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| Photo: Ebony |
“What I found was not a viable, but a vanishing black people: relatively few in numbers, relatively free of racial discrimination and relatively content. Summarized by one gentleman, if there were more of us, perhaps it would be different," wrote Ebony editor Era Bell Thompson.
But thirty-eight years later the attidute has changed. Descendants of slaves are starting to assert their identity. The Global post called it 'The reawakening of Afro-Argentine culture'.
But that’s not easy in South America's whitest country. But restfull attidute has changes. Now, for the first time in a century and a half, Argentine descendants of African slaves are organizing and going public to assert their identity
“We've been exiled from the collective memory of Argentina,” said Juan Suaque, a seventh-generation descendant of Argentine slaves, in the Global post. “It's as if you pass someone in the street and you have to explain your whole life, what and who you are.”
At the beginning of the 1800s, black slaves were 30 percent of the population of Buenos Aires, and an absolute majority in some other provinces.
Anti-racism video of 'Diaspora Africa de la Argentina' (Diafar)
Carmen "Pelusa" of the Afro-Argentine music group La Familia talks about the music Candoble
Campaign video of the Argentine census to stimulate Afro-Argentines to identify themselves
“We've been exiled from the collective memory of Argentina,” said Juan Suaque, a seventh-generation descendant of Argentine slaves, in the Global post. “It's as if you pass someone in the street and you have to explain your whole life, what and who you are.”
At the beginning of the 1800s, black slaves were 30 percent of the population of Buenos Aires, and an absolute majority in some other provinces.
The first president of Argentina had African ancestry, and so did the composer of the first tango. Even the word “tango,” like many other words common in the Argentine vocabulary, has an African root; so do many beloved foods, including the national vices of the asado barbecue and dulce de leche.
To follow up on the story of the Black Argentine soldiers, some links and videos of the Afro-Argentines since they are part of the Black Diaspora, the history of Latin America and of course part of the history of Spain.
Article - Afro-Argentines
The must-read blog - AfroAmericanas
Organisation - Misibamba - Comunidad Afroargentina de Buenos Aires
Organisation - Diaspora Africa de la Argentina
Black history video Afro Argentines
To follow up on the story of the Black Argentine soldiers, some links and videos of the Afro-Argentines since they are part of the Black Diaspora, the history of Latin America and of course part of the history of Spain.
Article - Afro-Argentines
The must-read blog - AfroAmericanas
Organisation - Misibamba - Comunidad Afroargentina de Buenos Aires
Organisation - Diaspora Africa de la Argentina
Black history video Afro Argentines
Anti-racism video of 'Diaspora Africa de la Argentina' (Diafar)
Carmen "Pelusa" of the Afro-Argentine music group La Familia talks about the music Candoble
Campaign video of the Argentine census to stimulate Afro-Argentines to identify themselves
Again I love the post. It's so sad that black people always get written out of history. I'm about history and tired of hearing biased history from white people. Loved the videos too. I live in Spain and I work with an Argentinan woman who looks mixed black and native American at first I thought she was Brazilian but she said she was from Argentina. I haven't aksed her if she has black ancestors because I know latinos can get very offended when asked this.
ReplyDeleteChico-Rei, thanks! Yes we need that black perspective, that's why it's good you are also writing this kind of stories.
ReplyDeleteThat is too true. It does seem that even history about places like Africa is from a white perspective.
ReplyDeleteWhite Latinos have always disrepected and disliked Black Latinos even until this day they are treated with scorn by white Latinos. Good to see that the Afro Argentinian movement is growing throughout the Spanish speaking world and these people are now speaking up for themselves. In far too many Latino socities the only right Latino is a white Latino descendant from the Spaniards.
