Despite some progress, the contemporary Latin American society is structured into a racial hierarchy derived from a pigmentocracy that categorize people based on the proximity in skin color/tone to whiteness and the distance from African phenotypical features (or proximity to Eurocentric features) with Indigenous features "ranked" in between. The same hierarchy exists among U.S. Latinxs.
Read MoreJust as Latin America starts to embrace demographic recognition of its Black populations as in Mexico in 2021 and Panama most recently, the US is proposing a drastic shift in the Census by changing Latino from an ethnic category to a racial category for the 2030 Census. This will effectively reverse the progress made by the Black Latino/a/x/e community in the United States for recognition.
As recently as 2022, Pew Center for Research noted that approximately 25% of Latino/a/x/e's self-identified as Afrolatin, and among those 1/3 identified as Black, effectively 4-6 million self identified Afrolatins in the U.S. In changing the categorizations, it will severely hamper any further opportunity we, the Afrolatinx community has to be counted and recognized. Furthermore, Latin America and by default those descended from the region know the region is not a monolith and neither is the term Latino as it includes whites, mestizos, Afrodescendants, indigenous, Asian and Middle Eastern. Ironically the US Census also proposes to make North African and Arabic its own category separate from "white" a disaggregation that will raise their statistical visibility an effort long sought by that community. For Latinos the proposal has been presented as a way to simplify the racial and ethnic questions on the Census which has "confused" Latinos for some time and to reduce undercounting by those who check the "other" category. This proposal is currently open to public commentary to the Office of Management and Budget until April 12 and is being opposed by many including a recently formed coalition of Black Latinx organizations.
The Afrolatin@ Project joins in opposition to these propsoed changes for several reasons: 1) In one fell swoop, we will lose hard fought gains in statistical visibility as we near the end of the United Nations International Decade for Afrodescendants, the exact opposite of what was intended, 2) it undermines disaggregation of health, economic, legal and social disparities within Latino communities, and 3) as more people from Latin America migrate to the US including many AfroLatinos it will mask racial prejudices, biases, and disparities in treatment among both current and newly arrived Latinx migrants many whom are Black. Disparate treatment based on race has and continues to be an underreported by very relevant issue in the current immigration discussions happening throughout the Americas. Despite the purported confusion about ethnicity in the U.S., the majority/mestizo Latino/Latin American agenda has always intended and sought to subsume any kind of ethnic distinctions or resistance to the agendas of nation building and identity formation. The Latin American desire to impose a pan-ethnic, "crisol de razas" under the false guise of racially democratic societies deceives reality. The proposed changes will actually serve as a continuation of a status quo we summarily reject. If the U.S. Census seeks changes then they should be changes that do not abandon and undermine the United States' own obligations as signatories to the International Decade of Afrodescendants.
This Thursday March 9, 2023 from 6-8PM join Dash Harris of Afrolatinx Travel, Fordham University School of Law Professor Tanya K. Hernandez, and University of New Mexico Professor, Nancy Lopez as they discuss the risks of not opposing these proposed Census changes. Visit www.latinoisnotarace.info to watch this virtual discussion.
Fordham School of Law Professor Tanya K. Hernandez, author of Racial Innocence: UnMasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality. We were fortunate preview this important book at the 11th Annual Afro-Latino Fest NYC June 2022.
López, Nancy, TEDx ABQ Salon En español – “¿Y Tú, Que Vas a Macar Para el Censo 2020? ¿Origen Hispano? ¿Raza o Color?” / “What Will You Mark for the 2020 Census? Hispanic Origin? Race or Color?”
Credit : WhatsApp
Panama recently concluded its latest Census round on March 4, 2023 and the preliminary results revealed a remarkable truth hidden in plain sight. The 2023 Census demonstrated that 32.8% of the population self-identified as being of African descent. The results proved what was known since the debacle of the 2010 Census which counted only 3-4% of the population identifying as Afrodescendant. In fact in 2014, then President Juan Carlos Varela issued a rare but limited apology acknowledging then that the population was likely greater than 14%.
Panama now sits third behind Brazil (50%) and Cuba (35%) in terms of populations that self-identity as #Afrodescendant. The success of the 2023 Census at 32.8% is a testament to the various efforts of the Black community and participants in the Black social movement to raise the level of consciousness. Panama's historic and contemporary reality reflects the larger demographic composition of Latin America as being 1/3 Afrodescendant. The intergenerational and collaborative work, the cultural affirmation, the political consciousness building and the digital outreach and communications efforts all played a key role in achieving the recent success.
Yet work remains. As the same time the census concluded, the need for protest has arisen as the school year commences. As all too often occurs during the school year, there are various crude and illegal attempts at different schools to discriminate against Afrodescendant youth wearing natural hair, afros or braids on school grounds. In response, the National Secretariat for Afro-Panamanians Development (SENADAP) and the Ombudsman's Office (Defensoria del Pueblo), with the support of a newly formed community-based watchdog group have set up hotlines for parents and students when the 2023 school year begins to file complaints of racial discrimination by school officials.
