@article{1980-2016::5206,
      recid = {5206},
      author = {Thomas III, John},
      title = {Black Politics in Peru and Ecuador from 1980-2016: Social  Movements and Government Response. Política  afrodescendiente en Perú y Ecuador de 1980 a 2016:  movimientos sociales y respuesta gubernamental},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2022-12},
      pages = {217},
      abstract = {From 1970 to the present, Afro-Latinx (or “Black”)  movements have emerged in every country from the Rio Grande  to Tierra del Fuego with an African descendant population.   Black mobilization in Latin America centers on the denial  of Afro-visibility and full participation in the life of  the nation-state since emancipation. In a region known  already for its high levels of socioeconomic inequality,  Blacks and indigenous persons bear the brunt of these  disparities.  
While Black movements are present all over  the continent, Peru and Ecuador provide theoretically  compelling comparisons due to the simultaneous presence of  substantial indigenous mobilization.  Understanding Black  mobilization in the context of indigenous mobilization  helps explain the distinctive features of Black  mobilization because Black movements had to negotiate their  claims in a political space that was predisposed to address  issues of ethnic difference and less so issues of racial  discrimination.  This dissertation broadens the theoretical  understanding of ethnic mobilization in Latin America by  evaluating how existing theories of ethnic mobilization  explain the mobilization of Black activists in Peru and  Ecuador.
My dissertation answers the following questions:   1) How did Black movements in Peru and Ecuador emerge? 2)  How have they impacted the “political landscape” of their  states? Investigating and theorizing the origins of the  groups reveals the underlying grievances and narratives of  these movements that shaped their interaction with their  states.   While the movements have succeeded in challenging  the invisibility of Afro-descendants by their states, the  broader impacts of the movements on the state (i.e.,  bureaucracy, electoral participation, legal regime) remain  to be analyzed.
   
Using a paired case study of the Black  movements in Peru and Ecuador from 1980 to 2016, I first  explain the emergence of these movements as a form of Black  politics demonstrating that extant social movement  formation theories can explain how the Black movements in  both countries evolved. Next, I analyze the impact on the  political landscape by first analyzing how movement  activists articulated their demands and grievances and how  the governments responded by looking at national planning  documents and shifts in the national bureaucracy to create  specialized agencies to address the concerns of the Black  movements.  
},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/5206},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.5206},
}