On the Trail of Buenos Aires' Atlanta Soccer Club: Jewish Argentine Popular Culture

While most historians would agree as to the centrality of sports in general and of soccer in particular in Latin American societies, very little has been written on ethnicity and sports in such immigrant societies as Argentina and Brazil. As far as the historiography of the Jewish experience in Latin America is concerned, hardly any scholarly works exist that are devoted to popular culture, particularly that of unaffiliated Jews.
My paper focuses on the history of the Club Atlético Atlanta, located in the neighborhood of Villa Crespo. Although populated by various ethnic groups, Villa Crespo, together with Once, has long been considered a Jewish neighborhood. During the second half of the twentieth century, there has been a conspicuous Jewish presence among the fans, administrators and presidents of the Atlanta soccer club, to the extent that fans of rival teams often chant anti-Semitic slogans during matches.
In the absence of academic monographs devoted to this sports club, I intend to examine the generational history of Atlanta and its fans. I believe that for the first immigrant generation, belonging to this club was a way of becoming Argentines. For the next generation, it was a way of maintaining ethnic Jewish identity, while for the third it has become a family tradition. I further posit that Atlanta constitutes one of the few spaces where both Jews and non-Jews, affiliated-Jews and non-affiliated Jews, Zionists and non-Zionists, have interacted.