Imagining the Afro-Uruguayan Conventillo

245 Pages·2009·0.46 MB·English

Imagining the Afro-Uruguayan Conventillo:
Belonging and the Fetish of Place and Blackness
by
Vannina Sztainbok
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto
© Copyright by Vannina Sztainbok (2009)
IMAGINING THE AFRO-URUGUAYAN CONVENTILLO:
BELONGING AND THE FETISH OF PLACE AND BLACKNESS
Vannina Sztainbok
Doctor of Philosophy 2009
Sociology and Equity Studies in Education
University of Toronto
Abstract
This thesis explores the symbolic place occupied by a racialized neighbourhood
within the Uruguayan national imaginary. I study the conventillos (tenement buildings) of
two traditionally Afro-Uruguayan neighbourhoods in Montevideo, Barrio Sur and
Palermo. These neighbourhoodsare considered the cradle of Afro-Uruguayan culture and
identity. The conventillos have been immortalized in paintings, souvenirs, songs, and
books. Over the years most of the residents were evicted due to demolitions, which
peaked during Uruguay’s military dictatorship (1973-1984). I address the paradox of how
a community can be materially marginalized, yet symbolically celebrated, a process that
is evident in other American nations (Brazil, Colombia, etc.). I show how race, class, and
gender are entangled in folkloric depictions of the conventilloto constitute a limited
notion of blackness that naturalizes the relationship between Afro-Uruguayans, music,
sexuality, and domestic work. The folklorization of the space and it residents is shown to
be a “fetishization” which enhances the whiteness of the national identity, while
confining the parameters of black citizenship and belonging.
Utilizing a methodology that draws on cultural geography, critical race,
postcolonial, and feminist theory, my dissertation analyzes the various ways that the
Barrio Sur/Palermo conventillo has been imagined, represented, and experienced.
Specifically, I examine 1) autobiographical, literary and popular (media, songs) narratives
ii
about these neighbourhoods; 2) the depiction of the conventillo by a prominent artist
(Carlos Páez Vilaró); 3) spatial practices; 4) the performance of a dancer who emerged
from the conventillo to become a national icon (the Carnival vedette Rosa Luna); and 5)
interviews with nine key informants. My analysis focuses on how bodies, subjects, and
national belonging are constituted through relations to particular spaces. By
foregrounding the “geographies of identity” (Radcliffe and Westwood, 1996, p. 27), I
show that the symbolic celebration of black space goes hand in hand with material
disavowal. This study thus connects the imagining of a local, racialized space to how
national belonging is constituted and experienced.
iii
Acknowledgements
This thesis has benefited tremendously from my committee’s feedback and
support. Thank you to my brilliant supervisor, Sherene Razack. Your academic integrity
and confidence in me sustained me through six long years.It has been a great honour and
a great responsability to work with you.Thank you to Alissa Trotz for posing difficult
questions that challenged me where I needed to be challenged. Thank you to Néstor
Rodríguez for bringing your keen Latin Americanist eye to thiswork. Thank you to the
external examiner, Denise Ferreira da Silva, who deeply considered the claims made in
this thesis. Roland SintosColoma, thank you for taking the time to get through these 200
plus pages in the middle of the summer and giving them your careful attention.
At the risk of missing someone, I want to name colleagues who have taken time to
ask critical questions, model their own process, and provide all kinds of support over the
years: Thank you to Lynn Caldwell, Gulzar Charania, Patricia Díaz, Nupur Gogia, Eve
Haque, Melanie Knight, Carrianne Leung, Teresa Macías, Gada Mahrouse, Carmela
Murdocca, Leslie Thiesen-Wilson, and everyone in Sherene’s thesis group. Thank you
Sobia Shaikh for engaging deeply with my thesis: readingsections, providing feedback
and,most of all, encouragement. Thank you Shaista Patel: for your critical questions,
confidence,and for hearing me out despite a migraine. Sobia and Shaista, you have
taught me a lot about friendship. Lorena Gajardo and Magaly San Martín, thank you for
your intellectual engagement and forbeing there. The whole process has also been
enhanced by recreational times with the SESE ratpack (you know who you are).
