DOI: 10.1111/hic3.

12456

ARTICLE

The making of a White nation: The disappearance

of the Black population in Argentina
Erika Denise Edwards

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Correspondence
Erika Denise Edwards, University of
North Carolina at Charlotte, Dep of History,
Garinger 101, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
Email: eedwar27@uncc.edu
Abstract
While visiting what is considered the most European and
White country in Latin America, I often asked Argentines,
“What happened to the Black population?” The most com-
mon response I heard on the streets of Argentina “there are
no Blacks, they disappeared.” But how can a population “dis-
appear” and what exactly does that constitute for a country
that prides itself in being European. Scholars have grappled
with the meaning of disappearance and the consequences
of the myth of Black disappearance since the 1960s. This
essay traces their observations and conclusions, which have
put the color back into Argentina's whitened past.

1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N

The 2014 Men's World Cup finals pitted Germany against Argentina. Bets were made, and various observations were
cited about the teams. Who had the better defense? Would Germany and Argentina's star players step up to meet
the challenge? And, surprisingly, why did Argentina lack Black players? Across the globe blogs and articles found it
ironic that Germany fielded a more diverse team while Argentina, with a history of slavery, did not have a solitary
Black player (Gates Jr, 2014). This observation along with others, such as the ex‐president Carlos Menem who noted
while visiting Howard University in the 1990s, “there are no blacks in Argentina, that is a Brazilian problem,” have
continued to perpetuate the belief that there are no Blacks in Argentina. But as observations about the 2014 Argen-
tine soccer team has revealed it has not stopped people from questioning, what happened to the Black population?
In response, various myths have tried to explain this conundrum.1 Some of the most popular include the follow-
ing: yellow fever took its toll on the Black population, or Blacks migrated to Uruguay (which is an attempt to explain
why Uruguay has a visible Black population in comparison to Argentina). Other myths give a gendered explanation for
the disappearance which argue Black men died in the wars of independence, ensuing civil wars, and the Triple Alli-
ance War 1864–1870. The death of so many Black men on the battlefield forced Black women to seek partnership
with recently arrived European immigrants, and the Black population slowly faded into oblivion or as some have sug-
gested “disappeared.”
Given that Africans and their descendants composed such a sizable percentage of Argentina, such simplistic and
single cause explanations do not suffice or explain the observed demographic change. In the 18th century, African
descendants numbered 30% of present‐day Argentina, but according to the 2010 census, African descendants

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https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12456
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totaled less than 1%. This essay traces how scholars have grappled with Black disappearance. It discusses two meth-
odologies used by scholars since the 1960s. The first is a social historical approach that focuses on demography,
while the second methodology centers on cultural legacies and memory.

