Abstract

FLOREZ BOLIVAR, Francisco Javier. Celebrating and redefining the Mestizaje: Race and Nation during the Liberal Republic, Colombia, 1930-1946. memorias [online]. 2019, n.37, pp.93-116. ISSN 1794-8886.  https://doi.org/10.14482/memor.37.986.104.

Between 1930 and 1946, after fifty years of exalting the Hispanic heritage as the basis of the Colombia’s national identity, the Colombian government expanded the official national imaginary by celebrating the mestizo character of its population. In this article, I explore how people of African-descent conceptualized notions of mestizaje that circulated in Colombia during those years. I argue that a group of Afro-Colombian poets, musicians, painters, sculptors and writers redefined the notion of mestizaje proposed by some Liberal intelectualls and politicians. Paying particular attention to the positive characterization of Colombia as a mestizo country, that group of Afro-Colombians concluded that if Colombia was a country characterized by the mixture of indigenous, European and black people, the cultural manifestations of each of these three groups should be incorporated in the definition of Colombian national identity that was under debate between 1930 and 1946.

Keywords : mestizaje; race; nation; blacks; Colombia.

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