ReplyDeleteI am an Afro-Mexican-American, my family's black side came from the Caribbean islands as immigrants in the late 19th century. And they arrived to a mostly white Mexican (Yes, there are Mexicans that are pure White) place. They worked and intermarried with whites. And let me add something, most of the times you, as a different person, just want to merge into the general population to make things easier to your children and descendants. I can say that even me (maybe I am 5 generation apart) have faced racism because I still preserve some African traits, but I am not ashamed, I always tell people my origins, and I am proud of being descendant of people that survived the black death and the inhuman business of slavery. Afroargentines I support you!!!
ReplyDeleteI am an afro-latino (afro-mexican) and the worst racism I have encountered is actually not from whites, but from Asians. Chinese people literally asked me "What are you?" and called me a monkey. Race issues are not always black and white. We have to move beyond that dichotomy to rid the world of anti-african prejudice.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent point you made! I moved to San Francisco, California, a year and a half ago, and for the first time in my life I found myself in a city that is almost 50% non-white, but non-white composed mostly of Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese, South Asians, and around 15% Latino. African-Americans are only 5% of San Francisco's population and dropping. Every day is a learning experience navegating these waters of being a racial minority within a sea of other non-black racial minorities.
Deletethis is beautiful! I am so happy to see more Afro-Latinos stepping up and claiming their lineage. It is a pity that we are being wiped out nearly vanished from history. However, we must continue to educate our children about the rich African roots and culture.
ReplyDeleteHi! I'm argentinian and I love this post for so many reasons.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I knew that "once upon a time" Argentina had a large black population (I still remember the representation of the typical black lady selling empanadas and stuff in every 25 de mayo commemorative ceremony in school), but never really knew why black population almost disappeared. And it was not until I was older than I started wondering, and I read above in one of the comments, that most times (if not always) History is written by white people, and is so true!... they never tought us this part of the argentinian history in school; but later on I read about all the people that fought at Paraguay war and something clicked there. Of course.
I'm what you'd consider "white" (my ancestors, both from father and mother, came from PaÃs Vasco, Spain). Still, my mother is not quite white, and so isn't my brother. Me, like my father, are very much white.. and we don't particulary like it (our skin burns like hell in summer, which is 9 month a year).
Regardless of this, I live in a part of the country that most of the population is from european descent, and to some of the german or ukranian descendants (some families, not all of them), we are considered "not white", and don't want their children to marry or date "not blonde blue-eyed people". I mean... *sights*
Inmigration in my province was massive and tough we all love each other very peacefully now, to some families that come from very closed inmigrat colonies, integration is still an issue. So, I can't even imagine what they would say about the afro-argentines.
I've met people that I'm pretty sure (now that i think about it) were afro descendant, but never for a minute I thought about asking them about it, beacuse.. who cares?! Don't get me wrong, but does it really matter? I mean, aren't we all the same? I don't go around telling people that my great grand parents came from Spain, first, beacuse I don't think they care, and second, and most importantly, I don't think it matters.
To me it's ridiculous that we are in the XXI century and we still have to talk about different races, the white, the black and the hundreds other different colors that there are in between. We all live in this very beautiful country, we all have the same rights, and so we all have the same stupid corrupt goverment. Good for us.
I think it 's okay to love and honor the culture of your ancestors, to some it's part of their identity and that ok; to others, like myself, it's just something that needs to be explained when they ask about their weired last name. To me Argentina is an unique country, and its different from the other countries from latin america, we are the best, right?. I'm sure the same thing the colombian people think about themselves, and the brazilians, and the mexicans, and we can go on and on (see, we are all the same).
To be honest, I love that my country was populated by so many different cultures; like it or not, "white" inmigrants ended up pairing with natives and other "not white" inmigrants and the result is a very diverse etnicity (not entirely white!). And, to the ones that still have issues with integration, it's ok.. It's good that we can all get along with such diverse cultural identity.
It was not my intention to write this much, but it felt inspired. Loved runing into this. Go afro argentines!!
PD: si este es un post sobre afro argentinos, por qué carajo escribimos todos en inglés?!
