One of the mysteries of Buenos Aires is that one sees so few people of African descent. A native Porteño told me that there were no blacks in Argentina. And from casual observation on the street that does seem to be the case. However, I know that there was once a slave population in Argentina. So, what happened to them all?

An academic study on this topic is The Afro-Argentine in Argentine Culture by Donald S. Castro.

A documentary film from 2002 examines this topic: Afroargentines.

A posting on the Beautiful Horizons blog refers to this topic and points to an article in the Miami Herald that was picked up from the Washington Post news service.

Couple of months back, Clarin published an article that describes a census that is being conducted to determine the number of Argentineans of African descent. According to the article, in 1810 one in three persons in Buenos Aires was of African descent.

My thinking has been that the noticeable decrease has resulted through intermarriage with people of European descent. The Clarin article indicates that one theory is that a large number of Afro-Argentine males died in military service while fighting battles with Indians, Brazil, and Paraguay in the 19th century. This probably left a large female population widowed and single. And, of course, caucasian males (e.g., Thomas Jefferson) often don´t have a problem with mixed race relationship. 🙂

I do have to disagree with one theory cited by the Clarin that a large number of Afro-Argentines died during the Yellow Fever outbreaks in Buenos Aires. Yellow Fever epidemics of the 19th century were one of my former research topics in years past. As I recall, people of African descent succumbed to the disease in much smaller numbers due to a type of genetic near-immunity that evolved from exposure to similar diseases in Africa.

Anyway, perhaps the search for the mythical Afro-Argentine is coming to an end.

Update: In late 2006 I’ve started to see more and more people of African descent in certain parts of Buenos Aires. The numbers are not a lot but there are quite a few more, particularly around the southern neighborhoods. From listening to them speak, a few are clearly from Brazil but not all. I wonder if there has been an increase of immigration to Buenos Aires from Africa recently.

I’ve also recently learned of two additional academic studies relating to this topic, both by University of Pittsburgh history professor George Reid Andrews: Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 and The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900.

There’s a really good blog about a newcomer’s experiences in Argentina over at Expat Argentina. I’ve added it to my Bloglines.

Over on The Thorn Tree is a thread about one tourist’s unsuccessful hunt for bargain clothing in BsAS. I posted a reply and wanted to elaborate here:

As DF pointed out, locals don’t shop on Florida or at Galleria Pacifico. It’s assumed in Buenos Aires that norteamericanos have money (and compared to most Porteños, it’s true). So, store owners in touristy areas are simply taking advantage of that. (I’m not familiar with Murillo St mentioned by jsohmer). Bargain clothing can be found in Once, which is the garment district. But, foreigners should go with a local and let that person do the talking and negotiating. There are also some good deals in some shopping malls, such as Abasto, depending upon the store.

It´s true that you can find good value in the ferias. My girlfriend used to co-own a clothing store here in Buenos Aires and explained to me how it works: A person specializes in manufacturing a certain type of garment, like a woman’s jacket, then those jackets are sold at a booth in Recoleta on weekends. These jackets are made cheaply out of one´s home by a couple of Peruvians who work out of a spare room. The jackets sold at the feria are just a part of the business. The main income comes from wholesaling the same jackets to stores on Santa Fe, Florida, and elsewhere. One just sews a different brand label on the inside for each store, which explains why a lot of the stores have the same merchandise. Surprisingly, all these clothing stores do make money. We recently brought some clothing from a booth at the feria in Recoleta; the woman in the booth gave us her address so that we could visit her to buy more stuff. It turns out that the woman lives in Recoleta herself!

As for wool and leather goods, the prices also reflect that those goods are not usually “finished” in Argentina. The country exports massive amounts of raw wool and leather to Europe for manufacturing into finished goods that are then imported back in Argentina, hence bringing up the cost. I’m going to do more research into this the background of this situation.

I can personally say that the Christian Dior and Zara stores in Argentina are much cheaper than their counterparts in Miami.

Tonight´s 10,000 person march by university faculty and students came to a somber stop just three blocks from the Plaza de Mayo. I was walking next to the front line of the marchers when I the procession came to a halt. Half-a-dozen people quickly surrounded a figure lying on the pavement.

Apparently, an elderly man attempting to cross the street – just in front of the marchers – collapsed from a heart attack or some other problem. When I got to the group, someone was administering CPR. Others were calling for a medic. Since I couldn´t be of any help, I stepped away, not wanting to see what might have been the last moments of someone´s life.

Earlier in the night I had noticed a significant number of police on motorcycles ensuring that traffic was cleared from the route that the marchers were taking. Looking down Av de Mayo, I saw several police offers about a block and a half away. I had assumed that they would come down to handle the situation and call for rescue, but they never did. After a few minutes, I saw one of the marchers run towards the officers; I assumed he was wanting them to summons an ambulance.

I felt for sure that the old man was going to die there on Av de Mayo. It gave an eerie tone to the whole evening. While the front of the line knew what was happening, the thousands of people in the back had no idea what why the march had come to a stop. The marchers in the back were getting louder and louder as time went along.

About five, maybe ten, minutes after the man had collapsed I checked my watch since I was curious why an ambulance had not yet arrived, particularly since the police were so close and you see ambulances cruising around all over the city.

