Living in the U.S. Is Rewarding Challenge for Argentine Professor Ariel Yablon

By Steve Price

yablon"I've lived though a lot of the things I teach-like military dictatorship, economic chaos, and revolutionary politics," reveals Ariel Yablon, Ph.D., Argentine native and assistant professor of history.

 His students appreciate his hard-earned experiences, because they help make his courses come alive. "I have pretty vivid memories and lots of stories to tell," he says. "My experiences make me more connected to things. I think that counts, in a way."

Buenos Aires
Yablon was born, raised and educated in Buenos Aires, until he decided to come to the U.S. for a master's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He stayed on to earn his Ph.D. and then chose to stay in the U.S. because there were few job opportunities in his native country for people trained in the humanities.

He came to UNE last year as a visiting professor, and was quickly offered a tenure-track position. This semester he's teaching Modern Mexican History, U.S./Latin American Relations and World History.

Spokesman
What Yablon has found, teaching in the states, is that he has by necessity become a spokesman not only for his country, but for the entire region of Latin America.

"It's interesting," he says, "that living in the U.S. provides you with a framework-it opens your mind in a way to think that you're not a scholar of just your country, but of a region. I never considered myself a 'latino.' I started to think a lot of things only when I came to the U.S. about my own background."

This was a challenge, but ultimately a rewarding one for his teaching, research and personal growth. "I had to learn how to do it," he confesses. "I think one of the challenges of working at this institution, and Maine in general, is that Maine is, if I'm not mistaken, one of the least diverse states in the whole union."

Big Picture
At the same time, he admits that seeing the bigger geographic picture benefited his research, giving him a comparative perspective he didn't have before coming to this country. A big theme in his research is the historical struggle to develop democracy in Latin America, in particular how political corruption goes against the institution of democracy. Very little has been published about the history of his native country, despite the fact that it is one of the richest and most international countries in its region. More scholarly focus has been on Cuba, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.

"The U.S. was an example for many Latin Americans in the 19th century," Yablon points out, "the model of a successful republic." Argentina was the Latin American country closest to achieving that goal at one point, so many Argentineans looked to the U.S. with admiration. "At the beginning of the 20th century," Yablon notes, "that turned out to be a more…complicated relationship."

University Culture
His own relationship with the U.S. has been somewhat complicated: "University-campus culture does not exist in my country. In Argentina, intellectual/cultural life is merged with life in the cities. My friends don't understand how I can live in small town." Buenos Aires, his "hometown," is the nation's capital and boasts some 21 million people.

But Yablon has adjusted, and found comfort in his new surroundings. He says, "It's very easy to work here, in comparison to my country. People here really help you and guide you and do not expect you to know everything from scratch. [There's] a safety net that works pretty well, and I really appreciate it."

In the classroom, Yablon teaches the past, but also talks with his students about current issues, weaving the two into a meaningful, learning dialogue. For example, he makes comparisons between slavery and racism in Brazil and the U.S., noting the differences and commonalties. "Our students might not have a background in Latin America-it's not part of their reality. But then they see some connections-it's very shocking for some students to see race relations in Brazil are very different than they are here. There is this bi-racial division here, that in Brazil and the rest of Latin America is more of a gradient. And they are surprised how interracial marriage is a much more common thing [in Latin America."

"The relationship Latin Americans have with the U.S. is not so different from the relationship the people of the Middle East have with the U.S.," he continues. "This is a tremendously powerful country which, on many occasions, has a double standard that here in the states is difficult to see, but is so obvious for everyone else. And that has been one source of resentment in Latin America."

Exchange of Ideas
His belief is that this country really needs a bigger exchange of ideas and culture to build some bridges that have been seriously broken. "I'm pretty upset about that, and trying to work on that."

His current work includes writing an article based on his Ph.D. dissertation and turning his dissertation into a book. A future project would be to deal with American stereotypes and images, demonstrating that in the past many Latin Americans have seen the U.S. as more than "streets of gold" or "Yankee imperialism."

"After a certain amount of time, you become a different person," he notes. "I love Maine. How can you not-it's 'vacationland!'"
    
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