Afro-Latin American
Encyclopedia
An Afro-Latin American (also Afro-Latino) is a Latin American
person of at least partial Black African
ancestry; the term may also refer to historical or cultural elements in Latin America
thought to emanate from this community. The term can refer to the mixing of African and other cultural elements found in Latin American society such as religion
, music
, language
, the arts
and social class
.
The term Afro-Latin American, as used in this article refers specifically to black
African ancestry and not to Europe
an colonial or Afro-Arab
ancestry, such as white South African
or Arab Moroccan
ancestry. The term is not widely used in Latin America outside of academic circles. Normally Afro Latin Americans are called "black" (in Spanish
negro or, in the Caribbean
, prieto, in Portuguese
negro or preto). More commonly, when referring to cultural aspects of African origin within specific countries of Latin America, terms carry an Afro- prefix followed by the relevant nationality
. Notable examples include Afro-Cuban
(Spanish:Afro Cubano) and Afro-Brazilian
; however, usage varies considerably from nation to nation.
The accuracy of statistics
reporting on Afro-Latin Americans has been questioned, especially where they are derived from census
reports in which the subjects choose their own designation, because in all countries the concept of black
ancestry is viewed with differing attitudes.
Approximately 5% of the Latin American population self-identify, or are classified by census takers, as being primarily of black
ancestry.
origin arrived in the Americas
with the Spanish
and Portuguese
in the 15th and 16th centuries. Pedro Alonso Niño
, traditionally considered the first of many New World explorers of Black African descent was a navigator in the 1492 Columbus expedition
. Those who were directly from West Africa mostly arrived in Latin America as part of the Atlantic slave trade
, as agricultural, domestic, and menial laborers and as mineworkers. They were also employed in mapping
and exploration (for example, Estevanico
) and were even involved in conquest (for example, Juan Valiente
). They were mostly brought from West Africa
and Central Africa
in what are now the nations of Nigeria
, Ghana
, Benin
, Angola
, and Congo
, There are six major groups: the Yoruba
, Igbo
, Hausa
, Ewe
, Akan
, and the Bantu (mostly Zulu). Most of the slaves were sent to Brazil
, and the Caribbean
, but lesser numbers went to Colombia
and Venezuela
. Countries with significant black, mulatto, or zambo populations today include Brazil
(86 million, according to how censuses are applied nationwide, considering all the brown Brazilian
population as being "Black", which must signifies of African descent and makes caboclo
identity lacks of space on racial classifications there), Colombia
(10 million), Haiti
(8.7 million), Dominican Republic
(up to 8.1 million), Cuba
(up to 4 million), and Puerto Rico
(20%–46%). Recent genetic research in UPR Mayaguez has brought to light that 26.4% of Puerto Ricans have Black African heritage on the X chromosome and 20% on the Y chromosome, thus between 20%–46% of the Puerto Rican population has African heritage. (For more on this see Demographics of Puerto Rico
).
Traditional terms for Afro-Latin Americans with their own developed culture include Garífuna
(in Nicaragua
, Honduras
, Guatemala
and Belize
), cafuzo (in Brazil), and zambo
in the Andes
and Central America
. Marabou
is a term of Haiti
an origin denoting a Haitian of multiracial ethnicity. The term describes the offspring of a Black African/European or mulatto
and an Amerindian, specifically the native Taíno
, born in Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue
). The heavy population of Africans on the island established by the French
and Spanish
diluted the generations of so-called "marabous" over the decades, and virtually all Haitians
today of Amerindian descent are assumed to also possess Black African ancestry. Several other terms exist for the "marabou" racial mixture in other countries.
The mix of these African cultures with the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and indigenous cultures of Latin America has produced many unique forms of language
(e.g., Palenquero
, Garífuna
and Creole), religions
(e.g., Candomblé
, Abakuá
, Santería
, Lucumi
and Vodou), music
(e.g., kompa, salsa
, Bachata
, Punta
, Palo de Mayo
, plena
, samba
, merengue
, cumbia
) martial arts (capoeira
) and dance
(rumba
, merengue
). Many of these cultural expressions have become pervasive in Latin America.
and Black African women. Unions of white females and non-white males were taboo.
Other researchers have argued that there was a deliberate policy of genocide against the Afro Argentinian, which was openly expressed by many Euro-Argentines as Domingo F. Sarmiento and was probably implemented by using repressive policies during epidemics and wars as a tool of mass destruction. The theories argue that genocide may have been used to explain the decline in the population. Experts were pursuing similar arguments, but differ on the attribution of intent that was first attributed to the ruling classes.
. There are about 500,000 persons of Black African ancestry living in Bolivia.
Brazil experienced a long internal struggle over abolition of slavery and was the last Latin American country to adopt it. In 1850 it finally banned the importation of new slaves from overseas, after two decades since the first official attempts to outlaw the human traffic (in spite of illegal parties of Black African slaves that kept arriving till 1855). In 1864 Brazil emancipated the slaves, and on September 28, 1871, the Brazilian Congress approved the Rio Branco Law
of Free Birth, which conditionally freed the children of slaves born from that day on. In 1887 army
officers refused to order their troops to hunt runaway slaves, and in 1888 the Senate passed a law establishing immediate, unqualified emancipation. This law, known as Lei Áurea
(Golden Law) was sanctioned by the regent Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil
, daughter of the emperor Pedro II
on May 13, 1888.
arrived before 1615; most were utilized in agriculture around Santiago. Today there are very few Afro-Chileans, at the most, fewer than 0.1% can be estimated from the 2006 population.
, Cartagena
, and Barranquilla
. Colombia is considered to have the third largest Black population in the western hemisphere, following Brazil and the U.S..
Approximately 4.4 million Afro-Colombians actively recognize their own black ancestry as a result of inter-racial relations with white and indigenous Colombians. They have been historically absent from high level government positions. Many of their long-established settlements around the Pacific coast have remained underdeveloped. In Colombia's ongoing internal conflict, Afro-Colombians are both victims of violence or displacement and members of armed factions, such as the FARC
and the AUC. Afro-Colombians have played a role in contributing to the development of certain aspects of Colombian culture. For example, several of Colombia's musical genres, such as Cumbia
, have African origins or influences. Some Afro-Colombians have also been successful in sports such as Faustino Asprilla
, Freddy Rincón or María Isabel Urrutia
.