2 | S O C I A L H I S T O R I E S OF B L A C K D I S A P P E A R A N C E

The first set of scholars who explored Black disappearance used quantitative methods. They relied on the censuses of
the late 18th century to explain Black erasure. In 1966, Emiliano Endrek published a book about the disappearance in
Córdoba, an interior city (Endrek, 1966). He argued that mestizaje or racial mixture caused a decline in the Black pop-
ulation. He pointed to the use of the racial label pardo in Córdoba to explain a growth of a mixed population that
included Indians, Blacks, and Whites that no longer fit into traditional racial labels such as negro, indio, mestizo, or
mulato. According to Endrek, the grouping of these former labels by governing officials into pardo revealed the extent
of mestizaje or racial mixture. However, the distinction between pardo and the White population continued to mark
those of privilege from those without it in the republican period.
Ten years later, Marta Goldberg's article also engages the racial label pardo and references Endrek's findings.
However, she does acknowledge that “official documents replaced indio, mulato, and negro with natural, pardo, and
moreno.” Despite suggesting that pardo could also include mestizo, Goldberg argues that pardo most likely signified
African descendant in Buenos Aires. Goldberg's article is a pioneering social history of the African descendants in Buenos
Aires (Goldberg, 1976). It concluded there was a decline in the Black male population which led to miscegenation.
However, Goldberg did not attribute the decline to the wars of independence but rather a high male infant mortality rate.
Within the United States, Black experiences outside of the United States caught the interest of advocates and
journalists. The question of Black disappearance in Argentina became a call for advocacy in the larger African diaspora
with Era Bell Thompson's article “Argentina: The Land of Vanishing Blacks,” in Ebony (Thompson, 1973). On assignment
to find the “remnants of the race that was … in the cattle country,” Thompson found a “viable, but vanishing black people:
relatively few in numbers, relatively free of racial discrimination, and relatively content.” This article further discusses
African‐American celebrities such as Josephine Baker and ex‐boxer Calvin Respress who moved to Argentina to train
Louis “Mad Bull of the Pampas” Firpo. This article pointed to the myths of Black disappearance stressing that many Blacks
died on the battlefield which led to miscegenation. But it also made visible the Black population noting they composed of
Haitians, Cape Verdeans, North Americans, and descendants of Argentine slaves. To stress how much miscegenation
affected slave descendants, she featured the Sergio Montes's three daughters whose brown pigmentations ranged from
chocolate, caramel, and vanilla.
Four years later, George Reid Andrews's book debunked the myths of Black disappearance in Buenos Aires
(Andrews, 1980). He examined Argentina's concerted efforts to whiten the population in the censuses by using labels
such as trigueño (wheat colored which applied to dark‐skinned Europeans and light‐skinned African descendants)
rather than pardo, which he argued referred to African descendants, moreno (brown) or negro (black) to define their
racial makeup. He further combed through military records and proved the popular myth of Black male cannon fodder
false. Moreover, Andrews is one of the first historians who studied Black disappearance, to combine social and cul-
tural histories. He examined the Black newspapers in Buenos Aires and revealed how African descendants discussed
serious concerns such as unemployment, European immigration, as well as the various types of entertainment and
social gatherings. He concluded rather than a physical decline in the Black population, an ideology known as
blanqueamiento or whitening, “killed” the Black population.
Like Argentina, many other Latin American countries looked to European immigrants as the way to bring mod-
ernization and progress to their shores.2 Late 19th‐century intellectuals justified policies that encouraged European
immigration using pseudoscientific theories such as Social Darwinism, which purported to prove the biological supe-
riority of a white race. Instead of enforcing segregation policies that sanctioned modernization and progress,
Argentine authorities sought to eliminate blackness through European immigration and miscegenation. The constant
EDWARDS 3 of 8

