Entrevistas con escritores latinoamericanos judíos_2 (dataset)

Abstract

This dataset comprises two semi-structured interviews with renowned Argentine writers of Jewish descent: Elsa Drucaroff and Nora Strejilevich. Both conversations explore how Jewishness intersects with personal history, political violence, and literary creation in Latin America. Drucaroff reflects on her diasporic identity, rooted in a family of Jewish immigrants and leftist traditions, and its influence on her writing. Her novels, such as El infierno prometido, address taboo subjects like Zwi Migdal and incorporate autobiographical episodes of antisemitism during Argentina’s dictatorship. She emphasizes literature’s role in unveiling uncomfortable truths and preserving memory, including her work as a ghostwriter for a Schindler’s List survivor. Strejilevich, a survivor of state terrorism, recounts her trajectory from a secular upbringing to confronting Jewishness under persecution. She examines the figure of the witness, the stigmatization of survivors, and parallels between the Shoah and Argentina’s dictatorship, highlighting testimony as a tool against erasure. Her reflections extend to solidarity, identity fluidity, and the ethical challenges posed by contemporary conflicts such as Israel–Palestine. Both authors reject fixed notions of identity, framing Judaism as an impulse toward questioning, interpretation, and dialogue.