| Notable Afro Argentines: Gabino Ezeiza • Higinio Cazón • Enrique Maciel |
| Total population |
|---|
| Undefined |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Salta, Tucumán, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, Misiones, Corrientes |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
Predominantly Roman Catholicism |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
Afro-Latin American, Cape Verdean Argentines, Afro Brazilian, Afro-Uruguayan |
The black population resulting from the slave trade during the centuries of Spanish domination of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had a major role in Argentine history. Throughout the eighteenth and 19th centuries, it comprised up to fifty per cent of the population in some provinces and had a deep impact on national culture.
In the 19th century, it declined sharply in number as a result of the wars of Independence (most of the soldiers were black Argentine men), high infant mortality rates, low number of married blacks, the War of the Triple Alliance (most Argentine soldiers in this battle were black as well), cholera epidemics in 1861 and 1864, as well as a yellow fever epidemic in 1871.
By the late 19th century, the Afro-Argentine population was consisted mainly of women,and mixed with the European immigrants that arrived. With thousands of immigrants of Europe arriving to Argentine soil, and most black women intermarrying with them, noting that their populations were already low, the Afro-Argentine population faded into oblivion.
In 2006 there was a pilot census on this issue in the neighborhoods of Montserrat, in Buenos Aires, and in Santa Rosa de Lima, in Santa Fe, revealing that 5% of the Argentine population confirms their having ancestors of African descent and that an additional 20% believes it could share this ancestry but is not sure.
This research supports the claim by the Center for Genetic Studies of the School of Arts and Sciences of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) that an estimated 4.3% of the people living in suburban Buenos Aires have genetic markers of African descent.[1][2] Today there is still a notable Afro-Argentine community in the Buenos Aires district of San Telmo. There are also quite a few black afro-Argentines in Merlo and Ciudad Evita cities, in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.
As part of the process of Conquest, the economic regimes of the European colonies in America developed various forms of forced labor exploitation of the American aboriginals. However, the relatively low population density of some of the South American territories, resistance from some Aboriginal groups to the acculturation and especially the high rate of mortality of the submission, the type of work and diseases introduced by Europeans resulted in the decline of the native population, led them to supplement the manpower that they provided with slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. Mexico and Peru alone lost nearly 90% of their indigenous population in the first 50 years after the Conquest.
Well into the 19th century, mining and agriculture accounted for the bulk of economic activity in America. Africans offered to the conquerors the advantage of having already been exposed by their geographical proximity to European diseases, and at the same time adjusted to the tropical climate of the colonies. In the case of Argentina, the influx of African slaves began in the colonies of the Rio de la Plata in 1588, although these early arrivals were largely the work of smuggling. Trafficking flourished through the port of Buenos Aires when the city granted the British the privilege of importing a share of slaves through it. To provide slaves to the East Indies, the Spanish crown granted contracts known as Asientos to various companies from other countries, mainly Portuguese, British, Dutch and French.[3] In 1713 England, victorious in the War of Spanish Succession, had the monopoly on this trade. The last Asiento was drawn up with the Royal Society of the Philippines in 1787. Until the 1784 ban, blacks were measured and then branded.
Before the 16th century slaves had arrived in relatively small numbers from the Cape Verde islands. Thereafter the majority of Africans introduced to Argentina were from ethnic groups speaking Bantu languages, from the territories now comprising Angola, The Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Guinea and the Republic of the Congo. The immigration of Yoruba and Ewe was more limited in Argentina; larger numbers of these groups were taken to Brazil
It is estimated that 30 million Africans were shipped to the Americas, and the 6 million who survived the journey entered mainly through the ports of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Valparaiso and Rio de Janeiro.[4]
The slaves were forced to work in agriculture, livestock, domestic work and to a lesser extent crafts. In urban areas, many slaves made handicrafts for sale, whose revenues went to their masters. The Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo and Montserrat housed a large quantity of slaves, although most were to sent to the interior provinces. The 1778 census conducted by Juan José Salcedo of Vértiz showed very high concentration of Africans in provinces where agricultural production was greatest: 54% in Santiago del Estero Province, 52% in Catamarca Province, 46% in Salta province, 44% in Córdoba Province, 64% in the Tucuman Province, 24% in Mendoza Province, 20% in La Rioja Province, 16% in San Juan Province, 13% in Jujuy Province, 9% in San Luis Province. An important part of the African population also inhabited other provinces; today one of the slums of the city of Corrientes is still known as Camba Cuá, from the Guarani kamba kua, meaning "cave of the Blacks".
