Migration, cultural heritage and resignification of the local territory: the French community of Pigüé (Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina)

How can the revaluation of a past of migrants be a resource for the construction ofindividual and collective identities and for local development? In this paper we analyze therole of the recent revaluation of a marginal immigration (the French one) in a countrystrongly marked by massive immigration: Argentina. The objective of the article is toanalyze the role of social subjects in this process and, on the other hand, the generation ofdevelopment and also of resistances or tensions that entails.The case of the town of Pigüé, a French settlement of the Aveyron of the beginning of the20th century in the southeast of the province of Buenos Aires, is analyzed. This is a smalltown of 15,000 inhabitants, linked to agricultural activity, where it is recognized thestrength of the reconstruction of its identity as a "French collectivity": the heritage of themain actors, language, written production, gastronomy and local festivities are used asvectors of identity by the descendants, and also to give singularity to the locality andterritory in its entirety. These processes lead to a redefinition of the representations of selfas well as of the rural locality and of its place in the national society. Is this resignificationa resource for local development