A QUARTET OF VIEWS ON BEING AFRO LATINA

By Clara Galvano Rivera

 

Who are we? Do we, as Latinas, give ourselves labels or just accept those that are given to us? If you are a Latina, there is a good chance that you have some African blood in your DNA. It may not show up in the color of your skin, but it’s there. It isn’t difficult to figure out how we ended up with it.

 History clearly shows us that in the 15^th and 16th centuries, African slaves were brought to the Americas as part of the Spanish and Portuguese slave trade. Records also show that the Caribbean and South America received 95 percent of the enslaved Africans, with only 5 percent going to North America.

As an example, the Harlem Newspapers Corporation recently wanted to delve into how Blacks made it to New York City and it was the Dutch India Company, in competition with Spain and the Portuguese, that brought Africans to “New Amsterdam.”  (Tracing Our 'Routes': A Brief Historical Timeline of Blacks in New York available at:  https://www.harlemcommunitynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Harlem-Feb-9.pdf )

The Africans and those already living on Manhattan Island -- the Dutch, Native Americans, British – did what our ancestors did in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere -- they interbred.  An interesting tidbit, the Shinnecock Tribe of Long Island have many Black members, and many are the product of African slaves and Native Americans producing offspring in colonial times.

Afro Latinidad is a very extensive and touchy subject for many! Since there are many ways that one can identify oneself– I asked four Comadres to share with me, how they experience being Afro Latina. 

Raesha Cartagena was a panelist during the recent “Celebrating Our Afro Latina Identity” event. This was a joint celebration hosted by Las Comadres Para Las Americas and Latinx in Publishing during Black History Month! Raesha Cartagena is President of the Puerto Rican Institute for the Development of the Arts (www.prida.org). Their mission is to promote and provide support for Puerto Rican artists.  She is also Manager of Foundation and Corporate Relations for Blythedale Children’s Hospital. 

Cartagena was raised by her father, a black Puerto Rican, and her mother, a much lighter-skinned Puerto Rican.  As a result, she grew up with a skin tone that was neither black nor white and she thought about this quite a bit until one day, she saw a cinnamon bagel and Eureka! She noticed that her skin tone was very close to the bagel’s color! She excitedly ran to her mother and said, “Mom, I know what I am, I am cinnamon!!” To this day, her mother will tease Raesha, and ask her, “Are you Cinnamon?”  Cartagena has always been proud of her Taino and African Caribbean roots. “I didn’t feel the sense of colors until I went to college. There was no in between. You don’t look the same so where do you fit in? It took me a long time to feel comfortable in my own skin. But I understood who I was because I was raised by Puerto Ricans of all colors.”

One Comadre, who requested to remain anonymous, shared the following: “One of the lows of being Afro Latina can be the sense of not belonging squarely to any of the communities with which you identify. The joy can be in finding creative ways to create and cultivate communities that are more inclusive. In 2023 the plan is for more self-care and giving oneself grace amongst a sea of challenges.”

 

Another Comadre, Dahlma Llanos Figueroa, who was in Puerto Rico on a book signing tour for her novel, A WOMAN OF ENDURANCE, took the time to share her thoughts. As background, her novel is set in a nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation, and follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves.  Female slaves were brought to the Caribbean islands, Central and South America by the thousands and that history is central to today’s Afro Latinas’ heritage. Here are Llanos Figueroa’s words on the subject:    

“I celebrate my Afro-Latinidad every time I look in the mirror to apply make-up or wrap my head in a colorful scarf or twist my hair or pick out my coily locks. I celebrate it every time I dance bomba and plena, every time I let a salsa tune make my hips sway to the music. I celebrate it by collecting the literature and artwork of our people. I celebrate it when I research the history of where we came from and how we survived when we got here. I celebrate it when I sit to meditate and ask for the guidance and blessings of my ancestors. I especially celebrate it when I sit down to write the stories that have been silenced or erased.”

Alyssa Reynoso Morris rounds out the quartet of Comadres who shared about being an Afro Latina.  She has two new books coming out PLATANOS ARE LOVE (April 11), a children book, and THE BRONX IS MY HOME (October 24) Here are her reflections:

 “Yo soy Afro-Latinx because I acknowledge my African roots. Growing up I never questioned my Latinidad because I knew I was Dominican and Puerto Rican. I spoke Spanish and was immersed in the culture. Pero, I had racist tías that told me I had ‘pelo malo’ and to stay out of the sun so I don't get blacker like ‘carbón’. They told me I better marry a white man to ‘blanquear la raza’. These moments of aggression, hatred, and oppression taught me at a young age again that I was different.” 

 She continues, “Then I had the privilege to study abroad in Tanzania located in East Africa. It was one of the first times in my life in which I felt like I belonged and, also felt beautiful. This experience coupled with my knowledge of the transatlantic slave trade helped me claim my blackness with pride. Once I declared that I was Afro-Latinx I felt empowered. Now I love my hair. Now I bask in the sun and I'm grateful for my melanated skin that protects me from getting burned. Now I know that I am beyond over simplistic boxes. Yo soy Afro-Latinx. I am Black. I am Dominican. I am Puerto Rican. I am Taino. I am American. I am Queer. I am a beautifully complicated and intersectional individual”. 

  

Thank you to the Comadres who came forth to speak their truths about being Afro Latinas! While this is just a sampling of the myriad and sometimes complicated issues surrounding Afro Latina identity, the hope is we reflect and keep the conversation going as we honor our heritage and the ancestors who came before us.#

 

Clara Galvano Rivera is a freelance writer who has interviewed business leaders, celebrities, sports figures, etc. Visit her on LinkedIn @claragalvanorivera.

**This article first appeared in the Winter/ Spring 2023 Comadres Connect Newsletter.**