Afro Latinos' Mixed Identity

"Afro Latinos' Mixed Identity Can Leave Them Out of the Mix" (NBC News 2/27/2014) illustrates that the history and present-day experiences of Black Latino/as are not widely understood in the U.S.. For instance, many people may not know that Arturo Schomburg (1874-1938), whose vast collections on African Diaspora founded the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture in Harlem, was born in Puerto Rico.  

“'One year I would put down that I was Hispanic so I could keep in touch with the Latino groups on campus that I was involved with, and another year I would put down black, so I could get their information. I would alternate because I wasn’t able to put down that I belonged to both,' said [Yale University alum Marco] Davis, 43, who has a Jamaican father and a Mexican mother.

Black Latinos say there is little understanding of their mixed heritage, and little knowledge of the history of the importation of slaves by Spanish-speaking countries of which many, though not all, are descendants. Yet growing racial pride and a move to a more multiracial society with changing demographics are helping this group stake a claim to being both black and Latino.

Davis, now working in the Obama administration in Washington, D.C., grew up in a predominantly African American neighborhood in New York. 'We weren’t Puerto Rican (the majority Latino population in New York), and people never heard of people like us,' explained Davis. 'The black people knew we spoke Spanish but they didn’t make the connection to the Hispanic community, and the Latinos didn’t quite get it, and others just assumed I was black and that’s it.' But he attended Mass at a Mexican church two towns over, and spent summers visiting relatives in his mother’s hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico.

In college, he joined a historically black fraternity while also becoming involved with Latino groups on campus. 'It really opened my eyes. I felt connected to both, but I remember being asked what would my loyalty be if there was ever a problem, and I would think, why do I have to choose? I navigate both worlds. I don’t have a choice. It’s who I am.'

That is the fundamental challenge of being an Afro Latino in the United States, said Davis. 'I walk down the street and people assume I am a black man and nothing more. The story of the Afro Latinos is a chapter in our society that hasn’t been well written. It’s a story that still needs to be told. We are of both worlds. It’s not either or, and people don’t get that.'"

Read the full article here.

Photo of Arturo Schomburg and partner via Brooklyn Daily Eagle