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Race Versus Class Association: the Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1850–1900*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

George Reid Andrews
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Extract

Fundamental to an understanding of the complex relationships between race and social class in Latin America is an understanding of the process by which the caste societies of the colonial and early national periods were gradually transformed into the class societies of the twentieth century. During the 1850s a number of South American nations struck down the last vestiges of their slave regimes and the colonial Régimen de castas, legislation designed to divide society into racial castes arranged in a well-defined hierarchy. Among these countries were Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay delayed until later in the century. These developments seem at first glance to have paved the way for the integration of the non-whites as fully-fledged participants in the continent' newly formed class societies, as several authors writing on the Afro-Latin Americans have concluded.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , May 1979 , pp. 19 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 By ‘caste’ is understood ‘an endogamous and hereditary subdivision of an ethnic unit occupying a position of superior and inferior rank or social esteem in comparison with other such subdivisions ’.Kroeber, A. L., quoted in Gerald Berreman, D., ‘ The Concept of Caste’, in Sills, David L. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York, 1968), 11, 333.Google Scholar By ‘class’ is understood a social group whose members share a combination of objectives (e.g. education, income, political or social influence), and attitudinal (perceptions of each other and themselves as part of the same class, commonly held ideas concerning class interests and goals) characteristics, and whose members are perceived by the rest of the society as belonging to that class. See Lipset, Seymour M., ‘Social Class’, in Sills, xv, 296–335, particularly pp. 310–12.Google ScholarReaders are further referred to Cox, Oliver C., Caste, Class and Race (New York, 1947 and 1959).Google Scholar

2 For discussions of the Régimen, see Rout, Leslie B. Jr, The African Experience in Spanish America (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 126–60;Google ScholarMörner, Magnus, Race Mixture in the History of Latin America (Boston, 1967), pp. 53–75.Google Scholar

3 See, for example, Beltrán, Gonzalo Aguirre, ‘The Integration of the Negro into the National Society of Mexico’,Google Scholar and Rama, Carlos, ‘The Passing of the Afro-Uruguayan from Caste Society into Class Society’, both in Mörner, Magnus (ed.), Race and Class in Latin America (New York, 1970).Google Scholar These two articles are condensed from the authors' larger studies, La población negra de México (Mexico, 1946 and 1972) and Los afro-uruguayos (Montevideo, 1967).Google Scholar

4 In the Mörner volume, see Fernandes, Florestan, ‘Immigration and Race Relations in São Paulo’. Fernandes' arguments may be read at greater length in his books O negro no mundo dos brancos (São Paulo, 1972),Google ScholarA integração do negro na socicdade de clases (São Paulo, 1965),Google Scholarand its English translation The Negro in Brazilian Society (New York, 1969).Google Scholar Two dated but still classic studies of North American race relations that come to similar conclusions are Dollard, John, Caste and Class in a Southern Town (New York, 1937)Google Scholar and Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma (New York, 1942), Chaps. 35–2.Google ScholarSimilarly classic is Frazier, E. Franklin, Black Bourgeoisie (New York, 1957 and 1962).Google ScholarThernstrom's, StephanThe Other Bostonians (Cambridge, 1973) includes an interesting chapter on vocational mobility in the black community of Boston from 1880 to 1960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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7 This period is covered in Scobie's Buenos Aires.

8 See Gallo, Ezequiel and Conde, Roberto Cortés, La república conservadora (Buenos Aires, 1972), pp. 187–233.Google Scholar

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11 From a sample taken by the author. The original manuscripts of the census are located in the Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires (henceforth AGN), X, 23–5–5 and 23–5–6. Since the majority of individuals in the census failed to list any occupation (86% of the blacks and 72% of the whites), we may speculate that the percentage of manual laborers in each racial group was actually higher than that yielded by the census.

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17 For biographies of these men, see Ford, Jorge Miguel, Beneméritos de mi estirpe (La Plata, 1899), pp. 50–2, 103–5.Google Scholar

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20 See Lanuza, op. cit., pp. 120–7; Mejía, José Maía Ramos, Rosas y Su Tiempo (Buenos Aires, 1907), I, 274–5, 286–8, 330–40;Google Scholar Rout, op. cit., pp. 190–I.

21 ‘Las Clases Altas de la Sociedad y la de Color’, El Proletario, 1, No. 2 (24 Apr. 1858), p. I.Google Scholar

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28 Quoted in Lanuza, op. cit., p. 220.

29 Manuel Pereyra, Alvarez, Historia del Regimtento 8 de Linea (La Plata, 1921), pp. 22–9.Google Scholar

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33 Scenna, Migue Angel, Cuando murió Buenos Aires, 1871 (Buenos Aires, 1974), p. III.Google Scholar

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36 Ford, op. cit., p. 44.

37 La Broma, 1, No. 33 (21 Mar. 1880).

38 Quinteros, op. cit., pp. II, 93, 153–4.

39 El Proletario, 1, No. 1 (18 Apr. 1858), p. 1.

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48 triunfo, Nuestro, La Juventud, 1, No. 2 (23 01. 1876), p. 1.Google Scholar

49 In so doing, the Afro-Argentines displayed similarities to the Afro-North American bourgeoisie. See Frazier, op. cit., Chap V; Berlin, Ira, Slaves Without Masters (New York, 1974), pp. 273–83;Google ScholarDegler, Carl, Neither Black Nor White (New York, 1971), section on ‘The Flight from Blackness’, pp. 567–70;Google Scholar Litwack, op. cit., pp. 186–7.

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53 ‘Actualidad’, La Broma, 1, No. 5 (22 08. 1878), p. 2.Google Scholar

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55 La Juventud, 1, No. 19 (7 May 1876), p. 3.Google Scholar For some interesting parallels, see Frazier's chapters on ‘The Negro Press and Wish-Fulfillment’ and ‘“ Society”: Status Without Substance’. Black Bourgeoisie, op. cit.

56 ‘La Raza Africana’, La Nueva Generacón, No. 27 (9 Jan. 1858), p. 1.

57 Letter from ‘Dos Ciudadanos de Color’, El Proletario, 1, No. 8 (16 June 1858), p. 1; Platero, Tomás B., La Broma, 2, No. 95 (4 11, 1882), p. 1.Google Scholar

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60 Among those mentioned in the black papers are the musicians Zenón Rolón and Manuel L. Posadas, who studied in Italy and Belgium; and the painters Juan Blanco de Aguirre and Justo García.

61 See ‘Alerta’ in Mendizábal's Primeros Versos (Buenos Aires, 1865) and ‘Arjentina’ in Horas de Meditación (Buenos Aires, 1869); Ford, op. cit., p.73.

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66 The best account of this episode is found in Soler cañas' previously cited article, pp. 274–81.

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73 See note 17.

74 Degler, op. cit., pp. 253–61.

75 Mörner, Race and Class,. 141.

76 Andrews, George Reid, Forgotten But Not Gone: The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800–1900’ Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978, pp. 554–6, 568–9.Google Scholar