Afro Latinos React to “Blacks in Latin America” PBS Series

I have fought many years as a youngster growing up in the U.S., and not being accepted by blacks because they say I was “different,” and not accepted by Latinos because I did not look like Ricky Martin.”

—Marcus Edwin, son of a black Cuban mother
and a black Panamanian father

In one sense, I can feel Marcus' pain, and I am African American. Having grown up in New York City where the black community is much more diverse in terms of lifestyles, attitudes, and cultural interests than a city like Oakland, California where I spent most of my adult life; a city where the black community overwhelmingly considered me to be “different” and reacted to me accordingly.

 As a defense mechanism, I punctuated my “difference” by keeping my New York accent as well as my direct, straight-forward style of communication. I even came out of my proverbial closet as a lover of the Afro-Latino culture embracing the music, re-learning the language, and taking vacations to Spanish-speaking countries. As a result, some of the Oakland black folks were shallow enough to ask me if I am “black.”

When the PBS series, Black in Latin America hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates aired; it not only triggered a sharp increase in my blog readership but awakened more African Americans outside of New York to the existence of a Spanish-speaking black community. 

In response to the aired series, Tomáas Fernández Robaina of the National Library of Cuba, wrote in his essay of black struggles erupting in Latin-American countries, and how they should be recognized by all members of the African diaspora living in the Americas so our collective demands will gain more social and political strength, and become more internationally visible.

Marcus himself expressed delight that black Latinos are finally being noticed. His mother being black and Cuban, and his father, black and Panamanian, raised him and his siblings to be proud of their blackness, but as a kid growing up in the U.S., he was not accepted by blacks because he was perceived as “different,” and not accepted by Latinos because he lacked the stereotypical look of a Ricky Martin.

Elicia, an African American was enlighted by the series had no idea that African slaves were brought to Latin America. As a matter of fact, slave ships made their way through the Spanish-speaking countries over 100 years before coming to the U.S.

Murphy Brown of Guyana, South America, says that it is way past time that the presence of Africans in Latin America acknowledged. She herself freaked out when she met a black Portuguese-speaking Brazilian for the first time. It finally dawned on her that black folks in the Americas speak a diversity of languages.

Miticia, whose family is from Costa Rica, Central America, is shocked that so many people are unaware of the fact that one could be both black and Latino. People would ask her how long it took her to learn Spanish, And when she tells them of her family roots, they respond with a look of surprise and a frown. She firmly reminds them that black people are everywhere.

Mark, a black man of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage, lives in San Antonio, Texas with a large Mexican population. He finds that people are shocked when they hear him speak Spanish; however, he is still given the second-class treatment in a city that caters to white and brown people.

From my personal travel experience in Latin America, I noticed the same thing that Mark experienced in San Antonio where white and brown people are treated much better than black and indigenous people. 

There were instances when non-blacks didn't realize that I was a foreign visitor, and treated me with less respect than they would have if I were a white person. Of course, when they realized that I am American, presumably with a pocket full of money, their attitudes instantly change for the better. In Latin America, money whitens black skin.

Afro Latinos React to “Blacks in Latin America” PBS Series

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Afro Town: A Black Exhibit in Uruguay, South America

When many think of Latin-American countries containing members of the African diaspora, countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic immediately come to mind, but only a few would think of Uruguay in South America.

However, freelance photographer Mayra Da Silva is working on a project to let the world and fellow Uruguayans know, “we black folks (in Uruguay) are here!”

Mayra Da Silva who grew up in an interracial family consisting of a black father and a white mother is a freelance photographer as well as secretary of communications in a government office. 

She is developing a photographic exhibition to be produced in various areas of Montevideo, the nation's capital, to reflect her country's black experience called "Afrotown-Montevideo.” This exhibition will have an inspiration in Afro-Uruguayan projects with input from several black Uruguayan organizations. 

It will integrate identity and aesthetic elements to promote its own Black is Beautiful movement, and strive to break stereotypes of beauty imposed by a society that promotes only a model of Eurocentric beauty in addition to fighting the exclusion and stigmatization of people of African descent, and reducing inequality gaps.

In addition to making visible the African theme in Uruguay in its multiple expressions, such as photography, audiovisual, music, dance, and other cultural projects. Her photos will be produced in diverse neighborhood environments involving various social activists where it will be essential for the construction of their sense of belonging and breaking the culture shock with people who are not privy to black heritage.

