The Worthy of My Race: Social Sketches

By Edith Moss Jackson

. Trans. Edith Moss Jackson
The Worthy of My Race: Social Sketches, is a bilingual edition of Jorje Miguel Fords
biographies, published in 1899. The United Nations, declaring that 2012 initiates the Decade of
the Afrodescendant, encourages the recovery of such texts. This translation broadens readership
of the biographies to English speakers, while offering the Spanish text for others desiring the
original. Fords difficult style required that the translator render the text with flexibility. Ford
selected fourteen Afro-Argentine men as motivational icons for contemporary Afro-Argentine
youths who, like the massive waves of European immigrants, were unaware of the
Afrodescendants crucial contributions to the nations construction and development.
These biographies, with original photographs, document the achievements of
Afro-Argentines that challenged the prevailing racialized ideologies of the period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514418253

Edith Moss Jackson

Edith Moss Jackson earned the master's degree in Spanish literature at Harvard University and the doctorate in Spanish literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published an anthology, Forgotten Texts: 19th Century Afro-Argentine Poetic Constructions of Self and Community (2010), and authored a critical study Myth and Meaning: A Paradigmatic Analysis of Galdos's Fortunata y Jacinta (2002). She published "Bajo construccion en carnaval: las identidades etnicas de algunas comparsas afro-argentinas del siglo XIX," Konvergencias: Literatura, (Buenos Aires 2007), and presented papers at national professional meetings and international conferences in Eritrea, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Puerto Rico. She is also a recipient of Fulbright and John Hay Whitney fellowships.

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Copyright © 2015 by Edith Moss Jackson.

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Rev. date: 10/29/2015

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CONTENTS

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Translator’s Notes

Introduction

English Translation

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

To The Readers:

Lorenzo I. Barcala

Domingo Sosa

Felipe Mansilla

Casildo Thompson

Federico Espinosa

José María Morales

Horacio Mendizábal

Eujenio Sar

Manuel G. Posadas¹

Froilán P. Bello

Zenón Rolón

Tomás B. Platero

Casildo G. Thompson

Eduardo Magee

Spanish Text

Dedicatoria

Prólogo

Lectores

Lorenzo I. Barcala

Domingo Sosa

Felipe Mansilla

Casildo Thompson

Federico Espinosa

José María Morales

Horacio Mendizábal

Eujenio Sar

Manuel G. Posadas

Froilán P. Bello

Zenón Rolón

Tomás B. Platero

Casildo G. Thompson

Eduardo Magee

Biographical Dates

References

Illustration Credits

Appendices

Title Page In Ford’s Book

Dedicatoria In Ford’s Book

Prólogo In Ford’s Book

Lectores In Ford’s Book

Indice In Ford’s Book

National Immigration Archive Of Argentina

¹   In the ‘Indice’ of Ford’s 1899 published original, Posadas’ middle initial is wrongly printed as ‘T.’ See Appendices.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1—LORENZO I. BARCALA

