7. Latin American Diasporic Writing in the Australian Migrant Magazine Tabaré

This article focuses on the little-known periodical Tabaré: revista mensual por el Club Social Uruguayo de Melbourne, the Uruguayan Social Club of Melbourne’s newsletter, published between 1978 and 1983. Spanish creative writing in Australia has been closely tied to Spanish-language periodicals as well as the literary competitions of cultural clubs. While the Spanish Club of Sydney and the Spanish-language press have received some scholarly attention, Tabaré, printed through low-cost roneo duplication, hand-stapled and distributed to club members, has been almost forgotten. This ephemeral production is an important archival resource in tracing South-South connections and, in particular, the Latin American contributions to Australia’s Spanish-language writing. Latin American ephemera collections in both northern and southern hemisphere institutions tend to concentrate on materials relating to political and social justice movements. In Australia, literary ephemera such as the poetry, short stories and essays appearing in migrant community newsletters like Tabaré remain neglected. This article, then, is a work of literary retrieval, bringing to light a publication that provided opportunity for Latin American migrants, predominantly from Uruguay, to engage in a form of literary production that contributed to the recognition and negotiation of complex differences within this Spanish-speaking community.