Condemnation of the attack on the monument of María Remedios del Valle, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Regarding the attack on the monument to María Remedios del Valle located in the Alfonso Castelao square, situated at Bernardo de Irigoyen and Estados Unidos in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, an event that occurred in the early morning of Friday, September 1st.
We strongly condemn all acts of violence and attacks on monuments and symbols that represent the Black-Afro-descendant identity in Argentina, its culture and the history of the nations that were brought here by what was called the Genocide of the Slave Trade.
Today, in "La Capitana," the mother of the nation, we honor all those who fought for their own freedom and that of the Argentine Nation.
Destroying statues, painting them, destroying them does not erase our history of struggle, resistance and the search to occupy the spaces that have always been denied to us.
Inhabiting denied spaces is a necessary practice and an essential commitment to repairing the past, collective memory of the present, and certainty that another humanity is possible.
These actions lead us to rethink other forms of struggle where memory and human rights are highlighted.
This type of demonstration is nothing less than a racist and colonial action, since it involves attacks on our memory and history, which they are once again trying to make invisible and make us victims of.
Monuments and statues serve to perpetuate and pay homage to important events and figures.
Vandalizing them implies a defiant action against what they represent, attempting to undermine their values and highlight the disagreement, anger, and helplessness in the face of what they represent.
We take note of the grievance, but we will not stop on our path of continuing to make visible the black presence in the histories of our countries.
We condemn the act and hope that justice will be served to find and punish the perpetrators.
At the same time, we continue to write, from a place of love, the pages of restoration of our legacy until it becomes easier for everyone to understand that we deserve the same place as everyone else, the same dreams, the same recognition because we are all human.
Misogyny, racism, and hate speech, far from bringing us closer to an emancipatory project oriented toward the common good, contribute to perpetuating the violence to which Black people, and Black women in particular, have historically been subjected. The various forms of monumental expression that reflect the identity and memory of Afro-descendant peoples, brought to Abya Yala (the Americas) more than 500 years ago, represent forms of resistance and re-existence within a history marked by omissions, exclusions, and silencing.
We strongly condemn these racist and colonialist demonstrations in their attempt to perpetuate the invisibility of the contribution of black women to the independence of Latin American peoples.
4th September 2023
CLACSO Working Groups
Afro-descendants and counter-hegemonic proposals
Epistemologies of the South
Signatories
Rivas Network
Nelson Mandela Chair (Cuba)
AINALC Association of Black Researchers of Latin America and the Caribbean
G-TEP Group for Social Theory, Decolonial Studies and Critical Thinking
UNIAFRO/UNSAM
NUSUR/EIDADES/UNSAM
Xango Group for Inclusion and Social Justice (Argentina)
The same Sea editions
Wenilere Cardenense Community Experience (Cuba)
Sawabona Collective (Argentina)
MATAMBA LBTIQ+ (Argentina)
House of Indo-Afro-American Culture (Argentina)
Argentine-Brazilian Cultural Association A Thurma da Bahiana (Argentina)
Pan-Africanist Movement (Argentina)
National Assembly of Afro-descendant Women and LBTTNB (Argentina)
Afro and Afro LBTTBINOBI+ Workshop of the Pluri Meeting (Argentina)
INDER National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Cuba)
Carioca Network of Ethno-educators