In 1806/1807 the city of Buenos Aires had 15,708 Europeans, 347 indigenous and mestizos, and 6650 Africans and mulattos, while in 1810 there were 22,793 whites, 9615 Africans and mulattos, and only 150 indigenous. The area most densely populated by Africans was located in the neighborhood of Montserrat, also known as Barrio del Tambor (Drumtown), just a few blocks from the current Congress.
Slaves would group themselves in societies they called nations, some of which were Conga, Cabunda, African Argentine, Mozambique, etc.
The meeting places of the nations had in common their locations in artificially flattened and sanded opened spaces for dancing; others were closed in with interior free space. In some cases the rooms were carpeted and curtained thanks to the generosity of a master. The nation had its king and queen (who in reality were democratically elected and had no court) and centered around a throne that was erected in the best place of the flag along with its flag, which every nation had. There was also a platform or at least a dais, which among other things was used to receive great dignitaries such as Juan Manuel de Rosas, his wife, and his daughter, as portrayed in a painting by Martín Boneo. The headquarters was the site of social gatherings and dances.
Often the black societies centered around the barrios, such as the del Mondongo nation or the del Tambor society. The Mondongo nation was one of the most important in Buenos Aires and was composed of 16 blocks in the barrio of Monserrat. Its name derived from the large quantity of tripe (mondongo) consumed its members. The name Tambor was quite common in many towns, as the drum was the favored African instrument for dances and songs.
Sometimes slaves were purchased individually from abroad through an agent. For example, a letter sent from Rio de Janeiro says:
| “ | My dear sir: on behalf of the schooner Ávila I send you the negro girl that you charged me with purchasing here. She is thirteen or fourteen years old, was born in the Congo, and is called María. I will put on record that I have received the five hundred peso price. Greetings to you. | ” |
Despite widespread slavery, testimonies of the time argued that in Buenos Aires and Montevideo slaves were treated with less cruelty than elsewhere.
José Antonio Wilde, in Buenos Aires in the early independence period (1810–1880) said that:
| “ | the slaves had been treated with genuine affection for their masters, having no point of comparison with the treatment given to other colonies. | ” |
This was not prevented from acknowledging however that:
| “ | the tormented love more or less at this hapless fraction of the human genus (and that) between us were usually very badly dressed. | ” |
The same opinion on the best treatment left us in their testimony that they were foreigners. For example, Alexander Gillespie, skipper of the British army during the British invasion, wrote in his memoirs that it was surprised how well they were treated in contrast with our planters in the Caribbean and Guyana, and continued:
| “ | "These unhappy exiles from their country, so they are bought in Buenos Aires, the first care was to instruct his love slave in the native language of the place, and the same in the general principles and beliefs of their faith" ... . "The masters, as I have observed, were equally attentive to its moral home. Every morning before they were to love the Mass, congregated in a black circle on the floor, young and old, giving them work of needle and fabric , According to their abilities. Everyone seemed jovial and I have no doubt that the reprimand also entered the circle. Before and after lunch, and dinner in one of the latter was presented to ask for blessings and give thanks, what we were taught to regard as prominent duties and always complied with solemnity. | ” |
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—Alexander Gillespie, Captain of the British Army, 1998 |
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In 1801 the first black militias were organized and regulated in the Company of the Grenadier Brown and Brown as a military corps segregated from the rest.
During the days of the Invasion (1806) originated in an uprising of black slaves in Buenos Aires encouraged by the rise of abolitionism of slavery in England. They believed that the British expedition came mainly to give them their independence. But the English general, William Carr Beresford, had no sympathy with this movement. The spokesman for the Creoles in Buenos Aires, Juan Martín de Pueyrredón argued that it threatened to ruin the country's economic base if slavery were quick eliminated. He demanded action on behalf of their estates and thus Beresford issued a directive in which he ordered that it be told to make the slaves understand that there were not here to change the present situation. ("It is the shortcut to time," wrote Pueyrredón in July 1806 in a letter to his stepfather in Cadiz). This measure would contribute to the defeat of the English occupation, because it drove the slaves to fight against them.