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Artwork by Anthony Muchai Muiruri. IG: @madebymuchai
Festival Announces Timely Return with 9th Virtual Edition June 28/29
Theme: Love X Resistance
June 16, 2021 - The Afro-Latino Festival NYC is excited to announce its return for our 9th consecutive year, June 28-29, 2021. It will be presented online via Youtube and on www.afrolatinofestnyc.com. While we are grateful to see promising signs of the Covid-19 pandemic receding in some places, we remain vigilant. Now as much as ever, this Festival is necessary to continue to Affirm, Educate and Celebrate. The 2021 Festival continues as the only cultural event in the U.S. of its size centering the 150 million people from Black communities in Latin America and their diasporas. It is a grassroots event created by Black Latinxs who understand the responsibility of advancing culture, empowerment, networking, entrepreneurship, and action.
This year’s theme, "Love & Resistance" centers our intergenerational and collective resistance to systems of inequity and oppression and also recognizes love as a form of resistance. Love of self, love of community, love of fundamental rights to justice, recognition, and development (the goals of the U.N. Intl. Decade of Afrodescendants 2015-2024).
We are excited to present ten amazing artists hailing from Brooklyn, Colombia, Perú, Panamá, Dominican Republic, and Brazil. Acknowledging the current popular resistance movements in Colombia, we will hear from singer-songwriter & activist, Alexis Play on “Art Activism and the Colombian National Strike". We are honored to present performances of selected songs from “Ancestras”, the new album from the iconic Petrona Martinez, the Queen of Bullerengue, the music of maroon descendants. She will be joined from Peru by our 2017 Lifetime Achievement honoree and 3x Latin Grammy winner Susana Baca; Enerolisa Nuñez, a preserver of the Dominican Republic' Salve music, who we were fortunate to present in the Bronx in 2018; and for the first time at the Festival we welcome, songstress, Yomira John of Panamá. We also bring you directly from Salvador de Bahia, Brazil the Meninos da Rocinha do Pelô, a youth drumming collective founded by Maestrina Elem Silva at the age of 15. Herself the subject of the documentary “Maestrina da Favela”, Elem’s work has gained attention both inside and outside of Brazil for her preservation of cultural heritage and youth empowerment through the art of drumming.
Finally, we present four artists representing Panamá. Hailing by way of Detroit and Brooklyn, we are thrilled to welcome the sultry love songs of recording artist Ro James in a live acoustic set from 7 House Gallery in Bushwick. Hailed as a unique blend of Maxwell and Prince he will remind us that one of the greatest forms of resistance is love. We also welcome the new sounds of reggaeton and afrobeat en español from Italian Somali who has taken radio by storm and who will be sure to have you dancing. Up and coming guitarist & singer-songwriter Jackie Plummer will take it back to Black with some soul music in Spanish. Finally, after many years working to produce the Afro-Latino Festival NYC behind the scenes we are thrilled to introduce the music of our founder and Festival Creative Director Mai-Elka Prado. She will perform new music including her latest song “Cada Marea” which is featured in the documentary short, Miss Panama, premiering at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.
The Festival would not be complete without our AfrolatinTalks symposium which will be co-curated in collaboration with our community partners Radio Cana Negra podcast and the Kilomba Collective.
Afro-Latino Festival NYC 2021 is made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, both administered in Kings County by Brooklyn Arts Council.
For More Info: proyectoafrolatino@gmail.com
To Watch: www.afrolatinofestnyc.com
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Artwork by Anthony Muchai Muiruri. IG: @madebymuchai
October 7, 2020 - The Afro-Latino Festival NYC is excited to announce its return for an 8th consecutive year, October 13-17, 2020. It will be presented online via www.afrolatinofestnyc.com. The 2020 Festival continues as the only cultural event in the U.S. of its size centering the 150 million people from Black communities in Latin America and their diasporas. It is a grassroots event created by Black Latinxs who understand the responsibility of advancing culture, dialogue, networking, entrepreneurship and action.
This year’s theme, "Black Art & Resistance in the Americas" affirms our approach to “culture as politics” and reincorporates music performances, the Liberacion Film Festival, now in its 4th year, and the AfrolatinTalks. It also includes two new initiatives: 1) a VR art/archival exhibit honoring the life and legacy of Manuel and Delia Zapata Olivella and 2) La Cocina, a new culinary experience that teaches Latin American cuisine while learning about its African roots.