arrival of European males through immigration made this goal attainable. Intellectuals, such as Sarmiento, often
touted mulatos as proof of progress because they “had the brute force of the African and the intellect of
the European.”3 In effect, Sarmiento, and similar intellectuals, joined the larger Latin American process of
blanqueamiento, or whitening.4
Social history continues to explain Black disappearance; however, current trends tend to examine an earlier
timeframe. Erika Edwards has built on Endrek's classic study (Edwards, 2014). Her work reexamines the use of the
word pardo during the 19th century. By examining the censuses from Córdoba, she traces the increase used of
the pardo over the course of the 19th century. She argues pardo served as a political term that encompassed for-
merly labeled castas and served the republican state project of mestizaje. Previous scholars such as Goldberg and
Andrews have argued that this term refers to African descendants in Buenos Aires. Because Edwards has found this
term refers to formerly labeled castas including Indians, her analysis provides not only a quantitative analysis about
racial re‐labeling but also a regional comparison that reveals racial identity is influenced by local economic, social,
and political contexts. Judith Farberman also has made similar observations in Los Llanos, another interior city in
the province of La Rioja (Farberman, 2016). Farberman's chapter revisits the term pardo and suggests that it becomes
a politically correct word to describe formerly labeled castas during the wars of independence and the early repub-
lican period. Her article discusses the creation of the castas en La Rioja. In particular she uses ecclesiastical and civil
census data. Through her analysis of census data, she argues color increasingly determined calidad, or a person's
reputed identity, which in turn created a casta system over the course of the late 18th century. As the 19th century
progressed Farberman hypothesizes formerly labeled castas transformed into pardos as a part of a political correct-
ness that incorporated them into the budding republic.
Recent scholarship has emphasized gender and the family to examine Black disappearance. Historians’ concen-
tration on the family and gender has led to a more complex and personalized understanding of Black disappear-
ance. This method makes African descendants the protagonists rather than the victims of Black disappearance.
Raul Alfredo Linares explores the social mobility of a family of African descendants over the course of four
generations in Buenos Aires (Linares, 2007). His genealogical study builds on Goldberg's and Andrews's studies
of Buenos Aires but examines an earlier period, the late colonial period and similarly argues blanqueamiento
caused Black disappearance. His genealogical study analyzes the racial labels effectuated by Spanish authorities
in the civil censuses and marriage records to trace the process of blanqueamiento and social ascent. He provides
a detailed listing of baptism and marriage records from Juana Pastor's family that scholars can use for their own
research.
Most of the scholarship on how gender and the family effected Black disappearance has focused on interior cit-
ies Córdoba, Tucumán, and Catamarca during the 18th and 19th century. The concentration on the family and gender
in the interior has led the field to return to mestizaje, first proposed by Endrek. Historians such as Beatriz Bixio have
argued mestizaje is both biological and ideological, and it began during the era of conquest in the city of Córdoba
(Bixio, 2013). Judith Novillo argues mestizaje created an “other” category in Tucumán which maintained various
levels of social hierarchy well into the 19th century (Novillo, 2008). Furthermore, Bixio and Novillo both revealed
the catalysts for mestizaje was African descended women's choice to engage in interracial relations with Spanish
men. Erika Edwards also argues that African descended women's choices to formulate and maintain relationships
with Spanish men contributed to Black disappearance in Córdoba (Edwards, Forthcoming‐a). She examines African
descended concubines, wives, mothers, and daughters' role in the disappearance. Not only did they seek relationships
with Spanish men, Edwards has revealed that African descended women argued they were Indian in cases of
contested freedom or marriage. Her conclusions reveal that rather than just ascribing to whiteness, becoming an
Indian also provided social mobility for African descendants. Similarly, Florencia Guzmán and Alicia del Carmen
Moreno focus on Catamarca and emphasize African descended women's relationships with Spanish men led to social
mobility for themselves and their children, during the late 18th and early 19th century (Guzmán, 2010; Moreno,
2014). These scholars' use of the family and gender analysis emphasize mestizaje, which led to Black erasure and con-
tributed to Black disappearance.
4 of 8 EDWARDS

The social historic emphasis on the Black disappearance spearheaded the field of Black Studies in Argentina.
Scholars such as Endrek and Goldberg provided a quantitative analysis to explain how the Black population disap-
peared in Córdoba and Buenos Aires. Later, journalists such as Thompson brought to light the myths of Black disap-
pearance which were later debunked by Andrews. Most recently, social history has seen a resurgence by focusing on
the late eighteenth century and include works by Edwards, Farberman, and Linares, who point to the colonial period
as the beginning of Black disappearance in Argentina. While other scholars have delved into the family and gender
and include Guzmán, Edwards, Bixio, Novillo, and Moreno, these scholars point to African descended women's role
in Black disappearance.