Figure 2—DOMINGO SOSA

Figure 3—FELIPE MANSILLA

Figure 4—CASILDO THOMPSON

Figure 5—FEDERICO ESPINOSA

Figure 6—JOSÉ MARĪA MORALES

Figure 7—HORACIO MENDIZÁBAL

Figure 8—EUJENIO SAR

Figure 9—MANUEL G. POSADAS

Figure 10—FROILÁN P. BELLO

Figure 11—ZENÓN ROLÓN

Figure 12—TOMÁS B. PLATERO

Figure 13–CASILDO G. THOMPSON

Figure 14—EDUARDO MAGEE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A John Hay Whitney Fellowship sponsored my independent investigation of Afro-Argentine literature and culture in several libraries and archives of Buenos Aires; in La Plata; and in Carmen de Patagones, Argentina. The Whitney Fellowship allowed me actually to locate newspapers published by mostly nineteenth-century Afro-Argentine editors, for which I had gathered titles during my Fulbright award sponsorship, the previous year. I am indebted to the Fulbright Commission for making it possible to establish contact with members of the Afro-Argentine community and with several historians, anthropologists, musicologists, and folklorists whose unique studies I added to the bibliographies that I sent back to my professors at Harvard University, where I was a doctoral student in Spanish literature. Moreover, the Fulbright Commission of Buenos Aires obtained permission for me to enter the Hemeroteca of the Biblioteca Nacional of Buenos Aires, where most newspapers were stored. Finally, without the advice and suggestions of librarians and of Marta Goldberg, Nestor Ortíz Oderigo, Jorge Novati, Hugo Ratier, Carmen and Sara Platero, and Enrique Nadal, the value of this translation would be quite diminished.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

As in the case of most attempts at translation, I tried to keep in mind the integrity of Jorje Miguel Ford’s text. This goal means that at times, I set aside a strictly literal translation for one that seemed to preserve Ford’s apparent spirit even though his intention could never be known with accuracy. I started with some of the functionalist strategies for translation that are suggested in Reuben A. Brower’s collection of essays in On Translation. I have since been influenced by Lawrence Venuti’s explanation of hermeneutic approaches to translation, which suggest that only the concept of translation as an interpretive act, will lead to a productive investigation into the conditions of the translation process (484). I then began to cultivate a sense-for-sense reading of Ford’s Beneméritos de mi estirpe with less concern for word-to-word equivalences. In keeping with my editorial policy, I noticed several features of Ford’s book that required decisions regarding the translation process: Ford’s use of variant titles for his book, certain changes in the Spanish text, his relationship to Spanish, and Ford’s Spanish style.

1. The reader should note three variant titles of Ford’s book. First, on the book’s title page, there is Beneméritos de mi estirpe (Worthy of my race). Second, in Lectores (To the readers), we find Los Beneméritos de mi estirpe, which adds to the title the definite article los. Third, in the sketch of Casildo G. Thompson, there is Beneméritos de la estirpe negra. Here, the definite article los is dropped, the possessive mi changes to the article la, and the ethnic adjective negra (black) is added. My inclination is to employ the first, or title page, version as Ford placed it in the most prominent of all possible positions—i.e., on the title page.

2. Occasionally, I edit the original Spanish to avoid obvious typographical issues or to prevent confusion. I bracketed these changes in the Spanish text. Other potential issues remain unchanged if these do not alter meaning or produce problems of interpretation. The goal, as stated above, is to maintain the integrity of the original text.

3. An intriguing question is whether Spanish was actually Ford’s first language or whether his language habits echo the earlier Castilian language system of the previous generation. For example, his use of i and not y for the coordinating conjunction and is a common feature of late eighteenth-century Spanish texts in the River Plate. The Spanish, used in the abundant samples of newspapers that Afro-Argentine editors published in 1858 and during the 1870s and 1880s, do not reflect the spelling patterns employed on occasion by Ford. For example, Ford uses inestensible for inextensible in the biography of Mendizábal. Of course, several other disparities are scattered throughout Ford’s book. Perceived idiosyncrasies in Ford’s Spanish text require further study to determine whether incongruities reflect spellings that are consistent with regular patterns of phonetic change or are unique to Ford.

4. Finally, Ford’s sometimes florid or overly elaborate Spanish style often presented its own challenge as I at times had to make independent decisions about Ford’s meaning that seemed to have been obscured by the style.

At all times, still again, my goal is to produce a manuscript that, while drawing upon the literal Spanish text, captures the spirit of Ford’s often problematic linguistic communication. These linguistic issues present for the translator difficult decisions regarding, on one hand, faithfulness in conveying the literal Spanish text, and, on the other hand, flexibility in capturing essential or core meanings. This ongoing dilemma was resolved always in favor of a product that preserved Ford’s passion for his subject.

