Paper short abstract:

This paper explores experiences of time and space in processes of intercultural interaction in the Old City of Montevideo, connected to Peruvian community.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores experiences of time and space in processes of intercultural interaction in the Old City of Montevideo, concerning Peruvian community. It considers the experience and the diverse meanings of migration from the inside view of immigrants. It relies on fieldwork research. Data was collected during a long-term ethnography of the Old City of Montevideo immigrant communities and interethnic relations. Ethnographic project 2013-2015: Etnopolis. Identity negotiations in Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo.

The paper observes and analyzes the negotiation of frontiers in the processes of construction of Self and Other. Peruvian community network is considered as a form of "imagined community", in Benedict Anderson's terms. It is a small community of fishermen and families who own restaurants, clubs and cheap hostals. One of the most interesting emerging practices identified in

building community temporarilities are the transnational connections and the performance of Peruvian folk dances. Children participate and learn these traditions.

However, the experience of isolation is very strong, they describe they feel the old wall of the Old City as a very hard frontier that connect and disconnect them to the rest of the city. They narrate they feel confined to Ciudad Vieja!