An Ethnography of Argentina’s Black Social Movement

FAIN: FEL-288991-23

Prisca Gayles
University of Nevada, Reno (Reno, NV 89557-0001)

Research and writing leading to a book on how contemporary Argentinian activists have changed and engaged with the country’s pervasive denial of Black history and anti-Black sentiment.

My research explores how Blackness is politicized across the African diaspora and used as a tool to demand racial justice in spaces of Black invisibility. Taking Argentina as a case study, I employ a multi-year ethnography to explore how activists grapple with a history of erasure and denial of an Argentinian Black past and present to raise consciousness, increase social movement participation, and mobilize resources. At the state-level, I illustrate the role of a society’s collective emotional response to historical events in galvanizing support. At the interpersonal level, my research demonstrates that Black women succeed at growing movement participation and solidarity by utilizing transnational Black feminist politics to convert experiences of pain into purpose. This book will be of interests to scholars of social movements, race and ethnicity, and gender studies. It will also be of interest to general readers interested in Latin America and the African Diaspora.

Associated Products

Pain into Purpose: Mobilizing Emotions in Argentina's Black Resistance Movement (Book)
Title: Pain into Purpose: Mobilizing Emotions in Argentina's Black Resistance Movement
Author: Prisca Gayles
Abstract: Pain into Purpose is a groundbreaking exploration of Argentina's Movimiento Negro (Black resistance movement). Employing a multi-year ethnography of Black political organizing, Prisca Gayles delves deep into the challenges activists face in confronting the erasure and denial of Argentina's Black past and present. She examines how collective emotions operate at both societal and interpersonal levels in social movements, arguing that activists strategically leverage societal and racialized emotions to garner support. Paying particular attention to the women activists who play a crucial role in leading and sustaining Argentina's Black organizations, the book showcases the ways Black women exercise transnational Black feminist politics to transform pain into purpose.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/latin-american-history/pain-purpose-mobilizing-emotions-argentinas-black-resistance-movement?format=HB&isbn=9781009569736
Primary URL Description: Publisher's link.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781009569736
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Del Dolor al Propósito La movilización de emociones en el Movimiento Afro en Argentina (Book Section)
Title: Del Dolor al Propósito La movilización de emociones en el Movimiento Afro en Argentina
Author: Prisca Gayles
Author: Lydia Huerta (translator)
Author: Vanessa Vancour (translator)
Editor: NA
Abstract: Del Dolor al Propósito es una exploración innovadora del Movimiento Afro en Argentina (movimiento de resistencia negra). Mediante una etnografía de varios años sobre la organización política de la comunidad negra en Argentina, Prisca Gayles profundiza en los retos a los desafíos que enfrentan estes militantes (activistas) ante exclusión histórica de comunidades negras en el pasado y su actual lucha por reconocimiento en el presente argentino. Gayles examina cómo las emociones colectivas operan tanto a nivel social como interpersonal en los movimientos sociales y argumenta que les militantes1 estratégicamente hacen uso de las emociones sociales y racializadas para recaudar apoyo. Al presentar atención a las mujeres militantes que desempeñan un papel esencial en la dirección y el sostenimiento de las organizaciones negras en Argentina, el libro muestra las diversas formas en que las mujeres negras ejercen una política feminista negra trasnacional para transformar el dolor el propósito.
Year: 2024
Access Model: Open access sharable pdf
Publisher: NA
ISBN: NA

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