UROP Poster Sections:

Title of poster presentation:

Race in Contemporary Argentina: The Case of El Negro Ral
Paulina Alberto, Associate Professor, History & Romance Language and Literature


Abstract
The focus of this project is to collect and analyze the life and stories about negro
Ral, who was a famous black character in early twentieth century Argentina. His
notoriety decreased after the 1970s but now he has begun to resurface again along
with a reviving curiosity towards Argentinas non-white history. Through the
continuous compilation of novels, tango lyrics, records from neighborhoods and
newspaper articles in Argentina, the primary goal of this research is to expose the
intricate life of el negro Ral and the accounts of those who were familiar with
him. The material resurfacing is from a variety of time periods, taking a fictional or
historical perspective and written by authors of different economical and social
standpoints. These numerous resources narrating aspects of negro Ral will then
be inserted into a database to further distinguish patterns in the way Ral is
portrayed and recalled. By looking at these stories and how they change over time,
we examine racial ideologies in Argentina during and after the life of negro Ral.
This work in progress about Raul Grigera highlights the importance of collective
storytelling concerning racial identities and is part of a broader study of race in
contemporary Argentina.

-Objectives
The objective of this research is to draw attention to racial narratives in Argentina
during the beginning of the 20
th
century. Specifically, the research will analyze
how stories of negro Raul shape his persona, making him into a legendary
comedian, a tortured soul or simply a crazy person. All these different narratives
also demonstrate the changes in racial ideologies, but also his lack of participation
as newer narratives limit negro Rauls ability to participate in shaping his own
image.

-Method
Periodically, I would utilize HathiTrust and Google Books to obtain new literary
sources that would mention or describe the story of negro Raul. After obtaining
books, magazines, memoires or newspaper articles that contained information
about negro Raul, I would upload these references to Zotero, an online
application that facilitates the collection, organization, citation and distribution of
research sources. Afterwards, I would order the most prevalent sources through
interlibrary loans, scan the sources and upload the finished scanned copy to Zotero
once again.

Conclusion

Even though we have collected a significant amount of memoirs, newspaper
articles, poems, or songs where negro Raul in mentioned, periodically there are
more sources resurfacing. There are more observations to be made concerning
how negro Raul was described, to compare and contrast the various portrayals of
negro Raul and evaluate how these descriptions portray the mentality of the 20
th

century concerning black argentines. Therefore, this project is still on going and
new sources keep adding new aspects to the life of negro Raul.



Images:
Negro Raul photograph from Historia de la calle Florida


















El Hogar Aventuras del negro Raul, Un domingo porteo