History of the Afro-Descendants in Argentina

In this part we want to give a critical overview on the history of Africans and Afro-descendants in Argentina with a special focus on Buenos Aires. We will start by explaining the controversy of Afro-Argentine history and the way it has been reproduced over centuries, and give an introduction into the politics of race in the Porteño society (the society of people living in Buenos Aires). In the second part of this section we will give an overview on the history of Africans and Afro-descendants in Buenos Aires, from their initial arrival in the 1500s, to the abolishment of slavery in the nineteenth century, to today’s Afro-Porteño population. Our goal is to show how Africans and Afro-descendants contributed to the building of the Argentine nation and to the formation of Argentine culture. This is why throughout this narrative of Afro-Porteño history we will point to remarkable figures, institutions and events in Afro-Porteño history that have had great impact on Argentine society and culture as it is today. In order to understand better the greater goal of this project we highly recommend reading our Introduction and Limitations sections.