Critical Latinidad (Are Latino Studies leaving out the Black side of our culture?)

by urbano411 | August 29, 2007 at 09:34 am

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My good fortune was to spend my childhood with my grandparents in Puerto Rico. The shades of my culture were ever present. My grandfather Black & grandmother white, my other grandfather white with blond hair, blue eyes & grandma mulatta. These wonderful people each leaving an impression on me of how diverse we as Latinos are.

It is only fairly recently that Black Latinidad entered the discussion--although it has always existed. Of the 10 million Africans estimated to have crossed the Atlantic, a good 8 or 9 million went to the Caribbean and Latin America.* And while the most famous example of complicated race issues has concerned Brazil (almost 4 million of the 10), Africans and people of African descent have been a focal part of Latin American and Caribbean history across the board.