The Liberacion Film Festival features more than 25 films, from over 12 countries including 1 World Premiere, 1 U.S. Premiere, 2 N.Y. Premieres and 1 First Look. For a second year, more than 50% of the films selected were written, directed, or produced by Black Latinx women. We are thrilled to premiere the Pulitzer Center funded documentary short, Afrolatinx Revolution: Puerto Rico, produced by Natasha Alford, Deputy Editor for the Grio. We are also excited to present the U.S. Premiere of Negra, directed by Medhin Tewolde as part of our country focus on Mexico. The 2020 film program also features “Jamaica y Tamarindo” and “Life Between Borders” two short films about Black Mexico, written, produced and directed by Ebony Bailey. The Baltimore music documentary, Dark City: Beneath the Beat, was produced by Issa Rae and Astrid Curet, granddaughter of legendary salsa composer, Tite Curet Alonso, whom we honored posthumously in 2019.
This year's Festival is also a tribute to Manuel and Delia Zapata Olivella, two of Colombia's most important cultural figures. The Zapatas were key figures in an era, between 1965-1985, where Black art and politics converged in Latin America, despite the myth of mestizaje and U.S. backed military dictatorships. This tribute, part of a global celebration of 100 years of Manuel Zapata Olivella features Edelmira Massa Zapata, daughter of Delia Zapata and participants in the “Black Congresses of the Americas” a pivotal series of conferences organized by Zapata between 1977-1989.
The Festival concludes Saturday October 17, with an outdoor afternoon of socially-distanced live music and libations at Wild Bird Brooklyn.
The 2020 Afro-Latino Festival NYC is made possible with the support of you, the community, and community partners. Promotional support is made possible with grant funding from the Destination Brooklyn Program. Funded by the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President and NYC & Company Foundation, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council. A portion of proceeds from the Festival will benefit the Afrolatin@ Project, Inc. a 501(c)(3), co-producer of the Festival and the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBTQ youth.
Image by Priscilla Gaona for Afro-Latino Festival NYC 2017 “Women of the Diaspora Edition”
By Amilcar Priestley, The Afrolatin@ Project
September 6, 2020
July 25 marked the International Day for Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women, which was started in 1992. In the context of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests this summer, we have seen a flurry of conversation around Afrolatinxs. We have also seen too many pieces written about (but not written by) Afrolatinxs, articles discussing Latinx solidarity with BLM (while superficially mentioning that Black Latinxs exist), a flurry of self-proclaimed experts with little track record, and more recently, the revelations of imposters, who were never part of any Afrolatinx community, yet who flourish in academia and write our histories as such. While we hoped to read more of the knowledgeable voices of those who have been consistently fighting for Afrolatinxs and addressing racism and anti-Blackness in Latinx communities, alas, this comprises the vast majority of what we’ve seen thus far.
There are 125 million people of African descent in or from Latin America and the Caribbean; nearly ⅓ of the population. While a new topic for some, one might consider that these 125 million people, whose first rebellion in the Western Hemisphere was December 25, 1522, might have a significant history of their own. In fact, Afro-Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, namesake of the New York Public Library’s Harlem home, built the library’s collection around the histories of the Black diaspora, specifically highlighting Latin America.
The op-ed authors opine on the racism and anti-blackness experienced by Black Latinx communities. Very few pieces have attempted to capture the tenor of community concerns. While the increased coverage is notable, none of the authors were actually Black Latinx. It will always be more impactful to cede space and uplift voices better equipped to discuss the issues. At this moment, Black Latinxs need more amplifiers - not others speaking for us. For many, it is past time for superficial “conversations”, substantive engagement in these issues is necessary. The recent revelations of imposters, as well as the ensuing public conversation, further clarify a centuries old issue, that Afrolatinx histories and our present, have been equal parts violated, ignored and appropriated.
Latin America’s myth of racial democracy hides the fact that it has its own intimate relationship with slavery, rape, racial discrimination, eugenics, violent police and state repression, criminalization and sexualization of Black Latinxs, un/underemployment, cultural appropriation, abdication of government, systemic and institutional racism, exclusion and invisibilization from education, political, and economic progress, issues similar to the racial realities of the United States. Framing Afrolatinx experiences with racism and anti-blackness as a by-product of the “U.S. war on drugs” or as a residual of the racism “deeply rooted in America’s social system” obfuscates and misleads. Neither began in the U.S; both pre-date any drug war or immigration debate.
The United Nations launched the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 - 2024), recognizing that Black communities throughout the Americas are under siege and have been denied full citizenship rights. In fact it was only 2019 when Mexico, one of the largest Latin American members of the U.N., finally began the process of recognizing Black Mexicans. It is not the first time an international body has convened a Decade for communities under siege. Interestingly, when we assess the efforts of governments, NGOs, media (Latin America, US or global) we have achieved nowhere near the level of visibility of the highly impactful First or Second International Decades of the World’s Indigenous Peoples as declared by the U.N. (from 1995-2004 and 2004 to 2014, respectively). Clearly there is work to be done in both public and private sector spaces.
