African American - Latino World

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

PBS Series: Black in Latin-America

I was just watching the TV series Black in Latin-America. Of all the things that were discussed in this series, I've been blogging about for more than one year. People are beginning to wake up to the fact that more blacks went to Latin-American countries, including Mexico, Argentina, and Perú than to the United States of America. What is even more pleasant is that more and more African-Americans are also waking up for too many of us seem to feel that we African-Americans are the only legitimate blacks in the African diaspora.

What surprises me more than anything is that so many Latinos I meet are unaware of the African presence in their own countries. The TV host, Professor Louis Henry Gates Jr., said it well, Latinos have black abuela (grandmother) in the closet.

On a couple of occasions, I had to explain to some young Mexican-Americans, who thought it was so humorous that a black person (referring to me) is speaking Spanish that there are over 150 million Spanish-speakers who are black, not to mention the millions of others who have African blood, like Fulgencio Batista, former president of Cuba, and Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's liberator and second president.

Personally, I celebrate Black Heritage in Latin American countries because I'm so moved by the variety of music where African people had an influence, music like cumbia (Colombia), salsa (New York City), merengue (Dominican Republic), bachata (Dominican Republic), fandango and jaraocho (Mexico), festejo, landó, and zamacueca, Perú, cueca (Chile), and son-montuno (Cuba).

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Peruvians in the Hood

My First Encounter with the Black Peruvian Population

When I used to think of the hood, I used to think of poor or working class black (and brown) communities around the United States such as Harlem in New York City, East Oakland, California, or the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas. No longer do I restrict this perception to the United States of America. There are hoods in Paris, London, and Mexico (yes, Mexico; see my post entitled Mexico's Dark Secret). However, one of the most enjoyed hoods I've ever visited is El Carmen in Chincha, Perú.

Unlike your average hood in the USA, crime is next to zero in El Carmen despite the poverty. Well, at least according to my perception. Almost everyone is mellow in their relationship with each other and with visitors. I've exchanged many greetings with total strangers as we passed each other on the street. During my visits to El Carmen over the last five years, I've never seen or heard any conflicts among the residents, or observed any drama. When they party, they party hearty without any trouble makers spoiling the fun.

A block party in El Carmen, Perú

I first came in contact with this community in the Spring of 2005, thanks to Moons Travel Guide, which contained the address and phone number of the late Amador Ballumbrosio who played a large role in reviving and popularizing Afro-Peruvian music and dance. Almost everyone in his family are either dancers, musicians, or both. With my wanting to be totally immersed in the Spanish language and wanting to explore black cultures in Latin-American countries, I called the home of the Ballumbrosio family. The woman who answered the phone was Maribel, Amador's daughter. Her demeanor over the phone was one of a long, lost relative inviting me home. We agreed on a very inexpensive price of my stay, plus meals.

Every February, in El Carmen, Perú there is
a Black Heritage celebration with music and dance

I arrived in El Carmen at 4:00 AM, not realizing that the family left their door unlocked for me. My cab driver then took me to the local police station where an arrangement was made for me to spend a night at the local hotel for one-half price (13 nueva soles, approximately $4.00 USD). At the station, there seemed to be only one police officer on duty, and he was wrapped in a blanket trying to stay awake for he had nothing to do. The town of El Carmen is that cool; tranquilo, as people call it.

When I arrived at the Ballumbrosio home at 10 AM the next morning, I was greeted with hugs. What I enjoyed most about this community is that it is off the beaten path--no tourists. The few tourists who do come never stay long. There is very little here to offer tourists except music and dance performances in the living room of the Ballumbrosio home, and of course, during the month of February when they celebrate black heritage with music and dance. People from all over Perú, and different parts of the world converge on El Carmen with the slogan, “Vamos Pa' Chincha, Familia, meaning Let's Go To Chincha, Brothers and Sisters (El Carmen is in the province of Chincha).

Entering the District of El Carmen in Chincha, Perú

Because I do not care for crowds and constant noise, I avoid going to Perú in the month of February. In fact, all of my travels is during the “slow season.” I enjoy the tranquility of El Carmen outside the month of February. During my first trip, I was always invited to some party or a social event on the weekends. I never had to go anywhere for entertainment. Everything was right there in the hood. Unfortunately, a major earthquake came along in 2007, destroying much of El Carmen's infrastructure. Today, it's just not the same. Many of the people I met left. But I still love the people, the energy, and the environment. It's my home away from home.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Racism in Cuba Bounces Back

...or Did It Ever Go Away?