Following the defeat of the English the Cabildo de Buenos Aires declared a main objective to "see how to banish slavery from our soil." In 1812 Bernardo de Monteagudo was prevented from assuming membership of the First Triumvirate, due to its "questionable mother," referring to his African ancestors. Paradoxically, Bernardino Rivadavia was one of the objectors. He was also a descendant of Africans.[5] The Assembly XIII of the Year, the first constituent body of Argentina, ordered the release of slave children, but did not recognize the existing right to the emancipation of the slaves . Many of them were part of militias and irregular troops that eventually would shape the Argentine Army, always in segregated squadrons. They could however, if they were not complying with his master, ask to be sold and even find themselves a buyer.
Until the abolition of slavery in 1853, the Law Rescue forcing the owners of slaves to cede 40% of them for military service. Those who had full five years of service would obtain manumission, but that was rarely the case.
In the Northern Army commanded that José de San Martín and Manuel Belgrano the freed blacks made up to 65% of the troops. St. Martin came to the conclusion that there were 400,000 African-Argentines who could be recruited into armies homelands.
The armies of Independence recruited large numbers of slaves that existed in the territories conquered in the realists, offering them freedom in exchange. Many of them included the Battalion No. 8, which was part of the line of shock at the Battle of Chacabuco which recorded large numbers of casualties.
During the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas the black population of Buenos Aires rose to 30%. From that time dated the introduction of the Argentine Carnival (similar to that of the Rio de Janeiro carnival and Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and the development of rhythms as candombe and milonga that would become an integral part of the folklore of Argentina. Rosas was known his great appreciation for the black population, and his frequent attendance at the candombes. Many of the gauchos who developed tasks in the field at the time were Afro-Argentinians.
Roses in 1837 passed a law expressly prohibiting the purchase in the sale of slaves in territory and in 1840 issued its statement of the total abolition of the slave trade by the Rio de la Plata in all its forms. The National Constitution of 1853 abolished slavery, but legally only with the reform of the Constitution in 1860 to abolish the settlement was complete freedom of slaves brought by their foreign masters to Argentine territory.
Domingo F. Sarmiento's term as President of Argentina from 1868-1874 happens to be one of the two factors that the traditional history assigns to have attributed to the cause of the mass death of Afro-Argentinians: the War of Paraguay (1865–1870) and the yellow fever epidemic in Buenos Aires (1871). Sarmiento had expressed strong racist ideas and a clear position on the need to eliminate Afro-Argentine component of the population.
One of the key passages of Martín Fierro, written in 1872 and considered the national book of Argentina, consists of two encounters of the protagonist with black gauchos: the first is murdered with apparent disdain in the first part of the book, and with the other, which happens to be son of the former, several years later, argues a famous payada.
After the abolition of slavery Argentinean lived in miserable conditions and discrimination. The proof is that of the fourteen schools in Buenos Aires in 1857 admitted only two black children, despite the fact that 15% of students that year were of color. Similarly, in 1829, in Cordoba only those Afro-Argentines entering secondary school could be there for two years instead of the four years for white Argentines. Universities did not allow Blacks into their alumni until 1853.
The Afro-Argentines began to publish newspapers and to organize for the common defense. One of the newspapers, "The Unionist", published in 1877 a statement of equal rights and justice for all people regardless of skin color. In one of his numbers read:
| “ | The Constitution is a dead letter and the Counts and Marquises abound, which, following the old and odious colonial regime intended to treat their subordinates as slaves, without understanding that among the men who humiliate there are many who hide under their clothes a coarse intelligence superior to that of the same outrage. | ” |
Other newspapers were "The African race, or black Democrat" and "proletarian" (both 1858). 1880s in the city there were about twenty of such newspapers. Because of this organizational activity, some investigators have considered the social movements that were Afro Argentine who introduced socialism and the idea of social justice in Argentine culture
Also some entered politics. For example, Joseph M. Morales, an active colonel in the militias, became a deputy provincial constituent and then provincial senator in 1880, while Lieutenant Colonel Sunday Sosa became deputy twice and a constituent in 1853.