Instead of co-opting space, feigning ignorance of anti-Blackness, or deflecting, platforms, organizations, and academia particularly Latinx owned should be bringing more Black Latinx to the table in substantive ways. In business, media, entertainment, and arts that means both up front and behind the scenes. For example, proposed new programming about Afrolatinxs whether it be film, tv, print, digital, OTT, radio or any other medium, should be written by Black Latinx creatives, or as a key starting point, with their substantive direction. In politics, academia and funding, that means prioritizing the voices of authentic doers for policy, education and strategy. Such efforts, not those driven by superficial gestures, will move us closer to a reckoning of the issues of racial hierarchy among Latinx. It would also help weed out the frauds and opportunists that have and will arise. Throughout all, Afrolatinx efforts to build independent platforms should be financially supported, not just verbally supported.
For example, Univision, long accused of perpetuating anti-Blackness in their news coverage and programming, could support a national project in the vein of Jorge Ramos’ “Sembrando Odio” [“Hate Rising”] (2016), directed by a Black Latinx, which reflects and addresses the roots of these issues among Latin Americans and the diaspora and which also takes a critical eye to the media’s own role; they could even amplify their own talent and programming by building on the Emmy winning “Afrolatinos” (2019) short news piece. The upcoming documentary “Afrolatinx Revolution” (2020) directed by Natasha Alford and produced for the Grio with the support of the Pulitzer Center is a good example. Comparable efforts and business strategies to support internal and independent talent are necessary in other companies and industries.
White/mestizo Latinx have benefitted by walking with much of the same privilege as their Anglophone counterparts; in recent discussions of Afrolatinxs this status quo is being replicated. We observe new attempts at diversity across industries with cautious optimism while wary of cycles repeating. To be clear, Black Latinx who are working to positively impact our communities and who have an understanding of community concerns should be the perspectives centered and prioritized. If the spaces/platforms typically held by non-Black Latinx are not centering and amplifying such voices in these conversations, what function do they truly seek and serve in this dialogue?
We know that #BlackLivesMatter because we have been engaged in the struggle for Black lives in the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Look no further than the most recent massacres, disappearances, and torturing of Black (and indigenous) youth in Honduras, Colombia, Brazil or Panamá. Black Latinxs face these issues on both sides of the border precisely because of their commonality of experiences with the Black diasporas of the Western Hemisphere. When others attempt to tell our stories and experiences, we risk having them tell it however they choose.
Amilcar Priestley, Esq. is the Director of the Afrolatin@ Project (founded 2006), the only digital resource & cultural heritage archive centering the Black Americas. He is also co-director of the 8th Afro-Latino Festival NYC and the 4th Liberacion Film Festival (October 12-16, 2020), both first of their kind events in the U.S. created by Black Latinxs.
Photo: Pius Utomi Ekpei / Getty
By Roxanne Cox, Afrolatin@ Project Board Member
In this day and age of technology and social media, the spread of misinformation has become an increasing problem. A problem that our community can not afford. The disparities in health among Blacks & Latinos in the U.S. compared to the general population varies drastically, with a life expectancy of 76.1 for Blacks, 81.9 for Latinos and 79.8 for non-Hispanic whites according to the Census Bureau. Although the various media outlets are supposed to inform the public, as citizens we are also responsible for equipping ourselves with the proper knowledge to make educated decisions. When it comes to our health and safety, protection; prevention is our best defense. Now, there are a lot of myths and speculations circulating
about the Coronavirus. And I get it!! There’s a lot that’s unknown about this virus. So, I’m not here to debate anyone’s view on where this virus came from; however, it is important to know that it does exist & anyone can be infected. This is not to add to the already existed hysteria out there as that is the other end of the extreme. Just shedding light to the concern. The World Health Organization’s Director General has now characterized this outbreak as a Pandemic, which should not be taken lightly. Although a majority of the cases reported have been in Asia and Europe, there are cases reported of various races and ages in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. To date, 113 cases are reported across 11 African countries. Brazil has 34 cases, Chile has 17 cases, Costa Rica has 13 cases and Panama has 8 cases with 1 death.
According to the following CNN piece, a Nigerian man traveled from Nigeria to Washington but tested positive for the virus in Maryland, which means he was not on the CBP’s radar at the airport according to the State Department’s high risk countries. Mi gente, let’s not wait until it really hits home to be concerned. Then everyone will be looking for a treatment & another host of conspiracy theories on poisoning the body will emerge. There’s nothing to lose in taking extra precautions but a lot to lose if you get sick. This does not only apply to the Coronavirus but for all the viruses out there, known and unknown. It is also an extremely bad flu season. Understanding that all the information being thrown at us on a daily basis is overwhelming, especially if you’re not in this field of Infectious Diseases. But I strongly encourage people to do their own research and follow basic, proper hygiene methods for prevention!
Here are a few helpful resources:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu;
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019;
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Stay Safe!!
