Argentina Officially Recognizes Black Heritage

Argentina's Chamber of Deputies of the Province, the lower house of Argentina's congress, approved October 11 as the day of Afro-Argentine Culture. This initiative was driven by Afro-Argentine organizations, which claimed this day to commemorate Black culture. Ricardo Martínez, of the Black cultural group La Cabunda de Ensenada, said this day culminates 150 years of struggle for a law favoring recognition for what Blacks have done for Argentina, particularly her liberation and her defense against British invasion. This day was selected in homage to María Remedios del Valle, Black captain of Argentina's Northern Army, which one major battles in Argentina's war of independence. 

Black Argentines, not only fought for Argentina, but for other Latin American countries, like Chile and Perú in exchange for their freedom.
 

More on this if you can read Spanish...

Diario Hoy en la Noticia

Learning Latin-American Manners

To date, I've traveled to nine Latin-American countries to improve my Spanish.

  

My late Mexican-American friend, Yolanda, once told me, Bill, if you are going to speak Spanish, learn the culture! I agreed because every country has their culture and customs, and we grow as human beings by familiarizing ourselves with those cultures and customs in a world that is getting smaller by the minute.

 In the fall of 2009, I  remember walking into a store in Southern Perú, and couldn't understand why the store owner was getting an attitude. You would think that she would be delighted that I'm spending money in her store versus the other store down the street. But when I finished my transaction and left, someone from the community who has been observing me, stopped me. In Spanish, and in his own Peruvian manner, he said to me, “señor, come hear and let me holler at you for a minute. When you go into a place of business, he continued, you greet people with buenos días, buenas tardes, or buenas noches first, then you discuss whatever business you want to handle. And when you're done, you say permiso (an informal way of saying, “excuse me, gotta run”).

 I never forgot those words of advice. In my 2010 trip to Mexico City, I tried what this Peruvian man told me on a group of Mexican nationals at the airport. Lo and behold, I had trouble  convincing them that I'm American, and not Cuban, because I put into practice a Latin American custom I had just learned. To this day, when I approach a Latin-American or go into a Latin-American place of business, I apply the same greeting, whether I'm in Colombia, Panamá, or a Latin-American community here in Oakland. There is more I need to learn and am waiting to be schooled.

The Columbus Day Fallacy

Closed for 

 Indigenous Peoples Day

(Columbus Day)

I do pro-bono consulting work at career center in Oakland, CA. As I stopped in today, I was appalled to learn they were closed for Columbus Day. With the serious financial problems this agency, and so many other city, state, and federal agencies are having, why do they continue offering a 'paid' holiday in honor of an invader, murderer, and robber of the Americas? Fascinating! The last time I worked for an agency that took this day off, I posted a sign on the front door with a picture of a Native American with these exact words, closed for Indigenous Peoples Day (Columbus Day).

We were taught in school that Columbus discovered the Americas, but there were people already living here. People who were forced into slavery. So many of these people died from overwork and disease, that Queen Isabella of Spain authorized the African slave trade. As a result, more Africans went to Latin-America than the USA.

Salsa in the Hood

It was at Cosmos Night Club, a hole-in-the-wall salsa club in East Oakland's Fruitvale District where an African-American man was routinely and intensely checking on his wife who worked there as a cocktail waitress. He wanted to know why I was there every Friday and Saturday night. This is little Tijuana, he uttered in contempt. He then looked me in the eye and asked, you are not one of those Black Puerto Ricans, are you? I explained to him that I grew up in what used to be the salsa music capital, New York City (Now, it's Cali, Colombia). He simply could not believe a brotha could be this deep into Latin music, and thus, did not buy into my story. He accused me of fooling around with his wife or scheming to do so.

This poor, insecure man did not understand that I'm from an entirely different world. My first exposure to Latin music was during my childhood through a New York City radio station, WWRL, which directed it's programming toward young Blacks. The song El Watusi by the late, great Ray Barretto was a #1 hit on this R&B station for weeks, and thus, gave me my first taste of Latin music.

