Folklore of the Black Struggle in Latin America

Abstract

This is a translated and edited version of a section of the author's El folklore de las luchas sociales (Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1973) — a book which received mention in the 1973 Casa de las Americas awards and has been banned in several Latin American dictatorships. In his introduction, the author differentiates a Marxist approach to folklore studies from the usual bourgeois approaches. In contrast with those who view folklore as either evidence of an idealized past where the upper class was accepted as legitimate rulers by the folk or with those who view the "people's culture" as ipso facto revolutionary, Carvalho-Neto shows that folklore mirrors the class struggle and is itself an instrument of class hegemony over all culture. Folklore also reflects defense, resistance and struggle, for as long as an oppressed group is not liberated, its folklore of resistance represents primarily an adaptation to the violence of domination.

Research in the Political Economy of Afro-Latin America

“…It explains why Dominican blacks are called indios and Panamanian mulattoes are called mestizos (Bryce-Laporte 1979, p. 13). It is also expressed in the pungency of Latin American stereotypes of blacks, which has been documented by several authors, most recently by Carvalho-Neto (1978). One of the behavioral manifestations of these attitudes and beliefs is the discouragement of, and resistance to, all forms of autonomous black self-expression.…”

“…It is, therefore, concerned with the relations of Afro-Latin Americans to modes of production (slavery, capitalism, socialism), economic institutions (the plantation, transnational corporations), economic development models, transnational relations, political systems, institutions, behavior, group and class relations (including class struggle), social mobility, and political mobilization. It does not exclude discussions of culture, religion, or folklore; they, too, may exhibit dimensions of protest and struggle (Carvalho-Neto 1978, Fernandes 1966, Warren 1965, though Ianni (1970, p. 75) has warned us that this has not been proved conclusively as far as the content of the black religions is concerned.…”

“…The paradox is that this competitive class society retained the traditional views of blacks and mulattoes characteristic of the plantation social order. Thus, the old invidious stereotypes (Carvalho-Neto 1978) still operate to block the access of Afro-Brazilians to jobs, status, and power. Even the black and mulatto protest movements of the 1920s and 1930s did not really challenge the new order.…”