We had the honor of hosting Cristian Baez Lazcano @afrochileno last month for our panel on the AfroChilean response to the ongoing political crisis in Chile🇨🇱 . He left us with his latest book which documents the Black experience in Chile. The book discusses African epistemology and its importance in revalorizing African identity. It also delves into the traditional African derived cultural heritage and diaspora foodways of Chile. The book ends with an important legal and political analysis of territorial claims made under the ILO-Convention 169 (1989 International Labor Organization Convention on the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. International Convention).
The Convention, one of the first international human rights documents recognizes: the right of indigenous and Tribal groups to self identify, the concept of collective rights, territorial autonomy and the idea of "territory" as a distinct but complementary concept to "land" and the special relationship of said communities to the environment as a source of material and spiritual sustenance.
The recent civil society protests have forced the government of President Sebastian Pineda to consider reforms to the Chilean Constitution. The AfroChilean community is pushing to be recognized under this new Constitution as an indigenous or tribal community because Chile is a signatory to the ILO- Convention 169.
The Convention establishes the international framework for rights and protections of ancestral lands traditionally occupied by those recognized as "tribal" or "indigenous communities". These implicate how resources are allocated by the state and international funding organizations. As a result, many indigenous communities reject the idea that Afrodescendants should be considered indigenous or tribal communities, arguing that although brought to the Western Hemisphere forcefully 500 years ago, descendants of enslaved Africans do not have the same connection to the land. Afrodescendant civil society counters that they have been on the land for 500 years, before independence and before the existence of any of the actual countries within whose borders they live.
The reality is that these political tensions between Black and indigenous communities in Chile exist throughout the Americas from the U.S. South, to Mexico, Central and South America. They are seldom discussed, but (US context aside), most recently have arisen in the context of the 20th century framework for human rights claims made by these international conventions. In the transition from enslaved indigenous to African labor from the 1500's such tensions existed as they were often pitted against each other. Following that however, Black and indigenous communities had long periods of social, cultural, economic and political solidarity against mestizo hegemony.
The example of the Samarka demonstrates the importance of these designations. In the 1990s Suriname allowed lands occupied by the Samarka, one of 6 Afrodescendant maroon communities in its borders, to be decimated by speculators and deforestation. After making a claim to their territorial rights under the ILO Convention 169, in 2007, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that the Samarka were to be recognized and their land rights protected as a "tribal community". The decision relied on several criteria but in particular Samarka's self governance and traditional reliance on their spiritual, social, cultural and economic relationship to the land. "The land signifies more than merely a source of subsistence for them; it is also a source necessary for the continuity of life and cultural identity... It forms part of their social ancestral and spiritual essence." (Baez Lazcano, 104).
The constitutional reforms of the 1990s in Colombia, and several other South American countries have sought to address some of these issues, recognizing the rights to territorial autonomy and cultural heritage preservation and promotion. Many of these rights have been codified on paper but poorly implemented, guaranteeing little if any protection to communities. In recent years, as Afrodescendants in Latin America increasingly use international bodies and courts to make human rights claims (against state violence or institutional racism), the 20th century international human rights framework has had the perhaps unintended consequence of pitting communities against each other for the right to make human rights claims to land and territorial autonomy. While there is precedent in the Samarka decision of how this framework can be used justly, it remains to be seen if the interpretation given in the Samarka case will prove effective for Afrodescendants in Chile and elsewhere in the region facing opposition to their ancestral land claims.
Photo: Mario Ruben for DICPNY
On October 12, 2019, nearly 30,000 Panamanians attended the 24th Annual Pre-Independence Parade of Panamá held in Brooklyn, New York. The parade, organized by a group of Afro-Panamanians committed to preserving and celebrating our cultural heritage, is one of the largest outside of the country.
During the parade we posted a picture of a traditional Afro-Panamanian Congo dance group with a truncated description. The post received many comments, including several objections. It also highlighted a persistent issue which has been around for decades as diaspora communities forge bridges of solidarity. Many within Black diaspora communities do not know their own histories; this is exacerbated even further when discussing the histories and cultural contexts of other Black diasporas.
Panama celebrates its 116th year of independence from Colombia this week amidst nationwide civic protests. In this context, we briefly highlight the resilience, independence and heritage of Panama's 500 year old Congo traditions.
In 2014, archeologists from the University of Barcelona discovered, "La Villa de Santiago del Príncipe", the first documented community of free blacks in the Western Hemisphere built in 1579. The findings, part of the UNESCO Slave Route Project were reported in "Afrocolonial Archaeology – Slave Route Sites of Memory – Resistance, Freedom and Heritage". They confirmed the location near the town of “Nombre de Dios”, a key trade port in Colón Province, 80 miles from the capital of Panama City. This first free community was established by Luis de Mozambique, one of the earliest maroon kings in the Americas. Nearly a century before 1619, enslaved Africans who rebelled throughout the Western Hemisphere established communities of free Blacks or "maroons". Many of these communities, called "palenques" in Spanish or quilombos in Brazil, still exist. The Congo community in Panama are descendants of King Bayano, another in the line of 16th century maroon leaders in Panama. Ftnte The writings of Spanish friar and colonizer Bartolomé de las Casas described Africans possibly from Guinea, already in Darien, Panamá, by 1514.