INTRODUCTION

For some time, Jorje Miguel Ford’s biographical sketches were among the principal resources for the few Argentine historians who researched the continued presence, social activism, and cultural heritage of Afro-Argentines. More specifically, in 1899 in La Plata, Argentina, Ford published Beneméritos de mi estirpe (The Worthy of My Race). The genius of this early and insightful contribution to making readers aware of positive achievements of Afro-Argentine citizens and their roles as military heroes, engineers, composers, poets, philanthropists, and founders of mutual aid organizations countered Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s² civilization/barbarism trope and other racialized ideologies dominant during the second half of the nineteenth century. However, Ford’s pioneering work has been inaccessible to the typical English-speaking reader, and this translation is an attempt to broaden the readership of the first collection of biographies about Argentines of African ancestry who made significant contributions to their nation’s development. In light of the present global reach of English itself, my objective is to provide a translation that presents the book for this broader readership, doing so by making available a bilingual text, with photographs from the 1899 edition, for those who prefer the simultaneous accessibility of the English translation and Ford’s original words in Spanish,³ and by providing the cultural context that will help the reader to appreciate Ford’s contribution and impact. In other words, Ford’s book cannot be productively read without grasping the conditions dominating Argentine politics, social mores, and aesthetics at a time when the contemporary Afro-Argentine community was experiencing keen uncertainty about its status in post-emancipation Argentina. In order to lay the foundation for this translation, we must consider the following seven topics: (1) past and present scholarly efforts, (2) the historical context in which Ford wrote, (3) the role of literature for the Afro-Argentine, (4) the question of Ford’s identity, (5) the content of Ford’s book, (6) features of Ford’s style, and (7) Ford’s contribution and impact.

1. Past and Present Scholarly Efforts

Ford’s gallery of verbal sketches and photographs of the fourteen men whom he selected as motivational icons for Afro-Argentine youth coincided with similar projects researching black heritage in the United States and, doubtless elsewhere, conducted during the first decades of the twentieth century by W. E. B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Alain Locke, John Wesley Cromwell, and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. These five thinkers also implemented techniques of modern historiography and emphasized the importance of excavating the past to understand the present, to heal the psychological wounds of racism, and to correct the omission of African and African-American contributions.

Arturo Schomburg himself contributed greatly to information about Africans and Afrodescendants in Spain, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In the United States, [e]arly efforts toward developing an organized approach to the study of black history and culture occurred in 1897, with the almost simultaneous formation of the American Negro Historical Society in Philadelphia and the American Negro Academy in Washington, D.C. (Des Verney Sinnette 9). In 1914, Arturo Schomburg was elected to the American Negro Academy, where he served with distinguished colleagues in these black research societies (Des Verney Sinnette 64).

The national ontology of Argentina represented the nation as homogeneously white despite the diversity of its actual population. Until the 1940s, Ford’s own work was the principal resource for those with an interest in the lives and culture of Afrodescendants in Argentina. His work was frequently quoted by Ricardo Rodríquez Molas and others.⁴ As for general histories, Yabin included Afrodescendants of accomplishments in his Biografías argentinas y sudamericanas, as did Ricardo Piccirilli in his Diccionario histórico argentina; each of these publications treated Barcala, Sosa, and Morales. In the 1960s and 1970s, national biographies included occasional reference to usually military Afro-Argentine heroes. In 1979, Marcos de Estrada published Argentinos de origen africano: 34 biografías, fourteen of which were originally presented in Ford’s book and on which Estrada expanded. In 1980, the seminal study of George Reid Andrews on Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires appeared, along with his journal articles on Afro-Argentine military officers and race relations affecting the Afro-Argentine communities. Since the 1990s, there has been a ground swell of publications that have featured the contributions and history of Afrodescendants in Argentina. Following the revised constitution that defined Argentina as multicultural and polylingual, reconstitutionalized Argentina today draws attention to its citizens who were previously marginalized. No longer is the Afro-Argentine presence negated and its cultural contributions denied. The visibility of Afro-Argentine communities in various regions throughout the nation has accelerated as a result of four factors: the current populism of the national vision; the goals established in Durban, South Africa at the United Nations 2001 World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia; the activism and continual research of at least four principal Argentine, Afrodescendant organizations; and special museum projects.