San Basilio de Palenque
is a village in Colombia that is noted for maintaining many African traditions. It was declared a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
by UNESCO in 2005. The residents of palenque still speak Palenquero
, a Spanish/African creole
and make up the majority (70%) in the province of Esmeraldas
and the Chota Valley in the Imbabura Province
. They can be also found in Quito
and Guayaquil
. The best known cultural influence known outside of Ecuador is a distinctive kind of marimba
music. Bao is a fusion of native rhythms and Caribbean rhythms including candombe, salsa, merengue, reggae and calypso. From the Chota Valley there is Bomba (Ecuador)
music which is very different from marimba from Esmeraldas.
, Emboscada
, and Guarambaré
. Many achieved their freedom during the Spanish rule. In the capital Asunción
, there is a community of 300 Afro-Paraguayan families in the Fernando de la Mora municipality.
Over the course of the slave trade, approximately 95,000 slaves were brought into Peru, with the last group arriving in 1850. Today, Afro-Peruvians reside mainly on the central and south coast. Afro-Peruvians can also be found in significant numbers on the northern coast. Recently, it has been verified that the community with the greatest concentration of Afro-Peruvians is Yapatera in Morropón (Piura), made up of around 7,000 farmers who are largely descended from African slaves of "malagasy" (Madagascar) origin. They are referred to as "malgaches" or "mangaches".
Afro-Peruvian music was little known even in Peru until the 1950s, when it was popularized by the performer Nicomedes Santa Cruz
.
Afro-Peruvian music was actually well known in Peru since the 1600s but oppressed by the Peruvian elite as was Andean religion and language.
Afro-Peruvian culture has not only thrived but influenced all aspects of Peruvian culture without any acknowledgment from mainstream media
or history. Luis Miguel Sanchez, Peru's 71st President was the first Afro-Andean President (1930–1933).
In the late 18th century Montevideo became a major arrival port for slaves, most brought from Portuguese colonies of Africa and bound for Spanish colonies of the New World, the mines of Peru and Bolivia, and the fields of Uruguay.
In the 19th century, when Uruguay joined other colonies in fighting for independence from Spain, Uruguayan national hero Jose Artigas led an elite division of black troops against the colonists. One of his top advisors was Joaquín Lenzina
, known as Ansina, a freed slave who composed musical odes about his commander's exploits and is regarded by Afro-Uruguayans as an unheralded father of the nation.
ns are mostly descendants from African slaves brought to Venezuela from the 17th to the 19th century for the coffee and cocoa crops. Most of the African-Venezuelans live in the North-central Region: coastal towns in the area called Barlovento
, Northern Yaracuy
, Carabobo
and Aragua States, and Eastern Vargas State; but there are areas in South Lake Maracaibo (Zulia State) and Northern Merida State in the Andes, among others with several towns and villages. They have kept their traditions and culture alive especially through music.
Venezuela is a very racially mixed nation. Research in 2001 on genetic diversity by the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, IVIC) in which the population was compared to the historical patterns of the colonial castes. Adding to this new information about genetic diseases and characteristics associated with people from Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Native Americans reveals that approximately 5% of the population is of African descent and 29% of the Venezuelans are mulatto
s (mixed African and European), but no further data about the amount of zambo
s (mixed black and Amerindian) is provided. This information reveals that at least 34% of the Venezuelan population is, to some extent, of African descent..
Afro-Venezuelans have stood out as sportsmen, many of them in the Major League Baseball and other sports (e.g. former NBA/Houston Rockets
forward Carl Herrera
), however, most of them do not describe themselves as Afro-Venezuelan, but as Latinos or Hispanics or simply Venezuelans. Afro-Venezuelans have also stood out in the arts, especially in music, for example: Magdalena Sánchez
, Oscar D'León
, Morella Muñoz
, Allan Phillips
, Pedro Eustache, Frank Quintero, and many others. Miss Venezuela 1998, Carolina Indriago
, Miss Venezuela Universe 2006, Jictzad Viña
, and Miss Venezuela World 2006, Susan Carrizo
are mulatto.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
stated in an interview while visiting the United States
, "When we were children, we were told that we have a motherland, and that motherland was Spain
. However, we have discovered later, in our lives, that as a matter of fact, we have several motherlands. And one of the greatest motherlands of all is no doubt, Africa
. We love Africa. And every day we are much more aware of the roots we have in Africa... Racism is very characteristic of imperialism. Racism is very characteristic of capitalism. Katrina
is—indeed, has a lot to do with racism–no doubt about it. Hate against me has a lot to do with racism. Because of my big mouth, because of my curly hair. And I’m so proud to have this mouth and this hair, because it’s African."
, Guatemala
, Honduras
and Nicaragua
, are of Garífuna
, Afro-Caribbean and/or Mestizo
heritage, as well as of Miskito heritage. Those of Costa Rica
and Panama
are mostly of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Many Afro-Caribbean islanders arrived in Panama to help build the Panama Canal
and to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to work in the banana
and sugar cane plantations.
Belizean culture is a mix of African, European, and Mayan
but only 30% of the population is considered to be of African descent. The main community of African descent are the Creoles and Garifuna concentrated from the Cayo District
to the Belize District
and Stann Creek District
(Dangriga
) on the Caribbean Sea. Belize City
, on the Caribbean coast, is the center of West African culture in Belize, with its population being of mixed Black African, Maya, and European.
n immigrant workers. The indigenous population numbers around 1%, 41,338 individuals. In the Guanacaste Province
, a significant portion of the population descends from a mix of local Amerindians, Africans and Spaniards. Most Afro-Costa Ricans are found in the Limón Province
.
and Puerto Barrios
. The rest are Afro-Caribbean and mulattoes who lives in Puerto Barrios
and Morales
. All these places belong to Izabal department, on the Caribbean coast. Sadly, because of unemployent and lack of opportunities, many Garifuna from Guatemala had left the country and move to Belize and the United States. Also many people of African descent are located in Amatitlán
, San Jerónimo
, and Jutiapa, although most of them may not recognize it because the loss of culture in these places.
Many of the slaves brought from Africa came to Guatemala to work on cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, and coffee plantations. The main reason for slavery in Guatemala was because of the large sugar cane plantations and haciendas located on Guatemala's Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The national folk instrument, the marimba, has its origins in Africa and was brought to Guatemala and the rest of Central America by African slaves during colonial times. The melodies played on it show native American, West African and European influences in both form and style.