3 | C U L T U R A L L EG A C I E S A ND M E M O RY OF T H E B L A C K D I S A P P E A R A N C E

The second set of scholars who examined Black disappearance emphasized cultural legacies and memory in Argen-
tina. These scholars, Noberto Pablo Cirio, Thomas Platero, Marvin Lewis, and Lea Geler, have relied on the Black
newspapers to discuss the reactions to the onslaught of European immigration at the end of the 19th century
(Cirio, 2009; Platero, 2004; Lewis, 1996; Geler, 2010). Cirio and Platero have written books that categorize the
newspapers into various themes and short summaries of the newspapers found at the National Library of Argentina.
Some observations made by Cirio and Platero reveal class conflict within the Black community. African descended
elites often chastised the working class and sought to assimilate into a more Europeanized society. The working class
however cited more pressing issues of unemployment and the lack of community. By delving into these newspapers,
cultural historians have been able to gather the “voice” of the Black community during a period characterized for
Black disappearance.
Marvin Lewis, a literary historian focuses on the poetry found in the newspapers. He argues that these poems
reflected a romantic mode. He argues as the poems progressed over time they reflected diasporic themes and pro-
vide evidence of activism and advocacy within the Black community. Furthermore, he provides biographies for some
of the poets such as Casildo G. Thompson and Horacio Mendizábal. His analysis reveals African descendants contin-
ued to engage their political and social environments. Lea Geler not only examines the poetry found in Black news-
papers, her monograph, provides insight into what she has defined as “intellectual subalterns.” Her work emphasizes
Afroporteño (meaning an African descendant from Buenos Aires) community development. These activities ranged
from social gatherings, cultural celebrations, and political debates. Although African descended men wrote most arti-
cles in the Black newspapers, Geler gleans from the source the importance of women in the cultivation of education
at the end of the 19th century. Lewis and Geler's concentration on the late 19th century engages blanqueamiento
and mass European immigration. By examining the Black newspapers, their works provide insight the cultivation of
the Black community in Buenos Aires at the end of the nineteenth century.
The cultivation of the Black community created cultural legacies such as carnival, tango, and candombe that have
become adopted as Argentine culture. Scholars such as, María Ana Martínez de Sánchez, Miguel Rosal, and Oscar
Chamosa examined the origins of these cultural legacies, some of which include cofradías or confraternities, naciones,
and the militia (Chamosa, 2003; Martínez de Sánchez, 2007; Rosal, 2009). Martínez and Rosal focus on the cultivation
of Black communities via the Church. Martínez, a historian of cofradías in Córdoba, delves into the Black cofradía
under the supervision of the Jesuits. This cofradía had both male and female and free and enslaved members. During
religious celebrations, these cofradías marched throughout the city, and by the 19th century, these processions
formed the basis of carnival in Córdoba. Not only did they celebrate religious holy days, the dues collected by the
cofradía assisted its members who were gravely ill and paid for their burials. Her evidence stems from the cofradía
minutes and budgets.
Rosal examines cofradías in Buenos Aires by examining African descendants' wills. Rosal provides a general his-
tory of Black presence in Buenos Aires especially focusing on Black property owners, who often held prominent posi-
tions in the cofradías. Often, they bought and sold plots of land to create spaces for cofradías to congregate. Through
EDWARDS 5 of 8