 
Eventually, Mayra Da Silva will present her exhibit on an international level. 

Improve the Race?

If I met a woman of a different race, and it turned out to be a true love connection such as with this happy black and mestizo Peruvian family (above), I'm in! But hell if I pass up a fine black woman like the former Miss Ecuador, Monica Chalá (below), for the sole purpose of having babies of mixed race, and do what many Afro Latinos say, “improve the race.”

Growing up in the U.S., I falsely believed that internalized racism was strictly limited to black Americans as we have our issues with good hair vs. kinky hair, light-skinned vs. dark-skinned, and as the old saying goes, “the white man's ice is always colder.”

As I meet people and explore cultures other than my own, I am learning that internalized racism is alive and well wherever there are people of color. Even on the African continent, the sale of bleaching cream to lighten one's skin is at an all-time high. I once read a story where a a black American man who joined the Peace Corps, I forget which African country he was serving; however, he noticed woman approaching his white male comrades, not for love and marriage, but solely to have white babies.

Black Latin America is big on finding a mate who is either of much lighter complexion or preferably white. In Spanish, it's called “mejorar la raza (improving the race)” or “blanquemiento (whitening).” 

When I was in Havana, Cuba, a group of us Americans were walking down the street to a cultural event, and suddenly three or four black Cuban men rushed out on the porch with faces glowing and looking starry-eyed at the white women in my group. I wanted to shout, “damn brothers, haven't you seen white women before? 

At a party just outside of Havana where we Americans, mostly white, were being entertained. I asked a black Cuban woman to dance, and she quickly looked across the room seeking the approval of a man leaning against the wall. He shook his head indicating, hell no! That was her older brother who wanted his sister to snag a white American male.

If my parents told me, “improve the race; I don't want any black grandbabies,” like so many black Latin-American parents do, I would ask, “you had black babies, what's the problem, now; you have issues with black people all of a sudden? Of course, my parents had much better sense than that.

It is not that I am against interracial marriage or relationships. Even the Black Muslim minister Louis Farrakahn stated on national television, “When you are in love, you are in love.” My own father and his second wife of Italian ancestry were truly in love. If I met a woman of a different race, and there is a true love connection, I'm in! But no fricken way will I bypass a beautiful black woman for the sole purpose of finding someone to help whiten my bloodline.

In my travels through Black Latin America, I met black women with mulatto children and all seemed content with the father long gone from the scene. What was the point? 

And while I was admiring the black women in the countries I was visiting, it was the non-black women who were admiring me. There were a couple of single black women with mulatto children who took an interest in me, and I had to ask myself, is this a real attraction or do they just want what's in my pants (a U.S. Passport)?

Do Latinos Not Recognize Their Own Racial Diversity?

 
I had just returned from a five-nation Latin-American tour where my level of Spanish fluency climbed a few notches, seemingly by default. Before heading home to Oakland, I stopped in New York City where I grew up to visit my brother who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and a cousin who lives in the South Bronx.  

One night, as I left my cousin's house for the subway station, I came across some guys speaking Spanish with a Puerto Rican accent. Suddenly they stopped talking and looked at me with some concern, seemingly hoping that I was not packing a weapon with intentions of robbing them. After all, this was the South Bronx!  Because they were already speaking Spanish, I politely said, con permiso (excuse me), as I passed. One of the fellows responded in eloquent English—certainly! 


With New York having such a large Afro-Latino population, how did this gentleman know that I was not Afro Latino prompting him to respond to me in English? It seems to me that many (not all, thank goodness) Latin-American people here in the U.S. are oblivious to the racial diversity in their own communities. 

In response to one of my blog posts entitled, So Few Latinos of Color on Spanish TV, a Latino who goes by the name of Chaz Perez made the following bigoted comment:

* Give it a break! There are enough black faces on U.S. television to satisfy the world's demand for black faces on television. How many Hispanics or Asian faces do you see? Yet, are we crying? You Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama keep the U.S. happy and in black faces. Don't worry about us.

*I had to edit his writing for grammar and spelling for his verbiage to make any sense.

What this person obviously overlooked when he asked me how many Hispanics or Asian faces do I see on U.S. TV is that many Hispanics are black as well as Asian. He appeared clueless to the fact that real Hispanics come in all colors and represent various ethnic groups. I also explained to him that the black faces we see on TV include Afro Latinos who are locked out of the Latin-American television industry, which consistently caters to those of European persuasion.

