Abstract:
This article discusses possible origins of a peculiar performance of blackness typical of the Buenos Aires carnival of the 19th century, which involved using dark makeup and dressing up in the alleged manner of afro-descendants. Emerging in 1865, both whites and blacks participated in such carnivalesque aesthetics. Following up investigations presented elsewhere, which had discarded that the Anglo-Saxon blackface minstrelsy may have inspired folks performing blackness in the River Plate, this paper seeks to prove that there was a different, older influence: that of Spanish literature and theatre, in turn influenced by Afro-Caribbean musical and theatrical expressions. The first part of this paper describes representation of blackness and styles of makeup in Spanish theatre, music and literature and their arrival and impact in sainetes, “bailes de negros”, tonadillas, zarzuelas and tangos performed by both Spanish and local troupes in Buenos Aires. The second part analyzes the influence of those Spanish genres in the Buenos Aires carnival and assesses the possibility that carnival ensembles performing blackness drew inspiration from them. The investigation begins in 1825, when the first actor in blackface may have featured in a theatre play in Buenos Aires, and ends c. 1890, when the phenomenon of carnival ensembles in blackface had reached its peak.
Keywords:
blackface
; carnival; Buenos Aires; theatre; music