How ‘Black Lives Matter’ impact Afro-Latinx

By Cindy Lazo | Published by October 7, 2020

This past year, with the growing support for Black Lives Matter Movement, many conversations have opened up on racial discrimination–and for the Afro-Latinx community, it is a long ignored issue.

An increasing number in the Afro-Latinx community are advocating for inclusion in the Black Lives Matter movement after decades of societal racism and prejudices.

“The issue has been obvious to those who choose to see it,” said Ginger Curtis, a Secondary Education-TSD major., “Black Lives Matter shines a needed spotlight.”

The term ‘Afro-Latinx’ refers to individuals who are from Latin American countries but have African ancestry. The Afro-Latinx community make up a quarter of U.S. Hispanics, according to a 2014 Pew Research study.

“In most of Latin America, depending on where you’re at, you’ll find strongholds that are really strong on African culture and then other places that are more or less in denial on the presence of African culture and African people,” said Dr. James Conyers, an Associate Professor and Director of Africana Studies. “Many of those places, by and large, many people do not want to identify or even talk about the presence of African people among them.”

The African experience in Latin America formally dates back to the Spanish Conquistadors coming to America, especially to the United States, Conyers said. He said in areas such as Arizona and New Mexico, the Spanish brought along Africans like Estevanico ‘Little Stephen’, who is credited being the none-Native discoverer of Arizona and other places.

“The Spaniards brought Africans to the New World but that-and many people don’t know this-the history of Spain itself is filled with the history of Africans,” Conyers said, noting that Spain was invaded in 711 by African Moors, who were joined later by Islamic Arab Moors.  They stayed in Spain for 774 years.

As the Black Lives Matter Movement continues to spread awareness on systematic and intentional racism, more Afro-Latinxs align themselves with the movement.

“Most folks from Latin [America] are of mixed racial heritage — either part African or part indigenous. Historically, in the US context of racial classification, that would have made them non-white. As a result, many of them can relate to Black Lives Matter because they too have been victims of structural racism.” said Frank Argote-Freyre, an associate professor of Latin America history. “They can identify with someone like George Floyd because they too have been targeted as the ‘other’.”

Despite the lack of representation for the Latinx community itself in the media, Afro-Latinxs are more underrepresented even in the Latin media.

Though famous light-skinned Latinx artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Camila Cabello, Bad Bunny and J Balvin has been in the music industry spotlight, the list of well known Afro-Latinx stars including Cardi B, Amara La Negra, Ozuna, and Celia Cruz (who is regarded as the Queen of Salsa) have impacted the music industry all while establishing their Afro roots in their music.

Telenovela programs see that their main characters are cast by light-skinned actors as the roles of house maids and gardeners are primarily portrayed by Afro-Latinxs. Major Hispanic broadcasting companies Univision and Telemundo received backlash earlier this year due to the lack of Afro-Latinx presence in their programs.

So what steps should be taken within the Latinx community to take a stand against the indoctrinated racism and anti-Black sentiment?

“First thing you have to do is understand what racism is, and you need to study racism and how it operates in all areas of activity,” Conyers said. “When I do classes and talk about racism, and I ask somebody, ‘What is racism?’, this is what most of the students say: this is when you don’t like somebody because of the color of their skin or their features. That’s not racism, that is prejudice. What most people do not understand, racism is far more insidious. The basic formula for racism is power plus prejudice equals racism, meaning in order to truly be a racist, as a society, individually or as a group, you must have the institutional power to enforce your prejudices on an entire group of people, even before they’re born.”

Conyers explained that there are people born into a situation where you can enforce their life chances and every individual who may or may not unintentionally buy into that concept contributes something in the way through thoughts, speech and action to the racial oppression pattern, and that is how it maintains itself.

Dr. Frank Argote-Freyre said that the most important action is to not allow communities of color to be divided.

“There is a long history of pitting immigrants against African-Americans to ensure that neither gets a fair shake in terms of political and economic empowerment.” He said, “The communities are different but there are more commonalities than differences. To put it in a few words–Unity between communities.”

Practices of ‘Blanqueamiento’, or the whitening, has been instilled (politically and/or socially) throughout most Latin American countries with the idea that by marrying someone of a lighter skin color or of European ancestry and having children with them will ‘mejorar la raza’ (‘improves the race’) to which it still continues to this day.

Conyers also points out that there are African influences that have since become central elements to Spanish and Latin American cultures.

“For instance, the national dance of Puerto Rico is the Bomba, that’s African. Many people don’t know that. This influence is deep and wide.” Conyers said, “However, part of what has happened due to a host of factors-some cultural, some racial, a bunch of factors-contribute to it.”

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