Stereotypes in Black : Afro-Argentines and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires

This book highlights the construction and repeated use of racial stereotypes of the Afro-Argentine population, and how this strategy of invisibilization created the desire for a homogeneous nation. It will interest students and scholars of nineteenth century Latin America, the African diaspora, and Latin American art.

Stereotypes in Black is a sharp examination of the representations and self-representations of Afro-descendants in Buenos Aires through the nineteenth century. Originally published in Spanish, this English language translation spotlights various forms of representation, focusing on the stereotypical images and visual culture constructed and repeated, and the important role they played in highlighting the need for a culturally and racially homogeneous nation in social discourse. María de Lourdes Ghidoli provides a detailed account of one of the most serious cases of social exclusion in Latin American and Argentine history, examining strategies adopted by some of the most recognized members of the Afro-Porteño community, and assessing whether they refuted the negative stereotypes or reinforced them. The book will aid in the revisualization of Afro-descendent Argentines, while highlighting how the repeated use of stereotypes exacerbated the invisibilization suffered by the Afro-descendant population in the Argentine Republic.