Abolition, Blackness, African descent in the Argentinean press from revolution to abolition (1810-1860)

• In Event: Violence, Press and Politics in Latin America: the Public Sphere in Slavery and Cold War

Abstract

The role of the press in the formation of Latin American nations and imaginings of race, gender and citizenship has been highlighted by many scholars in the last decade. In the case of Argentina, several historians have used these newspapers as a source for the reconstruction of different aspects of the Afro-Argentine’s history (Andrews, 1980, Geler, 2010, Barrachina, 2018). Nevertheless, we lack of a systematic and specific reflection on how abolitionist politics were discussed, and how images of blacks, former slaves and African descendants were built, circulated and discussed in the local newspapers from the revolution of independence to final abolition.
This paper addresses the construction, circulation and possible effects of such images. It argues that understanding better these descriptions, stereotypes and stories produced or reproduced in the newspapers is crucial to think on three other major questions: the gradual character of the process of abolition in Argentina; the possibilities and social consequences of claiming an African or black identity in the country and the process of invisibilization of the African presence in Argentina.

Author

• Magdalena del Corazon Candioti, CONICET/Instituto Ravignani UBA /UNL