Black Legend

The Many Lives of Raul Grigera and the Power of Racial Storytelling in Argentina

Black Legend
Paulina L Alberto
RRP:
NZ$ 51.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 46.79
Hardback
Not defined - 410pg
6 Jan 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781108845557
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
Celebrities live their lives in constant dialogue with stories about them. But when these stories are shaped by durable racist myths, they wield undue power to ruin lives and obliterate communities. Black Legend is the haunting story of an Afro-Argentine, Raul Grigera (' el negro Raul' ), who in the early 1900s audaciously fashioned himself into an alluring Black icon of Buenos Aires' bohemian nightlife, only to have defamatory storytellers unmake him. In this gripping history, Paulina Alberto exposes the destructive power of racial storytelling and narrates a new history of Black Argentina and Argentine Blackness across two centuries. With the extraordinary Raul Grigera at its center, Black Legend opens new windows into lived experiences of Blackness in a ' white' nation, and illuminates how Raul' s experience of celebrity was not far removed from more ordinary experiences of racial stories in the flesh.
' This book is a gem. Beautifully written, meticulously researched, it reaches across the borders of our hemisphere to help us think in complex and humane ways about race, the power of storytelling, and nocturnal life in Buenos Aires. ' Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University ' Alberto uses the skills of a sleuth to recover the life of Buenos Aires' s famed ' negro Raul' and those of a truly gifted historian to help us think not just about Blackness in Argentina but also about the very real power of stories in the lives of individuals, communities, and nations. A fascinating, beautiful work of history. ' Ada Ferrer, New York University ' Black Legend is an extremely innovative book that brings together the best kind of historical work, weaving together life story and national myth with the writing of history itself. Through meticulous research, Paulina Alberto tells the life and afterlives of Black celebrity Raul Grigera, providing a deep analysis of the long-lasting effects of racial storytelling in Argentina' s self-definition as a nation. Offering a counter narrative of Grigera' s life, Alberto reminds us that a story well told can play as powerful a role in dismantling racism. ' Keila Grinberg, author of A Black Jurist in a Slave Society ' Poignant and penetrating, Black Legend is a sensitive biography of one complex man and a multilayered history of a community, city, and country all vying to script Blackness in the turbulent twentieth century. A book as much about the power of stories in political culture as the deep and shadowed racial past of Argentina, Black Legend is a stunning achievement. ' Tiya Miles, Harvard University and author of The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits
Paulina L. Alberto is an Argentine-born historian of Afro-Latin America, currently Professor of History, Spanish, and Portuguese at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Terms of Inclusion: Black Intellectuals in Twentieth-Century Brazil and co-editor of Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina. She won the Roberto Reis Prize for Best Book in Brazilian Studies, the Warren Dean Prize for Best Book in Brazilian History, and the James Alexander Robertson Prize for best article in the Hispanic American Historical Review.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781108845557
Published: 6 Jan 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Format: Hardback
Pages: 410

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information