In my 1998 trip to Cuba, I had on language and cultural blinders; unable to see the real Cuba that has been driving so many citizens away since Castro took office. An overwhelming majority of these citizens were white. By the time I arrived in Cuba, more black Cubans were fleeing the island, like my personal friend, Vladimir, who risked his life on a raft made of inner-tubes. I was only interested in improving my Spanish, developing my salsa dancing skills, and learning about Afro-Cuban history and culture.

I felt very much at home with the black presence almost everywhere; on campus, in shops, at the airport, in taxis, not to mention the black doctors and engineers. In fact the first black astronaut in the world is Afro-Cuban. However, my time spent in Cuba was not enough time to experience the racial frustrations of Afro-Cubans. People were generally nice to me, primarily because I'm a gringo, who perceptibly had a lot of money to circulate in their economy.

Cuban civil-rights leader Oscar Biscet is serving a 25-year sentence in a maximum security prison for trying to follow the path of Martin Luther King.

When Fidel Castro took office in 1959, he issued anti-discrimination laws and declared the end of racism and discrimination. I was always wondering why an overwhelming number of white Cubans were fleeing the Castro regime during the 1960s and 1970s, and not too many of the blacks. Perhaps, this had a lot to do with opportunities being opened to black Cubans that were not open to them before. Even though black Cubans have made great advances under the Fidel Castro's regime (blacks in no other Latin American country comes close), many young Cubans contend that a form of structural racism exists, and that it is getting worse. In the tourist industry, which is growing by leaps and bounds while the rest of the Cuban economy languishes, blacks are underrepresented in the big new five-star hotels and the ancillary services springing up, such as waitresses, doormen, tour guides and cab drivers. Organizations like the NAACP are not allowed in Cuba. Dr. Oscar E. Biscet, President of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, attempted to follow the path of Martin Luther King and is currently serving a 25-year sentence at a maximum security prison.

In the film Inventos, black Cuban hip-hop artists speak out against racism and unemployment.

In music, young Cuban songwriters slip in sly lyrics about skin color, unemployment and racism. At a recent performance by the popular group NG La Banda, for example, the singer added a line about a black man being stopped by police on the street. That is the one concrete, on-the-ground issue that almost all black Cuban men, especially young men, can relate to: being halted by police and made to produce their documents. There was a case of a black man who went to a party where there were a number of black couples. When he told his story of being stopped in Havana while an identically dressed white man was allowed to breeze by, and how he demanded to know why he was singled out, the cop said police were looking for someone with physical characteristics like his. Everyone laughed because four or five black men there had experienced the same thing, and were also told, “we are looking for someone with physical characteristics like yours.” The black man who told the story went on to add that if the cops are going to lie, they should at least be original!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Black People in El Salvador?

I was amused by the looks I was getting from the store clerks in this supermarket; it's like they never seen a Black person before, i.e., live and in living color, LOL.

I had a seven-hour layover in El Salvador before my next flight to Lima, Perú. I took advantage of those seven hours by getting a tourist card ($10.00) and leaving the airport to explore the surrounding areas. I hired a taxi at $60.00 for three hours and headed for La Costa del Sol (Sun Coast) to have lunch. We then visited a couple of beaches and towns. When I travel, I prefer to see the "real" country and its people versus highly populated (and expensive) tourists areas. This is how you learn the true culture of the country, and in my case, develop fluency in the language. We had a great meal as he was filling me in on the people and culture of the area. We stopped in a grocery store to get some inexpensive goodies. Perhaps, something I could take on my flight to Lima, Perú. I was amused by the looks I was getting from the store clerks; it's like they never seen a Black person before , i.e., live and in living color, LOL.

Speaking of Black people, I was wondering if El Salvador once had an African presence like the rest of Latin America due to the slave trade. So many people I saw were quite dark. I asked this of the cab driver, but he denied that El Salvador ever had a black presence. Then I reckoned that all these dark El Salvadoreans I saw were only spending too much time working in the sun. After all, this area is called La Costa del Sol (the Sun Coast). However, just recently, I was introduced to a web site giving the facts on El Salvador and her black history: African Heritage of Central America. The historical black presence has never been officially acknowledged in a society that does not recognize ethnic diversity. In 1930, General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez instituted race laws prohibiting Blacks, Gypsies, Asians, and Arabs from entering the country. This law was removed during the 1980s.

