Mestizaje, Córdoba's patria chica: beyond the myth of black disappearance in Argentina

Abstract

This article examines the ‘disappearance of the black population’ by moving beyond the more traditional explanation of the blanqueamiento (whitening) movement at the end of the nineteenth century. In shifting the temporal framework to the republican period, 1820–1853, a more colorful explanation arises to address how the black population was first lightened which would lead to it being whitened during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ultimately because of mestizaje (racial mixture), blacks and other castas (a person who was not a Spaniard and often of a mixed racial heritage) became pardos. Pardos at first included those of mixed heritage with an elite status among other castas in the colonial period. As Córdoba joined the nation-building process, pardo encompassed all people of color, especially the growing, free black population. In order to explain this process, I traced African descendants who were originally labeled negro and changed to pardo in the 1813, 1822, and 1832 city censuses

Keywords:

• African Diaspora
• nation building
• slavery
• demography
• Afro-Argentines
• Argentina

Notes

1. Argentina tiene mucho para contar: Gracias a vos el censo fue un éxito [Argentina has Much to Tell: Thanks to You, the Census was a Success] (http://www.censo2010.indec.gov.ar/index_afro.asp, 2010). Acccessed July 2010.

2. The only reference to trigueño found in Córdoba was to military personnel; it was not found in the city of Córdoba's censuses or casta marriage records. It was defined as a color ‘between dark and light’ which included various racial categories. Based on the militia of 1819, trigueños amounted to 27 percent of all recruits, second to whites, who were 31 percent.