Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article aims to understand the process of appropriation and legal establishment of practices and public spaces -specifically the (re)naming of squares and streets, as well as the installation of commemorative plaques—in the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) between 2004 and 2015. Drawing on in-depth interviews and an examination of official documents, it analyzes how unprecedented changes were conceived through dynamics of Indigenous agency and memory. To do so, it identifies a series of motives and circumstances: the political organization of Indigenous groups in Buenos Aires, a broader regional context of ethnic visibility, a new legal and demographic framework in Argentina, and, above all, the arrival of Aymara and Quechua populations to Buenos Aires and their central role in promoting these initiatives. The article suggests that this experience transformed the social imaginary of a metropolis long understood as a “European enclave” in Latin America, while also warning of a current resurgence of racist perspectives that portray the recognition of ethno-cultural diversity as detrimental to national and porteño identity.
Authors: Pablo Mardones, Aymara Choque
Institutions: University of Tarapacá, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Language: Spanish
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7108451210