Traditionally it has been argued that the black population in Argentina declined since the early 19th century to insignificance. However, the pilot census conducted in two neighborhoods of Argentina in 2006 on knowledge of ancestors from Subsaharan Africa verified that 5% of the population knew of African ancestry, and another 20% thought that was possible but not sure. Given that European immigration accounted for more than half the growth of the Argentine population in 1960, some researchers argue that rather than decrease what they had was a process of "invisibility" of the population Afro Argentine and their cultural roots.
Other researchers have argued that there was a deliberate policy of genocide against the Afro Argentinian, which was openly expressed by many Euro-Argentines as Domingo F. Sarmiento and was probably implemented by using repressive policies during epidemics and wars as a tool of mass destruction.[6] The theories argue that genocide may have been used to explain the decline in the population. Experts were pursuing similar arguments, but differ on the attribution of intent that was first attributed to the ruling classes.
Among the reasons expressed are:
Domingo F. Sarmiento , who was president during the great yellow fever epidemic and the War of Paraguay, events to which is assigned the extermination of the Afro Argentine, had a strong racist position and argued the need to eliminate the black population. In 1848 he wrote all this in his diary during his trip to the United States.
| “ | Slavery in the United States today is without question a possible solution; 4 million are black, and within 20 years will be 8. Rescue, who pays 1,000 million pesos worth? Libertos - or Freedmen, what is done with such blacks hated by the white race? Slavery is a parasite that the vegetation of English colonization has left attached to leafy tree of freedom. Did it not dare to uproot the tree when it could, while leaving the dead, and the parasite has grown and threatens the whole tree gleaned? | ” |
Years later the same Sarmiento wrote:
| “ | I come to this happy Chamber of Deputies in Buenos Aires, where there are no gauchos, or black, or poor. | ” |
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—Cited by Ruchansky |
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Expressions of Sarmiento is an example of the attitude taken by the Argentine State after slavery was abolished by amending the census classifications so there is no record of their presence, eliminating the categories of people "black" or "brown", to merge it with other groups under the banner of "Trigueña."
Some of the few researchers in the situation of Afro Argentinians the end of the 19th century, have argued that his alleged posting by the European immigrants is not compatible with the fact the high rate of masculinity of the latter.
We must also bear in mind that non-European immigrants settled in large numbers in the northern provinces, where the population was predominantly black.
In 1887 the percentage of black population was officially calculated at 1.8% of the total. From that moment will not be registered in the census. The State's position was again made explicit at the time of the National Census of 1895 when its leaders said:
| “ | Will soon be completely unified population forming a new and beautiful whites. | ” |
Since then, and for nearly a century, in Argentina virtually no studies were conducted on the nature Afro Argentinians.
Beginning in the 1930s began to place large internal migrations to Buenos Aires and other urban centers to be integrated as factory workers in the industrialization process open then. Beginning in the 1940s, his presence was crowded and was disparagingly called for large sections of middle and upper class, "black heads."
Only in recent decades have there begun to appear research both historical and sociological aimed at the black population, with results that have been received with surprise and in some cases rejected by large segments.
In recent years, have multiplied the studies, activities and organizations related to population Afro Argentine. The overall result indicates a presence both physically and culturally far greater than that posed formally.
The arguably biggest reason for the small Afro presence in Argentina, despite there once being a fairly sizeable population at one time, is warfare. Afro Argentine men were heavily involved in the country’s wars against Great Britain, Spain, Brazil, and even the indigenous peoples of Argentina. Another reason in addition to warfare is that they were systematically being mixed out by mingling with European immigrants and the white Argentines as well. Also, Afro-Argentines that were free, were set loose into very poor living conditions.