It took at least 25 minutes for an ambulance to finally arrive.

Also, rather than driving around the marchers and coming up the part of Av de Mayo that had been cleared from traffic in the opposite direction, the ambulance drove up from the back of the procession. The time that it took to go through thousands of pedestrians could have been fatal for elderly man.

I do not know, and may never know, the ultimate condition of that old man. Just before the ambulance arrived, I walked closer to the circle of people around him, which had thinned out. I feared that he would be lying there dead but he was conscious and I saw him move his head and hands. I wished I could have done something to help him but I have no medical or healthcare training. The ambulance took him away and sped off.

Incidentally, during this entire time, not one police officer ever came over to see what was happening – not even after the ambulance was there.

Two blocks from our apartment is Plaza de Houssay, which is situated between the medical school and business school of the University of Buenos Aires. Tonight over 10,000 students and faculty from all over the country marched from Plaza de Houssay through the streets of downtown Buenos Aires and arrived at Plaza de Mayo about 9pm tonight.

I stayed with the group the entire way and got some good photos and videos that I will post later.

These were mostly college and university students, though the high school students who have mobilized to protest the poor conditions of school buildings in Buenos Aires also joined the march.

Faculty at public universities have been on strike since Wednesday.

The demands were a basic salary of 800 pesos for university professors. That equates to about $275 US. Read that again: a basic salary of $275 US a month for college level teaching.

The marchers also demanded that university budgets be tripled, as part of increasing the educational funding to 6% of the GNP.

(Note: see my other posting for a near tragic event that happened during this march).

I got up early today, 11am, because I knew that the teachers union – CTERA – was planning a large march to the Congreso at midday. Across Argentina, 95% of the teachers went on strike today.

This was the first strike by the teachers in the two years of Kirchner´s presidency of Argentina. Union organizers estimated over 10,000 people participated in the march. Not all were teachers, as I noticed some piquetero groups at the end of the march. But that´s okay, there´s solidarity in the social movements here.

The teachers are demanding that the government financing for education be increased to 3% of the Gross National Product. Currently, educational funding is at 3%.

Following the student protests about the building conditions at the Escuela Normal Sarmiento, a city judge tonight ordered the school to be closed. The judge inspected the building and found that there were dangers of electrocution and fire. So, the students were right afterall. This news just hit the wires around 11pm tonight, so it will be interesting to see the reaction on Friday.

If the sun is shining in Buenos Aires, then there must be a strike. On this day of protests I went out for an afternoon walk to see what the proleteriat was up to. Walking down Callao I ran across a small group of protests on the corner of Corrientes. It was about a dozen hospital workers.

I could tell from the lack of traffic on this normally very busy thoroughfare that Callao must be blocked somewhere. Looking down the street I saw a very large group with about a dozen banners, if not more. Then I heard the distinctive sound of the drum line that marches in front of most demonstrations.

This group, la Asociación Trabajadores del Estado (ATE), stretched for several blocks and must have numbered around a thousand people. I walked swiftly to get to the front of the group as they neared the Congreso. A flatbed truck with loudspeakers and photographers drove slowly in front of the worker´s association.

Seeing the group turn at the Congreso, I knew that they were heading the Plaza de Mayo. Walking ahead I beat the group to the Plaza for a nice view of them marching down Av de Mayo with the Congreso behind.

Since Thursday afternoon is Madres´ day in the Plaza, the group lined up on the side on the Plaza on calle Yrigoyen. As the group entered this area I saw another small group starting to march in front of them and carrying a banner that said Teatro Colon. My reaction was “What?! Why is the opera house upset?”

I guess it was a show of solidarity. Members of the Teatro Colon orchestra climbed onto the flatbed truck and played the Argentine national anthem. Actually it was a nice gesture with members of the crowd singing along and the Argentine flag being waved around. The orchestra finished and went on with their day, but the workers stayed for about an hour and gave a dozen or so speeches, using the word compañero incessantly.

Employees of all the banks in Argentina went on strike today. With the exception of one small scuffle with the Police in front of the Casa Rosada, this was a mild demonstration by Argentine standards. Afterall, how radical can bankers be? The employees are calling for banks to respect the 7.5 hour working day and a 30% wage increase. The strike was scheduled only to last for one day.

Okay, so maybe that is a little dramatic but the high school students here are definitely asserting their political influences on issues important to them. (Wouldn´t it be nice if high schools in the U.S. were a little political?)

Two days ago the students at Escuela Normal Sarmiento returned to school, accompanied by Argentine Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. The students had vowed to take 50 schools if the repairs to the building did not begin within two days. Today, two days later, several schools were taken, including one just down the street from me on Av Cordoba. Student protest erupted at almost a dozen schools around the city.

Rather than attend classes at one school, the students staged a rally on the street in front of the school.

Several recent events have led to this educational crisis. In April a piece of a ceiling collapsed onto one student. Earlier this month dozens of rats were found in another school. The protests are led by the student body presidents of the schools. This past weekend delegates from different schools met to plan today´s protests.

On Friday the students plan to march to Plaza de Mayo. I´ll be there, update tomorrow.