Who Are Afro-Latinos?
Black -Latin Americans -Latinos-Brown-Identity-Misunderstood-Ignored-Hair-My Country-My Flag-Some of us are not...-Many of us don't consider...-Please Categorize me as I identify as...-
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Black -Latin Americans -Latinos-Brown-Identity-Misunderstood-Ignored-Hair-My Country-My Flag-Some of us are not...-Many of us don't consider...-Please Categorize me as I identify as...- 〰️
Photo of Jenny Saldaña, my big sister
My grandad, which we all called “Papá Leonte”. His name was Don William Leonte Clark Meskus. He was fluent in English (not normal in our neighborhood) and was my favorite person in the whole world.
First of all the word “afro” means either a hair style as a noun, or an adjective describing a person who is of African descent. An Afro Latino is a person from Latin American with African Descendants in their family.
An afro latino is a person who is Black and is from Latin America. There is obvious evidence that this person is an Afro Latino because they are from Ecuador, Uruguay, Guatemala, and they have hair and skin that shows that they are not European.
Some afro-Latinos don’t consider themselves Black. Because they are from a particular Latin American country, some Latinos prefer not be be categorized by race. They rather be called by their nationality such as Peruano, Chileno, Costarricense.
When you see an Afro-Latino, you won’t know if they are from Latin America or if they are African American, from China or from France until you know more about them and their culture.
Some Afro-latinos don’t look black at all. I know of children of Afro-Latinos who are of mixed races and they take the features of the parents who is not Black. Sometimes these people consider themselves black. It may be offensive to many, but honestly, they consider themselves black because their mom or dad is black. Some rather say they are of mixed race. An example of this is Mariah Carey. She’s always coming up in the Afro latinos’ list on the internet searches as she has a dad who is half Venezuelan and half Black American. She may not look Afro-Latina to many, but she considers herself to be .
I remember vacationing in Panama one Summer and I ran into someone from the Dominican Republic who visited with us at the house we were staying. We were having this conversation about color and race. This particular guy, darker than my husband and I said that he wasn’t black. I am used to hearing many Dominicans say this. I told him I think you are Black. He said, of course, we all have “black behind the ear”, we all have descendants of Africans, but I’m not black. He continued to say that I am not black either. I was totally confused for a moment. He considered my husband Black who is lighter than he was but he wasn’t black. For the first time I heard that phrase, “black behind the ears”. I looked it up and it happens to be a poem written by Juan Antonio Alix. He wrote this poem in 1883. As told by Patricia Encarnacion, an Afro-Dominican artist: “El Negro Detrás de la Oreja (The Black Behind the Ear) aims to enhance Dominican culture by marginalizing racial and classist stigmas that disrupt our society.” As I read this poem, there seems to be a back and forth struggle that no matter what you think or do, you are Black even if you don’t look like it.
Here’s an excerpt of the poem translated to English: “The white one”, who had a grandmother, As black as coal, Never mentions her, Even if they are set on fire. And to their aunt Mrs. Beans, Since she was white, They never stop mentioning her;
To make people understand, That they never had, The Black behind the Ear.”
– Juan Antonio Alix
If you would like to hear the reading of this poem in Spanish, I will be reciting it in episode 4 Quiénes Son Los Afro-Latinos? This is the the Spanish version of this episode. Find this explanation in Spanish on Youtube.