Other Latino artists who also got airplay on WWRL or simply 'RL, as we called it back in the day, was Joe Cuba, Hector Rivera, and Willie Colón who is still active in the salsa music scene today. With the exception of the big hit, El Watusi, all the Latin songs played on 'RL were in English. Then, of course, there were Puerto Ricans like Hector Rivera and Ralphi Pagán who sang straight-up R&B love songs.

In high school, I noticed a lot of African-Americans listening and dancing to Latin music, and others walking around singing the chorus, I'll Never Go Back to Georgia, from one of Joe Cuba's greatest hits. Rumor has it that Joe felt inspired to write this song when he passed through the State of Georgia before integration and thought he'd be cut some slack because he is Puerto Rican. Those dixiecrats allegedly gave him the same treatment as African-Americans.

There was another radio station, WBLS, which directed its programing towards a mature African-American audience. This Inner City Broadcasting station was owned by former Tuskeegee Airmen and Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, who by the way, spoke at my graduation at James Fenimore Cooper Junior High School in East Harlem. WBLS focused on jazz, and included Latin jazz artists such as Willie Bobo, Eddie Palmieri, and Ray Barretto.


One afternoon, a cool brotha from the hood, turned me onto this album, and to this day, I'm a fan!

Latino Haters

What is it?... Whatever you might want it to be!

What is it?... Why you wanna hate on me?

What is it?... I ain't even trippin' dog!

What is it?... I mo' show you how to fall! 

                                                             -- Frontline, 2003

An overwhelming majority of the e-mails and comments I get regarding my blog posts are positive, uplifting, and most of all, appreciative. However, every now and then, I get harsh correspondence from non-Black Latino haters who have stereotypical issues with the African-American community and/or feel because I'm African-American that I should only be listening to hip-hop and not bachata, eating collard greens and not pupusas, or reading the works Langston Hughes and not Nicolás Guillen. 

In other words, I must hate being African-American or simply bored with my own ethnicity for me to be learning Spanish and exploring Latin-American cultures. I can only suspect that these haters have had bad experiences with a few African-Americans, casting an evil shadow on the rest of us. Life has taught me that in every community, regardless of color or ethnicity, you will meet the open-minded and the closed minded, the well-informed and the ignorant.

I received one anonymous message from a hater who went on to say how we Blacks are a mess and that he does not want to be associated with Black people, even though he has a Black Haitian grandmother. After making his remarks, he left his e-mail address in case I wanted to debate him. I not only responded to his comment on my blog, I sent him two e-mails taking him up on his offer of a debate; thinking that I might learn something, or at least, expand on my awareness. He never responded.

A Puerto Rican man from Minnesota complained about a museum in San Juan that is dedicated to Puerto Ricans of African ancestry. He felt the museum should be dedicated to the Spanish and the French. I reminded him that if he did not want to celebrate Black heritage that there are many more museums on the island that specifically excludes Black Puerto Ricans. His only response was about the young, fatherless African-American males he observed walking and holding their crotches at the same time. He too declined to debate me on his stereotypes. He did not want to hear about the respectable African Americans who actually are hard working, studious, and family oriented. If I can only get him to visit my church where there are Black professionals, entrepreneurs, writers, artists, and of course, spiritual leaders.

Then there was Alvaro, a former co-worker from Chile who made negative comments about Blacks in the ghetto saying they don't read. My mind went back to the days when I was growing up in the largest ghetto in the US, Harlem, NY, when I acquired my first library card at the age of nine. These libraries were well-patronized. Even my fifth-grade teacher, Ms Lawson, made everyone in class not only get a library card, but stroked us by putting stars next to our names on the bulletin board every time we finished reading a book, and mind you, this was a “public” school. 

My supervisor twisted Alvaro's arm to apologize, shake hands, and make up, but because Alvaro could not articulate a rationale for painting all Blacks with the same brush, I called him on his insincerity and dismissed him. 

