Network migration, marriage patterns, and adaptation in rural Portugal and among Portuguese immigrants in Argentina, 1870–1980

Abstract

This article examines marriage patterns among immigrants and their children as a way to analyze the interplay of primary social networks and local conditions in the social adaptation of two communities of Portuguese immigrants in Argentina. Its main focus is on the factors involved in marriages within the same ethnic group and their evolution over time from a comparative perspective. The analysis considers aspects of marital selection in the main places of origin of the immigrants in the Algarve, southern Portugal, and their influence in the places of settlement; the factors that influenced the selection of spouses in both communities by gender and over time; and the changes from the first to the second generation. Factors, such as gender, the nature and rhythm of immigration, and the occupation of the immigrants and their families, proved very important in marital selection. Environmental factors were also significant. Oil production dominated Comodoro Rivadavia, while intensive family farming in a suburban setting characterized Villa Elisa. Through the comparative analysis of these two contrasting, receiving societies, the article examines the interplay between primary social networks based on national and ethnic origin and socioeconomic local conditions.

Keywords:

• Migration
• Marriage patterns
• Immigrants
• Homogamy

Acknowledgments

A preliminary version of this article was presented at the annual conference of the Social Science History Association in Forth Worth, TX, in 1999. I wish to thank Marı́a Bjerg and José Moya for their comments. I am also grateful to Douglas Preston for his help with the manuscript. This article is based on research and data entry generously supported by fellowships from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, the Portuguese-American Foundation for Development, and faculty grants from Dickinson College.

Primary Sources

Portugal:

Arquivo da Conservatória do Registo Civil de Loulé (1890–1911). Livros mistos (baptismos, casamentos, óbitos). São Sebastião de Boliqueime.

Arquivo da Conservatória do Registo Civil de São Brás de Alportel (1890–1891). Livros de casamentos.

Arquivo da Paróquia de São Brás de Alportel (1911–1920). Livros de casamentos.

Arquivo da Paróquia de São Sebastião de Boliqueime (1911–1920). Livros mistos (baptismos, casamentos, óbitos).

Arquivo da Paróquia de São Sebastião de Boliqueime (1911–1920). Livros mistos (baptismos, casamentos, óbitos).

Arquivo Distrital de Faro, Registo Paroquial (1878–1889). Livros de casamentos. São Brás de Alportel.

Arquivo Distrital de Faro, Registo Paroquial (1878–1889). Livros mistos (baptismos, casamentos, óbitos). São Sebastião de Boliqueime.

Argentina:

Archivo de la Asociación Portuguesa de Beneficencia y Socorros Mutuos (Comodoro Rivadavia) (1923/1938–1980). Libro de socios.

Archivo de la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Tolosa, La Plata (1934–1950). Libros de matrimonio.

Archivo de la Parroquia San Luis Gonzaga, Villa Elisa (1934–1980). Libros de matrimonios.

Archivo del Registro Civil de Comodoro Rivadavia (1904–1960). Libros de matrimonios.

Archivo del Registro Provincial de las Personas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (1910–1980). Libros de matrimonios. Villa Elisa, Partido de La Plata. Sección 6, 1910–1959; Sección 12, 1959–1977; Sección 2, 1919–1922, 1935–1939, 1978–1980.

Published Sources

Notes

1 The study of marriage patterns among immigrant groups has a long tradition in sociological and historical studies in other countries of immigration, especially in the United States. For recent analyses and references, see Alba and Golden (1986) and Schoen (1986). (Sources: Argentina (1914/1916, 1947, 1960); Argentina, Ministerio del Interior, Asesorı́a Letrada de Territorios Nacionales (1920/1923)).

2 For some theoretical studies about chain and network migration and the evolution of these concepts, see Baily (1982, 1988, 1992), Bjerg and Otero (1995), Da Orden (2000), Devoto (1988), the special issue of Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (1988) dedicated to chain migration, Gabaccia (1988), MacDonald and MacDonald (1964), Marquiegui (1992a), Moya (1988), Otero (1990, 1992, 1994), Sturino (1990), Tilly (1990), and Tilly and Brown (1967). See a recent application of this approach for the case of immigration in the United States in Versteegh (2000).

3 Unless otherwise noted, this study is based on the analysis of the marriage records of these two towns. In the case of Comodoro Rivadavia, it includes data on all civil marriages from 1902 to 1930 and marriages of Portuguese and Argentines of Portuguese descent until 1960. Additional information includes total marriages every 5 years from 1930 to 1960. In the case of Villa Elisa, both religious and civil marriages were used to build a comprehensive database of marriages of Portuguese and Argentines of Portuguese descent from 1930 (first case) until 1980. Additional information was compiled from civil marriages for the population of Villa Elisa as a whole from 1909 until 1945, and a sample of complete years was collected every 5 years from 1945 until 1975. See references for complete information on primary sources.

4 Only recently has the second generation received proper attention in studies about immigrants' marital selection in Argentina. See, for example, Maluendres (1994) and Silberstein (1994).

5 The characterization that follows is based on Borges (1997) and Torres (1995).

6 The characterization that follows is based on Borges (1997).

7 These percentages represent the average proportion of Portugese participation in civil and religious marriages in Villa Elisa. The breakdown by type of marriage is as follows: 1930–1950 (religious marriages, 8.1%; civil marriages, 8.5%), 1951–1960 (religious, 15.7%; civil, 15.6%), and 1961–1970 (religious, 17%; civil, 14.3%).

