The Rise of the Afro-descendent Identity in Latin America

September 29, 2018 12:46 PM

Black leaders came together from all across Latin America in order to begin to establish and consolidate ways to address identity, the identification as Afro-descendent and not just Black — not just a classification of color imposed by the colonial rule, not an identity that would be just racial or racialized, but an identity grounded on a culture.
posted by infini (2 comments total)

Interesting stuff, particularly the very varied histories in different countries.

The free black communities in coastal Ecuador are new to me, that was pretty neat.

There's a whole tradition in Peru of Afro-Peruvian music.
posted by zompist at 5:04 PM on September 29, 2018

It'll be.. interesting..to see how this develops in light of the racism many lighter skinned people who would be called black here but are considered white in their own country have towards those with darker complexions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the racist society doesn't go away when the colonizers are overthrown and/or go home, "white" just gets a bit darker. At least that's what has happened in the countries I know, admittedly all of which did nothing at all to address the racist legacy they were left.

The point being that the backlash could be much nastier than many of us here in the US might think possible.
posted by wierdo at 5:02 AM on September 30, 2018