INVESTIGADORES
RODRIGUEZ Mariela Eva
capítulos de libros
Título:
Mixed Race in Argentina. Concealing Mixture in the "White" Nation
Autor/es:
GELER LEA; RODRIGUEZ MARIELA EVA
Libro:
Measuring Mixedness: Counting and Classifying Mixed Race and Mixed Ethnic Identity around the World
Editorial:
Palgrave Macmillan
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2020; p. 179 - 194
Resumen:
The Argentine Republic, located in Latin America´s Southern Cone, has a particular relationship with "race." Even though race was a term used since colonial times in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata --from which the Argentine nation would later emerge-- the way race shaped social status was never direct. On the contrary, it was and is both an elusive concept and a changing category that works in deep interplay with others. During the nation-building process of the 19th century, ruling elites imagined an ideal White-European national citizenry and implemented special policies to achieve it. Those policies included the explicit invitation to Europeans (defined as "Whites" and considered vectors of "progress" and "civilization") to migrate to Argentina. The European migrants who arrived in the country in great numbers between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were thought to "improve" the pre-existing local population comprised of Blacks, Indians, Spaniards, and their mixtures, a "creole" or native-born population whom elites imagined (or hoped) were on a path toward "disappearance." Elites envisioned the result of this mixing process as a homogeneous "White-European" population. Through overlapping processes of racialization and ethnicization, the national alterity formation (Briones, 2005) developed two types of mixing ideologies: "whitening," considered a positive process, and mestizaje (mixture). Unlike other Latin American countries where mestizaje and the Mestizo were viewed positively or even celebrated by national elites, in Argentina such terms carried a negative charge, as they named the "undesirable" mixed (non-White) people. The ideology of whitening, premised on erasing diversity, officially prevailed. This explains why no National Census included a racial variable, although other official documents used mixed race categories such as "Pardo" (used to name the offspring of Black and White parents) or "Mestizo" (the offspring of Indian and White parents) through the first half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, race continued to pervade social classifications under different names, due to the racialization of the social class structure and the ethnicization of race. As such, mestizaje or mixture --a complex term comprising racial, ethnic and social meanings-- found its way into public discussion through alternative channels. Today, official censuses and demographic instruments still do not include any mixed race categories.