Reflections on The Invisible Experience. Irish Immigrants in Peru

Abstract

Through the study of a variety of primary sources such as letters, wills, birth, marriage, and death certificates, the author examines Irish immigration to Peru in mid nineteenth century. In this sense, McEvoy focuses on some of the most representative examples of Irish immigrants. That is, both workers and peasants who were part of one of the first migration projects to Peru and to successful immigrants such as John Patrick Gallagher O'Connor and William Russell Grace, who shortly after reaching Peru, became businessmen and prestigious professionals. By recovering Irish immigrant voices, this book reconstructs part of the story of men and women that printed their culture in Peru and contributed with the construction of modern Peru.Keywords: Irish diaspora; immigration projects; mobilized and proletariat diaspora; assimilation; transnationalism.