(Re)Presenting African Heritage in Argentina: The constraints of multicultural policies and politics.

ALEJANDRO FRIGERIO

Cambridge

Simposio; The Politics of Presence in Latin America.; 2009

University of Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

This paper analyzes the efforts of a group of afrodescendant activists to start a social movement and construct an Afro-Argentine collective identity. In the first part of the paper I will describe the structural restraints faced by the Black activists and the recent local developments that provide an international as well as local structure of political opportunities. Then I will examine the main activities undertaken by the activists in their interaction with transnational and global actors and with government officials. I shall emphasize the development and strategic display of different collective identifications proposed by the activists (“Afro-Argentines” or “Blacks”;  “afrodescendants” and, finally,  “African diaspora”). These identifying labels appear successively; each is more inclusive than its predecessors and thus enables them to better take advantage of national and international opportunities and to increase their cooperation with the Afro-American cultural workers.