This article argues that the vast literature on “new social movements†misrepresents the
historicity of identity-based organization in Latin America. Such organizing is indeed much older
than the literature suggests. To prove this argument, I provide a genealogy of black, identitybased
organizing in Brazil. This genealogy makes clear that black organizing started when
Africans first arrived in Brazil. To explain the ebbs and flows of this organizing, the theoretical
frameworks of Sidney Tarrow and Susan Epstein, who focus on political opportunities and
changing repertoires, respectively, prove to be more useful.