One evening I was coming from an Afro-Peruvian dance performance,  and I ran into an black friend whom I have not seen in a couple of years. Immediately, we greeted each other in Spanish. I then noticed two olive-skinned guys who appeared to be Latino freaking out and looking at us in astonishment, not taking into consideration that the black man I was speaking to is also Latino; a Peruvian who speaks limited English. Why was our Spanish conversation so entertaining to them?


While vacationing in Lima, Perú, I ate at a Chinese restaurant known as a “chifa,”  and had some of the best Chinese food I ever had. If I had not ordered in Spanish (or Cantonese), I would not have been fed. In Higuerote, Venezuela, two hours from the nation's capital of Caracas, I went shopping in a meat market owned by Middle Easterners. After surprising them with my basic Arabic, I began placing my order in Spanish; otherwise, I would not have been served.

I have personally met Latinos who are Jewish, black, Asian, white, indigenous, Middle Eastern, and of course, a mixture of various races. If a “gringo” like me can see the racial and ethnic diversity in the Latin-American community, why is it that so many born and raised Latinos are deprived of such awareness? Is it Spanish television like Univisión and Telemundo, or Spanish newspapers like El Diario in New York City and La Opinión in Los Angeles, California that fail to represent Latin America's realistic diversity? 

The Afro Latin Experience in Texas

Much of the ignorance described in the blog post below is true in many other parts of the US, especially here on the west coast where I live, and surprisingly in New York where there is a large number of Latinos who are also black.

 

In Texas, there was an occasion when a black woman went to a Mexican restaurant with some brown and olive-skinned friends. The Mexican-American waitress took the order in Spanish from the brown and olive-skinned women.

 

When it was the black woman's turn to order, the waitress automatically switched to English even though the black woman made it evident that she is fluent in Spanish. Little did the waitress know that real Latinas come in all colors, including black. Where has she and so many others been all their lives? 

 

Below is a guest post from  Black Girl Latin World, which was originally published on The Latinegr@s Project website.

Afrolatinidad In Texas
#Escribelanegra

 

A while ago, on the Afrolatinos Facebook page, a member posted about her experience as an Afrolatina in the South. She pointed out that many people she comes in contact with don’t understand the concept of being both Black and Latina.

The conversation thread exploded. For two days, people commented with experiences, opinions and advice. Even I chimed in as an Afro-American Spanish speaking body in Texas. People are shocked when they find that I know Spanish. Where I am from a Black person speaking anything other than English is looked at as strange or interesting.

The main takeaways/experiences mentioned on the thread were:

• Frustrations around people not believing that they were Latin@
• People speak badly in Spanish about Black people around them not expecting them to understand
• Lack of Media attention for Afrolatin@ issues/figures

When someone doesn’t understand your identity, it can be easy to get upset. But I like to look at everything as a teaching moment. Telling them about your experience and identity might just be the seed that can help them grow into an ally.

Afro Latinos and Interracial Marriage

With my ardent interest in Afro-Latino history and culture and my inspiration to celebrate them, I received a very interesting question from one of my blog readers:

“I would like to hear your honest opinion on why so many black Latinos are in relationships with whites and mestizos?  Being born and raised in Miami and interacting with Latinos on a daily basis, it is rare to see a black Latino couple.  With all this talk about Afro-Latin culture and identity, a basic question comes to mind. Are they really black?”

As I read this correspondence, I thought of my father whose second, and successful marriage till death, was to a white woman. My father was rejected by African-American and Puerto Rican women because he was a single parent of two crumb snatchers—my brother and me. All his second wife knew was that she loved the man, and she accepted my brother and me as well. I was best man at my father's wedding, and know first hand that love is love, regardless of race.

Therefore this is hardly a complaint, but an objective question based on a casual observation. When I think about it, I myself have never seen a black Latino couple in the U.S., and found very few throughout my Latin-American travels. 

What is even more stunning is that while I'm admiring the black woman in the countries that I visit, it is the non-black women who were admiring me. My trip to Venezuela was an exception where I found women of all colors open, friendly, and approachable. Now that I plan on moving to Ecuador, I wonder if I will be the only black man strutting around with a black woman on my arms or will I, too, end up falling mutually in love with a non-black woman who sees more beauty and value in me than a black woman? 

