Afro-Chilean women to the rescue: The question of the Afro-descendant’s supposed inexistence in Chile, the female testimonies of a recovery

Abstract

In the nation of Chile, the fallacy exists that the country´s social culture does not have Afro-descendant heritages. When most Chileans think about their nation´s identity, they assume their country has a distinctly European and slightly indigenous descent.
This paper examines the testimonies and research that Chilean women –Afro-descendants and scholars– have done to rescue the legacy and the presence of Afro-Chilean culture. I analyze the colonial history of the country, to examine the problem of
African slavery and the subsequent denial of the presence of the Afro-descendants in Chile. This way, I conclude that the work of (Afro)Chilean women is important in the Southern Cone of Latin America, since it demonstrates a cultural agency that recovers the history and social projection of an identity’s legacy.