Afro-diasporic Expressions in Contexts of Invisibility: A Study of a Cemetery and Afro-Argentine Dwellings of the Twentieth Century

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ABSTRACT Since the nineteenth century, the construction of a white identity linked to Europe in Argentina has invisibilized Indigenous and African ancestry, denying and silencing non-European memories and ethnicities. In the province of Entre Ríos in the Rio de la Plata littoral, a border region since the colonial times, the discourse aimed at Europeanisation promoted the idea of a whitening process. This idea ignored the importance of the cultural constructs of Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and mestizo populations. The interdisciplinary research carried out in this territory contributes to the knowledge of the regional Afro-descendant past and present. I present the results of surveys and excavations around a cemetery and rural Afro-descendant dwellings. When put in dialogue with current memories and oralities, these results contribute to reinterpret and make visible the ontologies of African roots present in the mid-twentieth century. This revitalizes and provides tools for current processes of identity re-emergence.