This week, I took a 6-hour bus ride to Montevideo (the capital of Uruguay) to work at a three-day English immersion camp for high-schoolers. After the camp, I stayed in Montevideo with other Fulbrighters for a few days, and we decided to go to the Museo nacional de artes visuales, a popular art museum. They had a showing of paintings by Pedro Figari, a famous Uruguayan artist and political figure, who depicted the Afro-uruguayan people through his artwork. Most of the paintings show people dancing and drumming a dance called candombe. Many Uruguayans have told me about the importance of candombe to Uruguayan culture, and I attended an informal candombe dance group in Salto a few weeks ago. Seeing Figari's paintings helped me learn more about this important Uruguayan tradition.
You already know that European colonists brought African slaves to North America, but you may not know that this horrific practice also took place in South America. And just like in the United States, African people brought to Uruguay developed art forms of resistance to slavery. Candombe is the most well-known art form invented and practiced by Afro-uruguayans, and Uruguayans of all descents practice it today as a symbol of resistence and solidarity with the black community in Uruguay.
