White Argentina policy

White Argentina policy is an extensive racist ideology that has been built on the notion of European supremacy where non-white immigration to Argentina was intentionally restricted by the Argentine government. This ideology forwards the idea that Argentina is a country populated by European immigrants "bajados de los barcos" (straight off the boat), frequently referred to as "our grandfathers", who founded a special type of "white" and European society that is not Latin-American.

In addition, this ideology holds forth that cultural influences from other communities such as the Aborigines, Africans, Latin-Americans, or Asians are not relevant and even undesirable. White-European racism in Argentina shares similarities with the White Australia policy that was practiced during the beginning of the 20th century.

Immigration policy (1870-1953)
White-European racism in Argentina has a history of government participation. The ideology even has a legal foundation that was set forth in Article 25 of the National Constitution sponsored by Juan B. Alberdi. The article establishes a difference between European immigration (which should be encouraged) and non-European immigration.

The article's sponsor, Alberdi, father of the Argentine Constitution of 1853, explained in his own words the basis for White-European discrimination:

The discrimination between European and non-European immigration established by Article 25 of the Constitution has survived all subsequent constitutional reforms (1860, 1868, 1898, 1949, 1957, 1972 y 1994).

Originally this ideology had been structured to include immigrants of Spanish, Italian, and Jewish origin in the undesirable category, claiming that the "races which could improve the species" in Argentina where those that originated from Northeastern Europe, primarily England and France.

Alberdi, who was a proponent of French being the national language of Argentina, believed that Hispanic and Christian traditions were enemies of progress and supported discrimination against Spanish, Italian, and Jewish immigration.

Alberdi believed that at the time to build the Argentine Nation it was necessary to foment the Anglo-Saxon population,(Germany, France, England) because it was identified by the steam, the trade and the freedom.
Nevertheless, through the years, the government failed in attracting massive immigration of these three countries, and on the contrary, before the perfect fact of the immigration of big quotas of Italians and Spanish, the racist ideology ended for including also to these groups as " "Europeans" "and" "whites" ".

A current example of this attitude of the Argentine government can be appreciated in the website of the office of tourism where it promises to be (I shrivel, 2006):

Invisibilation of ethnic groups
" The Invisibilation of cultures and etnias is a mechanism of discrimination widely used in the whole world. It is a mechanism intimately linked to the phenomena of ""disappearance"" and to ""homo sacer"" (man without rights) of the Roman Empire.

In the Argentina it has existed and continues existing a general culture and a state conscious politics of invisibilización of certain cultures and social groups, basically those defined as "non-Europeans".
Once again the mechanism has its base in the constitutional preference to the European thing that establishes the article 25 of the National Constitution and is inspired in the thought alberdiano.

The process of invisibilation has been executed by means of multiple forms. One of them has been the manipulation of the censuses, to reduce and up to eliminating the records related to persons or not European cultures. Thus to be the word ordered(arranged) to replace " "black" " to mention the ethnic - cultural belonging of the persons, for the word ""auburn"" only recounted to the leather tonality. It allowed to the Argentine State to declare in the Census of 1947 that the totality of the Argentine population was white.

The African Case
Though Argentina's population is overwhelmingly of white European descent, the city of Buenos Aires was a slave-trading port during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. At one point, thirty percent of Buenos Aires' population were black and mixed-race slaves.

In Buenos Aires, the black population was centered in the neighborhoods of San Telmo and Montserrat, to the south of the city center.

In the Independence wars, blacks and mulattos were usually recruited in separate corps known as pardos (mulattos) and morenos (darker-skinned blacks); both became famous for their loyalty and bravery. A (probably apocryphal) story relates that a black Argentine soldier known as Falucho resisted an offense to the Argentine flag made by Peruvian royalist soldiers, and paid with his life.

Juan Manuel de Rosas was accused by his opponents of using the black communities in Buenos Aires in as in his militia when dealing with opposition for several unsuccessful campaigns against Brazil and Uruguay. He would send the military into Black neighborhoods to conscript all the Black men. Prior to the conscriptions, the two major Afro-Argentinian musical genre, Candombe flourished.

As a result of this toward the end of the Rosas regimen in 1853, the black population of Buenos Aires began to dwindle. Many causes are cited:

* Many relocated to Montevideo, which had a larger black community, seemed lest hostile politically than Buenos Aires, and had a more favorable climate (less humidity)
* Blacks were recruited in disproportionate large numbers to the 1865 War of the Triple Alliance. After that war, more blacks emigrated to Uruguay.
* The yellow fever epidemic of 1871 took a heavy toll in the community

Presidents Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Julio Argentino Roca encouraged European immigration, which changed the demographics of Argentina. Much of the remaining black population was absorbed into the growing immigrant population through intermarriage.

Notable people
The principal inspirators of the Argentine racism were Domingo F. Sarmiento, Juan B. Alberdi, Jose Ingenieros, Jose Maria Ramos, etc. More recently, the military governments elaborated texts and policies inspired by this peculiar Argentine racism, which reinforced the ideology and gave to it political connotations.

Legacy
Contemporary Demographics

The actual Argentine population is the result of the former immigration policy conducted by the Argentine government in the 19th and 20th century. Argentina, became a melting pot of different ethnic groups, both autochthonous and immigrants.
The most common ethnic groups at the present day are Italian and Spaniard. There are also significant Germanic, Slavic, British and French populations.

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