{"id":15961,"date":"2011-09-01T01:41:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T01:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=15961"},"modified":"2019-02-01T16:06:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T16:06:56","slug":"though-many-have-white-skin-their-veins-flow-of-black-blood-afro-argentine-culture-and-history-during-the-twentieth-century-in-buenos-aires-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=15961","title":{"rendered":"Though Many Have White Skin, their Veins Flow of Black Blood: Afro-Argentine Culture and History during the Twentieth Century in Buenos Aires, Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though Many Have White Skin, their Veins Flow of Black Blood: Afro-Argentine Culture and History during the Twentieth Century in Buenos Aires, Argentina<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

McNair Scholars Journal<\/a>
\nVolume 7, Issue 1<\/a> (2003)
\nArticle 8
\n11 pages<\/p>\n

Erika D. Edwards<\/strong><\/a>, Grand Valley State University<\/p>\n

Although the Afro-Argentine<\/a> population continued to decline during the twentieth century, the people played an integral role in shaping Argentina\u2019s culture through their contributions in the field of dance, literature, and religion. Unfortunately, their vibrant culture and history are often ignored and overlooked because of Argentina\u2019s subtle efforts to whiten its population. The purpose of this project is three-fold. First, it aims to recognize the survival of the Afro-Argentine community during the twentieth century. Second, it recaptures the means used to preserve African traditions. Finally, it reveals efforts of Afro-Argentine groups such as La Fundaci\u00f3n Africa Vive that have dedicated themselves to reconstructing the Afro- Argentine role in Argentina\u2019s culture and history.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the first things I noticed while studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was that there were few, if any, blacks among the city\u2019s inhabitants. I lived there for six months and people always assumed that I was Brazilian because of their popular belief that Afro-Argentines no longer exist. However, this is a lie: Afro-Argentines do indeed exist. Africans began arriving in Argentina as slaves in 1534, two years after the foundation of Buenos Aires, and since then they have shaped and transformed Argentina. This paper seeks to draw attention to the contributions of Afro-Argentines to the country\u2019s culture and history. To this end, I will recognize their existence despite the country\u2019s denial of its black population. Then, I will address the ways in which Afro-Argentines recapture their African past through dance, music, religion, and literature. Finally, I will discuss what Afro-Argentines are doing to reconstruct their history and, in the process, correct lies, misconceptions, and myths about them. In denying Afro-Argentine culture and history, many Argentines may not learn about their families\u2019 and country\u2019s past. Though many have white skin, their veins flow of black blood.<\/p>\n

Recognizing the Existence of Afro-Argentines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Statisticians often claim, \u201cthe numbers never lie.\u201d Yet in the case of census information for Argentina over the course of the twentieth century, the existence of the country\u2019s black population is often denied or its size is underestimated. The noted Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges<\/a> remembered that in 1910 or 1912 there was a tenement of blacks on the corner of Uriburu and Vicente L\u00f3pez streets and another on Sarmiento Street in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1946, Nicol\u00e1s Besio Moreno calculated that there were \u201cone and a half million people with black blood [in Argentina]\u201d and further stated that they could be classified as blacks based upon the United States guidelines, which suggest that people who have a lighter complexion and often might pass for whites would still be classified as blacks. The following year, in 1947, a national census identified the presence of 15,000 blacks, (5,000 blacks and 10,000 mulattos<\/a>). \u00a0By 1963, Afro-Argentines were estimated to number 17,000. Their population declined over the next four years to 3,000 in 1967 but increased to 4,500 in 1968 for reasons which remain unclear. However, some people have estimated that there were as many as 10,000 blacks \u201cnot counting those mixed with dark skinned people in the provinces.\u201d The journalist Narciso Binayan Carmona<\/a> stated in 1973 that \u201cif all Argentines with black blood were accounted there would be 2-3 million.\u201d Based upon this information, one can see there are discrepancies involving the size of Argentina\u2019s black population; their true number probably lies somewhere between what the census counted and people\u2019s perceptions.<\/p>\n

Present-day statistics tend to agree with what people saw during the twentieth century. This could be due to El Instituto Nacional de Estad\u00edsticas y Censos<\/em> (INDEC) which forgot to include a box for citizens to identify their descent (descendencia<\/em>) during the last national census in 2001. INDEC later denied that it had forgotten to include the box. It is interesting to note that when the last national census was undertaken, INDEC included a category for the first time to check if one was of indigenous descent, a change from the last national census conducted in 1991. Their failure to inquire about people of African descent further perpetuates the myth that Afro-Argentines no longer exist. In stark contrast, La Fundaci\u00f3n Africa Vive<\/em>, an Afro-Argentine group dedicated to promoting black culture and history, believes that there are currently two million Afro-Argentines (descended from slaves) in the country. Thus, regardless of how a person may appear (dark- or light-skinned) and whether or not they are aware, many Argentines have black blood.<\/p>\n

At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, miscegenation<\/a> served to lighten the complexion of the country\u2019s black population. Argentina\u2019s black male population was already in decline as a result of wars for independence and territorial expansion as well as diseases. Then, from 1880 to 1930, a mass of European immigrants arrived in the country. Most European immigrants were male, thus their arrival led to a surplus of white males and a shortage of white females. Given the pre-existing scarcity of black males, prospective black brides often married white grooms, many of whom were European immigrants. Interracial marriages became common. The children of such unions often had lighter skin giving them access to better education and employment opportunities thereby facilitating their ability to pass<\/a> themselves off as white.<\/p>\n

However, not all blacks who wished to marry selected white spouses. There were black couples, such as the Monteros. The couple had three daughters but due to miscegenation in their family\u2019s past, each of the girls was a different shade of brown: the eldest looked black, the middle child resembled a mulatto, and the youngest appeared to be entirely white. \u201cSo great were the physical differences\u2026 people refused to believe they were family.\u201d However, the Monteros considered themselves black and \u201chad a shelf of books on race and a stack of Aretha Franklin<\/a>, Roberta Flack<\/a>, and Ike and Tina<\/a> records to prove it.\u201d At the time they were interviewed in 1973, the girls were dating white boys. Were they to have married and had children, they too would have contributed to the whitening of the country\u2019s black population. As the black population becomes lighter through miscegenation, it will become harder to identify its existence…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though Many Have White Skin, their Veins Flow of Black Blood: Afro-Argentine Culture and History during the Twentieth Century in Buenos Aires, Argentina McNair Scholars Journal Volume 7, Issue 1 (2003) Article 8 11 pages Erika D. Edwards, Grand Valley State University Although the Afro-Argentine population continued to decline during the twentieth century, the people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,459,8,394],"tags":[12089,676,7398,7399,7400,7401,7397],"class_list":["post-15961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-latincarib","category-history","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","tag-afro-argentines","tag-argentina","tag-buenos-aires","tag-erika-d-edwards","tag-erika-denise-edwards","tag-erika-edwards","tag-mcnair-scholars-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57437,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961\/revisions\/57437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}