The Whitening of the Nation: Erasing Identity in South America
Passionate about history and the lasting impacts of colonisation, I never imagined I’d one day be able to connect it to football, or the World Cup. Yet the 2026 World Cup final made it impossible to ignore the link.
The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina was a legendary match for many fans. One that I managed to tune in to watch live.
Many saw this as the Lamine Yamal vs Lionel Messi match. One to solidify the legacy of future football. Would Messi lead victorious at his last World Cup, or would he pass the throne to his successor, Lamine?
And social media made it out to be a sort of Harry Potter-esque prophecy Lamine would fulfil. After all, by some crazy coincidence, 19 years ago, a baby Yamal was randomly chosen to shoot a charity calendar with Messi. So, what are the odds that the same baby that Messi shot with would now be his defeater?
But aside from this epic rivalry, I saw a surprising amount of support for Spain to win.
I never imagined I’d see the day South Americans wanting to support Spain. Shocking, considering the history. You know, the centuries of pillaging and colonisation.
As an editor for Inspire the Mind and a half-Bolivian writer, I was compelled to write about how the World Cup brought attention to the racial divide in South America and how "blanqueamiento", or "whitening", shaped identity and everyday life for citizens.
Why the South Americans' Dislike for Argentina?
Well, it’s a no-brainer why many South Americans are not supportive of Spain; I mean, historically they were colonisers, and they caused some irrevocable damage to the continent.
And yet, this match managed to sway centuries of hatred, all to fight the “eviller” of the two, Argentina.
From an outside perspective, being ethnically half-Latina and culturally British, I think the dislike for Argentina is quite a layered and sensitive topic.
Some South Americans have a stereotype that Argentina is a racist country. This is due to a small number of people in Argentina who believe that, since they have more European ancestry, they are superior to other South Americans.
I want to reiterate that this is a stereotype and the behaviour of a minority should never be used to generalise an entire country.
This sentiment was trending across social media, triggered by the racist actions of Argentina’s fans towards the internet star IShowSpeed, as well as Egypt's controversial defeat, leading Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan to make the anti-racism gesture and believing officials favoured the winning team.
So, combining this with the repeated racial abuse displayed throughout the World Cup, it finally pushed Latinos and many other people of colour (POC) to support Spain in the finals.
Ironic, as the stereotype isn’t really unique to Argentina, and these types of people are prevalent in many countries throughout South America with white/mixed populations. It’s just that no one wants to admit it.
And I think the racism we saw in this World Cup stems all the way back to a centuries-old project known as Blanqueamiento.
What is Blanqueamiento?
Blanqueamiento was a social and political practice implemented in post-colonial times, known as “racial whitening”, and was practised across South America, North America and Oceania.
It involved marrying an Indigenous or Black person off to a lighter-skinned person to then produce lighter-skinned children. The idea behind this was to work towards “improving the race” following the abolition of slavery and bringing the population closer to the ideal of Whiteness.
Ultimately, this project aimed to mix the ethnic groups so much that their own practices and identities would slowly be erased throughout time, and the remaining generations would be as close to White: thus, sustaining the racial hierarchy colonisation has enforced over its victims for centuries.
Blanqueamiento in Brazil
I wanted to explore what this process of racial whitening looked like in Brazil, considering the extremely diverse population it has now.
During slavery, over 90% of the 10 million slaves taken from Africa were brought over to the Caribbean and South America.
After the abolition of slavery, the government had to figure out what to do with the remaining Black and indigenous populations. Rather than provide them with work, the government wanted to bring European immigrants to fill the vacancies, many of whom were illiterate and unfit to do those very jobs.
As a result, not much wage labour was given to the remaining Black/Indigenous people, instead, they were given service jobs, such as factory work or domestic work for the upper class. This was not because they lacked the skills, but because officials deemed them ‘unfit’ for more skilled labour.
By pushing them into low-paying jobs, the government worked towards making the elite and wealthy in Brazil lighter and whiter.
The goal of the Brazilian government was to dilute the remaining Black and Indigenous groups and achieve a population as close to white as possible, with the hopes of emulating the European societies they so highly respected.
And they were successful. Across 86 years, Brazil imported more free White labour than all of the Black slaves forcibly brought over during the 300 years of the slave trade. During this time, São Paulo received the most European immigration and between 1811 and 1928, with a reduction in the population of Black Brazilians decreased by 31%.
Now, over 200 years later, despite the widely mixed and diverse population in Brazil, Black Brazilians still face such inequality and institutionalised discrimination.
Black Brazilians are disproportionately concentrated in the poorer regions and slums, known as favelas, due to long-standing exclusion. Around half of the Black Brazilian population cannot read, and politically, they remain severely underrepresented. This shows that Black Brazilians still face severe inequality unlike other groups, an example of the harm blanqueamiento has forever ingrained within Brazil’s society.
While Brazil offered a clear example of the structural impact of blanqueamiento, Argentina reveals how this project helped shape a national identity.
Blanqueamiento in Argentina
Similarly, in Argentina, following mass European immigration, mixed, Indigenous and Black people were provided the worst labour and educational opportunities.
The government encouraged these people to adopt an ideal of nationality that rejected the existence of ethnic-racial differences. And since the country only recognised Argentines as those of European ancestry, individuals from indigenous, black or mixed heritage were pushed into lower positions both politically and culturally.
The government’s pursuit of a White, European national identity was a deliberate erasure of Black and Indigenous people in Argentina and a clear example of Blanqueamiento. Rewriting who counted as part of the nation.
The Lasting Impact
I know I’ve given a lot of history on this project, but I hope you’ve read this, realising the consequences of Blanqueamiento aren’t historical at all. It has gone on to shape who is heard, seen and allowed to belong. Brazil and Argentina are just a few countries where racial whitening has shaped national identity across South America.
And during the World Cup, these patterns were impossible to ignore, with racist behaviour towards non-white players and fans circulating across social media platforms, like TikTok.
Revealing that the same racial hierarchies that have, for a long time, marked the region, clearly never left.