Among the notable Garifuna from Guatemala are social leaders (Mario Ellington and Dilia Palacios Cayetano), musicians (Sofía Blanco, Silvia Blanco and Jursino Cayetano), poets (Nora Murillo and Wingston González), athletes (Teodoro Palacios Flores and Mario Blanco), soccer players (Guillermo la Pantera Enríquez Gamboa, Tomás Enríquez Gamboa, German Trigueño Castro, Clemente Lalín Sánchez, Wilson Lalín Salvatierra, Carlos Delva, Norman Delva, David Suazo, Tomás Suazo, Braulio Arzú, Ricardo Trigueno Foster
, Guillermo Ramírez
el Pando, Florencio Martínez
, Renato Blanco and Marvin Avila
), basketball players (Juan Pablo Trigueño Foster), a wrestler (El Cadete del Espacio) and a model (Deborah David).
From the Afro-Caribbean community comes doctors (Henry Stokes Brown and his son, Wilfredo Stokes Baltazar; Arla Cinderella Stokes), psychologists (Elizabeth Stokes), deacons (Sydney Samuels), a poet (Alan Mills), a journalist (Glenda Stokes Weatherborn), athletes (Roy Fearon, Salomón Rowe, Octavio Guillespie and Lidia Graviola Ewing), soccer players (Ricardo Clark, Jorge Lynch, Jerry Slosher, Royston Hall, David Stokes, Tony Edwin, Oscar Sims, Willie Sims, Vicente Charles, José A. Charles, Martín Charles, Selvyn Pennant, Douglas Pérez McNish, Mynor Pérez McNish, Carlos Pérez McNish, Leonardo McNish, Arturo McNish, Alfredo McNish, Julio César Anderson, Hermenegildo Pepp Castro, Stanley Gardiner, David Gardiner, Kenneth Brown, Mario la Gallina Becker, Freddy Thompson
, Elton Brown and Jonny Brown), basketball players (Jeremías Stokes, Tomás Guillespie and Peggy Lynch), and a former Miss Guatemala (Marva Weatherborn).
Today, the Garifuna and Afro-Caribbean people of Guatemala are organized in a group called Organización Negra Guatemalteca (Onegua). According to its website, Onegua is "a non-governmental organisation established in 1995 with a mandate to promote the interests and fight for the rights of Guatemala's Garifuna and Afrodescendant populations". There is also an association, called Asociación Raíces Afrodescendientes Guatemaltecas.
indicates that 2% of the population, or about 150,000 individuals, self-identified as black during the last official census. This number is based on self-identification and does not use the American definition of blood quantum to identify "blackness" as Henry Gates does in his estimate of the black population of Honduras: "Estimates of people of African descent in Honduras vary widely, from 100,000 to 320,000 (1.8 to 5.8 percent of the country's 5.8 million people in 1994)."
If one uses the blood quantum
definition of blackness, then blacks came to Honduras early in the colonial period. One of the mercenaries who aided Pedro de Alvarado
in his conquest of Honduras
in 1536 was a black slave working as a mercenary to earn his freedom. Alvarado sent his own slaves from Guatemala to work the placer
gold deposits in western Honduras as early as 1534. The earliest black slaves consigned to Honduras were part of a license granted to the Bishop Cristobal de Pedraza in 1547 to bring 300 slaves into Honduras. Certainly a large part of the modern Honduran population today identified as mestizo has at least some black ancestry, but they do not self-identify as black.
The self-identifying black population in Honduras is mostly of West Indian (Antillean origin), descendants of indentured laborers brought from Jamaica
, Haiti
, and other Caribbean Islands. The Garifuna (or Black Caribs), a people of mixed Amerindian and Black African ancestry, were expelled from the island of Saint Vincent
after an uprising against the English and in 1797 and were exiled to Roatan
. From there they made their way along the Caribbean coast of Belize, mainland Honduras and Nicaragua. Large Garifuna settlements in Honduras today include Trujillo, La Ceiba, and Triunfo de la Cruz. Even though they only came to Honduras in 1797, the Garifuna are one of the seven officially recognized indigenous groups in Honduras.
Slaves on the north coast mixed with the Miskito Indians, forming a group referred to as the Zambo Miskito. Today the Miskito consider themselves to be purely indigenous, denying this Black African heritage. Today there are a sizable number of people in the department of Olancho
(a center of gold mining and cattle ranching) that would be considered black by U.S. standards. They do not, however, identify as such but rather as mestizo. The Black Creoles of the Bay Islands
are today distinguished as an ethnic group for their racial difference from the mestizos and blacks, and their cultural difference as English
-speaking Protestants
.There has been practically
no ethnographic research conducted with this population.
All these circumstances led to a denial by many Hondurans of their Black African heritage which reflects in the census even to this day. "Blacks were more problematic as national symbols because at the time they were neither seen to represent modernity nor autochthony, and their history of dislocation from Africa means they have no great pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas to call upon as symbols of a glorious past. Thus Latin American states often end up with a primarily "Indo-Hispanic" mestizaje where the Indian is privileged as the roots of the nation and blackness is either minimized or completely erased."
and RAAS
. The black population is mostly of West Indian
(Antillean) origin, the descendants
of indentured laborers brought mostly from Jamaica
and other Caribbean Islands when the region was a British protectorate
. There is also a smaller number of Garífuna
, a people of mixed Carib, Angolan
, Congolese
and Arawak descent. The Garífuna live along in Orinoco, La Fe and Marshall Point, communities settled at Laguna de Perlas. Nicaragua has the largest population of blacks in Central America
.
From these regions comes writers and poets like Carlos Rigby, David McField (current Nicaraguan ambassador in Jamaica), Clifford Glenn Hodgson Dumbar, June Beer (also a painter), Andira Watson and John Oliver, and diplomants and politicians like Francisco Campbell (current ambassador in the USA) and Lumberto Campbell. Among the musicians are Caribbean All Stars, Atma Terapia Arjuna Das, Osberto Jerez y Los Gregorys, Caribbean Taste, Spencer Hodgson, Philip Montalbán, Grupo Gamma, Anthony Matthews and Dimension Costeña, Charles Wiltshire (also known as "Carlos de Nicaragua", who played with Mano Negra
in its 1994 record Casa Babylon
) and dancer Gloria Bacon. Miss Lizzie Nelson is a cultural promoter, Altha Hooker is the dean of the Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe, Neyda Dixon is a well known journalist and Scharllette Allen was elected as Miss Nicaragua in 2010.