his analysis of African descendants' wills, he also reveals the levels of religious devotion in the Black community.
Many wills revealed that Afroporteños sought continued prayer and devotion for the souls from family members
and friends. Moreover, similar to Martínez, he also concluded these cofradías served as vital social networks in which
they also helped to free enslaved family members. However, by 1823, most cofradías were on a sharp decline while
naciones became a visible presence with the government's recognition of the sociedad de africanas.
Chamosa examines these naciones, which serve a similar function as cofradías but without the Church's over-
sight in Buenos Aires. Naciones were vital components to the survival and accumulation of wealth for the Black com-
munity in Buenos Aires in the 19th century. Chamosa's examination of naciones during the mid‐19th century Buenos
Aires also revealed that African descended women often became leaders of these organizations because of male con-
scription in the wars of independence and civil wars.
The bicentennials of the wars of independence in 2010 and the declaration of the independence in 2016 have revi-
talized the cultural legacy of the militia. Scholars such as Silvia Mallo have produced anthologies that focused on the
individual and collective efforts of African descendants on the battlefield (Mallo, 2010). Other scholars such as Peter
Blanchard and Seth Meisel focuses on Black male contributions to trace the fight for freedom both on the battlefield
and in the courtroom. (Blanchard, 2008; Meisel, 2006) Blanchard focuses on the Río de la Plata region with particular
emphasis on Buenos Aires, while Meisel focuses on Córdoba. Beginning in 1810, Argentina called upon enslaved Afri-
can descended men, to risk and often sacrifice their lives in the name of the patria (homeland) during the wars of inde-
pendence (1810–1816). Thus, from the beginning of the war, Blanchard argues slave emancipation was tied to an anti‐
colonial struggle. In Córdoba, Meisel ties slave emancipation to the makings of the early republic and African descended
male efforts' on the battlefield and also contested freedoms in court. Meisel argues their petitions exemplified their
citizenship.
Alex Borucki's most recent study on African descended men in the Río de la Plata has combined both the social
history and cultural contributions (Borucki, 2015). His calculations of the slave trade in the Río de la Plata have chal-
lenged Edna Studer's pathbreaking study of the slave trade in 1954. Borucki's conclusions argues the slave trade
expanded rather than declined at the end of the 18th century and early 19th century. Coupled with the growth of
the slave trade, Borucki explored cultural societies such as cofradías and the militia which cultivated a Black commu-
nity through the mid‐19th century. These studies continue to acknowledge Black participation in the creation of
Argentina.
Until recently most studies about the militia focused on men. Florencia Guzmán's article about María Remedios
del Valle has shed light on a forgotten female soldier (Guzmán, 2016). Guzmán has revealed that Remedios fought
alongside other men in the wars of independence. Guzmán recounts her efforts on the battlefield, serving as a nurse
and later solider, was later captured and tortured during an expedition in what is today Bolivia. Guzmán's use of mil-
itary records reveals that Remedios del Valle successfully fought for and received a military petition for her efforts. To
commemorate her efforts, the Argentine government has named November 8, the anniversary of her death the “Day
of Afro descendants.” An exception in many respects for having fought in the wars of independence, today she is
known as the “mother of the patria,” an enduring term that celebrates how she contributed to the wars of
independence.
Scholars' concentration on African descended cultural contributions to the making of Argentina has allowed the
scholarship to move beyond historical studies. Nestor Ortiz has written a dictionary of africanismos or Africanisms
used in Argentine colloquial language (Ortiz, 2007). Additionally, linguists such as Adriana Araque study the kikonga
dialect that exists in Patagonia (Araque, 2009). Based on similar words and sounds, she hypothesizes these African
descendants are from the Bantu region in Africa. As a result, Araque moves beyond a more mixed popular Argentine
culture that Ortiz provides in his dictionary and makes direct links to Argentina's African past.
Recent genetic testing has also pointed to Argentina's African past and reveals that some Argentines do not
know they are African descendants. Recent medical studies by Sergio Avena have estimated the genetic makeup
of the population in Argentina is more diverse than previously thought. The scholars examined 441 unrelated people
who donated blood to the Center of Public Health (Avena et al., 2012). The average ancestry for Argentina was 65%
6 of 8 EDWARDS

European, 31% Indian, and 4% African. Moreover they did see significant differences in European ancestry across
Argentina. Buenos Aires remained the “whitest” followed by the Northeast, Northwest, and Southern regions. While
other scholars, such as Maria Laura Parolin, focused on Puerto Madryn, a city in the southern province Chubut. After
Parolin and her team interviewed and analyzed the DNA of 82 non related consisting blood donors, who were inter-
ested in their genealogical history. The average ancestry estimated 67.2% European, 29.4% Indian, and 3.4% African.
Their conclusions point to a more diverse genetic background that corroborates Avena's findings. (Parolin et al.,
2013). Together these genetic findings reveal that Argentina is not a “White” country.
The Black roots of Argentina's popular culture such as candombe, the tango, and carnival come from cofradías
and naciones examined by Rosal, Martínez, and Chamosa (Chasteen, 2004). Chasteen further argued it is preciously
these cultural legacies that have become a fabric of Argentine culture today. Additionally, the celebrations of the
bicentennials memorialize Black soldiers' contributions to the nation. Further work by non‐historians have also
revealed Argentine colloquial language is connected to its Black past. The most recent work involves medical
anthropology that analyzes the genetics of various participants which learn they are in fact African descendants
and allows them to analyze how Black erasure remains not only a national but personal decision. Together these
scholars' work bring awareness to the culture and memory of African descendants in Argentina.

