Hey, what's up everybody?
I'm La La Anthony
here to talk about and celebrate
Afro-Latinidad
In our food, music, politics
and literature,
Afro-Latinos have played a huge role
in shaping Latin America
and U.S. culture
But these contributions
are frequently overlooked,
and the size and influence
of our community
doesn't get the recognition
they deserve
Why are there so many
misconceptions
about Black Latino identity?
To find some answers
we need to look at our histories
of colonization
Many in the U.S would be surprised
to know that roughly 95 percent
of Africans who were enslaved
and survived the Middle Passage
were brought to Latin America
and the Caribbean
That's right
Today, the Black population
in Latin America is actually
way bigger than in the U.S.!
But racial identities developed
in different ways in these
two regions
which influenced how
Afro-Latinidad is perceived
See, while all European colonies
were founded on white supremacy,
their differing approaches to race
had a huge impact on the way
colonized people self-identified
The Spanish created
a caste system for racial mixtures,
where blackness was at the bottom,
whiteness was at the top,
and several racial categories
lay in between
How many of us have grown up
hearing the phrase "mejorar la raza?"
That's where that idea comes from
the lighter skin leads to better
social status
As Latin America emancipated
from Europe
and established new nations,
they relied on a narrative
that mestizaje,
the mixing of races and cultures,
would create the ideal citizen
They believed that racial mixing
would eventually bleach out the
Black and Indigenous
and encouraged immigration
from European nations
to speed up the process
A myth of racial democracy
took hold across the region
Many argue that racial mixing itself
shows an absence of prejudice
and therefore racism can not exist
But this ideology masks the reality
that darker skinned
Latin Americans face systematic
discrimination and colorism to this day
which includes unequal access
to housing, education,
wealth and political power
as well as beauty ideals that favor
European features
In the English colonies,
things took shape differently
There was non- consensual mixing
between the races there too
but rather than promote mixing
interracial marriage was illegal
And after the U.S.
established independence,
it created a legal system
of segregation to keep
Black and white people separate
in public spaces
This contributed to the development
of a Black/white binary view of race
In the U.S., the idea that
you can be Black and Latino
is often confusing to a population
trained to conflate race, nationality,
and ethnicity
People think Latino equals tan skin
and Black equals
African-American only
And because of anti-blackness,
both U.S. and Latin American
societies uphold this perception
But in the real world,
Black Latinos and African heritage
we carry are essential to
Latin American culture and identity
It's in our textured hair,
or the African drums used
in cumbia, merengue
and salsa rhythms
In the global phenomenon
of reggaeton
In dances like palos,
bomba or samba
In the Afro-diasporic
religions that exist across
Latin America like Santería
and Haitian vodou
And Afro-Latinos have shaped
U.S. culture and history, too
Puerto Rican scholar
Arturo Schomburg
is considered one of the
fathers of Black history,
and played an important role
in the Harlem Renaissance
Cuban-American John Carlos
was one of the athletes who
lifted his fist in a Black Power
salute at the 1968 Olympics
Activist and professor
Miriam Jiménez Román
played a huge part in shaping
our country's understanding
of Latinidad
We didn't just make
individual contributions,
we started movements
In the 1960s, civil rights group
The Young Lords
emerged and, inspired by
the Black Panthers,
fought to protect community rights
The Nuyorican movement
produced poetry and art
that recognized Afro and Afro-Taino history
Afro-Cuban rhythms influenced
jazz and R&B
And it was Puerto Ricans,
Caribbeans,
and African Americans in the Bronx
who created hip-hop
in the '70s and '80s,
drawing from their shared struggles
The movement to recognize
the experiences and contributions of
Black Latinos across Latin America
and in the U.S. keeps growing
We celebrate our natural hair
We affirm our Black identity
in politics and music
and literature
So if we want a more
inclusive future,
let's start by learning our
shared history and honoring
Afro Latinos' place in the culture