, while 2.8 million considered themselves to be "mulatto" or "mestizo" or "javao" or "moro". Many Cubans still locate their origins in specific African ethnic groups or regions, particularly Yoruba
, Igbo
and Congo
, but also Arará, Carabalí, Mandingo, Fula and others.
There is also a significant presence of black Haiti
an immigrants in the country. Creole language and culture first entered Cuba with the arrival of Haitian immigrants at the start of the 19th century. Haiti was a French colony, and the final years of the 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution
brought a wave of French settlers fleeing with their Haitian slaves to Cuba. They came mainly to the east, and especially Guantanamo, where the French later introduced sugar cultivation, constructed sugar refineries and developed coffee plantations. By 1804 some 30,000 French were living in Baracoa and Maisi, the furthest eastern municipalities of the province. Later, Haitians continued to come to Cuba to work as brazeros (hand workers, from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") in the fields cutting cane. Their living and working conditions were not much better than slavery. Although they planned to return to Haiti, most stayed on in Cuba. For years, many Haitians and their descendants in Cuba did not identify themselves as such or speak Creole. In the eastern part of the island many Haitians suffered discrimination. But since 1959 the Castro regime claims that discrimination against Cubans of Haitian descent has stopped. After Spanish, Creole is the second most-spoken language in Cuba. Over 400,000 Cubans either speak it fluently, understand it but speak with difficulty, or have at least some familiarity with the language. It is mainly in those communities, where Haitians and their descendants live, that Creole is most spoken. In addition to the eastern provinces there are also communities in Ciego de Avila and Camaguey provinces where the population still maintains Creole, their mother tongue. Classes in Creole are offered in Guantanamo, Matanzas and the City of Havana. There is a Creole-language radio program.
Some of the most famous Afro-Cubanos are writers Nicolás Guillén
, Gastón Baquero, Nancy Morejón
, Alberto Guerra Naranjo and Ariel Ribeaux Diago; salsa legend Celia Cruz
; Compay Segundo
, Rubén González
, Orlando "Cachaito" López, Omara Portuondo
and Ibrahim Ferrer
of the Buena Vista Social Club; jazz musicians like Mario Bauzá
, Mongo Santamaría
, Chucho Valdés
, Gonzalo Rubalcaba
, Alfredo Terry, Anga Díaz
, Orlando Valle 'Maraca', Jorge Varona and Jorge Alfonso 'el Niño'; songwriters like Carlos Alfonso, X Alfonso, Pablo Milanés
and Gerardo Alfonso; other musicians as Bebo Valdés
, Israel "Cachao" López, Orestes López
, Richard Egües
, Dámaso Pérez Prado, Rolando Laserie, Miguelito Cuni and Tata Güines
; and politicians like Juan Almeida and Esteban Lazo.
.
This source, however, does not define "mixed", nor does it indicate the specific demographic or genetic study from which these percentages were obtained. Other sources give similar figures,
, but also without naming a specific study.
Regardless of the specific racial breakdown of the Dominican population, it is generally acknowledged that a large percentage of it is of mixed ancestry, including Black African. Some commentators and race/ethnicity scholars have been harshly critical of Dominicans of mixed racial background for their reluctance to self-identify as Black. However, this reluctance is shared by many people of multiracial background, who find inappropriate to identify with only one side of their ancestry,
. Those people refuse to express a preference for any of the races that make up their background, and resent being ascribed to any single race.
Dominican culture is a mixture of Taino Amerindian, West African, and European origins. While Taino influences are present in many Dominican traditions, the European and West African influences are the most noticeable.
Afro-Dominicans make the largest presence along the south coast of the nation in cities like the capital Santo Domingo
.
Notable Dominicans whose physical features suggest Black African ancestry include bachatero Antony Santos
, Sammy Sosa
, Pedro Martinez
, salsa singer Jose Alberto
, and 2009 Miss Universe runner-up Ada De La Cruz
, among others. However, there is no reliable procedure to ascertain the degree, if any, to which their ancestry is Black African.
The most common Black African ethnic groups among all Dominicans are the Bantu-Congo peoples and the Yoruba (known as Lucumi). Other small ethnic groups but yet sagnificant are the Akan, Mandinga, Igbo, Ewe, Fon, Bambara, and as well as the Fula.
A system of racial stratification
was imposed on Santo Domingo by Spain, as elsewhere in the Spanish Empire.
The population of Haiti is 8.7 million, of which 95% are of Black African descent and the remaining 10%–5% is mulatto
and white. Slavery in Haiti was established by the Spanish
and French
colonialist.
Many Haitians are descendants of Taino
or Caribs who cohabitated with the African descendant population.
Haiti is an Afro-Latin nation with strong African contributions to the culture as well as its language, music and religion. To a lesser degree French, Spaniard, and in rare occasions (food, art, and folk religion) Taino and Arab customs are present in society.
The population of Martinique, an overseas region of France, is 397,730 (January 1st 2007 est.), 90% of the population has Black African descent. Moreover, the island emphasizes its diversity because of natives of Black African-Caucasian descent or Black African-Indian descent. Their West African ancestors were imported from the Guinean Coast for sugar cane plantation labor during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Antillean Creole
- which is a french-based creole, is widely local language spoken among the natives of the island and even the immigrants who have been living on the island for a couple of years. French - the official language, is still the most common language used and heard on the island. Used during more intimate/friendly conversations, Martiniquean people switch to French - which is their first and native language, when in public.
, 75.8% of Puerto Ricans identified as White, 12.4% of the population as Black and 11.1% as of mixed or other race. An island-wide mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) study conducted by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
revealed that 61% of Puerto Ricans have maternal Native American ancestry, 26.4% have maternal West
or Central Africa
n ancestry, and 12.6% have maternal European ancestry. On the other hand, the Y chromosome
evidence showed Puerto Ricans' patrilineage to be approximately 75% European, 20% Black African, and less than 5% indigenous. The combined results reveal a mostly mestizo
(Taino
and European) population with important Black African elements (Demographics of Puerto Rico
).
An interesting anecdote to consider was that during this whole period, Puerto Rico had laws like the Regla del Sacar or Gracias al Sacar where a person of black ancestry could be considered legally white so long as they could prove that at least one person per generation in the last four generations had also been legally white. Therefore people of black ancestry with known white lineage were classified as white, the opposite of the "one-drop rule
" in the United States.
