Argentina's Jewish gauchos [cowboys] are a disappearing community. Hailing primarily from Russia and Eastern Europe escaping pogroms in the late 19th century and later World War II, they formed a number of settlements in the province of Entre Ríos and layed the foundations for Argentina becoming home to the largest Jewish population in Latin America (6th largest in the world). Survivng a military dictatorship, crippling recessions and a decline in infustructure, only few descendants of Argentina's Jewish gauchos remain scattered around Entre Ríos. In 2023, I visited some of the last 'gauchos Judios' - Converge/Preserve is a zine made from the gathered research material: photo-documentation, family archives and interview transcripts. The struggle to remain united has pushed the community in Entre Ríos towards a survival-mode, either to preserve cultural traditions through pure self-initiative, or like most have, to leave it all behind. It is a story of survival, migration, sociopolitical pressures infiltrating identity, the unique nature of diasporas, and generational struggles surrounding cultural preservation. At a time where the disappearance of groups of people is being live-streamed every day with little change, I hope Converge/Preserve offers reflection on the importance of documentation, even on a small scale.

Sofia Maria Bergmann is a German-Italian photographer and journalist whose work often speaks on culture, diasporas and uncovering human stories that surround larger issues such as migration and identity. Currently a student at the ‘Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie’, she has conducted journalistic and photographic projects in the San Francisco Bay Area where she grew up, Boston, Cuba, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, Argentina, and Berlin where she is based.