Transnational Jewish Family and Spaces of Belonging: Autobiography of the Chilean–Mexican Anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz

The first part of the paper is an inquiry about the transnational ties of family ancestors of the Chilean Mexican anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz described in his autobiography, Nuestra América: utopia y persistence de una familia judia ( Mexico, 2018). The second aim is to outline a theoretical and methodological model of transnational family history based on the anthropological testimony and intellectual history of Lomniz book; thi well known scholar goes beyond his own family biography by transforming the migrations and spaces of belonging of his grandparents, parents and also himself who become the object of his own collective story. The book is based on oral sources, letters, memories of members of his family, Lomnitz reconstructs the transnational experience of immigrant and intellectual life of grandparents Miguel Adler and Lisa Noemi Milstein as well as their sons ; this family saga takes place over long years and circulating in different countries : from Bessarabia to Chile ,through the cultural life in the small Jewish community of Bogota, then in the US , and finally in Mexico. In addition to it valuable family history, the book allows to analyze deep insights for the intellectual history from a comparative perspective on the reconstruction of the Jewish-American identity (north and south) by transnational immigrants crossing different spaces of belonging. ,