These critics maintain that a majority of Puerto Ricans are racially mixed, but that they do not feel the need to identify as such. They argue, furthermore, that Puerto Ricans tend to assume that they are of Black African, American Indian, and European ancestry and only identify themselves as mixed if having parents "appearing" to be of separate "races". It should also be noted that Puerto Rico underwent a "whitening" process while under U.S. rule. The census-takers at the turn of the 20th Century recorded a huge disparity in the number of "black" and "white" Puerto Ricans between the 1910 and 1920 censuses. "Black" suddenly began to disappear from one census to another (within 10 years' time), possibly due to redefinition of the term. It also appears that the "black" element within the culture was simply disappearing possibly due to the popular idea that in the U.S. one could only advance economically and socially if one were to pass for "white".
Misinformation of ethnic populations within Puerto Rico also existed under Spanish rule, when the Native Amerindian (Taino) populations were recorded as being "extinct". Biological science has now rewritten their history books. These tribes were not voluntary travelers, but have since blended into the mainstream Puerto Rican population (as all the others have been) with Taino ancestry being the common thread that binds.
Many blacks in Puerto Rico are found in the coastal areas, areas traditionally associated with sugar cane plantations, especially in the towns Loiza
, Carolina
, Fajardo
, and Guayama
. Although, due to the DNA evidence that is being presented by UPR at Mayaguez, many African bloodlines have been recorded in the central mountains of the island, though not written in the Spanish history books of the time. Consequently, Taino bloodlines have begun appearing in the coastal towns. All this suggesting that escaped enslaved Black Africans ran off to the mountains to escape the slaveowners, while some Tainos remained close to their main staple food, fish.
The Puerto Rican musical genres of bomba and plena
are of West African and Caribbean origin, respectively; the are danced to during parties and West African-derived festivals. Many Taino
Boricuas who claim West/Central African ancestry are descendants of enslaved Congo
, Igbo and Yoruba from Africa. After the abolition of slavery in 1873 and the Spanish-American War of 1898 a number of African American
s have also migrated and settled in Puerto Rico.
Two of the most famous Afro-Latin Americans are Puerto Rican Boxer Felix "Tito" Trinidad
and Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Clemente
.
(*)Note that population statistics from different sources and countries use highly divergent methods of identifying race, ethnicity, or national or genetic origin of individuals, from observing for color and racial characteristics, to asking the person to choose from a set of pre-defined choices, sometimes with an "other" category, and sometimes with an open-ended option, and sometimes not, which different national populations tend to choose in divergent ways. Color and visual characteristics were considered an invalid way to determine the genetic "racial" branch in anthropology (the field of science that original conceived of race, as a genetic branch of people who could have a relative success together compared with other branches, now considered invalid) as of 1910. It is likely these numbers do not fully reflect the percentage of the population that is of Black African heritage if you use any method of identification other than that of self-identification such as; the blood quantum definition, identification based on physical characteristics and identification by cultural traces. Self-identification also fails to identify those who would consider themselves of Black African heritage if the option were given in the national census. Furthermore, the categorization of people of mixed racial background is controversial. Should a person of mostly non-Black African background be categorized as if his or her ancestry was 100% Black African? What percentage of this person's ancestry needs to be Black African in order for him/her to be considered of Black African descent?
Latin Americans
Latin Americans are the citizens of the Latin American countries and dependencies. Latin American countries are multi-ethnic, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Latin Americans don't take their nationality as an ethnicity, but identify themselves with...
person of at least partial Black African
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
ancestry; the term may also refer to historical or cultural elements in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
thought to emanate from this community. The term can refer to the mixing of African and other cultural elements found in Latin American society such as religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, the arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
and social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
.
The term Afro-Latin American, as used in this article refers specifically to black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
African ancestry and not to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an colonial or Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab
Afro-Arab refers to people of mixed Black African and genealogical Arab ancestral heritage and/or linguistically and culturally Arabized Black Africans...
ancestry, such as white South African
Whites in South Africa
White South African is a term which refers to people from South Africa who are of European descent and who don't regard themselves, or are not regarded as being part of another racial group, for example, as Coloured...
or Arab Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
ancestry. The term is not widely used in Latin America outside of academic circles. Normally Afro Latin Americans are called "black" (in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
negro or, in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, prieto, in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
negro or preto). More commonly, when referring to cultural aspects of African origin within specific countries of Latin America, terms carry an Afro- prefix followed by the relevant nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
. Notable examples include Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cuban
The term Afro-Cuban refers to Cubans of Sub Saharan African ancestry, and to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community...
(Spanish:Afro Cubano) and Afro-Brazilian
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
; however, usage varies considerably from nation to nation.
The accuracy of statistics
Demography
Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
reporting on Afro-Latin Americans has been questioned, especially where they are derived from census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
reports in which the subjects choose their own designation, because in all countries the concept of black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
ancestry is viewed with differing attitudes.
Approximately 5% of the Latin American population self-identify, or are classified by census takers, as being primarily of black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
ancestry.
History
Many people of Black AfricanBlack people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
origin arrived in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
with the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
in the 15th and 16th centuries. Pedro Alonso Niño
Pedro Alonso Niño
Pedro Alonso Nino was a Spanish explorer, also known as El Negro .Born in Palos de Moguer, Spain, he explored the coasts of Africa, and accompanied Christopher Columbus during his third voyage that saw the discovery of Trinidad and the mouths of the Orinoco River...
, traditionally considered the first of many New World explorers of Black African descent was a navigator in the 1492 Columbus expedition
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
In the early modern period, the voyages of Columbus initiated European exploration and colonization of the American continents, and are thus of great significance in world history. Christopher Columbus was a navigator and an admiral for Castile, a country that later founded modern Spain...
. Those who were directly from West Africa mostly arrived in Latin America as part of the Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
, as agricultural, domestic, and menial laborers and as mineworkers. They were also employed in mapping
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
and exploration (for example, Estevanico
Estevanico
Estevanico , "Black Stephen", "Esteban", "Esteban the Moor", "Estevan", "Estebanico", "Stephen the Black", "Stephen the Moor", "Stephen Dorantes" after his owner Andres Dorantes, and "Little Stephen") was the first known person born in Africa to have arrived in the present-day continental United...
) and were even involved in conquest (for example, Juan Valiente
Juan valiente
Juan Valiente , Spanish black conquistador.As many black conquistadors like Juan Garrido and Sebastián Toral in Mexico, Juan Bardales in Honduras and Panama, or Juan Beltrán , Valiente was born with another name in Western Africa till 1505 and arrived as slave to Mexico, where was bought by a...
