This article, based on the first ethnographic
study on the Argentine minority
in New York City, addresses some of the
conflicting issues emerging from
ethnographers’ involvement with research
populations to which they
belong, including the implications of being
perceived as members of the
same “flock.” The article explores
participants’ self-representations in terms
of class and racial and/or ethnic categories
vis-à-vis others including the
ethnographer, also from Argentine origin. The
Whiteness strategyand the
cultural divide were two important discursive
tools that allowed lighter-skinned
study participants to place themselves closer
to the White majority,
while challenging their perceived
socioeconomic dislocation in main-stream
America. The ethnographer’s
self-representation in the field was
also characterized by tensions and
adjustments, which relied on the
exchange of social resources (social capital)
as the unexpected backdrop
for trust and reciprocity to be continuously
negotiated.