It has been brought to my attention that in communities throughout Latin America, people are told from their youth that they have a duty to “mejorar la raza (improve the race)” by marrying someone white or as light-skinned as possible so the children will be less black, thus making it easier to overcome discrimination and assimilate into the mainstream. 

Marisól, a dark-skinned Afro-Peruvian friend, had children by a white man, and those children grew up and got married to Europeans. When you look at her grandchildren, you would never know that they have a black mother or grandmother.This is the idea behind mejorar la raza/improve the race.
 
I decided to share this reader's question with some Afro Latinos I know, and here are the range of responses that I received: 

• It's not just Latinos, my Filipino, Indian, and Polynesian friends are all pushed to marry lighter.

•  I believe that love is love, I myself am with a redheaded Irishman.

•  I've dated women all over the color spectrum. However, women of lighter shades generally show more interest towards me than the darker. Just my personal experience.

• Quite simply opposites attract!

• Don't think that some of us haven't taken an interest in an Afro Latina, but when you see them going for the mestizo look, I had to accept it and see who was paying me the attention after a while—mestizo and white women.

• I'm Dominican. In the beginning, my father gave me a hard time for dating a black man, but when I looked at my mother's side of the family, they were black too. This is all so hypocritical and dumb; deep rooted ignorance.

• Because we want to, plain and simple. I date an Italian-American man and I find nothing wrong with it!

• I've only been asked on a date by a black guy once in the last year, but asked numerous times by mestizo men. I guess opposites attract cause black men sure aren't looking at me.

As I stated earlier, love is love. However, personally, I could not commit to a woman because she is a member of some perceived ideal race. That is not the way I want to live my life. On the flip side, I know many black males who are attracted to black women, but opted for women of other races because they felt more accepted with less drama. And based on statements here, there are some black women who experienced the same.

Spanish Word for Black People

“Tú no eres negro; tú eres moreno!”

(You are not black; you are colored!)

To my surprise, this statement was made to me personally by an Afro-Peruvian dance troupe leader in a predominately black district of Southern Perú. She reminded me of the time when calling a black American “African” or “black” were fighting words. We used to insist on being called “Negroes” or “colored folks.”

Wherever I am in Latin America, I always refer to myself as “negro (black)” or “afro-estadounidense (African-American).” However, During my Latin-American travels, I often heard the word moreno used when referring to black people, even among the black Latin Americans.

I remember in my first trip to Black Perú, I ran into an employee of a cell phone store and asked for directions. Realizing that I was a visitor, he stopped what he was doing and stated, "un moreno tiene que ayudar un moreno," in other words, LOL, a brother got to help a brother out! He was hoping to get a tip, and I gladly gave him one and treated him to a seafood lunch.

Recently, I observed a discussion among Afro-Latinos as to what black people are called when speaking Spanish. The responses differed depending on location, generation, and Latin-American country of origin. Here are the responses:

• Moreno in my area is usually used in reference to an African American.
• I was taught that moreno is offensive.
• I'm dark skin and I'm referred to as moreno. 
• Moreno is seen as better or more polite than negro.
• My aunt in Costa Rica is a linguist and she goes into a panic attack when someone calls her a morena.
• I think moreno used amongst Latinos to refer to people of African descent, but I know my black Cuban grandparents would not want to be referred to as negros.
• I learned that negro refers to people of black skin where moreno is someone who was born very light skinned and have been tanned by being out in the sun, or someone who is darker by a few shades from the rest of their family. 
• In Puerto Rico, I was always taught to refer to blacks as moreno. However. At one time I was speaking to an older Afro-Cuban in her 70's and she told me not to refer to black people as morenos. I was thoroughly confused but she was my elder and I said, "yes ma'am." 
• An African-American who lived in Perú with his Afro-Peruvian wife states that moreno is the proper name for a black person. He insists that it is formal, especially if you do not know the individual.

The term moreno was the term used by the Christian Spaniards referring to the Muslim Moors who were of darker complexion and had occupied the Iberian peninsula of Spain for over 800 years. However many Afro-Latinos use the term negro, such as the late black Queen of salsa music Celia Cruz and the world famous dance troupe Perú Negro (Black Peru).  

Today, more and more Afro-Latinos who are waking up to their heritage are referring to themselves as Afro-descientes (African descendents).