In addition, I have received valuable instruction and/or support from other faculty
and staffincluding Maria José Botelho,Kari Dehli, Ken Mills, Sheryl Nestel, Kristine
Pearson, and Honor Ford-Smith. Thanks also to Erica Townsend-Bell, Eduardo Canel,
Eva-Lyn Jagoe, and Aaron Kappelerfor providing feedback.
In Uruguay, I am deeply grateful for the solidarity and friendship shown by
Carolina Ricarte, who helped me to gain access to resources and facilitated contacts.
Jorge Emilio Cardoso, thank you for your ongoing support and inspiration. Thank you to
all of the participants I interviewed for this project: Juan Antonio Varese, Tomás Olivera
Chirimini, Cachila Silva, Lagríma Ríos, Marta Silva, Néstor Silva, Beatriz Santos
iv
Arrascaeta, Rita, Jorge Goñi, and Francisco Guatimí. I was saddened to learn that
Lagríma Ríos passedaway six months after our meeting. Thanksalso to others who
provided information and resources in Montevideo and Toronto: Gonzalo Abella, Raúl
Acosta, Eugenia Silveira Chirimini, Daniel “Tatita” Márquez, and Wilson Cardozo.
I could not have completed such a long and arduous process without the
tremendous support I have received from my family. My parents, Chela and Víctor, are
always there for me, collaborating in all sorts of ways: procuring books, following up on
contacts, taking care of the kids for one month while I conducted research, and financing
an important conference. Most of all, they never doubted that I could and should be doing
this. Thank you also for parenting three thoughtfulintelligent daughters, who have
supported me in countless ways. I can only mention a few here. Tamara: thank you for
your editing adviceand thoughtful words. Iliana: thank you for your knowledge,
encouragement, and being there. Malka: thank you for your encouragement and always
being ready to celebrate the small achievements along the way.
Yamandú and Kyria: thanks for your patience all these years. You seldom
complained about the endless hours I spent reading, thinking, writing, and researching
and you provided me with insightful tips. Kyria, thank you for pointing out that it
shouldn’t be that hard to write one page per day. Yama, you have a way with words that
helps me to put things into perspective. Both of you: thank you for your effusive hugs
when I get home from a late day or from a few days at a conference. You never make me
feel neglectful, just missed. Most of all thank you for being you. You are precious.
Dayv, thanks for well….everything. I know that your practical, everyday support
is part of the partnership we have built over the years, and this is priceless. Your
emotional support has been awesome. It means everything that you never once (seriously)
asked the question most dreaded by grad students, “So, when are you going to be done?”
Thanks for your confidence in me and your reassurances. For someone whois not
immersed in academic work, you have an amazing comprehension of the complexities of
the research and writing process. Most of all,thanks for providing good food and
moments of fun and relaxation between and after long hours of writing, and for insisting
that I have a huge party after it’s all done.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................iv
Introduction
Introduction to the Afro-Uruguayan conventillo……………………………………....1
Chapter One
Mapping Subjectivity and Belonging in Relation to Geography and the Body........22
Chapter Two
A History of the Conventillo and a History of the Urban Slum..................................55
Chapter Three
Tensions of the Clotheslines: “Les encantaba ponernos uniforme a las negras” .....83
Chapter Four
“Through the Spear, the Shield, and the Dialect”:The Fetish of the Conventillo..116
Chapter Five
Rosa Luna: Exposing her Body, Revealing the Nation.............................................147
Chapter Six
Conclusion: The Poetics and Politics of the Conventillo............................................186
Afterword....................................................................................................................... 197
Appendix A: Glossary...................................................................................................200
vi
Appendix B: Data Sources...........................................................................................201
Appendix C: Information Letter for Interview Participants....................................208
Appendix D: Consent to Participate in Research......................................................211
Appendix E: Interview Questions................................................................................213
References......................................................................................................................217
vii
Dedicated to Celina (Chela Mazuí) and Víctor Sztainbok, who taught me that asking
questions is important and that it is never too late to start something new.
viii
Introduction to the Afro-Uruguayan conventillo
The black was for a long time confined to the conventillo and for a long time to
speak of the conventillo meant imagining it populated by blacks even though, of
course, there were also individuals of various shades of skin.1
(Renzo Pi Hugarte, 2001, p. 4)
Finally, the culture of the conventillois recuperated and in the last decade of the
century we saw the “official” revitalization of candombetaken up by the entire
citizenry. It no longer knows the boundaries of the conventillo gates or of the month
of February, but it defines itself as Uruguayan. The press is also transformed and
speaks of the “celebration of the Uruguayan people.” It is experienced as belonging
to the whole society and it is presented to the world as a marker of national identity.
