Guardians of Paradise. Genesis and genealogy of a collective identity in Mar de las Pampas, Buenos Aires Province

Abstract

Mar de las Pampas, a seaside resort on the Atlantic Seaboard of the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) has undergone in the last decade a process of massive expansion of its touristic infrastructure (especially on lodging and commercial facilities). At the same time, most of its full-time residents consider this process as a threat looming over their own project of collective construction of a virtuous community, grounded in values such as “ecology”, “natural life” and “quality of life”. Our text will attempt to show some of the ways in which the permanent residents of Mar de las Pampas pose and answer their questions about what Mar de las Pampas is, what should it be and what should it strive not to be, as well as the moral repertoires on which they are grounded, in the context of a moral narrative that opposes a “virtuous” and “authentic” community to the spurious interests of “voracious realtors” engaged in “acts of speculation” that seek to corrupt the former. At the same time we will show these disputes contribute to the consolidation of a shared collective identity among its dwellers.