8 Information based on the proportion of civil marriages by national groups. Italians represented 42.3% of foreign grooms up to 1929, 35.4% in the period from 1930 to 1945, 30.8% in the 1950s, 32.1% in the 1960s, and 25.8% in the 1970s. The participation of Portuguese grooms increased steadily from 25.3% in the period 1930–1945, to 42.3% in the 1950s, 35.7% in the 1960s, and 32.2% in the 1970s.

9 In the late 1930s and early 1940s, they already represented almost 60% of flower gardeners who married in Villa Elisa. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Portuguese immigrants and their Argentinean children represented an average of 67% of the same group. Japanese immigrants also formed an important group among the flower gardeners. Although they were latecomers to the area, their presence was numerically more important in nearby agricultural “colonies,” such as Los Porteños and La Banderita. For an analysis of a nearby community of Japanese flower gardeners, see Sabarots (1991).

10 The percentages of immigrant from Boliqueime, however, might have been higher. In several cases, the records only provide information about the spouses' place of baptism, not birthplace. Along with Boliqueime, the neighboring parish of São Sebastião de Loulé was another major source of emigrants to the area of Villa Elisa. Because both parishes had the same patron saint, St. Sebastian, some cases were impossible to identify. I also used other information from marriage records and marginal notes on baptism records for the parish of Boliqueime, Portugal. In Table 3, cases whose origins remain unclear are identified as “São Sebastião (Loulé) (b).”

11 For the concept of social space, Sturino followed Morel (1972).

12 For a more developed analysis of the socioeconomic and demographic structures of the Algarve and their connection with emigration, see Borges (1997).

13 This analysis is based on data collected from marriage records for the parishes of Boliqueime and São Brás (see references for information on primary sources). Scholars have been using the geographical origin of spouses to analyze characteristics of social spaces in rural Europe for some time. See, for example, Jollivet (1965) and Morel (1972). In the case of the Algarve, see Bastos (1993).

14 The concelho of Nelas constituted the core of this chain, especially the parish of Senhorim, whose immigrants formed 10% of the total Portuguese immigrants to Villa Elisa. The parishes of Mangualde (Viseu) and Seia (Guarda) were also important centers. Several parishes of the concelhos of Leiria and Pombal in the central district of Leiria formed a secondary area of origin.

15 For a more detailed analysis of the economic adaptation of Portuguese immigrants in these communities, see Borges (1997, chaps. 6 and 7).

16 For a general introduction to these concepts, see Segalen (1986, chaps. 2, 5, and 6).

17 Baily (1980) was the first scholar to apply it to the Argentinean case after Savorgnan. Mı́guez et al. (1991, pp. 791–792) provide a thorough discussion of the benefits and limits of percentages and indexes for the Argentinean case.

18 The fluidity of social contacts with nearby localities in the case of Villa Elisa is illustrated by the 66% correspondence between civil and religious marriages for the Portuguese population. Some religious ceremonies were performed in the parish church of Villa Elisa with the civil ones elsewhere, or vice versa. In some cases, couples most likely chose not to celebrate religious ceremonies; although, many cases only appear in the religious records. These couples had to marry under civil law somewhere else. By incorporating both sets of records in a general database, this article minimized this limitation somewhat. Because of its geographical isolation in a sparsely populated region, the potential influence of nearby marriage markets was not as important a limitation for the area of Comodoro Rivadavia.

19 Data about Portuguese immigrants by sex are limited. In Comodoro Rivadavia in 1920, the sex ratio among the Portuguese (number of men for every 100 women) was 594. In 1947, only information about the distribution by gender for the foreign population exists, with an average sex ratio of 193 men for every 100 women. For Villa Elisa in 1914, there is only information for the county of La Plata as a whole. The sex ratio of the Portuguese population of the county of La Plata was then 516; but, in the county's rural area, there were only 7 Portuguese women and 130 Portuguese men. In 1947, the census provides information for Villa Elisa, but only for the foreign population as a whole. Foreigners presented a ratio of 229 men for every 100 women. Finally, in 1960, the gender composition of the Portuguese immigrants living in the province of Buenos Aires—where Villa Elisa is located—indicates that, by then, family reunification had begun to have an effect: There were 162 men for every 100 women. In the same year, in the Province of Chubut—were Comodoro Rivadavia is located—there were 152 Portuguese men for every 100 women. Since family reunification continued into the early 1960s, these figures were most likely lower in that decade (sources are censuses for 1914, 1920, 1947, and 1960; see references).

20 Stories of Portuguese fathers encouraging their daughters to marry fellow countrymen and disapproving of non-Portuguese suitors are commonplace in the various interviews I conducted in the area.

21 The percentages of homogamy for Portuguese men in the province of Buenos Aires were 6.4% for 1883–1888, 23.8% for 1923–1924, and 18.5% for 1937–1950; for Portuguese women, they were 33.3% for 1883–1888, 64.4% for 1923–1924, and 54.1% for 1937–1950. These percentages encompass the marriage selection of Portuguese immigrants who lived in a variety of places and circumstances, from concentrated immigrant communities like Villa Elisa to men working in isolated parts of the countryside. Provincia de Buenos Aires (1883–1888, 1924, 1937–1950), Anuario Estadı́stico; Provincia de Buenos Aires (1924), Boletı́n de la Dirección General de Estadı́stica.

22 These percentages would certainly grow if we were to consider only those cases from the Algarve for which there is complete information about the parish and counties of origin.

23 In the interviews, immigrants commonly used the Portuguese verb arranjar (to fix) when they refer to these marriages decided at a distance.

24 Estimates are based only on the civil marriages, not on our complete database for Portuguese marriages in Villa. Religious records do not provide information about occupation.