(Alejandrina da Luz, 2001, p. 47)
Conventillos were a type of tenement building common in the River Plate region
from the late 19th-to mid 20th-centuries.The typical Montevideo conventillo was a
rectangular building with many rooms facing an open central courtyard; generally one
family lived in one room. Toilets, cooking, and washing facilities were common areas
(see figure 1). Conventillos were built as cheap housing during a period of heavy
immigration. They were the first type of planned housing in Montevideo (Conti, 1986).
Initially, immigrants, formerly enslaved Afro-Uruguayans, and rural migrants resided in
these buildings due to their affordability. As immigrants moved up the social scale, many
would move on to “better” neighbourhoods and many of the black residents stayed on,
suggesting a relation between race and social mobility (Luz, 2001; Rodríguez, 2001)).
Conventillos were particularly common in two adjacent neighbourhoods known for their
“Afro-Uruguayanness,” Barrio Sur and Palermo. The Barrio Sur and Palermo
conventilloshave mostly been torn down, but they live on in the national memory. Their
history shows that these spaces are at once culturally significant and socially marginal.
The conventillos are revered as the “cradle” of candombe–an Afro-Uruguayan musical
style that is associated with carnival and the national identity. Yet most of the Afro-
Uruguayan residents of these neighbourhoods were displaced through a series of
evictions that peaked during thenation’s military dictatorship from 1973 to 1984,
effectively erasing blackness from the city centre (Ortuño, 2006; Rodríguez, 2001).

1Please note: all translations from Spanish to English are my own. Where pertinent I have also included the
Spanish original. Some key words are translated in the glossary, see Appendix A.
1
2
The pairing of Alejandrina da Luz and Renzo Pi Hugarte above provides a snapshot
of how the conventillo looms in the national imagination.2 On the one hand, Pi Hugarte
insinuates a negative connotation between the conventillos and blackness. While they
existed, the conventilloswere weighted with the stigma of being overcrowded, filthy
places, where families piled into a single room and led lives that were viewed as less than
respectable (Barrán, 1995; Pi Hugarte, 2001). On the other hand, Luz points to the
national celebration of conventillo culture, particularly once the buildings no longer exist
and the residents have been dispersed. In fact, on December 3, 2006, the nation’s first
black member of parliament, Edgardo Ortuño, presided over a new national holiday
celebrating Afro-Uruguayan national heritage and racial equity. Promoted by sectors of
the Afro-Uruguayan community and the then recently elected left-of-centre coalition
(Encuentro Progresista -Frente Amplio) this day was namedDía Nacional del
Candombe, la Cultura Afrouruguaya y la Equidad Racial. The date was chosen because
it commemorates the last day that the drums sounded in Medio Mundo, one of the best
known conventillos. The actual building was bulldozed in 1979 during Uruguay’s
military dictatorship, an act that some have condemned as deeply racist (Rodríguez,
2001). Despite its destruction, however, Medio Mundo has a prominent place in local and
national memory. This tenement has been immortalized in paintings, photographic
exhibits, songs, books, and now, a national holiday.
The meanings associated with the conventilloare varied and evocative. For many
former residents, these neighbourhoods are remembered as a site of family, solidarity,
hardship, and very humble beginnings. In the many souvenirs that feature Barrio Sur and
Palermo, candombedrummers, candombecharacters, and picturesqueconventillo
clotheslines figure prominently. For some, the conventillos of Barrio Sur and Palermo are
cultural heritage sites (Tomás Olivera Chirimini, personal communication). For others,
they represent the exotic unknown, the “interior of negritude” (Páez Vilaró, 2000, p.7). It
is also worth noting that quite a few prominent Afro-Uruguayan artists of the last sixty
years were associated with these neighbourhoods including Rosa Luna, Ruben Galloza,

2Hugarte’s comments are contained in the introduction to Alejandrina da Luz’s (2001) book, Los
conventillos de barrio Sur y Palermo: mucho más que casas de inquilinato.