Slavery was officially abolished in Argentina in 1813, however, many blacks were still held as slaves, and were only granted their freedom by fighting in Argentina’s wars. For this reason, black men served very disportionately in the war against Spain for Argentina’s independence. When you look at the huge number of black men killed in the war compared to the white Argentines, you can come to the conclusion that these black men were being used as a “cannon fodder”, and were deliberately being placed on the frontlines. In fact, when you observe Argentina’s history, their government has purposely sent as many blacks as possible to battle in dangerous military service. Not to mention their mission of “killing two birds with one stone” by sending the Afro Argentines to war against the Amerindians (Indians), who the white Argentines despised as well.
While the black Argentine men were getting killed in warfare, black Argentine women were without mates. So these black women began to produce mix children with the European immigrants. This mixing created another problem for the Afro Argentines though, since having an African heritage wasn’t considered proper, and was even seen as a burden to many mulattos. It is for this reason that many light mulattos passed for white or trigueño (a dark skin white person), and were even careful not to associate themselves with the Afro Argentine community. With the obsession of the Argentines to become a white nation, “passing” became popular for the mulattos in Argentina. In fact, it was very rare to find a mulatto who had the chance to pass, not utilize this advantage.
Ironically for the Afro Argentines, a free black in Argentina had less chance for survival than an enslaved black Argentine did. An enslaved black was seen as an investment so he or she was taken good care for; on the other hand free blacks were left with menial jobs for low pay, or became beggars in the streets. For this reason the poverty in the Afro Argentine community was terrible. In fact, a large portion of blacks died from disease, because they couldn’t afford proper medical care. Many Afro Argentines were decimated by frequent plagues like yellow fever.[12]
Today in Argentina, the Afro-Argentine Community is beginning to emerge from the shadows. There have been black organizations such as “Grupo Cultural Afro”, “SOS Racismo”, and perhaps the most important group “Africa Vive” that have help to rekindle interest into the African heritage of Argentina. There are also Afro-Uruguayan and Afro-Brazilian migrants who have helped to expand the African culture. The Afro-Uruguayan migrants have brought their candombe to Argentina, while the Afro-Brazilians teach capoeira, orisha, and other African derived secular dances.
The question that remains now is “how many people in Argentina can claim African ancestry?” However, the exact number is actually quite difficult to calculate. As stated earlier, many blacks that could used to “pass” for mulatto or white, so for this reason, people may or may not be aware that they had a black great grandparent. In fact, many researchers believe that possibly as many as 10% of Buenos Aires residents have African ancestry, but are unaware of it. Also, as Anthropologist Alejandro Frigerio noted, “The term ‘negro’ is used loosely on anyone with slightly darker skin, but they can be descendants of the indigenous Indians or Middle Eastern immigrants. Not to mention the fact that it has been well over a century since Argentina has reflected the African racial ancestry in its census count. Therefore, calculating the exact number of Afro-descendents is very difficult; however, Africa Vive calculates that there are about 1,000,000 Afro-descendents in Argentina.[13][14] The last argentinian census count, carried on October 27, 2010, introduced the African ancestry survey.[15][16]
Perhaps the most lasting effect of black influence in Argentina was the Tango, which charges some of the characteristics of the festivities and ceremonies that slaves developed in the so-called tango, meeting houses in which they are grouped with permission from their masters. Although not yet clearly demonstrated, it is considered that even the milonga (and dance) and chacarera draw on its influence, and the minstrel song , besides the fictitious dark Martín Fierro, the minstrels were famous Gabino Ezeiza and Higinio D. Cazón. The pianist and composer Rosendo Mendizabal , author of "El Entrerriano", was black, and Carlos Posadas, Enrique Maciel (author of the music of the waltz "La Pulpera de Santa Lucía"), Cayetano Silva , born in San Carlos (Uruguay) and author of the San Lorenzo march music, and Zenón Rolón, who wrote numerous academic music, funeral march as the Great in 1880 was run in honor of the Liberator José de San Martín to be repatriated the remains.
The colloquial speech of Spanish in Argentina argues many black African terms, for example mine (synonymous with woman), maid, tripe, brothel, Marot, catinga, tamango, Mandingo and milonga, using many of them in the slang. In religion, in addition to the festivities of Carnival, the veneration of St. Benedict and St. Balthasar , the wise person black, still popularly revered in much of Corrientes, Chaco and north east of Santa Fe.
