"Black", "Mulatto" and "Accidental Color" Soldiers. Racial Alterity and Identity Readjustment in the Period of the Independences of the Southern Cone

Abstract

This study examines the expressions of identification and affiliation of free and freedmen Afro-descendant soldiers to the independence processes of the Southern Cone. It contrasted with the images, classifications and racial otherness experienced in their military corps. From the discussion about identity from Cultural Studies and Social History, three military processes of the period are analyzed, to suggest that the identity of Afro-descendants was readjusted in the period and was projected to their interests and those of the homeland elite.