Race in Contemporary Argentina: The Case of El Negro Ral Paulina Alberto, Associate Professor, History & Romance Language and Literature
Abstract The focus of this project is to collect and analyze the life and stories about negro Ral, who was a famous black character in early twentieth century Argentina. His notoriety decreased after the 1970s but now he has begun to resurface again along with a reviving curiosity towards Argentinas non-white history. Through the continuous compilation of novels, tango lyrics, records from neighborhoods and newspaper articles in Argentina, the primary goal of this research is to expose the intricate life of el negro Ral and the accounts of those who were familiar with him. The material resurfacing is from a variety of time periods, taking a fictional or historical perspective and written by authors of different economical and social standpoints. These numerous resources narrating aspects of negro Ral will then be inserted into a database to further distinguish patterns in the way Ral is portrayed and recalled. By looking at these stories and how they change over time, we examine racial ideologies in Argentina during and after the life of negro Ral. This work in progress about Raul Grigera highlights the importance of collective storytelling concerning racial identities and is part of a broader study of race in contemporary Argentina.
-Objectives The objective of this research is to draw attention to racial narratives in Argentina during the beginning of the 20 th century. Specifically, the research will analyze how stories of negro Raul shape his persona, making him into a legendary comedian, a tortured soul or simply a crazy person. All these different narratives also demonstrate the changes in racial ideologies, but also his lack of participation as newer narratives limit negro Rauls ability to participate in shaping his own image.
-Method Periodically, I would utilize HathiTrust and Google Books to obtain new literary sources that would mention or describe the story of negro Raul. After obtaining books, magazines, memoires or newspaper articles that contained information about negro Raul, I would upload these references to Zotero, an online application that facilitates the collection, organization, citation and distribution of research sources. Afterwards, I would order the most prevalent sources through interlibrary loans, scan the sources and upload the finished scanned copy to Zotero once again.
Conclusion
Even though we have collected a significant amount of memoirs, newspaper articles, poems, or songs where negro Raul in mentioned, periodically there are more sources resurfacing. There are more observations to be made concerning how negro Raul was described, to compare and contrast the various portrayals of negro Raul and evaluate how these descriptions portray the mentality of the 20 th
century concerning black argentines. Therefore, this project is still on going and new sources keep adding new aspects to the life of negro Raul.
Images: Negro Raul photograph from Historia de la calle Florida
El Hogar Aventuras del negro Raul, Un domingo porteo