However, racism is still important. The terms black, bold, dark-haired and black head-directed towards people of another social class, but with a strong semantic content linked to race-are still used, though their victims are often people of Amerindian origin, and even of European origin.
During the colony, the Spanish authorities described as different "varieties" from "crossing" include those resulting from the union of Black African people with people of other ethnic origins. The names used were:
Socially, possess a "crossing" in the family tree was a macula. These classifications, and other common in the colonial culture, as "mestizo" or cholo, were used to stigmatize people and prevent their social advancement. In some cases, well-known historical personalities were found in this situation, as Bernardo de Monteagudo and Bernardino Rivadavia, were described as "mulatto".
Between 12,000 and 15,000 descendants of immigrants from Cape Verde living in Argentina, of whom about 300 are native to the African country.
This immigration began in the late 19th century and became important from the 1920s. The busiest periods were between 1927 and 1933 and the third, after 1946.[17] These migrations were mainly due to droughts in the African country that originated famine and death.
They were expert sailors and fishermen, which is why most places settled in ports such as Rosario, Buenos Aires, San Nicolás, Bahía Blanca, Ensenada and Dock Sud. 95% of them got jobs in the Navy War in the Merchant Navy in the Fleet Fluvial Argentina in YPF, dockyards or ELMA.[17]
The popularly called Barrio del Once there are many Africans who have come to escape the misery of their countries, particularly Senegal. According to the Agency for Refugees in Buenos Aires, seeking asylum, get a visa to travel to Brazil and then Argentina, sometimes traveling as stowaways on ships. When denied a residence permit, remain in the country without status and become lawful targets of human trafficking network. On Sunday some of the Senegalese community comes together to eat traditional dishes of their country. Some places already have African food recipes.[18]
In recent years, Africans being exploited beyond their home countries by war or persecution, for religious, ideological or political, they arrive as stowaways to the country, particularly the port of Rosario, province of Santa Fe. Although figures are inadequate increase every year: in 2008 landed 70 people seeking refuge, against some 40 of the previous year, but only 10 remained, the rest were repatriated. Many are children.[18]
They usually get on the ships without knowing where they go, or believing they are going to a developed country in the northern hemisphere. They come from Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Guinea.[18]
The first African who started this new immigration arrived in the city of Rosario in 2004. They were adopted by a family, but most are not so lucky. Many children have been housed in temporary homes and many adults live in rented rooms and earn money as street vendors. Some family formed and settled. Others became offenders.
In the early 90s until the 2001 economic crisis as a result of a policy of peso-dollar conversion, there was an influx of poor countries who came to the country to work to earn high wages measured in dollars and return to their home with money earned. Then they began to get Dominican women of African descent into prostitution either voluntarily or have fallen into a network of trafficking.
A second wave of immigrants of this class started in 2008: Dominican requests to settle in the country rose from 663 in 2007 to 1,168 in 2008 according to statistics from the Directorate of Immigration. It imposed controls in order to detect "fake tourists" and fight the gangs that brought them. So in April 2009 some 166 Dominicans were rejected and returned to their country.[19]
In Argentina, as in other countries of America, racism-related skin tone or the people of African origin dates back to the days of colonial rule. In the caste system imposed by Spain, the descendants of people from black Africa occupied a place still lower than the descendants of persons belonging to aboriginal peoples.
The racist colonial went some way to the Argentine culture, as shown by some racist comments of the president Domingo F. Sarmiento. During the mid-19th century, were common to the death duels between gauchos and mestizos afroargentinos. In Argentine literature, these disputes are represented with a racist tinge in a famous passage from the book by José Hernández, Martín Fierro (The way), published in 1870, in which the main character is a bat with a gaucho black mourning after insulting his girlfriend and insult to the following verse:
Several years later, in 1878 Hernandez publishes the second part of his famous book, which holds a famous Fierro payada in that debate philosophical topics (such as life, creation, existence, etc.). With another who is black gaucho be the son of former literate and unique character of the famous book. Showing the evolution of the character and probably of Argentine society in the process of receiving millions of European immigrants, this time Martín Fierro avoids the duel when it seemed inevitable.
The invisibility of deliberate Afro Argentinians and culture, is another striking manifestation of racism in Argentina, related to the tone of the skin or African origins.
