the authors study the relationship of Argentineans with their homeland, their adopted country, and the intricacies of the exilic condition.
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Solanas, Fernando E., dir. Tangos, el exilio de Gardel, 1985. DVD. Ennetbaden, Switzerland: Trigon-Film, 2006.
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A complex film on Argentine exiles’ difficulties as they arrive in France and try to recreate their lives in Paris, while attempting to maintain the connection to their home culture and represent it to others. The film traces the daily practices of the exiles as well as their nostalgia, inability to make themselves understood, and their psychological and social problems. In Spanish and French, with subtitles in various languages; 119 min.
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Chilean Exile

Ruiz 2010 and Matas 2009a are experimental films that critically examine the Chileans in Paris and their daily difficulties and projects (Matas 2009b is a dialogue with Ruiz on how Ruiz 2010 was produced). Larraín 2005, released after democratization, is a dramatic film on internal exile. Rix 1999 analyzes Ardiente paciencia, the first production based on Skármeta’s novel. Pick 1987 and Skármeta 1997 are analyses of how Chilean cinema evolved during the dictatorship. Oliver 2005 suggests that films by exiles played an important role, along with exiles’ literary creation, in the comparatively greater awareness of the outside world about the repressive character of the Chilean government under Pinochet’s rule.

Larraín, Ricardo, dir. La frontera, 1991. DVD. Santiago, Chile: CINE XXI, 2005.
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This is a film about internal exile—relegación—under Pinochet’s rule in Chile. Both realistic and allegorical, the film shows the difficulties of the internal exile, the projection of authoritarian controls, and even the presence of Spanish exiles who had found a site of asylum in Chile after the Republican defeat and suffered for decades the painful memory of what was lost. In Spanish with English subtitles, 120 min.
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Matas, Percy, dir. Les transplantés/Los transplantados, 1975. DVD. Santiago, Chile: Videostar, 2009a.
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An upper-class family of Chilean expatriates moved to Paris to avoid Allende’s rule and once there faces a process of loss of status. As the father hardly makes a living and the mother retreats to memories and the grown-up children adjust to living in Paris, the parents recognize the failed project of relocation and hope to return to Pinochet’s Chile with their children. In Spanish and French, with Spanish and English subtitles; 70 min.
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Matas, Percy, dir. Dialogue about Exile. Santiago: Videostar, Chile, 2009b.
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Percy Matas interviews Raúl Ruiz: a conversation between two Chilean film-makers who were exiled in France during Pinochet’s rule. Ruiz, a prolific film director, tells the story of the making of Diálogos de exilados, a 16mm film shunned by many exiles, resistant to Ruiz’s humorous portrayal of the inner dynamics and moral flaws of some in the Chilean exile community. In Spanish with English subtitles; 21 min.
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Oliver, Amy A. “Exporting Chile. Film and Literature after 1973.” In Democracy in Chile: The Legacy of September 11, 1973. Edited by Silvia Nagy-Zekmi and Fernando Leiva, 178–184. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic, 2005.
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This short chapter raises an important question: why did the Chilean story of repression reach international attention more than other, not dissimilar, cases of dictatorship and human rights violations? The author emphasizes, among other things, the impact of Chilean film and literature, much of it carried out by the exiles.
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Pick, Zuzana M. “Chilean Cinema: Ten Years of Exile.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 32 (April 1987): 66–70.
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In the wake of the Chilean military coup d’état in September 1973, domestic film production was dismantled. However, Chilean cinema was recrafted in exile, as filmmakers, technicians, actors, and critics left the country and made movies from abroad. These films, Pick argues, helped to create solidarity among the exiles and mobilized activist groups worldwide.
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Rix, Rob. “De la fama y el exilio: El cartero de Neruda.” Imaginário (Sao Paulo) 5 (1999): 27–36.
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This is an analysis of the first cinematographic version of Antonio Skármeta’s novel, later redone under the name of Il postino, which gained international acclaim. The article analyzes the history of reception of the first version, Ardiente paciencia (Burning Patience) of 1983.
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Ruiz, Raúl, dir. Diálogos de exiliados, 1975. DVD. Paris: Cinemateca, 2010.
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A playful and reflexive portrayal of the Chilean exiles in Paris—mostly filmed with rank-and-file exiles—this film provides critical perspectives on the connections with local advocacy networks, the double-talk, the group pressures and use of others, class and status differences, the problems of leadership, the deceit and abuse of public funds, etc. In Spanish and French, with Spanish and English subtitles; 104 min.
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Skármeta, Antonio. “Europe: An Indispensable Link in the Production and Circulation of Latin American Cinema.” In New Latin American Cinema. Vol. 1, Theory, Practices and Transcontinental Articulations. Edited by Michael T. Martin, 263–269. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.
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This is an analysis of how Chilean cinema evolved during the dictatorship. Exiled directors could produce films financed by foreign institutions such as the Film Board of Canada and British TV Channel Four without any aid from Chilean capital. By 1988 (when this article was written), the Chilean government was more tolerant of culture, but did not promote its distribution.
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Cuban Exile

