Chapter 5 focuses on two biographical compilations of Afro-Argentines who are considered role models for the community. These biographies not only present a written portrait of each individual but also include a corresponding visual portrait, a feature that enriches the compilations. They were an attempt to construct an Afro-Argentine memory and imaginary, and the construction of this collective memory implied affection, bonds of proximity, and even intimacy The inclusion of portraits shows how important images were to the promoters of the publication in their role as mentors of the community. On the one hand, the inclusion of engravings was a way of complying with the precepts of progress and civilization, given the growing development of illustrated publications at the time. On the other hand, the possibility of seeing and recognizing the faces of notable people implied an affective dimension of which Afro-Porteño intellectuals were aware. This was because, in addition to being individuals who enjoyed a certain prestige (to a greater or lesser extent) not only within the group but also in the rest of Buenos Aires society, the members of the community were in almost daily contact with them and their relatives, often as friends.

Chapter 1 focuses on Afro-Porteños’ visual representations as domestic servants. The corpus of images under analysis is from the end of the colonial period to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Examining this iconographic motif is relevant because many of the ideas and conventions associated to the image of Afro-descendants in Argentina were and are formulated according to this tradition. The stigma of servitude associated to their enslaved past was constant in the assignment of this labor role and therefore became a stereotype, as Afro-Porteños themselves demonstrated in their periodicals in the late nineteenth century. Stereotyping’s after-effects can be seen to the present. One might think that, in today’s world, representations such as those analyzed in this chapter no longer exist. However, the representation of African descendants as servants has been used for centuries and has become widely naturalized.

Chapter 3 focuses on grotesque representations whose contemplation provokes in the viewer a mixture of horror, pity, and laughter. The buffoon is the main figure related to the grotesque, an iconographic motif with a long tradition in Western visual culture. The representation of three persons of African ancestry are analyzed and, taken as a whole, they can be thought of as a compendium of many of the traits that are related racial hierarchies. In the cases of Rosas’s buffoons, Biguá and Eusebio, they were circumscribed to the role of jesters, which not only implies playing the role of entertainers but is also related to other characteristics of the grotesque: madness, deformity, diabolic and comical connotations. In the case of Mendizábal, a specific portrait becomes a grotesque image that confines the person portrayed, and by extension all Afro-descendants, to an enslaved past, without the possibility of becoming protagonists of their present or their future. In these stereotypical images, prejudices and general beliefs are manifested, in tune with the racist ideology present throughout the nineteenth century, more prominently among those who forged the project of the Argentine nation.

Chapter 6 focuses on the careers of four artists of African descent in the Rio de la Plata: Fermín Gayoso, Rosendo Mendizábal, Juan Blanco de Aguirre, and Bernardino Posadas. They work in different historical contexts, from the colonial era to the end of the nineteenth century. The first was enslaved and was active in the early nineteenth century. Therefore, his trajectory differs from the rest. Mendizábal, on the other hand, was not only a painter but also a politician, maintaining ties to the Buenos Aires elite of the 1850s and 1860s. The historical and social context was quite different for Juan Blanco de Aguirre and Bernardino Posadas. These artists were active in the last quarter of the century, when the project of a racially and culturally homogeneous nation implemented by the dominant groups was in full swing. The analysis undertaken in this chapter provides a glimpse of the situation of Afro-Porteño intellectuals and especially of the few artists of whom we have information, as well as the tensions generated by the educational and promotion projects in which they were involved.

This introduction presents the historical and social context of Argentina in the nineteenth century, as it relates to the local Afro-descendant population. It explains the building-nation conceived by the dominant groups toward the end of the century. The project sought to create a national imaginary founded on the notion of a culturally and racially homogeneous country of white European descent. This project necessarily entailed the disappearance of the population of African (and Indigenous) descent as part of the nation. The strategies used to achieve this project (census, cultural appropriation, official history) are mentioned. In this sense, it is proposed that the construction and recurrent use of visual stereotypes throughout the nineteenth century (concentrated in specific iconographic nuclei) was one of the strategies used in the process of invisibilization of the descendants of enslaved Africans in Argentina. It also explains the state of the art on the subject, the theoretical framework, and the methodology used in the research.

Chapter 7 examines the construction of a stereotype of a different nature from those studied in the book. The discovery of a portrait of Bernardo de Monteagudo allowed a reflection on the theoretical impossibility of a descendant of enslaved Africans to be part of the pantheon of national heroes. It is a different image from that which was and continues to be widely disseminated, in which the face of the Tucumán hero was represented with undeniably “White” features. Comparing both portraits demonstrates an extreme case of whitening that enabled deploying a reverse stereotype.

Chapter 2 analyzes two works related to the Juan Manuel de Rosas era, one actually produced during this time and the other from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. In both, Afro-Porteños are present in large numbers, and their representation conflicts with literary discourses. While the writings are filled with defamatory adjectives that seek to create a chaotic and barbaric image of Afro-Porteños, the paintings present a pleasing and orderly image. After Rosas’s defeat in 1852, his opponents worked tirelessly to associate the group with Rosas and his barbaric era. This conception of Afro-Argentines has become a stereotype. They are thus confined to an abominable past that must not be repeated. This strategy constitutes one more way of rendering invisible a population whose extinction was prophesied as inevitable since the mid-nineteenth century. These ideas persist to this day, despite the actual presence of Afro-descendants in our territory, and they, in turn, clearly influence the racial classifications that operate in Argentine society.