Taking race seriously: Whiteness in Argentina's national and transnational imaginary

Middle class porteños (the inhabitants of Buenos Aires) display their ambivalence about the whiteness of Argentina and their own belonging to the nation through their use of the intermittently racializing discourse of “seriousness.” The discourse of “seriousness” is used to talk about the status of Argentina's political, economic, and cultural “development” and Argentina's place in the global hierarchy of nations. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1994–1997), this essay analyzes the contradictions of porteño articulations and disarticulations of their own Argentine‐ness in relation to racial identity. The analysis centers on how porteños’ assessments of President Carlos Menem's representative‐ness reflect the instability of racial norms in contemporary Argentina. Porteños’ ambiguous position in their own national and transnational imaginary—privileged within Argentina but marginal in the world—is reflected in their use of racial categories and racializing discourses.

Key words:

• Argentina
• Latin America
• Porteños, Racialization
• Race
• Whiteness
• Seriousness
• Transnational
• Nation