Hi! I'm argentinian and I love this post for so many reasons.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I knew that "once upon a time" Argentina had a large black population (I still remember the representation of the typical black lady selling empanadas and stuff in every 25 de mayo commemorative ceremony in school), but never really knew why black population almost disappeared. And it was not until I was older than I started wondering, and I read above in one of the comments, that most times (if not always) History is written by white people, and is so true!... they never tought us this part of the argentinian history in school; but later on I read about all the people that fought at Paraguay war and something clicked there. Of course.
I'm what they'd consider "white" (my ancestors, both from father and mother, came from PaÃs Vasco, Spain). Still, my mother is not quite white, and so isn't my brother. Me, like my father, are very much white.. and we don't particulary like it (our skin burns like hell in summer, which is 9 month a year where we live).
Regardless of this, I live in a part of the country that most of the population is from european descent, and to some of the german or ukranian descendants (some families, not all of them), we are considered "not white", and don't want their children to marry or date "not blonde blue-eyed people". I mean... *sights*
Inmigration in this province was massive and tough we all love each other very peacefully now, to some families that come from very closed inmigrat colonies, integration is still an issue. So, I can't even imagine what they would say about the afro-argentines.
I've met people that I'm pretty sure (now that i think about it) were afro descendant, but never for a minute I thought about asking them about it, beacuse.. who cares?! Don't get me wrong, but does it really matter? I mean, aren't we all the same: argetinians? I don't go around telling people that my great grand parents came from Spain, first, beacuse I don't think they care, and second, and most importantly, I don't think it matters. I was born in Argentina, I was raised here, and I love living here, with all the good and the bad things.
To me it's ridiculous that we are in the XXI century and we still have to talk about different races, the white, the black and the hundreds other different colors that there are in between. We all live in this very beautiful country, we all have the same rights, and so we all have the same stupid corrupt goverment. Good for us.
I think it 's okay to love and honor the culture of your ancestors, to some it's part of their identity and that ok; to others, like myself, it's just something boring that needs to be explained when they ask about their weired last name. To me Argentina is an unique country, and its different from the other countries from latin america, we are the best, right?. But I'm sure the same thing the colombians think about themselves, and the brazilians, and the mexicans, and we can go on and on (see, we are all the same).
To be honest, I love that my country was populated by so many different cultures; like it or not, "white" inmigrants ended up pairing up with natives and other "not white" inmigrants and the result is a very diverse etnicity (not entirely white!). And, to the ones that still have issues with integration, it's ok.. It's good that we can all get along with such diverse cultural identity.
I don't know if I'm gonna live enough to witness the moment when we don't have to have conversations about this, or war, for that matter. Thousands of years of evolution and "civilization", and we still fight with each other for our skin color and religion.
Ok, It was not my intention to write this much, but it felt inspired. Loved runing into this. Go afro argentines (and other inmigrant descendants and natives).
PD: si este es un post sobre afro argentinos, por qué carajo escribimos todos en inglés?!
It's good to see more information on this. I was born in England so was my dad. My grandad came to England around 1900. He's afro Argentine. I don't know enough of my heritage. I know he changed his name before he came here and he received a bravery medal in Mendoza where he lived. He left his wife and children in Argentina and met my grandma in the UK. Why he left I don't know, im not sure if there's many records available about my family as I hear many were destroyed, an I'd love to know if I have relatives still in Argentina now.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is from Argentina now living in the USA. She says there are very few black people in Argentina... and that one could walk around all week and not see one Afro-Argentinian person. However, she thinks its because "black" people blended in with "white" and native peoples and now everyone looks very similar, so its hard to tell and that nobody really cares about race.
ReplyDeleteAs a white person myself I find it so ridiculous when I hear some of my fellow white people claim BS like we are being wiped out etc. When our people wrongfully spread to every corner of the globe an killed people who were not looking for a fight and weren't prepared.
ReplyDeleteThere are like 1.6 billion white people on the planet, existing in North America, South America, Australia, Europe, South Africa, New Zealand etc.
