Negritud afroargentina en la literatura regionalista folklórica de Draghi Lucero. Esclavos y Mandingas en Las mil y una noches argentinas

Abstract

This article examines the representations of Afro-Argentinean negritude in Las mil y una noches argentinas (Draghi Lucero, 1940), a reference and outstanding work of Cuyo's folkloric-inspired regionalist literature, from the 1930-1940 period, which contributed to postulate an Cuyana identity cuyana. The work contextualizes Las mil y una noches argentinas in the career of Juan Draghi Lucero in the disciplines of folklore, history and literature, and puts his literary work in dialogue with the criollismo and nationalism and cultural regionalism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. The analysis exposes a narrative that assumes a mesticismo, a folklore and a Cuyo popular culture with emphasis on the pre-Columbian and Spanish contribution and excluding the African element. It also reproduces common ideas of Argentine intellectuals about slavery and enslaved Africans. Regarding this, two associations are identified that concatenated contribute to the premise of the disappearance of Argentine blacks in the nineteenth century: one, between slavery and African blacks, located in colonial society and conceived as passive subjects benefited by reciprocal relations of fidelity / solidarity with the masters; and another, less evident and more allegorical, between the end of slavery or the obtaining of the freedom of the slaves and the physical disappearance of the blacks. Likewise, the narrative appeals to social stereotypes such as the identification of Argentine blacks with federalism and traditional myths of Western culture as the representation of the Devil as a dark man.

Keywords

• Afro-Argentine negritude in folkloristic regional literature by Draghi Lucero. Slaves and Mandingas in Las mil y una noches argentinas.