The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States(A John Hope Franklin Center Book)

The Afro-Latin@ Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of Afro-Latin@s in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and Latin@s are two distinct categories or cultures. Afro-Latin@s are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between Latin@s and African Americans; at the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among Latin@s and ethnocentrism among African Americans. Offering insight into Afro-Latin@ life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity, and antiracist politics, The Afro-Latin@ Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black Latin@s in the United States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews. While the selections cover centuries of Afro-Latin@ history, since the arrival of Spanish-speaking Africans in North America in the mid-sixteenth-century, most of them focus on the past fifty years. The central question of how Afro-Latin@s relate to and experience U.S. and Latin American racial ideologies is engaged throughout, in first-person accounts of growing up Afro-Latin@, a classic essay by a leader of the Young Lords, and analyses of U.S. census data on race and ethnicity, as well as in pieces on gender and sexuality, major-league baseball, and religion. The contributions that Afro-Latin@s have made to U.S. culture are highlighted in essays on the illustrious Afro-Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and music and dance genres from salsa to mambo, and from boogaloo to hip hop. Taken together, these and many more selections help to bring Afro-Latin@s in the United States into critical view. Contributors: Afro-Puerto Rican Testimonies Project, Josefina Baez, Ejima Baker, Luis Barrios, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Adrian Burgos Jr., Ginetta E. B. Candelario, Adrian Castro, Jesus Colon, Marta I. Cruz-Janzen, William A. Darity Jr., Milca Esdaille, Sandra Maria Esteves, Maria Teresa Fernandez (Mariposa), Carlos Flores, Juan Flores, Jack D. Forbes, David F. Garcia, Ruth Glasser, Virginia Meecham Gould, Susan D. Greenbaum, Evelio Grillo, Pablo "Yoruba" Guzman, Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Tanya K. Hernandez, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, Lisa Hoppenjans, Vielka Cecilia Hoy, Alan J. Hughes, Maria Rosario Jackson, James Jennings, Miriam Jimenez Roman, Angela Jorge, David Lamb, Aida Lambert, Ana M. Lara, Evelyne Laurent-Perrault, Tato Laviera, John Logan, Antonio Lopez, Felipe Luciano, Louis Pancho McFarland, Ryan Mann-Hamilton, Wayne Marshall, Marianela Medrano, Nancy Raquel Mirabal, Yvette Modestin, Ed Morales, Jairo Moreno, Marta Moreno Vega, Willie Perdomo, Graciela Perez Gutierrez, Sofia Quintero, Ted Richardson, Louis Reyes Rivera, Pedro R. Rivera , Raquel Z. Rivera, Yeidy Rivero, Mark Q. Sawyer, Piri Thomas, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Nilaja Sun, Sherezada "Chiqui" Vicioso, Peter H. Wood