In 2006 the president of the National Institute to Combat Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) recognized the invisibility of Afro Argentine with the following words:
| “ | The afros in Argentina have been "invisible" and today unseen continue. This is the result of a process of diaspora caused by slavery and its transformation into servitude. The current social stratification places them in poverty. | ” |
[20]
A special type of discrimination has been widespread since the mid-20th century, using derogatory terms such as "black head", "black", "bold", "black" and that are related primarily to workers in lower classes. In many cases, have been "racialised social relations," and simply uses the term "black", to name a derogatory to the worker, unrelated to the color of their skin. In labor relations is commonly used among people who hold positions of importance in companies in personnel management, workers refer to as "blacks". Also in the political life it is customary to refer to supporters of Peronism as "black".
In this particular manifestation of racism in Argentina, has been unified under the term "black" or "black", discrimination against persons belonging to the indigenous peoples, as well as that of Latin American migrants and their descendants, and directed against Afro Argentinians .
One manifestation of this racism is present in the songs employed by the swollen football, where discrimination on ethnicity or nationality is conspicuous; in one particularly famous example, was "accused" by the fans of Boca Juniors to be "dirty blacks from Bolivia and Paraguay".
On the other hand, "black" it is also used as a friendly term. Not all Argentinean people say the term to insult, most people do it on a daily basis as a friend to friend term, and it is accepted by society in most cases.
Recently, there has been a growing interest into Argentina’s African heritage, as well as their African descended community. A group of Afro-Argentineans called “Africa Vive” (Africa lives), led by Maria Lamadrid, have emerged on a mission to fight discrimination, as well as raise awareness of the plight of the Afro Argentinean community and their place in Argentina’s history. Maria Lamadrid, who founded Africa Vive in the late 90’s, has helped to bring the racism and discrimination in Argentina to the forefront. She struggled in her youth to receive an education since she was both black and poor. For this reason, she ended up cleaning other people’s houses to make a living, like other poor women in Argentina do. Maria has seen the racism up close and personal there every day. In fact, a few years ago when Maria wanted to travel to Panama, she went to the immigration counter with her new Argentine passport, when the immigration officer saw the passport, the officer began to scream that “it is a fake”, and then this officer detained her. The only reason they could give for detaining her is that “there aren’t any blacks in Argentina.”[21]
Although Maria encounters racism as well as discrimination on a daily basis in her country, it has done nothing but inspire her, as well as her Africa Vive foundation to push forward towards equality. In fact, in 1999, Africa Vive organized a very well publicized conference against discrimination at the University of Buenos Aires. Africa Vive also was invited to attend the Durban UN Conference on Racism. At this conference, they made a presentation about the socio-economic situation of the Afro-Argentines, such as the high amount of unemployment in the Afro Argentine community, as well as the problem with naturalization that blacks receive because of racist immigration policies.
Argentina has been a country that not only denies having an Afro-descended community, but has done everything to erase Africa from its past. The Afro-Argentine community currently faces issues of high unemployment, racist immigration policies, as well as denial about their existence; however, there is hope for this country’ black people. In 2001, Afro-descended groups like “Grupo Cultural Afro”, "SOS Racismo", and of course "Africa Vive" came together to convince a national deputy to organize a ceremony in memory of the black soldiers who died fighting (as a “cannon fodder” in many cases) for Argentina’s independence. In this ceremony, the national deputy spoke in honor of the great fallen soldiers, in addition to awarding degrees to the heads of several black organizations. For Argentina to have an event that not only acknowledges the African contributions to the country, but also puts the Afro-Argentines in the spotlight, is truly a very remarkable thing. This event was certainly a huge step for Afro-Argentines toward reaching their goal for equality, however, they still have many more miles to walk, but there is certainly more hope for the Afro-Argentine Community to reach this goal than there has been in a very long time.
On October 9, 2006, created the Forum of African descent and Africans in Argentina, with the aim of promoting social and cultural pluralism and the fight against discrimination of a population in the country to reach the two million inhabitants.
The National Institute to Combat Discrimination (INADI) is the public body responsible for combating discrimination and racism.
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