DARIO ARCE ASENJO

History and origins of Candombe and Afro-Uruguayans :

The history of Afro-Uruguayans starts in the sixteenth century, with the first slaves brought to Colonia del Sacramento. The socio-economic environment of the colony, and then the Republic of Uruguay gave certain characteristics to this population and their cultural expressions. Slaves serving the Creole families, their freedom was mainly due to their participation in the various wars of the nineteenth century. The candombes these years, including both a sense of identity and of worship, will then evolve into a set of practices we see today largely, but not only, through the Uruguayan carnival.

For many Afro-Uruguayan candombe is a powerful memory. Memories that are rooted in a complex process, that of slavery, and sometimes that of claiming a better place in today's society.

Dario Arce Asenjois currently a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University Paris III - New Sorbonne, where he completed a thesis on Native American memories in Uruguay. In 1996, he did his first field work in Montevideo for a degree in ethnology, followed by another lasting more than a year, writing his thesis entitled "Candombe: memory and traditions Afro-Uruguayan" obtained University of Lyon II. Writer-director of documentary films, he shot "The Afro-Uruguayan Candombe" in 2003 with Rafael Gutierrez. The film is broadcast in over five countries in two languages. In 2008 he published the article "el desfile of llamadas como commemorativo ritual" in the collective work "Cultura y sociedad Afrorioplatense". Having lectured on cultural practices afro-uruguayennes Uruguay, Belgium, Switzerland, and France, he is currently at work in collaboration with photographer Pedro Lombardi on the subject.