Gutiérrez Alea 2005 is a classic of Cuban cinematography, portraying among other aspects of the island’s transformation and the early waves of Cubans departing for exile. Ichaso and Jiménez-Leal 1998 portrays the challenges of integration of Cubans in New York. Jiménez Leal 1998 and Ulloa and Almendros 2006 tell the story of the Revolution and its practices as seen by the exiled dissidents. Villaverde 1984 is a portrayal of the Marielitos; Domènech and Bosch 2005 and Mulloy 2013 tell the story of the balseros. López 1993 analyzes Cuban cinema production in the United States.

Domènech, Josep Maria, and Carles Bosch, dir. Balseros, 2002. DVD. New York: Docurama, 2005.
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This is a documentary account of seven Cubans who risked their lives to cross the Caribbean Sea in homemade rafts, part of the 50,000 rafters who in 1994 decided to navigate the shark-infested waters as President Clinton and Fidel Castro argued over the closing of Cuba’s coast to those willing to escape into the United States. In Spanish with English subtitles; 120 min.
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Gutiérrez Alea, Tomás, dir. Memorias del subdesarrollo, 1968. DVD. Mexico City: Zafra Video, 2005.
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Although the film is a critical reflection on the Cubans remaining in the island, the specter of those leaving is explicitly embedded in its script. Placed in 1961 and ending with the missile crisis of October 1962, the film uses the ideological ambiguity of the key character to lead a questioning of some of the contradictions of Cuba and confusion of Cubans. In Spanish; 110 min.
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Ichaso, León, and Orlando Jiménez-Leal. El súper, 1978. DVD. New York: New Yorker Video, 1998.
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This film focuses on the problems of adaptation of common people in the Cuban diaspora to the daily challenges of living in New York. The film allows glimpses into the ironic situations that the directors present without overdoing any political or ideological message. The film also highlights generational conflicts between the Cuban-born parents and their teenage children raised in the United States. In Spanish and English, with English subtitles; 90 min.
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Jiménez Leal, Orlando, dir. La otra Cuba, 1983. VHS. Los Angeles: Connoisseur Meridian Films, 1998.
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Adopting a narrative style, the film denounces the Cuban Revolution and its treason, as told from the point of view of Cuban exiles. The director’s strong anti-Castro stance reflected the positions of the growing community of Cuban political exiles in the United States in the 1980s, building a historical argument about how the ideals leading to the Revolution were misled by those in power in the island. 110 min.
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López, Ana M. “Cuban cinema in exile: The ‘other’ island.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 38 (1993): 51–59.
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This is an essay on three generations of Cuban filmmakers living in the United States, beginning with the first generation of politically motivated exiles. The article analyzes the work of directors, script-writers, and other members of the film industry, as influenced by their life trajectory, and reflects on the various films’ subtexts and their reception by Cuban Americans and others.
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Mulloy, Lucy, dir. Una noche, 2012. DVD. Ennetbaden, Switzerland: Trigon-Film, 2013.
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The film focuses on three disillusioned teenagers who choose to flee Cuba and cross the Caribbean Sea to Miami with nothing more than a sack of stolen food. The film reveals many daily aspects of life and its challenges in Cuba, the discontent of Cubans and their struggle to survive, and the story of the balseros who dreamt of relocating to the continental United States. 89 min.
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Ulloa, Jorge, and Néstor Almendros, dir. Nadie escuchaba (Nobody Listened), 1988. DVD. Santa Monica, CA: Direct Cinema, 2004.
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Interviewing exiles in Madrid, New York, Miami, London, and Paris, some of them renowned figures who suffered decades-long terms in prison after criticizing Castro—such as the former revolutionary Huber Matos and Armando Valladares, a prisoner of conscience who spent twenty years in a Cuban prison—the film portrays the brutality of Castro’s regime. In Spanish with English subtitles; 118 min.
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Villaverde, Miñuca. Tent City (Ciudad de las carpas). 1984.
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The film documents the experiences of Mariel boatlift exiles that, upon arrival to Miami massively, were placed in army tents for several months. Documenting their mixed experience of sense of relief and marginality, the documentary reveals them as the lower class of Cuban society—ex-convicts, homosexuals, outcasts—whose arrival and transition through the tent city of downtown Miami the camera captured without embellishing. In English; 30 min.
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Spanish Republican Exile in Mexico

