Introductory video

[click here]
 Black Hispanics?
“Hispanics come in all colors and
shapes. There are Asian Hispanics,
white Hispanics, black Hispanics and
even Latino Hispanics, as roughly 20
million people defined themselves,
puzzled by the ‘race question’ in the
2000 U.S. census.”

“Black Hispanics struggle for their racial identity” Bruno Diaz,

Midland Reporter Telegram 2/13/2005
 “My accent didn’t match
my face”
"When people realized that my accent
didn't match my face, they asked me
where I was from. And when I told them
that I was from the Dominican Republic,
and that I spoke Spanish -- therefore my
accent -- I always got this 'wow!-that-is-
weird!' kind of look"

--Eddy Bello.
 Dominican identity
“Sammy Sosa, David Ortiz, and Manny
Ramirez, men who in this country, most would
identify as Black men, but when asked, they
identify as Dominicans … strictly.”
Jose Vilson
 Hispanic race?

"Hispanics are not a race but members

of a group with a common cultural
background. To put all of us in the
same bag is just ridiculous."
–Eddy Bello and Ronald Flecha

“Black Hispanics struggle for their racial identity” Bruno Diaz,

Midland Reporter Telegram 2/13/2005
Afro-Latin Americans Map

Click for interactive map

And Argentina’s Afrolatinos?

Gaurav Jashnani, a Fulbright scholar

Studying in Argentina, suggests
possible theories on the annihilation
of afrolatino populations in Argentina.
 Afro-Nicaraguans

“The ancestors of … Afro-Nicaraguans

were free blacks who immigrated from
Jamaica and other Caribbean countries,
lured by the good, steady jobs available
for English speakers.

“Afro-Latin Americans:A rising voice” Miami Herald, Audra D.S.

Burch 6/10/2007
 And yet…
“Stories abound about people who have
hidden behind ambiguously brown
complexions, ‘passing’ for Miskito
Indians, or mestizo.”
No racism in Cuba
Alice Walker’s account

Alice Walker, author of The Color

Purple, described her visit to Cuba
in her essay “My Father’s Country is
the Poor.”
 Alice Walker’s account
“Then we were entertained by what I perceived
(with North American eyes, seeing narrowly) as
an ‘integrated’ group. Such a group! Black,
brown, white, yellow, pink, gold complexions.

…And then we presented ourselves as ‘black’ Americans

(they presented themselves, un self-consciously and
without words, as Cubans, of course), and their faces
changed. For the first time they seemed aware of their
color differences among themselves—and were
embarrassed for us.”
 No racism in Cuba?
“Sitting across from the white manager,
[Denny] rattled off his qualifications: high school
diploma, courses in tourism, hard worker.

“They weren't good enough: He needed his

white brother-in-law to vouch for him, Denny
recalled.

‘Black people tend to do everything bad

here,’ the manager said.
“A barrier for Cuba's blacks” Miami Herald Staff Report 6/20/2007
 Alice Walker’s explanation?

“…before the revolution, blacks were

disproportionately employed in menial
jobs, in which many remained…Now,
everyone, including the black waiters,
studies constantly in order to improve
their positions.”
“My Father’s Country is the Poor,” In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, 210
Afro-Cuban identity denial

The 2002 census, which asked Cubans

whether they were white, black or
mestizo/mulatto, showed 11 percent of the
island's 11.2 million people described
themselves as black. The real figure is
more like 62 percent, according to the
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American
Studies at the University of Miami.
“A barrier for Cuba's blacks” Miami Herald Staff Report 6/20/2007
 Alice Walker’s take

“We can see that great efforts have been made

to have Cuban art reflect the masses of Cuban
people, that the African heritage is given
equal time with the Spanish, and that the
‘dominant culture’ is recognized as being a
synthesis of the two.”

“My Father’s Country is the Poor,” In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens,

210
Afro-Cubans imprisoned

“[Physician Oscar Elias Biscét] was

sentenced to 27 years for, among
other things, organizing a seminar on
Martin Luther King's non--violent
forms of protest.”

“A barrier for Cuba's blacks” Miami Herald Staff Report 6/20/2007

 “Enormous goodwill” in
Mexico

“In our country, the image of black people is one of

enormous goodwill, which is reflected not only in
characters like Memin Pinguin, but in popular songs ...
like 'Little Black Watermelon,'" a song about an unruly
black boy.”
--Elena Poniatowska
 History lesson
"It's the United States, not Mexico, that has
a history of slavery," wrote columnist
Sergio Sarmiento in the newspaper
Reforma.

In fact, Mexico had hundreds of thousands of

slaves during the colonial period, though it
banned slavery before the United States did.

“Mexico: Stamp Protests Don’t Stick” CBS News, July 1, 2005

 Agree or disagree?

Skin color has a bigger impact on

a person’s identity than language.

Afrolatinos are really no different

than any other latinos.
 Agree or disagree?

That Afrolatinos do not identify

themselves as black indicates they
are ashamed of their heritage.

That there are more Afrolatinos than

other Latinos in Cuba’s prisons has
nothing to do with racism.
 Agree or disagree?

The discrimination that Afrolatinos face

in their own countries is similar to that
which African-Americans faced in the
U.S. in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Black Hispanics (Afrolatinos) have more in

common with African-Americans than with
other Hispanics.
 Agree or disagree?

Mexican depictions of black

people are offensive and racist.

Racism is worse in Latin

American countries than in the
U.S.