More Than Two to Tango: Argentine Tango Immigrants in New York City

5. Legal Trajectories and the Elusive American Dream

123 chapter five Legal Trajectories and the Elusive American Dream As I rushed to open the door of my apartment on a chilly Saturday morning to let Carmela in, I felt that something was wrong. Carmela, a gorgeous female tango dancer in her early thirties, looked pale and anxious, with dark circles under her big, beautiful eyes. Clearly, I thought, she had not slept well the previous night. I was wrong. I soon learned that she had hardly pegado un ojo (didn’t sleep a wink) for the last couple of weeks and that her erratic sleep habits had become the norm rather than the exception . I immediately hurried to make mate and prepare bread with honey, which she ate ravenously, as she began unraveling the events of the past few weeks amid a cathartic outpouring of words. Her application for a nonimmigrant visa extension had been denied; therefore, she was now facing the difficult choice of either going back to Argentina or overstaying and becoming an unauthorized immigrant. Carmela was one of the most talented dancers I had met during my tango excursions. For many years, I had witnessed her adventurous life in the artistic field as I tried to make sense of its intricacies as seen through her eyes. Like a magician who pulls rabbits out of hats, Carmela’s impromptu attitude led her to follow many creative paths in the city where tango venues never seem to sleep. She had struggled to achieve success and had worked hard for it. Yet, despite Carmela’s talent and her hopes for the future, the difficulties that the economic downturn had wrought on the entertainment business had had a negative impact on her ability to make ends meet. Along the way, she had not hesitated to take side jobs, 124 • More Than Two to Tango from being a babysitter to a part-time cashier, in order to get by in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Artistic survivors like Carmela, I kept telling myself, always make it despite their seemingly unstable personal circumstances. Stories like hers are not only emblematic of the many struggles that freelance immigrant artists generally endure to make a living, but also of the ongoing legal barriers that many of them face in America. This chapter reckons the complex paths followed by Argentine tango artists in getting, and maintaining, legal status in the United States. It delves into the contributing factors that both aid and prevent immigrants from advancing their legal trajectories, including the social networks that grant them contacts for jobs and visa sponsorships. This approach challenges the widespread idea of immigrants as having a fixed legal status, as either legal or unauthorized aliens. In the following pages, the term “legal trajectory” conceptualizes an immigrant’s course through a series of steps during a stay in the United States—ranging from being undocumented (e.g., due to overstaying a visa) to obtaining US citizenship. Despite the fact that most of my respondents followed progressive careers in which the length of stay usually accompanied their paths toward US residency, several described stagnant or retroactive trajectories. This was particularly the case for those who either had lost their US permanent resident status and reentered the United States as nonimmigrant visitors later on, or remained in this country after their visas expired. Lawful permanent residents, popularly known as “green-card holders,” may lose their status when remaining outside the United States for more than six months at a time. Argentines’ legal trajectories in this study basically contemplates four distinct possibilities: their eligibility for a nonimmigrant visa that may eventually turn into US permanent residence; their unauthorized status, mostly due to overstaying; their eventual return to Argentina; and, finally, their moving to Europe. The latter has lately become more commonplace particularly among Argentines who are eligible for European citizenships on the basis of blood ties. The idea of a dynamic legal career (progressive and regressive) allows us not only to conceptualize tango immigrants’ diverse patterns of social incorporation—including their access to legal and social rights—but also to explore the importance of social capital in shaping their residence and citizenship options. The notion of retroactive legal careers also challenges widespread beliefs that assume an immigrants’ forthright assimilation into mainstream American culture. As pointed out by Itsigsohn (2009), in his Legal Trajectories and the American Dream • 125 study on first- and second-generation Dominicans...