Credit: UNESCO
The cultural heritage of Panama’s present day Congo descendants has been passed down through the generations for more than 500 years. These traditions, principally rooted in maroon practices, are most often seen in celebrations, death or carnivals, clothing colors and patterns, dance movements, song and character themes and percussions. These practices were functional and intentional. For example: wearing of clothes inside out as a form of communication and mockery of slave owners; use of oil/paint on the hands and faces common for 1) palenque watchmen, 2) maroons responsible for raiding Spanish colonial towns and plantations and 3) slaves escaping to freedom; and strapping of trinkets around their belts symbolizing their few personal possessions. The clothing used during these ceremonies and dances represent the Queen, (the most important character within these matriarchal communities), the King, the bird, the Devil and more. Each of the five polleras (or traditional dresses) have their own significance and connote certain status in the matriarchy.
The first documented slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere occurred in Santo Domingo, Hispaniola on December 25, 1522, by Senegalese men on the sugar plantation of Admiral Don Diego Colón, the son of Christopher Columbus. According to spanish colonial records, the second occurred in Nombre de Dios in 1527. Both were brutally suppressed after bloody battles.
CREDIT: Creative Commons
[We have news of the first rebellion of blacks in Panama in the year 1527, in which the victims of desperation due to their treatment, rebelled against authorities, but were brutally put down, following a bloody fight] "Tenemos noticias del primer alzamiento de negros ocurrido en "Panamá en el año de 1527, en donde victimas de la desesperación por el trato recibido, se rebelaron contra las autoridades, pero fueron brutalmente sometidos, tras una sangrienta lucha.( fragmento tomado de escrito del Sr Jorge Conte Porras)"
Geographical, military and economic considerations often proved key to the success of any single revolt or effort to sustain maroon communities against continued armed assaults by colonial forces, pirates or slave owners. By relentlessly attacking the vital Atlantic-Pacific Ocean trade route, Luis de Mozambique and Bayano were able to force negotiated treaties with the spanish crown, recognizing them as free men in exchange for a ceasefire.
In 1553, relentless Maroon revolts and raids in Panama had forced the Spanish to the negotiating table. By 1580, after years of battling pirates and the spanish crown, Maroons aligned themselves with British pirates/profiteers including Sir Francis Drake. This Maroon-buccaneer alliance posed a serious challenge to Spanish hegemony in the region. In fact, to help confirm their own findings on Santiago del Principe, UNESCO researchers used Drake's cartographic footprint, the General Archive of Indias in Seville, Spain together with key works of Spanish colonial literature, such as the poem "La Dragontea" by Lope de Vega (supported by other works).
Following Luis de Mozambique's reign and between 1542-1581, came other maroon leaders included Felipillo, Bayano, Antón Mandinga, Juan de Diosa, El Negro Madagascar, Domingo Congo.
Felipillo became such a threat to Spanish trade in the 1540's that he was captured, drawn and quartered by horse and his palenque burned to the ground in 1551. The death and bravery of Felipillo turned him into a legend. Those who followed another cimarron leader, Anton Mandinga, continued fighting and by 1581, another treaty was negotiated guaranteeing freedom, land, non aggression by Spanish colonizers and autonomy to the palenque.
CREDIT: America Economia
While Bayano was not the first maroon king from Panamá, he was one of the most successful. He organized and protected a palenque of 1,500, stretching from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean from 1552-56/1556-58, and has rivers and lakes named in his honor. The descendants of Bayano, the Congo, thus preserve a rich heritage as the earliest practitioners of black liberation through oral history's, dance, attire and more.
Although widely known in Panamá, Congo traditions had been guarded from outside eyes for centuries and simultaneously excluded from national patrimony. In 2015, the Congo attire was first recognized in Panama's Festival of the Thousand Polleras after several years of unsuccessful attempts. In 2016, the 1st Festival de la Polleras Congo was held in Colon province. In 2018, UNESCO declared Congo culture as intangible cultural patrimony to the world. In 2019, the Festival of las Polleras Congo was denied funding by the Institute of Arts and Culture (INAC). Despite setbacks the push by Afrodescendants for recognition and plenary participation, culturally as well as economically and politically continues in Panamá, as it does in all of Latin America.
Other early maroon communities include:
Colombia, 1600 - San Basilio de Palenque, one of the first free space communities still in existence was founded by Benkos Bioho. Inspired a 50 year slave revolt from 1621-1671.