2. The Historical Context

Having been left without protections following emancipation in 1853, Afro-Argentines grappled with their social identity and prospects. In addition to the nation’s failure to honor its promises to emancipated slaves, European immigrants were displacing Afro-Argentines from trades and positions that they had traditionally held prior to their emancipation. In addition, Social Darwinism inspired Eurocentric ideologies of racial superiority, doctrines that were only intensified by the attitudes that newly arrived immigrants brought with them to Argentina. Marginalized because of their race into a two-tiered social structure, Afro-Argentines found themselves confronted by overwhelming odds that mitigated against their social mobility and assimilation.

3. The Role of Literature for the Afro-Argentine

One of the advantages of literature is its facility of helping individuals and groups confront personal and societal pain. Jorje Miguel Ford uses biographical accounts to express this type of pain. So intense is his feeling that he frequently drops the tone of formality in favor of ardent rhetorical flourishes punctuated by definite stylistic shifts, elliptical constructions, lengthy Latinate phrases, colorful hyperbole, and exclamatory punctuation. Indignantly pointing to ethnocentrism as the underlying cause of the Afro-Argentine’s problems, he builds his anger to its highest pitch in his biography of Casildo G. Thompson, an intellectual. So taken was he with Thompson that Ford not only recommended that readers imitate this author, but he also insisted that young Afro-Argentines memorize Thompson’s poem Song to Africa, which Thompson had read in the meeting of the Foment of Liberal Arts on April 1, 1878. Ford held Thompson up to the Afrodescendant community as the primary exemplar or model in the battle against social ills. Thus, through Ford, we see that in the post-emancipation society of Buenos Aires near the end of the nineteenth century, literature was a compelling socio-political tool, providing its producers and consumers with an outlet for clarifying their thoughts, voicing their concerns, and striving for unity in their group. As a culmination of numerous Afro-Argentine newspaper editorials and an occasional historical essay on the cultural achievements of Afrodescendants and the military accomplishments of blacks in regiments of all major national wars, Ford’s book of biographical sketches formed a touching tribute to the achievement of African descendants in Argentina.

4. The Identity of Jorje Miguel Ford

It is paradoxical that readers learned about the lives of fourteen men of African ancestry in Argentina yet have almost no information about the life of Jorje Miguel Ford himself. The Fulbright Commission of Argentina made the arrangements for me to have a copy made of Ford’s original 1899 edition of Beneméritos de mi estirpe, with the stipulation that the transaction would have to take place between Ford’s family and librarians since the family would not be available for interviews or comments.

Following my research and on the eve of my departure from Buenos Aires, I located a newspaper article in which Jorje Miguel Ford was mentioned. Unlike most of the articles listed on Ford, this one went beyond just a single liner because it encompassed more than just the title and publication date. This brief article included information about Ford and showed his photograph. I had researched a brief bibliography about Ford that consisted of only fourteen journals that were stored in La Biblioteca Nacional (The National Library), and the last listing was housed at El Instituto Nacional de la Historia in downtown Buenos Aires. I met with University of Buenos Aires professor Ricardo Caillet-bois, who brought in the bound tome that matched the reference, and we both watched with great expectation as I turned to the designated newspaper article in El Diario published in the early 1920s. We were both delighted to see the brief article about Ford. The photograph showed Jorje Miguel Ford at a social gathering, where he and an Afro-Argentine gentleman were standing together and conversing near the entrance to the room on the right of the parlor. Ford had salt-and-pepper-colored hair, a dark complexion, a rounded face, and a wry smile as he listened to his companion. Both men, of equal height, were well-dressed in business suits. On the left side of the photograph, a slender Afro-Argentine woman of a light complexion wore a silklike dress.