Dealing with the lifelong effects of Spanish Republican exiles relocated to Mexico, García Ascot 1961 had a profound effect on Mexican cinema. According to reviewer Joaquín Martínez, scriptwriter María Luisa Elío and director García Ascot, both playing in the film, are “two seductive characters, whom Gabriel Garcia Marquez dedicated his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Together with Emilio García Riera o José de la Colina, Tomás Segovia and other Mexican intellectuals such as José María Ponce o Alvaro Mutis, they founded a magazine, New Cinema, which revolutionized the Mexican film scene.

García Ascot, Jomí. En el balcón vacío. Havana, Cuba, and Mexico City: Ascot, Torre, 1961.
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This independent film is a pioneering achievement in two ways: it addresses the autobiographical narrative of exile both from child and adult perspectives, and had a vanguard’s aesthetics proposal connecting past remembrance and present experience through the story of a child that was part of the wave of Spanish Republicans arriving to Mexico in the late 1930s. In Spanish, 70 min. Also available online.
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Fine Arts

Some works focus on the performing arts in exile: Cardozo and Costa 2006 analyzes the role and impact of exiled artists in the struggle against the Uruguayan dictatorship. Dubatti 2001 analyzes the case of El Galpón, a theater institution that was banned by the civilian-military government of Uruguay and resumed its performances during exile, which became emblematic of the movement of resistance. Nochlin 1996 follows the case of European artists that moved to Mexico escaping persecution or misery.

Cardozo, Marina, and Ana Costa. “Como el clavel del aire”: Cultura y compromiso.” In El Uruguay del exilio: Gente, circunstancias, escenarios. Edited by Silvia Dutrénit Bielous, 437–470. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce, 2006.
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This work stresses that a major manner of “doing politics” in exile was through the performing arts, primarily music and theater. It focuses attention on the connection between the assemblies called by Uruguayan exiles and the initiatives of the artists committed to the struggle against the dictatorship back home. The study reviews activities in diverse locations, including Cuba, Mexico, Italy, Panama, and Angola.
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Dubatti, Jorge. La historia de El Galpón. Montevideo, Uruguay: Teatro del Pueblo, 2001.
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This work gives an account of an important artistic institution of Uruguay. Following the 1973 coup, El Galpón began to operate under threats, acts of aggression, and detentions. In May 1976 the government declared it illegal, confiscated its resources, and prohibited its activities. Forced to move to exile, the group resumed its work in exile and became a beacon of resistance.
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Nochlin, Linda. “Art and the Conditions of Exile: Men/Women, Emigration/Expatriation.” Poetics Today 17.3 (1996): 317–337.
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Nochlin’s work looks at the ties between artistic exploration and exile, demonstrating how exodus and displacement can often foster creativity and inspiration. Nochlin examines a number of exiled artists, among them British Leonora Carrington and Spanish Remedios Varo, who relocated to Mexico in the late 1930s-early 1940s.
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Returning From Exile or Staying Abroad

Hopes of returning to the home country are embedded in the experience and vision of exiles from their very moment of leaving. For many, pining for home turns into a nostalgic dream of reencounter with the loss of life projects and social networks, of habitats and familiar landscapes. The question on whether such impaired will to return can materialize upon a change of political conditions lies at the center of research in this domain. These works share a general understanding that return to the home country after years of absence implies as many challenges as the exiles faced as they moved into exile before. Some studies analyze the dilemma of return, while Thurau 1987 and Arowolo 2000 inquire into the many problems return is beleaguered with, which may make it to be experienced as a new exile rather than a dis-exile, as expressed in Benedetti 1985. Díaz 1979 brings attention to the fact that return can also be politically affected and open to inducements and manipulation.