Like the rest of Latin America, Indigenous societies of El Salvador were enslaved after the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. So many died from overwork and disease that the Indigenous population was almost exterminated. The Spanish brought in slaves from Africa to work on the haciendas (slave plantations) and in the mines. Several other towns also had African communities, such as Zacatecoluca, Chinameca, and Ahuachapan and Sonsonate. With the mixing of Spanish, African and Indigenous people over the centuries, the visible African population disappeared. Today there are really only various “shades of brown with some extremes in darker color variations.

Related post: Passing through El Salvador

Friday, April 29, 2011

Ecuadorians in the Hood

Soccer stars such as Agustin Delgado put his small black community of Valle de Chota on the map.

My First Encounter with the Black Ecuadorian Population

It took longer than expected for me to arrive in Quito, Ecuador from Lima, Perú by bus. As a traveler who enjoy exploring black cultures and the black experience in Latin-American countries, I only had limited time (approximately six days) and a choice between two areas. I could visit Esmeraldas, Ecuador, which is a predominately black province where the people are descendants of ex-slaves who successfully revolted against the Spanish to earn their freedom, or I could go up into the Andes Mountains and visit a little town called Valle de Chota, where this all-black town are descendants of emancipated slaves. This the town also produce many of Ecuador's soccer stars.

I had a nice little cultural exchange with local youth who gave me the rundown on their community and asked about my community in the U.S.

A funny thing happened while riding the bus from Quito to Valle de Chota, a black community in the Andes. As I went towards the back to use the restroom, I struck up a conversation with one of the many black passengers. They all noticed my non-Ecuadorian accent and began to pay close attention. When I "busted" some English, they all fell out laughing in astonishment as though they never heard a black person speak English before.

Future world class soccer stars involved in a pick-up game.

My reception by the people of Valle de Chota was mixed. The fact that I was a total stranger entering the area cold and speaking Spanish with a funny accent made some people nervous. One lady went to get the police at the station right next door to her shop. I wished I could have taken her picture the way she wagged her finger and shook her head as if to say, “don’t bring your touristy ass up in here!” Instead, I ended up taking pictures of the police officers at the station as I explained why I was in their town. The officers thoroughly understood. I gave them each a Barack Obama post card and an Oakland, CA post card. I found this gesture to be very much appreciated throughout my travels in Latin America.

People were suspicious of me until we began to chat

As I walked around, I can see the looks I was getting from people as though they were wondering if I were Five-0 (an undercover cop checking them out). Then, of course, there were others who felt better about my presence once we began to chat. When I left Chota later in the afternoon, I felt so exhilarated to have to met and chatted with friendly men, women, and children as they gave me information about their community, and especially about their star soccer players. I was told about some venues where I could party that evening in Valle de Chota, and get a better feel for their culture; unfortunately, I already made a commitment to be back Quito with my friend Gloria who was giving a going-away party for her son headed for school in the Netherlands.

Valle de Chota Cops wanted to know what I was doing in their hood.

I got the impression that blacks in Valle de Chota were more in touch with their heritage than those in Quito. I remember asking blacks in Quito about the location of the Afro-Ecuadorian Museum, and they would immediately turn to a non-black Ecuadorian and ask about its location as though they themselves were oblivious to their own heritage.

Team Ecuador--Whipping Poland in 2006 World Cup

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Salseras and Snobs

My definition of a salsera is a female who loves to dance to salsa music (a salsero is a male salsa dancer).

I've been a salsa music lover since I was a teen growing up in New York City, the birthplace of salsa music. This was long before these salseras who show off on the dance floor and turn their noses up at those whom they perceive to not have the salsa dancing skills were born.

I really get a kick out of salseras who look at me and assume because I am a brother that I can't dance. People have such short memories. Were it not for men and women of African heritage, the music we know as salsa would be a totally different genre of music, minus the hot rhythm section and the call-and-response vocals.

When I, like a gentleman, would extend my hand and ask a woman to dance, she would sometimes look me right in the eyes for about 30 seconds to before shaking her head in refusal. Others would simply say no in such a mean-spirited way and having no sense of remorse.

I'll never forget one woman whom I asked to dance and how she looked at me with suspicion before declining. After moving on and enjoying myself with another dance partner, I noticed her watching me flow through fancy-fun dance patterns, only to appear sorry that she was so judgmental. I hope she learned her lesson, but I'll never know. My policy at the dance-club is to ask only once. If a woman turns me down and has a change-of-heart later, the burden will be on her to ask me to dance (not vice-versa). There are just too many down-to-earth woman who simply wanted to dance with a gentleman for me to worry about the snobs.

