After traces of Argentine racism: autoethnographic exercises from a collective performance intervention

Abstract

This paper aims to delve into the personal work involved in a performative research on racism in Argentina. In order to open the dialogue on these issues, the creation of the performance in an autobiographical key was essential. Therefore, we propose here to carry out an  autoethnographic exercise, as it is an analytical work on one’s own history as aesthetic/political material, as an experiential and concrete example of the deep process of racialization that operated and operates in our country. We chose for this paper to focus on the work´s effectiveness to mobilize our personal stories. Thus, we find the reordering of some maps that highlight the ethnic-racial heterogeneity of the population, with its mobilities and origins, the complexity of stereotypes with their dynamics of rejection and fascination, and the “whitening process” also articulated to aesthetic choices as a process of social distinction. We  hope to contribute to the reflexivityon how the experience of researching from performance can allow us to question deep social differentiations naturalized and silenced in the Argentine context.