Arowolo, Oladele O. “Return Migration and the Problem of Reintegration.” International Migration 38.5 (2000): 59–82.
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2435.00128Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Arowolo focuses on the struggles faced by former exiles upon returning to their home countries. In order to facilitate repatriation, Arowolo clearly outlines a programmatic approach for reintegration, asserting that governments should create institutions and agencies that ease the exiles’ return. He also proposes a list of major elements that must be in place alongside institutional backing.
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Benedetti, Mario. El desexilio y otras conjeturas. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Nueva imagen, 1985.
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This book presents essays on exile and return, claiming that the re-encounter of exiles and those remaining in the homeland during the dictatorship unavoidably involves tensions. Both sectors were separated—the one from exercising freedoms; the other from the context of the country. The Uruguayan writer suggests that while nostalgia tends to characterize exile, counter-nostalgia may become the sign of return or “dis-exile.”
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Díaz, Jesús. De la patria y el exilio. Havana, Cuba: Unión de escritores y artistas de Cuba, 1979.
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Díaz portrays the “return” of fifty-five Cuban exiles to the Caribbean country in 1977, following a decision by the Carter administration to allow such visits, and the meeting with Fidel Castro. According to the book, Castro encouraged these Cubans, members of the so called Antonio Maceo brigade, to opt to remain in the United States and work there to improve the image of Revolutionary Cuba.
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Thurau, Doris. Aporte de las mujeres desexiliadas al cambio social: El caso uruguayo. Montevideo, Uruguay: Grecmu, 1987.
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This is a programmatic essay, not fully supported by actual data, but presenting worthwhile lines of analysis. Returning women and the rest of society differ in their lifestyle, outfits, ways of speaking, acquired eating habits, forms of entertainment, and musical choices. In addition to cultural adjustment, those among them who gained professional experience during exile cannot find jobs matching their expectations due to the 1980s unemployment crisis.
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Argentinian Exiles

Gómez 1999 and Jensen 2011 place returnees within the wider universe of those who went into exile and for various reasons did not return. Bidegain 1987 and Mármora and Gurrieri 1988 follow state policies of reinsertion. Pessar 1991 is a study of the profile of those returning to Argentina and the challenges they faced. Lastra Viaña 2010 takes the perspective of narrative analysis to reflect on the transitions that exiles and returnees go through.

Bidegain, G. “Democracia, migración y retorno: Los argentinos, chilenos y uruguayos en Venezuela.” International Migration 25 (1987): 299–323.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.1987.tb00591.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Bidegain analyzes the case of returnees in the Southern Cone countries from Venezuela in the years 1983–1986, with the support of the IMC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Repatriation was found to be highly selective, with 73 percent of those active being professionals or technicians. Another notable finding is the high figure of women, many of them professionals, returning with their children.
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Gómez, Albino. Exilios (Por qué volvieron). Rosario y Buenos Aires, Argentina: Homo Sapiens y Editorial Tea, 1999.
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A book of thirty-two interviews with leading Argentine exiles who returned to the homeland. The testimonies are presented in the first person, without Gómez’s questions, which provide a reflective and intimate sense to the texts. In the prologue, the author recalls some of those exiles who did not return as they died abroad or thus found yet another personal transition they could not accomplish.
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Jensen, Silvina. “Reflexões acerca do retorno dos exilados: Um olhar a partir do caso dos argentinos radicados em Catalnha (Espanha).” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 249–271. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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Jensen approaches the expected impossibility of completely undoing exile by returning to the point of departure in Argentina, as well as the post-exilic situation of those who did not return and most likely will never leave Cataluña. She also reviews the policies of the first post-1983 administration and of the human rights NGOs to promote and/or facilitate the return of the exiles dispersed worldwide.
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Lastra Viaña, María Soledad. Del exilio al no retorno: Experiencia narrativa y temporal de los argentinos en México. Mexico City: FLACSO, Maestría en Ciencias Sociales, 2010.
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This thesis brings the narrative account of those Argentine exiles who decided to remain in Mexico after the end of the dictatorship in their home country. The study follows a cultural sociological approach, identifying several shifting and breaking points in the life narratives of the individuals and stressing the loss of a heroic project and a sympathetic audience as they relate the present.
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Mármora, Lelio, and Jorge Gurrieri. Return to Rio de la Plata: Response to the Return of Exiles to Argentina and Uruguay. Washington, DC: Georgetown University, Center for Immigration Policy and Refugee Assistance, 1988.
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Upon the transition to democracy in Argentina and Uruguay in the 1980s, mechanisms were set in place to facilitate the repatriation of emigrants. Mármora and Gurrieri analyze the differences between the Argentinean and Uruguayan response to the return of the emigrants and the efficiency of the institutional structures implemented to support the returnees. In Spanish in Estudios migratorios latinoamericanos, 310 (1988), 467–496.
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Pessar, Patricia R., ed. Exclusión y reencuentro: Aspectos psicosociales del retorno de los exiliados a la Argentina. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Planeta, 1991.
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This work features a collection of well-documented essays portraying both the demographic characteristics of the exiles returning to Argentina in the 1980s, as well as the psychosocial and occupational challenges they met upon reinsertion in the home country.
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Brazilian Exiles

