Bands of Music of Freedmen in the Army of San Martín. An Exploration on the Participation of the Slaves and their Descendants during the Wars of Independence

Abstract

Through analysis of the Liberation Army’ bands of freedmen, this paper seeks to visualize the wide and varied participation of blacks, both enslaved and free sectors, during the Wars of Independence and at the same time to investigate their contribution in the gestation of a transnational republican rhetoric. Music, musicians and the corresponding bands, are a privileged window to examine what kind of possibilities war and revolution gave to the African descendent sectors to function in the republican public spheres as active political subjects. At the same time, the paper explores their contribution, either as authors and performers of patriotic music in the formation, consolidation and circulation of discourses and representations linked to the search for a new collective identity.