). They were mostly brought from West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
and Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
in what are now the nations of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, and Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, There are six major groups: the Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
, Igbo
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
, Hausa
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
, Ewe
Ewe people
The Ewe are a people located in the southeast corner of Ghana, east of the Volta River, in an area now described as the Volta Region, in southern Togo and western Benin...
, Akan
Akan people
The Akan people are an ethnic group found predominately in Ghana and The Ivory Coast. Akans are the majority in both of these countries and overall have a population of over 20 million people.The Akan speak Kwa languages-Origin and ethnogenesis:...
, and the Bantu (mostly Zulu). Most of the slaves were sent to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, but lesser numbers went to Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. Countries with significant black, mulatto, or zambo populations today include Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(86 million, according to how censuses are applied nationwide, considering all the brown Brazilian
Pardo
In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
population as being "Black", which must signifies of African descent and makes caboclo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
identity lacks of space on racial classifications there), Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
(10 million), Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
(8.7 million), Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
(up to 8.1 million), Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
(up to 4 million), and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
(20%–46%). Recent genetic research in UPR Mayaguez has brought to light that 26.4% of Puerto Ricans have Black African heritage on the X chromosome and 20% on the Y chromosome, thus between 20%–46% of the Puerto Rican population has African heritage. (For more on this see Demographics of Puerto Rico
Demographics of Puerto Rico
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Puerto Rico, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
).
Traditional terms for Afro-Latin Americans with their own developed culture include Garífuna
Garifuna
The Garinagu are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans...
(in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
), cafuzo (in Brazil), and zambo
Zambo
Zambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...
in the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. Marabou
Marabou (ethnicity)
Marabou is a term of Haitian origin denoting multiracial admixture. The term describes the offspring of a person of mixed race: black African/European and East Indian ancestry, born in Haiti. The East Indians arrived in Haiti from other Caribbean islands...
is a term of Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an origin denoting a Haitian of multiracial ethnicity. The term describes the offspring of a Black African/European or mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
and an Amerindian, specifically the native Taíno
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
, born in Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
). The heavy population of Africans on the island established by the French
French colonization of the Americas
The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...
and Spanish
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
diluted the generations of so-called "marabous" over the decades, and virtually all Haitians
Demographics of Haiti
Although Haiti averages approximately 255 people per square kilometer , its population is concentrated most heavily in urban areas, coastal plains, and valleys. About 80-85% of Haitians are of predominantly West African descent. The remainder of the population is primarily mulattoes. There are...
today of Amerindian descent are assumed to also possess Black African ancestry. Several other terms exist for the "marabou" racial mixture in other countries.
The mix of these African cultures with the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and indigenous cultures of Latin America has produced many unique forms of language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
(e.g., Palenquero
Palenquero
Palenquero is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Colombia. Palenquero is the only Spanish-based creole in Latin America. The ethnic group which speaks this Creole consists only of 3,000 people,...
, Garífuna
Garifuna
The Garinagu are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans...
and Creole), religions
Afro-American religion
Afro-American religions are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas among African slaves and their descendants in various countries of Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of the southern United States...
(e.g., Candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...
, Abakuá
Abakuá
Abakua or Abakuá is an Afro-Cuban men's initiatory fraternity, or secret society, which originated from fraternal associations in the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon...
, Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
, Lucumi
Lucumi language
Lucumi is a Yoruba dialect spoken by practitioners of the Santería religion in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic. It is also known as Yoruba and Santeria. Lucumi is a liturgical language used in Santeria's prayers, chants and songs....
and Vodou), music
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
(e.g., kompa, salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
, Bachata
Bachata (dance)
Bachata is a style of dance that originated in the Dominican Republic. It is danced widely all over the world but not identically.The basics to the dance are three-step with a Cuban hip motion, followed by a hip tap on the 4th beat just like in other Latin dances . The knees should be slightly bent...
, Punta
Punta
Punta is a Garifuna music and dance style performed at celebrations and festive occasions. Contemporary punta, including Belizean punta rock, arose in the last thirty years of the twentieth century in Belize, Honduras and Guatemala. It also has a following in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Southern Mexico...
, Palo de Mayo
Palo de Mayo
Palo de Mayo is a type of Afro-Caribbean dance with sensual movements that forms part of the culture of several communities in the RAAS region in Nicaragua, as well as Belize, the Bay Islands of Honduras and Bocas del Toro in Panama. It is also the name given to the month long May Day festival...
, plena
Plena
Plena is a folkloric genre native to Puerto Rico. Its creation was influenced by African and Spanish music.-History:The music is generally folkloric. The music's beat and rhythm are usually played using hand drums called panderetas, but also known as panderos or pleneras. The music is accompanied...
, samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
, merengue
Merengue music
Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...
, cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
) martial arts (capoeira
Capoeira
Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century...
) and dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
(rumba
Rumba (dance)
Rumba is a dance term with two quite different meanings.In some contexts, "rumba" is used as shorthand for Afro-Cuban rumba, a group of dances related to the rumba genre of Afro-Cuban music. The most common Afro-Cuban rumba is the guaguancó...
, merengue
Merengue (dance)
Merengue El camino1ro de Secundaria-In popular culture:* Merengue was mentioned as a song performed between Babs and Charlie in the song by Steely Dan....
). Many of these cultural expressions have become pervasive in Latin America.
Racial and ethnic distinctions
Terms used within Latin America which pertain to black heritage include mulato (black – white mixture), and zambo (indigenous – black mixture). Mestizo refers to an indigenous – white mixture. The term mestizaje refers to the intermixing or fusing of races, whether by mere custom or deliberate policy. In Latin America this happened extensively between all the racial groups and cultures, but usually involved European men and indigenousIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
and Black African women. Unions of white females and non-white males were taboo.
South America
People of African descent form a significant percentage of the population in a number of South American nations. Because of widespread lack of agreement across South America about who is Black and because of confusion in enumeration, there are no reliable population figures, and many estimates and counts vary widely from each other.Argentina
Traditionally it has been argued that the black population in Argentina declined since the early 19th century to insignificance. However, the pilot census conducted in two neighborhoods of Argentina in 2006 on knowledge of ancestors from Subsaharan Africa verified that 5% of the population knew of Black African ancestry, and another 20% thought that was possible but not sure. Given that European immigration accounted for more than half the growth of the Argentine population in 1960, some researchers argue that rather than decrease what they had was a process of "invisibility" of the population Afro Argentine and their cultural roots.Other researchers have argued that there was a deliberate policy of genocide against the Afro Argentinian, which was openly expressed by many Euro-Argentines as Domingo F. Sarmiento and was probably implemented by using repressive policies during epidemics and wars as a tool of mass destruction. The theories argue that genocide may have been used to explain the decline in the population. Experts were pursuing similar arguments, but differ on the attribution of intent that was first attributed to the ruling classes.