Mexico, 1608- Yanga founded by Gaspar Yanga known for his military and organizational prowess and his community leadership skills forced the Spanish to negotiate
Mosquitia (present day Nicaragua) 1633/1687. King of the Mosquitia.
Colombia, 1634- Leonor, Queen of the Limón palenque near Cartagena
Brazil, 1670 Ganga Zumba king of the Quilombo do Palmares captured along with 5,000 of his men by the Portuguese in Angola.
Zumbi and Dandara dos Palmares 1655-1695 Leaders of the Quilombo Palmares and revered as the godparents of AfroBrazil. Day of Black Consciousness in Brazil dated in honor of the death of Zumbi dos Palmares.
Jamaica - Queen Nanny c. 1686. Leader of the Maroons in the first Maroon War of 1734 and hailed as a Jamaican national hero in 1976
Honduras/Nicaragua/Guatemala/Belize - 1797 Black Caribs/Garifuna fought against being enslaved at all, reaching a truce with the British which exiled them from St. Vincent, Grenadines to Roatan, Honduras.
The most well known slave revolt Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804. The military support by Haitian President Alexandre Petion of Simon Bolivar lead to the end of slavery in Gran Colombia (Panama, Ecuador, Colombia) and Venezuela.
Formal education systems barely teach us black history in any country. Some of the work to educate those less knowledgeable about the Black Americas (often times our own) is on Afrolatinxs. We encourage you to dig deeper and learn about other black diaspora cultures in the Americas, specifically from black diaspora cultures from the Americas. If not, instead of an ally, you become part of the problem of erasure and invisibilization Afrolatinxs and Afrolatinamericans continue to combat.
Additional readings:
Craft, Renée Alexander. When the Devil Knocks: The Congo Tradition and the Politics of Blackness in Twentieth-Century Panama. OSU Press, 2015
Fortune, Armando . “Los Negros en Panamá”, en Revista Lotería 2ª. época, no. 143. (1976, octubre) bdigital.binal.ac.pa › loteria › descarga › 1967_143_LNB
Lindsay, Arturo. “The Research Methods of an Artist-Ethnographer on the Congo Coast of Panama”. Breaking the Disciplines: Reconceptions in Knowledge, Art and Culture. Edited by Martin L. Davies and Marsha Meskimmon. I.B. Taurus, (2003).
Maloney, Dr. Gerardo. “Armando Fortune” . Protagonistas Panamá Siglo XX. (2015, septiembre). http://www.protagonistaspanamasigloxx.com/product/armando-fortune/
Pike, Ruth. "Black Rebels: The Cimarrons of Sixteenth Century Panama," The Americas 64/2 (2007): 245-46, by Ruth Pike citing the original source, Pedro de Aguado, Historia de Venezuela, Book 9, chapter 13.
Pulido Ritter, Luis. “Armando Fortune y la Identidad Cultural Panameña” Tareas, núm. 140, enero-abril, 2012, pp. 83-106 Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos "Justo Arosemena" Panamá, Panamá https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/5350/535055523007.pdf
Vila Vilar, Enriqueta. “Cimarronaje en Panamá y Cartagena. El costo de una guerrilla en el siglo XVII”. Caravelle. Cahiers du monde hispanique et luso-brésilien. 1987 Vol. 49 pp. 77-92 https://www.persee.fr/doc/carav_0008-0152_1987_num_49_1_2341
Another major international fashion designer is in hot water in Mexico over cultural appropriation, having been accused by the federal government of plagiarizing indigenous Mexican designs for its latest catalogue.
In a letter published in the Spanish newspaper El País, Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto asserted that several articles of clothing featured in Carolina Herrera’s Resort 2020 collection copied liberally and without due recognition from designs used in indigenous textiles from several regions of Mexico.
“Some of the designs used in the collection form part of the world view of indigenous peoples of specific regions in Mexico.”
Read more: https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/designer-accused-of-plagiarizing-indigenous-designs/
By Arturo Conde
Tessa Thompson considers herself Afro-Latina, a black woman, a person of color, and Latinx. But when fans go to see the sci-fi action blockbuster "Men in Black: International" this weekend, she hopes that they will only see her character, Agent M, on the silver screen.
“I hope we can get to the space in Hollywood where it’s not noteworthy for a woman, and particularly a woman of color, to top line a franchise film,” Thompson, who has Afro-Panamanian and Mexican roots, told NBC News. “I hope we can get to a place where we don’t have to congratulate it, or comment on it because it happens with such frequency. But we are still really far away from there.”
Mayito Rivera
The crowd at the Studio 60 Nightclub in Miami-Dade County's Allapattah neighborhood loved Afro-Cuban singer Mario "Mayito" Rivera's performance so much they threw dollar bills at him.
