Argentina a surprise too many to see this country mentioned on the site, since there seems to be no black populace in this country.  Argentina took Mexico’s omission of blacks and took it a step further but not exactly genocide.   Like other Spanish colonies, Argentina, did participate in the slave trade where a third of the population was black in 1800. 

From 1580 to 1640, the main commercial activity for Buenos Aires was the slave trade.  More than 70 percent of the value of all imports arriving in Buenos were enslaved Africans.   Slaves came primarily from Brazil via the Portuguese slave trade from Angola and other Western states in Africa.  Once arriving in Buenos Aires, they could be sent as far as Lima, Peru; slaves were provided to Mendoza, Tucuman, Salta Jujuy, Chile, Paraguay, and what is today Bolivia and southern Peru.  Cordoba functioned primarily as redistribution center for this slave transfer until 1610. 

Edwards, E. (2014). Slavery in Argentina. In Oxford Bibliographies.

Slavery was abolished in 1813 but the practice continued until 1853 when the population of former slaves drastically dropped.  Before the erasure of blacks in Argentina they left their mark by contributing to the culture by influencing Tango, a popular style of music and dance that originated in Argentina.  Soon after 1853 the “blackout” began, where the erasure of blacks from Argentina’s history was taking shape. 

“While a number of Latin American countries pursued policies of racial Whitening,” Elizondo writes, “Argentina stands out for its ‘success’ in this area.”  Some blamed it on the nineteenth-century wars that country fought, in which black population suffered heavy casualties after being put on the front lines.  Others attributed it to assimilation through marriage.  Still others pointed to the devastating and disproportionate effects of cholera and yellow fever on black people, as well as emigration out the country to other South American locales. 

Henry Louis Gates, J. (2017). 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro. New York: Pantheon Books.

To further decimate the black population the Argentinian government encouraged the migration of Europeans to the country.  Millions of Europeans arrived to further whiten the nation, which was extremely successful, it was until recently the nation is coming to terms of the contributions of blacks to Argentina.

Data From: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print_ar.html