Other resources to check out about this topic:
ABC News Story featuring Amara La Negra, Jenniffer Whyte, and Dr. Pedro Noguera
Many people don’t understand the term, Afro-Latinos. I felt the need to explain because some never knew that there are people of color, or specifically, Black people who speak Spanish, and many other languages for that matter. Who are Afro-Latinos? Before answering this question I would love to share my personal story about how I ended up knowing that I was an Afro-Latina and chose a race to represent. You may think, “what is she talking about”? When it comes to race, you are what you look like. Your skin color can dictate what race you are, but then again, can it? Many Latin Americans, me included are very proud to be called Dominican, Puerto Rican, Panamanian…etc, and they frankly don’t like checking off a box that will limit them to one category. I get it, I was the same way. I chose to cross off the race box every time I saw it on a survey or job application. I thought, I am Dominican and proud. I’m mixed with all kinds of people so I don’t have to choose one. I did not want to call myself black or brown. I stood my ground till about 7 years ago when I was teaching a 10th grade class in a city called Oxford, Alabama. It was Black History Month and the teacher who I was working with, Mr. Harris, decided to play a video called Black in Latin America: Mexico, the Black Grandma in the Closet. The episode was amazing and I was soaking up all the information about the Afro-Descendants of Mexico. The teacher I was working with is an African American male who introduced his students to Afro-Latinos for Black History Month. I thought it was so beneficial and interesting, being that many of our Spanish-learning texts do not have the correct representation of the students taking the language or a correct representation of the people who live in these countries who we teach about. I started thinking and wondering, then drifting. Soon it came to a part in the documentary where Dr. Gates asked a young lady who had the same complexion as I did a very important question (or so I thought it was). He asked, “Are you black?” And she said “yes, I am black”. Now let me stop right there. You might think this is a stupid question and why would you ask someone something like that, but the reality is that many of us Latin Americans grow up knowing that our nationality is the country we are born from, not the race or the color. That should not matter, but in some places it does. After that young lady uttered those words with such confidence, I looked at my skin color and (to myself of course), I said, “what, I’m black!!!!???” If that girl is black, then I am black. Why am I trying to hide? My grandad, Leonte Clark (see photo below) was a very dark skinned man, and I loved him dearly. My grandma was light skinned and I never thought anything of it. You love who you love and you don’t care what color they are. Well, that day in a classroom with 10th graders, I discovered that I was black. I never went back to being vague about who I was. When people look at me in Alabama, they see a Black person. Perhaps in Chicago, Miami, New York, they may guess that I am a Latina lady, but where I am right now, this is what is seen. In the midst of a sea of people who don’t look like me, I am a minority. Not saying that I am less, but saying that where I am, there’s a different point of view. I realized that I am who I am. The US had to bring it out of me. An African American professor had to display it on his documentary for me to admit and say that I am black. As much as I love cultures from all over the world, realizing that I am black allowed me to dig deeper into the Afro-Descendants of all the Latin American countries, then of many other countries because there are blacks everywhere. I remember attending the national convention for the American Council for Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). I was so excited to be there because it reminded me of high school and when I was a state officer of an organization called FHA/HERO (Future Homemakers of America), now FCCLA. I loved that organization as it allowed me to grow in so many ways. Well, as I explored all the sessions in the program, I looked and looked for any topics related to being an afro-descendant. I found one! Yay! I quickly saved it and made sure I showed up. To my surprise, the session was in a tiny room, the presenter was a beautiful professor who wore a colorful outfit, her hair was just perfect (sorry about those details but I pay attention to hair…its a cultural thing….I’ll talk about it in another episode) and as you walked into her small room, you heard the sound of Merengue music. I was at home. Merengue music is most popular music in my country and I was so excited to enter into that room. I sat next to a teacher from Texas. As Dr. Krishaunna Hines Gaither began to present on how to involve African American students in World Languages, I was just soaking it all in and taking so many notes. The teacher next to me was thinking aloud and he said…”How do I get to my black students if I’m white? How do I accurately welcome their culture in my classroom?” Now, have you ever had a light bulb hit you like a ton of bricks? That was my Aha! Moment!!! Oh my goodness, that’s it! I need to help this teacher!!! (I always feel this passionate about certain topics, but little did I know that sitting there in Dr. Hines-Gaither’s presentation, listening to her ideas and her vast knowledge on Afro-Descendants in Latin America, plus hearing this man asking himself this question…changed my life!!! I thought, “why aren’t there more workshops on this topic” if there are teachers like him who need resources? This isn’t fair…why is her room so small? The room was packed to capacity! I then wondered who to complain to or who to talk to. After investigating this bothersome situation, I found out that I can write a proposal myself!! Ha!! Really?!! How much does that cost? Is that like writing a grant? I’ve written several and only got one, so I don’t think I would get chosen, (so I thought). I found out what a proposal was and wrote one called….”Incorporating Afro-Latino Culture in Spanish Classrooms”. I thought if no one came to the session, maybe that teacher from Texas would come. Months before my session, I wanted to see how many Spanish teachers would be interested in this topic. Sooooo, I started a Facebook private group (Incorporating Afro-Latino Culture in Spanish Classrooms). I invited my family in there, then some friends, then I started sharing it all over the place. I realized that I grow 1,000 new members each February for Black History Month. Indeed, this topic is HOT and is very necessary. As a Spanish teacher, I can honestly say that there is not an accurate representation for the people from Latin America on TV, in books, and in textbooks. There have been people before me who were already on this train to educate everyone about the underrepresented culture of Afro-Descendants and now I was in there. Today, several years later, my group has grown to a little over 4,000 members and there is growth each week. The national organization of World Language Teachers called ACTFL has now more presenters who present on topics about afro-descendants and how teachers can introduce them in their classrooms. So this is the reason I’m talking about Afro-Latinos. It’s a topic that is not mentioned much. It has grown alot on Youtube, but before we barely had anything on the topic.
