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

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.

List 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.

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.

Product details

• Authors: Prisca Gayles
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.12.2025
• EAN: 9781009569743
• ISBN: 978-1-009-56974-3
• Weight: 250 g
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Afro-Latin America
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Argentina, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Black Studies (Global), HISTORY / Latin America / South America, Social discrimination & inequality, History of the Americas, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination, Black & Asian Studies, Social discrimination and social justice, Relating to people of the African diasporas / heritage