Styling Blackness in Chile

An analysis of how Afro-Chilean performers of music and dance in Arica frame their Blackness in regards to other performers. Chile had long forgotten about the existence of the country’s Black population when, in 2003, the music and dance called the tumbe carnaval appeared on the streets of the city of Arica. Featuring turbaned dancers accompanied by a lively rhythm played on hide-head drums, the tumbe resonated with cosmopolitan images of what the African Diaspora looks like, and so helped brin