What struck me most about the content of the article was the statement that Jorje Miguel Ford was a marinero (seaman), whom the class of color welcomed among them como si fuera uno de ellos (as if he were one of them). Interestingly, in his biography of Eujenio Sar, Ford evidences a strong emotional connection with the merchant marine profession or way of life. In other words, some may feel that Ford’s seemingly insider’s knowledge of the life of merchant marines and his praise of their character suggests that he may himself have been a merchant sailor. He asserts in the biography of Sar that the merchant marine made the crossing of the ocean always agreeable, given the rude and tiring labor of summer and the fluctuating roar or calm of the winds and the sea. Indeed, they conducted themselves with the stoicism of the humble man who does not seek ostentation or pleasure, in spite of deserving them. Ford also was aware of the founding of La Fraternal by North Americans. I realized then that his identity as an Argentine seemed primarily a function of his personal affiliation with the Afro-Argentine community, and this connection is one of the three types of identity defined in Black Atlantic biographical theory (Lindsay 2014). The photograph erases any doubt about Ford’s self-identification as black and explains the use in his book’s title of the first person singular possessive adjective mi estirpe. As stated above, these speculations about his origin are in no way definitive.

However, it may be possible to learn more about Ford’s identity by building upon at least one more thread of archival documentation I recently found. The online edition of the ledger of the Entrada de Pasajeros a Argentina por El Puerto de Buenos Aires (The entry of passengers to Argentina through the port of Buenos Aires) for the nineteenth century lists the name of an M. J. Ford who traveled on the ship Menay (See the Appendix). This individual had arrived without a passport on March 6, 1855. A little mathematical calculation caused me to conclude that it was not implausible that adolescent or young adult Jorje Miguel Ford could have entered then, and this speculation is made even more plausible by the apparent age of the subject in Ford’s photograph. If the Ford in the archival record is Jorje Miguel, then there may be support for the supplemental theory that he may have been escaping the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in the United States. Following its passage, even a freedman was subject to enslavement at any moment, and emigration helped individuals avoid this horror. There had been several strategies and projects for resettlement. For instance, the abolitionist Martin R. Delany (1812–1885) had argued that, in order for blacks to have a future, they should emigrate to the West Indies, to Central or South America, or to other locales.

If Ford’s background as a merchant marine is likewise taken into account, some of the concepts evident in Beneméritos could have been inspired by Delany’s writings. David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World is another possible resource since mariners had been circulating this 1824 publication soon after its printing (Bolster 191). It is also probable that Jorje Miguel Ford was one of the Cuban, Spanish-speaking morenos who showed themselves aboard ships to be intelligent, skilled tradesmen, well trained but perhaps too spirited (See Linebaugh).

Luz Molina, the director of La Casa Indo-Africana in Santa Fe, Argentina, which is a cultural center that she and her husband founded in 1988, mentioned in her 2005 article that she had obtained from Ford’s family certain documents but respected the family’s request for privacy. Unfortunately, in 2011, there was a flood in Santa Fe that destroyed the roof of the cultural center and many of the center’s holdings, and it is not clear whether Ford’s papers, which may have thrown even more light on Ford’s identity, had been preserved.

There is, then, some reason to wonder whether Ford was perhaps an African-American or from some other country. This reference to Ford opens the possibility that he was a crossover writer—that is, one who composes and publishes in a second language. Should such hypothesis be borne out by scholars in the future, many will be curious about his reasons for immigrating to Argentina and adopting its culture as his own. In other words, there is some evidence (though not definitive) to suggest that Ford was not a native Spanish speaker.

5. The Content of Ford’s Book

The book consists of several parts or features. First is an epigraph by Schopenhauer that speaks of the importance of truth, which triumphs most readily when well timed. Second, Ford