Rivera, 53, and the members of the Los Van Van danced on the cash. It was a full house on the evening of Thursday, May 30, at the Latin nightclub at Northwest 36th Street and Northwest 23rd Avenue.
Miami commissioners want it to be the last time Cuban artists who have the support of the Cuban government can profit from performances in South Florida.
"It is a mockery what these Cuban artists are doing when they come here," said Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who was born in Cuba.
Reyes and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to enact legislation to allow local governments to prohibit businesses from hiring Cuban artists who do business with the Cuban government. Commissioners voted to pass it on Thursday.
The commission wants the proposed ban to stay in place "until freedom of expression is restored for all Cubans and not just a few favored artists" -- including Rivera.
Read more:
Juan Roberto Diago, “Día de Reyes,” 2019
Courtesy Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana
By Cuban Art News
Unlike most historical surveys, the exhibition Nada Personal (Nothing Personal), begins in the present moment.
“Contemporary art,” says curator Roberto Cobas Amate, “is where the frictions between the races, the theme of racism, is most evident.” And racism, he adds, continues to be an unresolved problem.
With the title Nada Personal, says Cobas Amate, the curators wanted to point out that racism is generally not about a specific person. “It’s against the race, against the color of the skin,” Cobas Amate says.
In the Edificio Cubano of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the exhibition begins just outside the gallery, with Día de Reyes (2019), a large-scale painting by Juan Roberto Diago. “A current work,” says Cobas Amate, “in which he expresses his militant opposition to racism.”
Cobas Amate points out a phrase at the center of the canvas: Tu odio no me mata (Your hate does not kill me). At the upper right is another: Soy humano igual que tu (I am human, the same as you).
By: María Mónica Monsalve - @mariamonic91
Dr. Gloria Prado Pino becomes the first Afrolatina to graduate with a Masters in Global Health from Harvard.
“Two weeks ago Dr. Gloria Prado Pino was in Boston (United States), receiving her Master's degree in Medical Sciences in Global Health from the School of Medicine at Harvard University. It was a unique title, because it also made her the first Afro-Latin woman to graduate from this program. The first Colombian and the first Chocoana. Today, days later, she is in Medellin finishing arranging some papers and will travel to Quibdó (Chocó), her hometown, the day after tomorrow. What Gloria has lived these days sums up, in some way, what her life was for about three years. A life as a student, academic, mother and leader of a family.”
“There, Gloria worked as a doctor in a mobile unit that traveled through places in Quibdó that she did not know. "Isolated, riverside areas, indigenous reserves where there was no health center. And since then I began to have a feeling of dissatisfaction, of living in a social injustice, where in my awakening, there did not exist things that were normal to see in Medellin or Bogota."
Original in Spanish: “Una colombiana es la primera afrolatina en graduarse de la Maestría en Salud Global de Harvard”
Amada Cortéz, a community leader and educator from the San Lorenzo district in Esmeraldas, bathing in the San Pedro waterfall. She is also a writer and poet, author of the book “Me Llaman la Cimarrona” (“They call me the Cimarrona”), based on African octave poems that she learned from her father. Ecuador, 2018. Credit Johis Alarcón
Photographs by Johis Alarcón; Text by David Gonzalez
The photographer Johis Alarcón documented not just the indelible influence of African culture in Ecuador, but also how the descendants of enslaved women maintained their culture.
"Yet even for their descendants today, the strength of those bonds can be tested. Ms. Alarcón recalled one story of a friend who arrived at home to find her brother covered in talcum powder — his way, she said, of lightening his skin. Another friend remembered how when she was 9 years old, a teacher told her that her hair was “ugly” and should be straightened. They find a sense of self as they get older, wearing traditional styles and learning religious chants passed down through generations.
“This is a story about liberation,” Ms. Alarcón said. “Their only way to resist and stay connected is though these practices they have preserved for centuries. They want to get to know Mother Africa.”’
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/lens/afro-ecuadoreans-identity-spiritual-practices.html
By: Blue Telusma
“I’ll tell you what Jharrel did to me,” co-star Michael K. Williams, who plays Antron McCray’s father, Bobby, told BET. “We were at the table read. We hadn’t even begun filming yet. We read episode one and it was to the part where Korey was being sentenced and he was freaking out in the court room. And Jharrel started to go in AT THE TABLE READ. I’m sitting here and he’s to my left. I’m looking at him like, OK, this kid is going too hard, he’s gonna get you, Mike. He’s gonna get you.”
“I didn’t want to cry at the table read,” said Williams of that emotionally charged first encounter. “So I turned my head and looked this way and I locked eyes with the real Korey, who is just sitting there with tears streaming down his face. I took my baseball cap, pulled it down, and said it’s going to be that kind of ride. At the table read, he wore me out.”
Read more: https://thegrio.com/2019/06/03/5-things-to-know-about-when-they-see-us-breakout-star-jharrel-jerome/