Indians, Blacks, and Morochos: Trajectories, Intersectionalities, and Class Frictions in a Neighborhood of Buenos Aires

In Indians, Blacks, and Morochos Menara Guizardi and Silvina Merenson address the relationships between stratification and social mobility in contemporary Argentina, using an ethnographic study on class relations in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Relying on the Extended Case Method, the authors narrate the life history of Ramiro. A worker who has lived in the neighborhood for forty years, Ramiro strives to carve out a career through a network of micro and macro social relationships and conflicts that frame his daily life. Synthesizing the debates on class internationally and in Argentina, Guizardi and Merenson establish the study’s initial theoretical frameworks and describe the methodology used. They then reconstruct Ramiro’s life starting from his experiences in his home province of Tucuman, his migration to Buenos Aires, his settling in San Telmo and entering the work force, and the class conflicts that he experienced. The authors conclude by presenting a tentative anthropological conceptualization of class.