biological question and the diversity of the phenomenon is reduced to the indigenous substratum and the Spanishstyle Catholicism . The first chapter ( pp . 29-70 ) of her academic book gives an overview about the inland sociocultural environment and explains that slaves ( inferred as black ) were a rarity . However , we know from another researcher in Afro-history ( Guzman , 2006 ) that it wasn ’ t the case . Even if they were a rarity in quantitative terms , it might be added , though , a reflection that allows to understand that religious features in terms of the very Afro-perspective , especially if some of those so many practitioners of African descendant played protagonist roles , like the zambo Marcos Azuela , the head master of female sorcerers , the fine wizard and the only man mentioned among the acolytes of the Salamanca in Brea Pampa " ( p . 167 ). Her second book basically refers to the same facts and sources , albeit in a properly accessible style . Even so , the neglections about the Afro-culture are reproduced , for example , when she tries to find the definition of pardo .* Herein it ’ s confused with zambo , which is the result of crossing " Amerindian and Afro " ( p . 14 ). The study of state violence against the indigenous people has allowed , after a timely ethical examination of the academic avant-garde , to revisit the history of the so-called Conquest ( or War ) of the Desert ( 1878-85 ) from thoughtful angles of counter-hegemonic analysis . Thusly , notable works have been published with renewed interpretations , since they denounce , with irrefutable documentation mostly unknown , the crimes against humanity involved in subjecting the indigenous Patagonian population . Osvaldo Bayer is the most lucid and prolific researcher in this field . His History of Argentine Cruelty : Julio A . Roca and the Genocide of the Native People ( 2010 ) brings together studies from great authors ; however , it is striking how he deals with the issue in a manner not well aligned with the knowledge about the non-white diversity pre-existent to Argentina and engaged in the making of the nation . For instance , a draft bill is presented ( p . 11 ) after the prologue for removing the monument to Julio Argentino Roca in Buenos Aires by re-categorizing him from hero to mass murderer ( Article 1 ). In lieu thereof , the article 2 proposes to rename the square as " Tribute to the women who populated these lands ". An extensive and heartfelt definition is attached , which firstly includes the original people and , secondly , the immigrants . So far comes Bayer ’ s spectrum of counter-hegemonic diversity , his vision of the people and the exploited . It is not a reproach , but a warning about how the institutionalized blindness regarding the Afro-culture inadvertently permeates even the imaginary of the brightest minds , capable of dismantling our history and national memory by paying attention to the Forgotten Others . In tune with Bayer , the Argentine historian Marcelo Valko published Pedagogy of the Memory ( 2010 ), with a prologue by Bayer himself , which from the very title reveals the concern of the ruling class for teaching to forget . The name of the publishing house , Mothers of Plaza de Mayo , is a suggestive symbol of how involved is the author in taking position within the science in favor of the social commitment . And the collection to which the book belongs — Osvaldo Bayer — confirms the presence of a genuine team of historical revision . With respect to the Afro-Argentine , this great initiative starts to sink due to some diagnostics . In the prologue , Bayer confuses the abolition of slavery ( in the provinces , except Buenos Aires , by 1853 ; in Buenos Aires , by 1861 ) with the Freedom of Belly Act issued by the Assembly of the Year XIII . He believes
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