The studies on the return of Brazilians take different research lines. D’Souza 1987 analyzes among other topics the initial wave of return of post-1964 exiles to Brazil and their insertion in that country. Using interviews with children, Paiva 2011 discusses their experience of return. Rodrigues da Silva 2010 elaborates on the role of the passage of time on the dynamics of return.

D’Souza, Herbert. “Return Ticket to Brazil.” Third World Quarterly 9.1 (1987): 203–211.
DOI: 10.1080/01436598708419969Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This study follows the transformation of Brazilian exile from selective into a more widespread phenomenon in 1969–1979. It also analyzes the initial flow of returnees in the 1970s, with little impact in politics; the substantial participation of returning politicians starting in the 1982 elections and how following re-democratization and the 1986 elections, the political cycle of exile reached its end with the exiles’ reintegration.
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Paiva, Tatiana. “Retorno: Final ou começo do exílio.” In Caminhos cruzados: História e memória dos exílios latino-americanos no século XX. Edited by Samantha Viz Quadrat, 273–285. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Fundação Getulio Vargas, 2011.
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Paiva analyzes the memories of exile and reflections on the exiles’ return to Brazil, based on interviews with children of exiles whose stories add a very important dimension to the experience of relocation and return. To the difficulties of living and adapting to the site of relocation abroad, the children faced the challenge of search for re-encounter with friends and places once they returned.
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Rodrigues da Silva, Helenice. “O retorno dos exilados chilenos e brasileros da França: um novo exílio no país de origem?” In La patria interrumpida: Latinoamericanos en el exilio: Siglos XVIII–XX. Edited by Carlos Sanhueza and Javier Pinedo, 105–116. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2010.
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This study stresses both the positive and negative contributions of exile, and the experience of estrangement of many of those exiles returning to the Latin American countries, as well as some of their failed strategies to resume their lives where they left off. Accordingly, the discussion focuses on the perception and uses of time.
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Central American Exiles

Basok 1990 highlights the great variation that exists within Central America in terms of policies of return and their results. Larkin, et al. 1991 studies the unofficial and official processes of repatriation in the region. Stepputat 1994 suggests adopting the perspective of a politics of space to explain state policies of return. Vázquez 2000 stresses empowerment of female Salvadoran exiles and the subsequent loss of this empowerment upon return to the home country.

Basok, Tanya. “Repatriation of Nicaraguan Refugees from Honduras and Costa Rica.” Journal of Refugee Studies 3.4 (1990): 281–297.
DOI: 10.1093/jrs/3.4.281Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Basok examines the process of repatriation of Nicaraguan indigenous and non-indigenous (ladino) refugees from Honduras and Costa Rica before 1990. She shows that very few ladino refugees were eager to respond to the Sandinista government’s offer of repatriation. She also draws distinctions between the repatriations from Costa Rica and Honduras, attributing the difference in the policies of the host governments toward the Nicaraguan refugees.
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Larkin, Mary Ann, Frederick C. Cuny, and Barry Stein. Repatriation under Conflict in Central America. Washington DC: CIPRA, 1991.
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This text utilizes three case studies—Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran refugees—to study the unofficial and official processes of repatriation. By analyzing the “complex realities” of repatriation, the work also makes substantive suggestions as to how governmental and nongovernmental agencies alike can facilitate repatriation. Finally, the authors suggest that repatriation can be ameliorated by local and regional schemes rather than international ones.
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Stepputat, Finn. “Repatriation and the Politics of Space: The Case of the Mayan Diaspora and Return Movement.” Journal of Refugee Studies 7.2–3 (1994): 175–185.
DOI: 10.1093/jrs/7.2-3.175Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This paper explores the meanings of return and repatriation among Guatemalan refugees returning from a decade of exile in Mexico, from the perspective of the politics of space conducted by nation-states. This implies checking what techniques of power are applied by states for the control of territories and populations.
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Vázquez, Norma. Las mujeres refugiadas y retornadas: Las habilidades adquiridas en el exilio y su aplicación a los tiempos de paz. San Salvador, El Salvador: Las Dignas, 2000.
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This is a study conducted in 1998–1999 among Salvadoran women who fled to Honduran refuges in the 1980s, during the heyday of armed forces’ onslaught in FMLN-dominated areas, and returned in various waves between 1987 and 1992, when the Peace Accords were signed. The study reveals the process of female empowerment and the loss of this empowerment upon return to El Salvador.
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Chilean Exiles