4 | C O N CL U S I O N

This essay has provided two trends of scholarship that has dealt with Black disappearance: social history and the
cultural legacies and memory in Argentina. Quantitative studies focused on the numeric decline of the black popula-
tion while qualitative studies point to the Black contributions to Argentina in the arts, language, and the historical
memory of soldiers who fought for the nation. However, gaps remain in the literature. Most pointedly are Black
and Indian relations. The interaction between these two groups, both of which are denied as having a presence today
in Argentina, remains a field that has yet to be explored. Erika Edwards' book chapter however does shed light on
how differing legal conditions led some enslaved African descendants to become free Indians. (Edwards, Forthcom-
ing‐b) Additionally, scholars continue to overemphasize the Black experience in Buenos Aires while interior cities
have not received as much attention.
Nonetheless despite the recent explosion of Black Studies in Argentina, if you happen to walk along the streets of
Argentina and ask, “what happened to the black population?” The most popular answer remains “there are no blacks,
they disappeared.” But that has not stopped scholars from engaging that question, and remaining vigilant and commit-
ted to putting the color back in Argentina's whitened past.

ENDNOTES
1
Ramiro Barreiro, “¿Dónde están los negros de Argentina?” EL PAÍS, January 7, 2017, http://internacional.elpais.com/
internacional/2017/01/07/argentina/1483795840_886159.html2017; Rachel Déscote, “Why Are There No Black Men
on Argentina's Roster?,” The Huffington Post, September 8, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rachel‐decoste/argen-
tina‐world‐cup‐_b_5571761.html.2014
2
See the following for an example of whitening throughout Latin American and the Caribbean. George Reid Andrews,
Afro‐Latin America 1800–2000 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), Chapter Four “A Transfusion of New Blood”
Whitening.
3
Domingo Sarmiento, Obras de D. F. Sarmiento: Europa, África i América 1847–1854, vol. 5 (Paris: Berlin Hermanos,
1909), 67.
4
By the turn of the 20th century, it seemed that blanqueamiento had achieved success. In 1905, the magazine Caras y
Caretas wrote “The [black] race is losing … its primitive color. It becomes gray. It dissolves. It lightens. An African tree is
producing white flowers.” Juan José Soiza Reilly, Gente de color, Caras y Caretas, November 25, 1905. Another quote
attributed to Domingo Sarmiento declared: “If you want to see a Black person, you must go to Brazil.” Nearly 100 years
later ex‐president of Argentina Carlos Menem would also draw parallels between the two countries stating “We [Argen-
tina] do not have blacks in our country, that is a Brazilian problem,” during a visit to Howard University in Washington
DC. Jorge Fortes and Diego Cebellos, Afroargentinos (Latin American Video Archives, 2002), www.latinamericanvideo.org.
EDWARDS 7 of 8

ORCID
Erika Denise Edwards http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7852-7481

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Dr. Erika Denise Edwards is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is an
expert on the Black experience in Argentina and has been cited and consulted by in the New York Times and
National Geographic. She has also been interviewed by La Voz del Interior, an Argentine newspaper regarding
her research. She has given numerous talks at various institutions some of which include University of South Car-
olina, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is currently
finishing her book, “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Disappearance of the Black Population in Argentina.”

How to cite this article: Edwards ED. The making of a White nation: The disappearance of the Black popu-
lation in Argentina. History Compass. 2018;e12456. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12456