Argentina implemented a deliberate historical project of policies of whitening and ethnic erasure from the end of the 19th century. The goal of the ruling elites of the time was to redefine Argentine identity as an exclusively white and European nation.

The process of demographic transformation and the consequent statistical disappearance of black and indigenous populations in Argentina occurred through political, military and bureaucratic factors:

1. Whitening and Mass Immigration Policies

In the second half of the 19th century, leaders such as Bartolomé Mitre and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento promoted the idea that the nation's progress depended on its Europeanization. The Constitution of 1853 directly encouraged European immigration. Between 1850 and 1950, about 7 million immigrants (majorly Italian and Spanish) arrived in the country. This huge population flow demographically diluted the presence of African descents and indigenous peoples.

2. Front Line in Wars and Epidemics

The black population — which even represented about a third of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires at the end of the 18th century — was disproportionately used as cannon bushing in armed conflicts, such as the War of Independence (1810–1825) and the War of Paraguay / Triple Alliance (1864–1880). In addition, severe outbreaks of yellow fever in 1871 massively affected the peripheral and poor neighborhoods, where the Afro-argentina communities concentrated, decimating much of this population.

3. Military Campaigns against Indigenous People

The Argentine state financed massacres and violent expulsions from native peoples for land ownership. The most striking episode was the Desert Conquest (1878–1885), commanded by Julio Argentino Roca in the Patagonia region. It is estimated that the campaign resulted in the deaths of more than 14,000 indigenous people and the forced displacement of thousands of survivors.

4. Burocratic and Census Deletion

The disappearance of blacks and Indians also occurred on paper. Throughout the 20th century, the government removed racial classification categories from national censuses, registering all citizens simply as "argentines". This statistical exclusion institutionalized the myth that "there are no blacks in Argentina".

Currently, genetic studies and collective initiatives such as Identidad Marrón and Afro-Argentino activists have rescued this story, proving that non-European ancestry remains alive in the DNA and culture of the country (as in the origins of tango itself), despite centuries of invisibilization.