María Remedios del Valle y las Marías. Memorias, representaciones y actualidad de una femineidad negra heroica en la capital “blanca” argentina

Abstract

In this chapter I propose to conduct research on María Remedios del Valle, co-named the Mother of the Homeland, from an intersectional perspective (which highlights the intersec-tion of diverse forms of oppression such as gender, race, class, politics among other cate-gories). My aim is to examine the memories, representations and actuality of heroic black femininity and the racism embedded in our society: what does it mean to be a black heroine in a city like Buenos Aires, which has historically prided itself on its ‘whiteness’?  With re-gard to the concept of the Marias, a term I use to refer to a group of women, generally of African descent, anonymous, who have only been mentioned secondarily in historical sources, I propose to recover and integrate new narratives around the concept of heroicity. I am interested in showing how these women, racialised and invisibilised throughout Argen-tine history, have been fundamental in the construction of historical memory and in the recognition of heroes and heroines in our society.