The literature offers analyses of the many challenges that Chileans faced upon returning to the home country. FASIC 1983 is an early analysis of return to Chile by a leading NGO. Llambias-Wolff 1993 stresses the voluntary character of repatriation. Rodríguez Villouta 1990 brings the testimonies of twelve returnees. Baur 1994 focuses on the returnees from Switzerland. Other studies focus on the issue of return from specific sites of exile such as France (Gaillard 1997) or Sweden (Heredia Vargas 1994). Oñate, et al. 2011 is a short book that, by including testimonies and a short analysis on retunees, which seems to be indicative of the presence of the issue in the public sphere, contrasts with the appreciation of Rebolledo 2006. Rebolledo argued a few years before that there was public silence surrounding exile and return, in spite of heated private conversations and testimonies of individuals who had experienced exile.

Baur, Alex. “Chilean Exiles Return.” Swiss Review of World Affairs 7 (July 1994): 10–14.
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Baur structures his work around a narrative relating the tales of multiple Chilean exiles who fled to Switzerland. These stories detail the issues confronted by exiles upon their return—predominantly financial instability and tensions with those who stayed. Baur further chronicles the changes wrought in the exiles during their time abroad. Overall, the author offers a compelling, if largely anecdotal, analysis of problems facing returnees.
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FASIC. The Return of the Exiles, Its Characteristics and Vital Functions. FASIC Report No. 2. Santiago, Chile: FASIC, 1983.
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It describes the multidimensional character of return, focusing on what it defines as the “secondary characteristics” of coming back to Chile. It includes under this category problems related to work, housing, family and conjugal tensions, the sense of isolation, the accreditation of studies conducted abroad, emotional changes, pending legal problems and lawsuits, the atmosphere of fear, and the social reactions they meet.
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Gaillard, Anne Marie. Exils et retours: Itinéraires chiliens. Paris and Montreal: L’Harmattan, 1997.
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Chileans in France enjoyed a relatively generous policy granting them refugee status, before the massive waves of asylum seekers in the 1980s, when the French government enforced harsher criteria. Based on a sample of one hundred exiled families, the book brings a comprehensive portrayal of the paths of escape leading to France, the challenges met, the process of cultural, occupational, and social adaptation, and the process of return.
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Heredia Vargas, Raimundo. El retorno: Una perspectiva de los que volvieron desde Suecia. Santiago, Chile: Instituto de Ciencia Política de la Universidad de Chile, 1994.
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The study estimates that a fifth of the 40,000 Chileans who sought refuge in Sweden returned to Chile until 1991. This study is based on interviews with just ten returnees and thus hardly seems a representative sample of this universe. Still, it highlights some issues in the process of integration to Swedish society and the process of return to Chile.
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Llambias-Wolff, Jaime. “The Voluntary Repatriation Process of Chilean Exiles.” International Migration 31.4 (1993): 579–597.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.1993.tb00684.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Llambias-Wolff examines the principal means by which Chilean exiles attempted to reintegrate into the country after fleeing the military dictatorship. Using both secondary sources and informal interviews with those helping the returnees, Llambias-Wolff illuminates the challenges faced by returnees and the methods they used to reintegrate.
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Oñate, Rody, Thomas Wright, Carolina Espinoza, Andrea Soto, and Ximena Galleguillos. In Exilio y retorno. “Nosotros los chilenos” No. 13. Santiago, Chile: LOM, 2011.
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This is a short collective book on Chilean exiles and their return, part of a collection of popular books published for wide distribution by LOM. It presents several testimonies collected by Ximena Galleguillos on what meant for exiles to return to a country that changed dramatically while they were abroad; as well as an essay by Andrea Soto on the Chileans who returned from abroad.
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Rebolledo, Loreto. Memorias del desarraigo: Testimonios de exilio y retorno de hombres y mujeres de Chile. Santiago, Chile: Catalonia, 2006.
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While portraying life in exile, this book also contributes testimonial evidence on the various attempts and ways of returning to Chile. Drawing on oral testimonies and the analysis of poems, novels, personal letters, and periodicals, its point of departure is the contrast the author perceived between the public silence surrounding exile and return and the heated private conversations of individuals who had experienced exile.
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Rodríguez Villouta, Mili. Ya nunca me verás como me vieras. Santiago, Chile: Ediciones del Ornitorrinco, 1990.
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Written as democracy returns to Chile, the book brings twelve testimonies of exiled who returned to the homeland. The testimonies are as varied as that of Osvaldo Puccio, a son of Allende’s secretary and prominent exiles such as Jaime Velasco; Juan Pablo Letelier, the son of Orlando Letelier; and Anita Fresno de Leighton, wife of Senator Bernardo Leighton.
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Paraguayan Exiles

