Identidad Marrón's Book
Ana Vivaldi and Identidad Marrón
This book is the product of the work that the Identidad Marrón collective has been carrying out since 2019 through workshops, cultural institutions, newspaper articles and conversations. In the book, we reflect on three main themes: a) the erasure of Marrón (brown) cultural products due to racial and class-based exclusions, b) the practices of representation of Marrón bodies, which are often mediated by white perspectives, c) self-representation as an anti-racist alternative that can produce new forms of Marrón and dissident beauty.
América Canela, one of the authors, shows the book against her skin as a commentary on the cover design by Abril Carissimo.
The work of Identidad Marrón gained particular significance in the year 2020 when discussions about racism in Argentina intensified, drawing on the historical struggles of the Afro and Indigenous communities and going beyond the politics of identity recognition.
The book is a collective production, compiled and edited by Florencia Alvarado, América Canela and Alejandro Mamani, with editorial support from CARLA researchers Pablo Cossio and Ana Vivaldi. The book also comprises memories of activism and militancy associated with territories and vectors that connect with each other.
This book is an object which combines texts with illustrations, collages, and memes. It includes photos from the collective's archive, which is under construction, and images that support anti-racist critique and network-building, assembled as part of deliberate curatorial work by América Canela and Flora Alvarado. It was designed by Neko Leguizamón, an artist, teacher and researcher who is part of the IM collective. The book is a tool with proposals for practical activities and also an invitation to take over institutions in the cultural sector and beyond.
Selection and compilation by Pablo Cossio and Ana Vivaldi
'Where are we, the Marrones? Who writes about anti-racism? Where do we look for answers? How much is their guilt worth? Where does your family's gold come from? Who gets to read it? Who generates empathy? How many are we? What is a mirror? What colour is the Buenos Aires conurbation? And the prisons? And the shantytowns? Where are we? Where do you see your colour?” (page 7).
"Colourism has an effect when, for example, social mobility and class are associated with European skin tones and phenotypes" (page 29).
"Whitening operates in the collective unconscious which increasingly demands of the masses that they should be on equal terms with an advertising capitalist market that constantly demands social whitening" (page 34).
“In Argentine cinema, for example, there is colourism in the way in which roles are assigned to the actors. Often actors who have a Marrón or Indigenous phenotype are cast in secondary roles” (page 36).
“Lohana, Diana and Daniela have something in common: they are racialised transvestites who have opened up the discussion about the racialisation of transvestite-trans identities – an often invisibilised fact that we must make visible so rights can be demanded” (page 44).
“To denounce incidents of trigger-happy policing in Argentina as racist crimes is the first step towards addressing the fact that police and institutional violence is exercised against non-white bodies” (page 52).
“We ask ourselves: where are the social security contributions? Where are the unpaid contributions that racialised people should have received? Domestic work is a feminised job. According to the state, 76.8% of domestic cleaners in Argentina are employed in precarious conditions” (page 54).
A Marrón poem by Melisa Ibalo, "From many places and none":
“They call my dad bolita [from Bolivia]
And to think that he denies being from Santiago
When they asked his nationality, he answered: Santiago del Estero [city in Argentina]
I don't think he is ashamed of his origins”
(page 88).
A Marrón poem by Melisa Ibalo, "From many places and none":
“He says that he would have liked to study
But with hunger and heat, you can't think
He longs for his little adobe house and the cot where he grew up”
(Page 88) .