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments xiii Editorial Note xv Introduction 1 I. Historical Background before 1900 The Earliest Africans in North America / Peter H. Wood 19 Black Pioneers: The Spanish-Speaking Afroamericans of the Southwest / Jack D. Forbes 27 Slave and Free Women of Color in the Spanish Ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola / Virginia Meacham Gould 38 Afro-Cubans in Tampa / Susan D. Greenbaum 51 Excerpt from Pulling the Muse from the Drum / Adrian Castro 62 II. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Excerpt from Racial Integrity: A Plea for the Establishment of a Chair of Negro History in Our Schools and Colleges / Arturo Alfonso Schomburg 67 The World of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg / Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof 70 Invoking Arturo Schomburg's Legacy in Philadelphia / Evelyne Laurent-Perrault 92 III. Afro-Latin@s on the Color Line Black Cuban, Black American / Evelio Grillo 99 A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches / Jesus Colon 113 Melba Alvarado, El Club Cubano Inter-Americano, and the Creation of Afro-Cubanidades in New York City / Nancy Raquel Mirabel 120 An Uneven Playing Field: Afro-Latinos in Major League Baseball / Adrian Burgos Jr. 127 Changing Identities: An Afro-Latino Family Portrait / Gabriel Haslip-Viera 142 Eso era tremendo!: An Afro-Cuban Musician Remembers / Graciela Perez Gutierrez 150 IV. Roots of Salsa: Afro-Latin@ Popular Music From "Indianola" to "No ColÁ": The Strange Career of the Afro-Puerto Rican Musician / Ruth Glasser 157 Excerpt from cu/bop / Louis Reyes Rivera 176 BauzÁ–Gillespie–Latin/JAzz: Difference, Modernity, and the Black Caribbean / Jairo Moreno 177 Contesting that Damned Mambo: Arsenio Rodriguez and the People of El Barrio and the Bronx in the 1950s / David F. Garcia 187 Boogaloo and Latin Soul / Juan Flores 199 Excerpt from the salsa of bethesda fountain / Tato Laviera 207 V. Black Latin@ Sixties Hair Conking: Buy Black / Carlos Cooks 211 Carlos A. Cooks: Dominican Garveyite in Harlem / Pedro R. Rivera 215 Down These Mean Streets / Piri Thomas 219 African Things / Victor Hernandez Cruz 232 Black Notes and "You Do Something to Me" / Sandra Maria Esteves 233 Before People Called Me a Spic, They Called Me a Nigger / Pablo "Yoruba" Guzman 235 Excerpt from JÍbaro, My Pretty Nigger / Felipe Luciano 244 The Yoruba Orisha Tradition Comes to New York City / Marta Moreno Vega 245 Reflections and Lived Experiences of Afro-Latin@ Religiosity / Luis Barrios 252 Discovering Myself / Un Testimonio / Josefina Baez 266 VI. Afro-Latinas The Black Puerto Rican Woman in Contemporary American Society / Angela Jorge 269 Something Latino Was Up with Us / Spring Redd 276 Excerpt from Poem for My Grifa-Rican Sistah, or Broken Ends Broken Promises / Mariposa (MarÍa Teresa Fernandez) 280 Latinegras: Desired Women-Undesirable Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Wives / Marta I. Cruz-Janzen 282 Letter to a Friend / Nilaja Sun 296 Uncovering Mirrors: Afro-Latina Lesbian Subjects / Ana M. Lara 298 The Black Bellybutton of a Bongo / Marianela Medrano 314 VII. Public Images and (Mis)Representations Notes on Eusebia Cosme and Juano Hernandez / Miriam Jimenez Roman 319 Desde el Mero Medio: Race Discrimination within the Latino Community / Carlos Flores 323 Displaying Identity: Dominicans in the Black Mosaic of Washington, D.C. / Ginetta E. B. Candelario 326 Bringing the Soul: Afros, Black Empowerment, and Lucecita BenÍtez / Yeidy M. Rivero 343 Can BET Make You Black? Remixing and Reshaping Latin@s on Black Entertainment Television / Ejima Baker 358 The Afro-Latino Connection: Can this group be the bridge to a broadbased Black-Hispanic alliance? / Alan Hughes and Milca Esdaille 364 VIII. Afro-Latin@s in the Hip Hop Zone Ghettocentricity, Blackness, and Pan-Latinidad / Raquel Z. Rivera 373 Chicano Rap Roots: Afro-Mexico and Black-Brown Cultural Exchange / Pancho McFarland 387 The Rise and Fall of Reggaeton: From Daddy Yankee to Tego Calderon and Beyond / Wayne Marshall 396 Do Platanos Go wit' Collard Greens? / David Lamb 404 Divas Don't Yield / Sofia Quintero 411 IX. Living Afro-Latinidads An Afro-Latina's Quest for Inclusion / Yvette Modestin 417 Retracing Migration: From Samana to New York and Back Again / Ryan Mann-Hamilton 422 Negotiating among Invisibilities: Tales of Afro-Latinidades in the United States / Vielka Cecilia Hoy 426 We Are Black Too: Experiences of a Honduran Garifuna / Aida Lambert 431 Profile of an Afro-Latina: Black, Mexican, Both / Maria Rosario Jackson 434 Enrique Patterson: Black Cuban Intellectual in Cuban Miami / Antonio Lopez 439 Reflections about Race by a Negrito Acomplejao / Eduardo Bonilla-Silva 445 Divisible Blackness: Reflections on Heterogeneity and Racial Identity / Silvio Torres-Saillant 453 Nigger-Reecan Blues / Willie Perdomo 467 X. Afro-Latin@s: Present and Future Tenses How Race Counts for Hispanic Americans / John R. Logan 471 Bleach in the Rainbow: Latino Ethnicity and Preferences for Whiteness / William A. Darity Jr., Jason Dietrich, and Darrick Hamilton 485 Brown Like Me? / Ed Morales 499 Against the Myth of Racial Harmony in Puerto Rico / Afro-Puerto Rican Testimonies Project 508 Mexican Ways, African Roots / Lisa Hoppenjans and Ted Richardson 512 Afro-Latin@s and the Latino Workplace / Tanya Kateri Hernandez 520 Racial Politics in Multiethnic America: Black and Latina/o Identities and Coalitions 527 Afro-Latinism in United States Society: A Commentary / James Jennings 540 Sources and Permissions 547 Contributors 551 Index 559

About the Author :
Miriam JimÉnez RomÁn is a visiting scholar in the Africana Studies Program at New York University and Executive Director of afrolatin@ forum, a research and resource center focusing on Black Latin@s in the United States. Juan Flores is Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. His most recent works include The Diaspora Strikes Back: CaribeÑo Tales of Learning and Turning, From Bomba To Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity, and the English translation of Edgardo RodrÍguez JuliÁ’s book Cortijo’s Wake, also published by Duke University Press.

Review :
"The Afro-Latin@ Reader assembles in one place an extraordinary range of articles, chapters, and first-person accounts of Afro-Latin@ identity. These pieces show that explorations of Afro-Latin@ identities quickly reveal significant hidden histories of racialization, colonization, exploitation, and social mobilization. They complicate our understanding of the U.S. racial order and its complex systems of inclusion and exclusion. This collection is a much-needed addition to scholarship in ethnic studies."--George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger "The Afro-Latin@ Reader is a superb collection, one that I cannot wait to use in my own courses. For some time now, scholars have engaged the history and anthropology of black populations in Latin America, but the scholarship on the Afro-Latin@ presence (as configured on this side of the Rio Grande) has been more episodic, and to some extent, under-theorized. The breadth of The Afro-Latin@ Reader, as well as its effort to actually define the entire field, makes it a unique scholarly contribution."--Ben Vinson III, author of African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean