WHITENING LATIN AMERICA... DID IT WORK?

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba pursued a controversial policy known as ‘blanqueamiento’ or whitening. Governments set a goal of ‘improving’ the racial composition of their populations by encouraging immigrants from Europe to settle the occupied lands and mix with the African and Indigenous populations. Immigrants were promised land, jobs, and a better life. These policies were a direct extension of European colonialism, rooted in white supremacy and racial hierarchy to ensure wealth remained in white hands.

This history reminds us why the struggle for Pan-African unity and liberation remains crucial today.

Sourceshttps://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/racial-subordination-in-latin-america/spanish-america-whitening-the-race-the-unwritten-laws-of-blanqueamiento-and-mestizaje/254E9DBB292F852D542CC9F13AC827C1

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/abs/two-dangers-one-solution-immigration-race-and-labor-in-cuba-19001930/7FBBBD6E9AE6A9ECF12C3468CE06118F

https://digpodcast.org/2022/12/04/race-in-latin-america

https://travelnoire.com/history-whitening-brazil

https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-894?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199366439.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199366439-e-894&p=emailAGTsqGURI5Aeg#:~:text=Brazil%20also%20received%20over%20five,Italians%2C%20and%20700%2C000%20Spaniards).

https://economics.uccs.edu/sites/g/files/kjihxj2156/files/2021-11/Immigrant-Nationality.pdf

https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-4/immigration

Loveman, M (2009). 'The Race to Progress: Census Taking and Nation Making in Brazil (1870-1920)'

https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-abstract/89/3/435/27589/The-Race-to-Progress-Census-Taking-and-Nation?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://africasacountry.com/2024/12/brazil-is-an-african-country#:~:text=Today%20more%20than%2050%20percent,20%20years%20came%20from%20Haiti.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/resources/lesson-plan-race-and-government-policy-in-revolutionary-cuba/198

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/31/argentina-white-european-racism-history