My nasty people literally invaded south Africa and tried to take over the land there, then my people acted like victims when the black Africans dismantled apartheid and said that if white people are to live there then it's to be for everyone and black people are the rightful owners of the land (which is actually true).
In the north of Africa you have Arabic type peoples slowly working their way down into Africa, slowly taking it over. In places like the US black people are being locked up at record rates, black folk seem to be facing attacks from other groups everywhere they go.
One good thing that African people must take advantage of is the relationship with China, China came in and look to make legit relationships and treat you fairly, China never enslaved your people and they treat you as if you are capable. Kenya has grown a lot with their friendship with China.
Of course the west doesn't like this, the west doesn't like seeing places in Africa improve and especially as a result of African people having partnerships with non white people. Western people want to keep Africa oppressed and undeveloped and continue this idea that you are incapable subhumans basically. The west always puts on TV the worst case examples in Africa, never showing places like Nairobi or other developed areas and never mentioning the big projects going on in Africa.
It's intrinsic I feel, I am one of the very few white people who isn't racist and I can see the vile hate in my own people, they literally are constantly attacking black people since the beginning of time.
The west seeks to ruin these relationships with China and African countries by constantly telling African countries to not trust the Chinese. But the Africans luckily aren't listening and they know their own history which was horrible white people invading and putting them on plantations and treating them like literal animals.
China says it's better to teach someone how to fish, instead of giving them fish. China also said that the relationship between themselves and African people is more conducive for African people learning and developing their countries as it isn't a relationship with past hate and slavery. That African people will never show their potential while being forced to work with people they hate (white people), and already African people have shown themselves in Kenya to be more capable than the racist white man has ever claimed they were capable of.
It's strange how you went & took the whitest Latin American country & did your best to add black people to the history.
ReplyDeleteYou are incorrectly telling a narrative to meet your political point of view.
Those women you have pictures up, non of the 3 is an Afro-Argentine, short of one of them having an actual black parent, and the other being an Argentine parent.
Most dark Argentineans are not descendent of black ppl.
They're descendants of Native Argentines, who were also very dark You're erasing the history of Native Americans in order to script a weird, mostly untrue black history. WHY?
I'm Argentine, I am 28% native, but not African. My paternal grandfather was darker than my sister's black (American) husband. Their daughter is Afro Argentine.
Yes, there were some African slaves brought to Argentina when the Spaniards invaded. Those slaves, they helped their masters to capture, fight & kill the Natives of Argentina, as they did in all the countries they were enslaved at.
Spain, leaving behind slaves as they did in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba & other islands; would leave behind their slaves which would then in turn rape the natives.
Hence the Afro-Cubans, Afro-Puerto Ricans, & Haiti, as Dominicans pushed the darkest of themselves into a new country, Haiti. Which is why most of the ppl whom actually know the history don't "celebrate" their "Afro-heritage" parts of their Latin heritage, considering, that it means someone in their ancestry raped a native.
As you sit here & make everything racial, with these "these Hispanics hide their blackness" rhetoric, understand that it's not being black that's the problem.
It's knowing that you're likely the descendent of a rapist, who helped his master keep your native family member in check & likely murdered your native's family's loved ones.
The 1st video posted about the History of Black ppl in Argentina contradicts itself varies times. At one point it claims that Cordoba was mainly afrolatinos over 60% Oddly enough, the last time I was in Cordoba in the 90s, I didn't see one...but okay. After making that claim, 3-4 slides later it claims "since there were already such few Africans at the time & the women married/mixed with all the immigrants, they become non existent after that. Oddly enough, then it claims that they died from illnesses & race wars.
Also the video didn't use pictures of "afro" Argentines. "There are so many examples of "afro Argentines",that they needed to use pictures of Jamaicans, Dominicans, Cubans, e.t.c...to prove that they know of many Afro Argentines.
The entire article is b.s & based in racial ideology.