SOURCE: Aizenberg, Edna. “Introduction” In Partricide on the Pampas? A New Study and Translation of Alberto Gerchunoff's ‘Los Gauchos Judios’, pp. 11-32. Madrid, Spain: Vervuert Iberoamericana, 2000.

In the following introduction to her detailed examination of Los Gauchos Judios, Aizenberg provides a historical perspective to the events surrounding the period from which this book arose, as well as a critical appraisal into its textual components.

I pick up The Jewish Gauchos once again. I reread the book, nostalgically reliving each of its pages. I see my father's comments written in the margins, and my comments under his. So many decades come alive, so many memories, so many echoes shaking me to the core … As I close the beloved book, I am moved to tears by this testimony to our youth and to the magic of the new land.

Lázaro Liacho

What is the meaning of [Gerchunoff's] bucolic Argentina...