Bolivia
Black African descendants in Bolivia account for about 2% of the population. They were brought in during the Spanish colonial times and the majority live in the YungasYungas
The Yungas is a stretch of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from southeastern Peru through central Bolivia. It is a transitional zone between the Andean highlands and the eastern forests. Like the surrounding areas, it has characteristics of the Neotropic ecozone...
. There are about 500,000 persons of Black African ancestry living in Bolivia.
Brazil
Around 6.9% of Brazil's 190 million people are Black, and many more Brazilians have some degree of African descent.Brazil experienced a long internal struggle over abolition of slavery and was the last Latin American country to adopt it. In 1850 it finally banned the importation of new slaves from overseas, after two decades since the first official attempts to outlaw the human traffic (in spite of illegal parties of Black African slaves that kept arriving till 1855). In 1864 Brazil emancipated the slaves, and on September 28, 1871, the Brazilian Congress approved the Rio Branco Law
Rio Branco Law
The Law of Free Birth, also known as Rio Branco Law, named after its champion, Prime Minister José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, was passed by the Brazilian Parliament in 1871. It was intended to provide freedom to all newborn children of slaves, and slaves of the state or crown...
of Free Birth, which conditionally freed the children of slaves born from that day on. In 1887 army
Brazilian Army
The Brazilian Army is the land arm of the Brazilian Military. The Brazilian Army has fought in several international conflicts, mostly in South America and during the 19th century, such as the Brazilian War of Independence , Argentina-Brazil War , War of the Farrapos , Platine War , Uruguayan War ...
officers refused to order their troops to hunt runaway slaves, and in 1888 the Senate passed a law establishing immediate, unqualified emancipation. This law, known as Lei Áurea
Lei Áurea
The Lei Áurea , adopted on May 13, 1888, was the law that abolished slavery in Brazil.It was preceded by the Rio Branco Law of September 28, 1871 , which freed all children born to slave parents, and by the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law , of September 28, 1885, that freed slaves when they reached the age of...
(Golden Law) was sanctioned by the regent Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil
Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil
Dona Isabel , nicknamed "the Redemptress", was the heiress presumptive to the throne of the Empire of Brazil, bearing the title of Princess Imperial....
, daughter of the emperor Pedro II
Pedro II of Brazil
Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...
on May 13, 1888.
Chile
Chile enslaved about 6000 Africans, about one-third of whomarrived before 1615; most were utilized in agriculture around Santiago. Today there are very few Afro-Chileans, at the most, fewer than 0.1% can be estimated from the 2006 population.
Colombia
Available estimates range from 4.4 to 10.5 million Afro-Colombians. According to CIA World Factbook, the makeup of the population is: "mestizo 58%, white 20%, mulatto 14%, black 4%, mixed black-Amerindian 3%, Amerindian 1%". Afro-Colombians make up approximately 21% (9,154,537) of the population, according to a projection of the National Administration Department of Statistics (DANE), most of whom are concentrated on the northwest Caribbean coast and the Pacific coast in such departments as Chocó, although considerable numbers are also in CaliCalì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
, Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
, and Barranquilla
Barranquilla
Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...
. Colombia is considered to have the third largest Black population in the western hemisphere, following Brazil and the U.S..
Approximately 4.4 million Afro-Colombians actively recognize their own black ancestry as a result of inter-racial relations with white and indigenous Colombians. They have been historically absent from high level government positions. Many of their long-established settlements around the Pacific coast have remained underdeveloped. In Colombia's ongoing internal conflict, Afro-Colombians are both victims of violence or displacement and members of armed factions, such as the FARC
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, currently involved in drug dealing and crimes against the civilians..FARC-EP is a peasant army which...
and the AUC. Afro-Colombians have played a role in contributing to the development of certain aspects of Colombian culture. For example, several of Colombia's musical genres, such as Cumbia
Cumbia
Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...
, have African origins or influences. Some Afro-Colombians have also been successful in sports such as Faustino Asprilla
Faustino Asprilla
Faustino Hernán "Tino" Asprilla Hinestroza is a former Colombian football player. He was known by his supporters in his home country as The Octopus for his voracious appetite...
, Freddy Rincón or María Isabel Urrutia
María Isabel Urrutia
María Isabel Urrutia Ocoró is a weightlifter and politician from Colombia.-Athletic career:Initially she competed in shot put and discus throw, and participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics in these events. She switched to weightlifting in 1989, and won silver at the 1989 World Championships...
.
San Basilio de Palenque
San Basilio de Palenque
San Basilio de Palenque or Palenque de San Basilio is a Palenque village and corregimiento in the Municipality of Mahates, Bolivar in northern Colombia. In 2005 the village was declared Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO...
is a village in Colombia that is noted for maintaining many African traditions. It was declared a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness on intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and the local people who sustain these forms of cultural...
by UNESCO in 2005. The residents of palenque still speak Palenquero
Palenquero
Palenquero is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Colombia. Palenquero is the only Spanish-based creole in Latin America. The ethnic group which speaks this Creole consists only of 3,000 people,...
, a Spanish/African creole
Ecuador
In 2006 Ecuador had a population of 13,547,510. According to the latest data from CIA World Factbook, the makeup of the population is: "mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 65%, Amerindian 25%, Spanish and others 7%, black 3%".htmlThe Afro-Ecuadorian culture is found in the northwest coastal region of EcuadorEcuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
and make up the majority (70%) in the province of Esmeraldas
Esmeraldas Province
Esmeraldas is a province in northwestern Ecuador. The capital is Esmeraldas.The province is home to the Afro-Ecuadorian culture.- Cantons :The province is divided into 8 cantons...
and the Chota Valley in the Imbabura Province
Imbabura Province
Imbabura is a province in Ecuador. The capital is Ibarra. The people of the province speak Spanish and the Imbaburan Quechua language.Imbabura Volcano is located in the province. Best reached from the town of La Esperanza, the 4,609-meter-high mountain can be climbed in a single day.- Cantons...