I noticed her watching me flow through fancy and fun dance patterns, only to appear sorry that she was so judgmental.

Speaking of snobs, many men (salseros) are just as snobbish with those who's dancing skills are not at a level that they would deem worthwhile. I was deeply touched when heard about a woman crying in the bathroom because men were not asking her to dance. I was so touched by the news that I made a commitment to ask any woman who seemed eager to dance regardless of looks. People forget that we are at the salsa club to have fun. If a dance partner is not on your level, what is so wrong with helping that partner out? For me, if a woman can count to three with her feet, she has enough rhythm by which she can follow and learn. By being open to all types of women on the dance floor, I've established solid friendships with those with sincere hearts of gold, and to me, they are more worth my while than hot, saucy dancers with an attitude. Snobs can certainly spoil the fun---if you let them.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Afro Latinos

If Barack Obama is President of the United States, why shouldn't an Afro Latino be in parliament here in Bolivia?

---Jorge Medina, The first Afro-Bolivian elected official

Black Latino Communities in the Western World

One day on BART, a commuter train in San Francisco, I was in a conversation with two black guys; one from Cuba and the other from Colombia. Because the Colombian speaks limited English, the three of us carried on our conversation in Spanish. I got a real thrill from watching the reactions of Whites, Asians, African-Americans, and Latinos reacting in astonishment because three "brothas," LOL, were conversing in Spanish. I just love seeing stereotypes being smashed :-) As I began to improve my Spanish and increase my knowledge of Latin American history and culture, I was even more pleased to learn that there are more than 150 million people of African ancestry living in countries from Mexico all the way down to Argentina.

However, When I'm around Afro-Latinos, I seldom bring up the subject of race until I learn their individual level of racial pride. Instead I may bring up race indirectly by talking about heavily populated Afro-Latino areas such as La Costa Chica in Mexico, Bluefields in Nicaragua, or Arica in Chile. This is because I learned that many Afro-Latinos, not all, but many were programmed by their respective societies to believe that they are not black. I was teaching my goddaughter Daniela, of Perú, a game of chess. I told her that I would take the black pieces because I am black. She immediately tapped her arm and said she is black too. I felt proud that she recognized her identify even though she is the only black in her family.

My goddaughter Daniela of Chincha, Peru,

is the only black in her family.

In the Dominican Republic, dictator Rafael Trujillo who ruled from 1931 until his assassination in 1960, told his black population that if they have one drop of white or Indian blood, they are not black. I had a good laugh at Burger King when I was told by Spanish-speaking employees that their manager, an Afro-Mexican, was not black. Mind you, I already had a conversation with this woman looking right at her. I'm not colorblind, you know; LOL. A young Puerto Rican woman out of Chicago told me that the term "black" only refers to African-Americans. I asked her if she has been to the Puerto Rican towns of Loiza or Catalina where there are still cultural and linguistic ties to Western Africa. She responded with a tirade about my being a self-loathing African-American. I had no clue as to what that comment was about. What I tried to remind her, assuming she is as educated as she says, was that there are black people of many different cultures who speak many different languages. In fact, in the Western Hemisphere, there are more blacks who speak Spanish than English.

The late Colombian salsa music megastar Jairo Varela, leader of Grupo Niche, insists on being called “negro (black),¨ and not the polite Latin American term “moreno (dark, colored).”

After my visits to several Latin American countries and from interacting closely with Afro Latinos; observing how blacks and browns mix freely with one another, including marriage, I can understand why so many black Latinos are confused about their race. It is common for blacks to have non-black relatives and vice versa. In nations where racism is swept under the rug, and interracial marriages were never outlawed but encouraged, Afro Latinos embrace their nationality and culture first, and their race second, if at all. My goddaughter Daniela of Perú is the only black in her family as a result or her mother´s relationship with a black Peruvian man. It would be a culture shock for her to come to the US where race is clearly defined and be forced to take sides by putting her color over her nationality, culture, and most importantly, her loving family..

Yet, there are Afro-Latinos who do celebrate racial and cultural pride such as the late authors/poets Nicolás Guillen of Cuba, and Nelson Estumpiñan Bass of Ecuador. Renown singer Susana Baca, Perú's Minister of Culture. Jaero Varela of Colombia, leader of the hot salsa band Grupo Niche, expressed black pride in his music. With the election of President Barack Obama, even more Afro Latinos have been embracing their black heritage.

Black Latinos, Stand Up by Nadra Kareem