The return of Paraguayans has been continuing for decades, even under Stroessner, yet the research on the topic is incipient. Foro Regional 2009 indicates that there has been interest on the part of the Paraguayan government to learn from the policy experiences of the other South American countries.

Foro Regional. Repatriación, migración y derechos humanos. Asunción, Paraguay: Presidencia de la República de Paraguay, Secretaría de Desarrollo para Repatriados y Refugiados Connacionales, 2009.
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Including statements and analyses by representatives of the governments of South America, the book brings together a series of assessments convened by the Paraguayan government of President Lugo to learn from the experiences of repatriation and the policies of asylum implemented in the other South American nations.
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Uruguayan Exiles

In Uruguay there was a strong social willingness to welcome back the returnees, as reflected in Sosnowski 1987. There were still problems in insertion in the labor market, as assessed by Aguiar, et al. 1987. Other issues relate to the reconstruction of collective memory against a background of multiple exile experiences, covered by Allier Montaño 2008. Likewise, Handler 2008 is a film built on interviews by the exiled director, aimed to recreate a dialogue with those who stayed beyond during the dictatorship.

Aguiar, César, Augusto Longhi, and Estela Méndez. La migración de retorno: Reinserción laboral de los migrantes de retorno al Uruguay. Montevideo, Uruguay: Fundación de Cultura Universitaria, 1987.
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On the basis of a survey conducted in Montevideo, the study tracks the difficulties of occupational reinsertion of returning Uruguayans mostly in the early 1980s. Having acquired professional skills abroad, the domestic labor market did not offer adequate opportunities. The study indicates there were no official policies of reinsertion and thus individuals resorted to social networks that assisted the newcomers.
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Allier Montaño, Eugenia. “Memoria: Una lenta y sinuosa recuperación.” In Tiempos de exilios: Memoria e historia de españoles y uruguayos. Edited by Dutrénit Bielous Silvia, Eugenia Allier Montaño, and Enrique Coraza de los Santos, 161–255. Colonia Suiza, Uruguay: Textual and Mexico City: Instituto José María Luis Mora, 2008.
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The author analyzes the reasons for the relative lag of a collective, public memory of exile. The author identifies the demonization of exiles during the dictatorship; the early approval of reparations and compensations; the erroneous attribution of an image of “golden exile” to life abroad; the lack of re-encounter between exiles and those remaining in Uruguay; and finally, the multiplicity of experiences of the exiles.
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Handler, Mario, dir. Decile a Mario que no vuelva. Montevideo, Uruguay: Buen Cine Producciones, 2008
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Handler directed this film which reflects on the dictatorship of 1973–1985 and maintains a dialogue with fellow citizens who stayed in Uruguay. While in exile, Handler was not able to make any film on the dictatorship in his home country; thus, this documentary was a way to pay a debt to his fellow citizens and reconcile the gap between exiles and insiles. In Spanish with English subtitles; 82 min. + 126 min. of interviews.
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Sosnowski, Saúl, ed. Represión, exilio y democracia: La cultura uruguaya. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1987.
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This collection of contributions put together by Sosnowski is of particular interest in tracing the reconstruction of Uruguayan national bonds in the initial years after the restoration of democracy. Unlike the case of Argentine intellectuals who were sharply antagonistic toward the exiles, the Uruguayans seem to have welcomed their exiles in a genuine attempt to reconstruct the social fabric of the country.
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