Pain into Purpose: Mobilizing Emotions in Argentina's Black Resistance Movement

by Prisca Gayles

Overview

Pain into Purpose is a groundbreaking exploration of Argentina's Movimiento Negro (Black resistance movement). Employing a multi-year ethnography of Black political organizing, Prisca Gayles delves deep into the challenges activists face in confronting the erasure and denial of Argentina's Black past and present. She examines how collective emotions operate at both societal and interpersonal levels in social movements, arguing that activists strategically leverage societal and racialized emotions to garner support. Paying particular attention to the women activists who play a crucial role in leading and sustaining Argentina's Black organizations, the book showcases the ways Black women exercise transnational Black feminist politics to transform pain into purpose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009569743
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/18/2025
Series:	Afro-Latin America
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Prisca Gayles is Assistant Professor of Gender, Race, and Identity and Sociology at the University of Nevada, Reno. This is her first book.

Table of Contents

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Argentina también es afro; 1. '¿De dónde sos?': Mechanisms of Racialization in a 'Raceless' but White Nation; 2. Poner el Cuerpo: The Emergence of the Movimiento Negro, 1983–2013; 3. 'Somos los primeros desaparecidos.': Mobilizing the Emotional and Discursive Opportunities of the Human Rights Movement; 4. '¡Qué su voz se escuche!': A Black Feminist Toolkit and the Everyday Successes of Race-based Social Movements; 5. 'Ahora más que nunca.': The Saliency of Black Activism during a Pandemic; Conclusion; Appendix A. Methodological Appendix; Appendix B. List of Organizations and Collectives; Appendix C. Demographic Information of Interviewees; Works Cited; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'Pain into Purpose unearths and vividly displays a movement that many in Argentina still prefer not to see. What does it take for activists to keep going against all odds? Prisca Gayles provides a thoughtful and original analysis of collective will and emotional energy in the movimiento negro, a marginalized and often despised form of joint struggle.' Javier Auyero, editor of Portraits of Persistence and author of Squatter Life

'Pain into Purpose creatively examines Black activism in Argentina from the 1980s to today. It moves beyond the well-known narrative of Black invisibility and reminds us that Black people did not ‘disappear’ but continue to fight for recognition. Because Gayles creatively centers Black women, she further reminds us that #blackgirlmagic exists throughout the Americas.' Erika D. Edwards, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law and the Making of a White Argentine Republic

'This beautifully written book provides us with much needed information on the Black experience in Argentina. Based on meticulously conducted research, Gayles visibilizes the struggles of a people whom for years have been rendered invisible. Indeed, as Gayles observes, ‘Argentina is Black, too!’ (‘¡Argentina también es afro!'). Pain into Purpose not only allows us to hear the voices of Black Argentines, but also reveals the genealogies and contemporary realities of Black Argentinian struggle in ways that negate the myth of a mono-racially white Argentina.' Christen Smith, author of Afro-Paradise: Blackness, Violence, and Performance in Brazil

From the Publisher