El color de la nación argentina: conflictos y negociaciones por la definición de un ethnos nacional, de la crisis al Bicentenario

Abstract

This article analyses the emergence of a non-diasporic “negro” identity in Argentina in the past three decades, as a reaction against discrimination of the poor on “racial” grounds. Although this discrimination is not new, the narrative of the white-European nation sponsored by the State made it almost impossible to confront it, or at least not openly. However, the weakening of the Nation-state as the aftermath of economic and political crisis opened up a new space for renego­tiating the definition of the Argentinean ethnos. By examining different manifes­tations of lower class culture - from the spread of afro-Brazilian religions to mur­gas in carnival, and from popular music to political appeals - this article explores the ethnic dimension to class identities in recent Argentinean history. The emerg­ing “negro” identity is interpreted as a metonymic mark in a class identity, rather than an ethnic identity properly speaking.