Afro-Porteños at the End of the 19th Century: Discussing the nation

GELER, LEA

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal

Routledge

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2014 vol. 7 p. 105 - 118

1752-8631

Argentina is a country that, even today, identifies itself as a modern, white, and European nation. This representation began to be projected in the last decades of the 19th century, framed in the State consolidation and nation building processes, which will be the historical context for this paper. It was also the time when a certain notion became broadly accepted: that Afro-Argentines, the descendants of formerly-enslaved African people, had "disappeared". By contrast, in that same period, Afro-Porteños not only had not disappeared but also constituted an important community, which produced numerous newspapers. Through the analysis of Afro-Porteño newspapers, their selfrepresentations and discourses, some of the ways they negotiated with the ideology of modernity and Europeanism (that implied whiteness) will be discussed. The agency of Afro-Porteños will be examined as we analyze how Afro-Porteño intellectuals promoted State values to their group and at the same time defended their community against discrimination.