This paper aims to trace the discourse on Lunfardo as it unraveled in Argentina since the late 19th century, and to introduce the role of this popular variant of Spanish in the establishment of an Argentine cultural identity.
When Lunfardo was first described in Argentina, it was seen merely as the “jargon of criminals”, a view that has proven hard to change ever since. This paper argues that Lunfardo was misrepresented by that initial definition, and that it should instead be understood as the linguistic product of the social “margins” of Buenos Aires.
This paper aims to present some of the dynamics between these two opposing processes, i.e. the oppression and marginalization of certain groups of bonaerense society by the “elite”, and the concurrent establishment of “marginal” cultural productions as representative of Argentine identity.