Unlike Alvaro, most hateful Latinos I've met, seldom ever make these comments to Black people directly, unless it is behind the shield of the Internet. Alvaro seemed to have felt because I speak some Spanish and often travel to Latin American countries that I was not “Black” enough to be offended. Even his country, Chile, has a history of Black heritage due to slavery (see my blog post African Heritage in Chile). 

It is of my humble opinion that good, honest communication with an open mind can solve a lot of these hateful issues.

October 2--National Day of Black Ecuadorians

In an effort to raise awareness of Afro-Ecuadorian culture as well as political and economic issues, Black communities in Ecuador organized the Afro-Ecuadorian Cultural Week in Quito, the nations capital, in October 1997. That same year, the Ecuadorian National Congress declared October 2 to be the National Day of Black Ecuadorians. During the festival, leaders introduced a proposal to improve the economic, political and cultural status of Ecuador's Black communities.

Slave ships first arrived in Ecuadorian ports in 1553 for work on plantations and in gold mines. Although slavery was abolished at the time of Ecuador's independence from Spain in 1822, the descendents of enslaved Africans continued to suffer the consequences of that socio-economic system. One of the first Afro-Ecuadorian organizations, Asociacion de Negros Ecuatorianos (Association of Black Ecuadorians), was founded in 1988 to reassert Afro-Ecuadorian dignity.

In 2006 the existence of Blacks in Ecuador was brought to center stage when it was revealed that two-thirds of the Ecuadorian World Cup soccer team was of African descent.

According to the 2001 census, Afro-Ecuadorian population is 604,009, or 5 per cent of the total population. However, Afro-Ecuadorian organizations argue that this number is inaccurate due to problems with self-classification (there are Blacks who don't consider themselves Black). They estimate Ecuador's black population at ten per cent, living mostly in the northern coastal province of Esmeraldas and in the south-central coastal region. About two-thirds of Afro-Ecuadorians now live in urban zones. Although Afro-Ecuadorians have distinct cultural traditions, there is little recognition of their contribution to Ecuadorian society. In 1998, a government agency was created to address issues facing the Black population. In 2006 the existence of Blacks in Ecuador was brought to center stage when it was revealed that two-thirds of the Ecuadorian World Cup soccer team was of African descent. This was the first time in history that Ecuador qualified for the World Cup.

Black activists have been effective in advocating for rights for Black Ecuadorians as well as raising consciousness among this group. Key umbrella organizations such as the National Afro-Ecuadorian Confederation and the National Coordinator of Black Women have had a presence in domestic politics as well as international policy circles. Afro-Ecuadorian women's organizations have been particularly effective, raising other important issues to address the specific concerns of black women. This has included the elaboration of innovative programs related to health, violence, work conditions, and self esteem among Afro-Ecuadorian women.

Song, Dance, & the Spanish Guitar

When I started this blog about my exposure to the Latino world, I didn't mean to include Spain. My primary focus was on Afro-Latinos from Puerto Rico, all the way down to Argentina. However, because Spain is the mother country of Latin-America, and because I have a musical appreciation for the Spanish guitar, I started taking a personal interest in flamenco, a genre of song, dance, and the Spanish guitar from Andalusia in southern Spain.

As a salsa dancer wanting to add new dance moves to my repertoire, I got together with Jesús, an Afro-Cuban dancer to teach me some basic rumba moves. In doing so, he shared some history that made perfect sense; rumba was born when the music of West African slaves merged with Spanish flamenco in Cuba. It's the result of a love affair between the African drum and the Spanish guitar, as Harry Belafonte, the King of Calypso puts it.

Just recently, I went to my second flamenco performance directly from Spain at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and like the first performance, I felt moved and connected to the music. This time, the performance contained a whole family following the tradition of their Gypsy ancestors. One of the young boys in the group seemed to be imitating Michael Jackson to flamenco rhythms. Either that, or Michael Jackson incorporated some flamenco moves into his dance repertoire. Although, I could enjoy the Spanish guitar as background music. I have not yet reached a point where I can just sit and listen flamenco on CD and enjoy it the way I enjoy a live performance. I've tried.