Black Legend: The Many Lives of Raúl Grigera and the Power of Racial Storytelling in Argentina

by Paulina L Alberto

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, Raúl Grigera ('el negro Raúl'), 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 Raúl Grigera at its center, Black Legend opens new windows into lived experiences of Blackness in a 'white' nation, and illuminates how Raúl's experience of celebrity was not far removed from more ordinary experiences of racial stories in the flesh.

410 pages, Hardcover

Published January 6, 2022

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sub-title of this excellent book – The Many Lives of Raul Grigera & the Power of Racial Storytelling in Argentina - whilst giving a clear indication of what the book is about gives little indication of just how unexpectedly interesting it is. The life story of Afro-Argentine Raul Grigera, or El Negro Raul as he is more commonly known, follows him through decades in an Argentina that increasingly defined itself as “white” and sought to eradicate all traces of its black population. Caught up in changing attitudes, Raul’s history is ultimately a tragic and moving one. Meticulously researched, and bringing justice to her much maligned subject, author Paulina L Alberto explores the complexities of Argentinian ideas on race, ethnicity and identity. The book brings Raul and his family vividly to life, as well as their day-to-day existence amongst their community. But as well as being about Raul, the book is also a sociological and political history of Argentina itself. It’s a scholarly and academic text, but accessibly written, and I learnt a lot about a subject I didn’t know I would be so interested in. Although it is time, place and person specific, the book has a wider global resonance as attitudes towards “blackness” still prevail in many communities, and thus it informs our thinking in many ways.

[Tera Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feels too much like a movie and therefore a little gimmicky. Also, the argument feels too close to Doris Sommer’s work. The good writing is just a trap. I wanted to like it.