. They can be also found in Quito
Quito
San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...
and Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
. The best known cultural influence known outside of Ecuador is a distinctive kind of marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
music. Bao is a fusion of native rhythms and Caribbean rhythms including candombe, salsa, merengue, reggae and calypso. From the Chota Valley there is Bomba (Ecuador)
Bomba (Ecuador)
Bomba or Bomba del Chota is an Afro-Ecuadorian musical form from the Chota Valley area of Ecuador in the province of Imbabura and Carchi. Its origins can be traced back to Africa via the middle passage and the use of African slave labor during the country's colonial period...
music which is very different from marimba from Esmeraldas.
Paraguay
Black Paraguayans are descended from West African slaves brought to Paraguay by the 16th century. They became a significant presence in the country, and made up 11% of the population in 1785. Most Afro-Paraguayans established communities in towns such as AreguáAreguá
Areguá is a city in Paraguay; located 28 km away from the capital city Asunción. It is the capital of Central. Probably the best feature of this Paraguayan town is its geographical location; it lays between a group of rolling hills with a distinctive rock formation and a beautiful blue lake,...
, Emboscada
Emboscada District
-Etymology:“San Agustín de la Emboscada” refers to the ambush before the Spanish Conquest, against Carios tribe made by Guaicurú. It is also known as the Stone City because most of the people's job is mining.-Weather:...
, and Guarambaré
Guarambaré
- Sources :* – World-Gazetteer.com...
. Many achieved their freedom during the Spanish rule. In the capital Asunción
Asunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
, there is a community of 300 Afro-Paraguayan families in the Fernando de la Mora municipality.
Peru
Afro-Peruvians make up about 3–4% of the population (close to two million).Over the course of the slave trade, approximately 95,000 slaves were brought into Peru, with the last group arriving in 1850. Today, Afro-Peruvians reside mainly on the central and south coast. Afro-Peruvians can also be found in significant numbers on the northern coast. Recently, it has been verified that the community with the greatest concentration of Afro-Peruvians is Yapatera in Morropón (Piura), made up of around 7,000 farmers who are largely descended from African slaves of "malagasy" (Madagascar) origin. They are referred to as "malgaches" or "mangaches".
Afro-Peruvian music was little known even in Peru until the 1950s, when it was popularized by the performer Nicomedes Santa Cruz
Nicomedes Santa Cruz
Nicomedes Santa Cruz was an Afro-Peruvian musician who helped raise public awareness of Afro-Peruvian culture....
.
Afro-Peruvian music was actually well known in Peru since the 1600s but oppressed by the Peruvian elite as was Andean religion and language.
Afro-Peruvian culture has not only thrived but influenced all aspects of Peruvian culture without any acknowledgment from mainstream media
or history. Luis Miguel Sanchez, Peru's 71st President was the first Afro-Andean President (1930–1933).
Uruguay
African slaves and their descendants figured prominently in the founding of Uruguay.In the late 18th century Montevideo became a major arrival port for slaves, most brought from Portuguese colonies of Africa and bound for Spanish colonies of the New World, the mines of Peru and Bolivia, and the fields of Uruguay.
In the 19th century, when Uruguay joined other colonies in fighting for independence from Spain, Uruguayan national hero Jose Artigas led an elite division of black troops against the colonists. One of his top advisors was Joaquín Lenzina
Joaquín Lenzina
Joaquín Lenzina, commonly known as "Ansina", accompanied José Gervasio Artigas throughout his life as his most loyal friend and follower.He was born in Montevideo in 1760, son of Black slaves...
, known as Ansina, a freed slave who composed musical odes about his commander's exploits and is regarded by Afro-Uruguayans as an unheralded father of the nation.
Venezuela
Black VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
ns are mostly descendants from African slaves brought to Venezuela from the 17th to the 19th century for the coffee and cocoa crops. Most of the African-Venezuelans live in the North-central Region: coastal towns in the area called Barlovento
Miranda (state)
Miranda State is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided. It is ranked second in population among Venezuelan states, after Zulia State. In June 30, 2010, it had approximately 2,987,968 residents. It also has the greatest Human Development Index in Venezuela, according to the...
, Northern Yaracuy
Yaracuy
Yaracuy State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is bordered by Falcón in the north, in the west by Lara, in the south by Portuguesa and Cojedes and in the east by Cojedes and Carabobo....
, Carabobo
Carabobo
Carabobo State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The capital city of this state is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is 4,650 km² and had an estimated population of...
and Aragua States, and Eastern Vargas State; but there are areas in South Lake Maracaibo (Zulia State) and Northern Merida State in the Andes, among others with several towns and villages. They have kept their traditions and culture alive especially through music.
Venezuela is a very racially mixed nation. Research in 2001 on genetic diversity by the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, IVIC) in which the population was compared to the historical patterns of the colonial castes. Adding to this new information about genetic diseases and characteristics associated with people from Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Native Americans reveals that approximately 5% of the population is of African descent and 29% of the Venezuelans are mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
s (mixed African and European), but no further data about the amount of zambo
Zambo
Zambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...
s (mixed black and Amerindian) is provided. This information reveals that at least 34% of the Venezuelan population is, to some extent, of African descent..
Afro-Venezuelans have stood out as sportsmen, many of them in the Major League Baseball and other sports (e.g. former NBA/Houston Rockets
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...
forward Carl Herrera
Carl Herrera
Carl Víctor Herrera Alleyne is a retired Venezuelan basketball player. A power forward, he was part of the Houston Rockets National Basketball Association championship teams of the mid-1990s....
), however, most of them do not describe themselves as Afro-Venezuelan, but as Latinos or Hispanics or simply Venezuelans. Afro-Venezuelans have also stood out in the arts, especially in music, for example: Magdalena Sánchez
Magdalena Sánchez
Magdalena Sánchez, was a Venezuelan singer, better known like the Queen of the Venezuelan song.- Early career :...
, Oscar D'León
Oscar D'León
Oscar Emilio León Somoza, better known as Oscar D'León is a Venezuelan musician who became internationally famous for his salsa music. In Spanish, he is known as El Sonero del Mundo . His most famous song is perhaps "Llorarás," which he recorded in 1975 with his group La Dimensión Latina...
, Morella Muñoz
Morella Muñoz
Morella Muñoz , was a celebrated Venezuelan mezzosoprano.- Early life and career :She received primary education at the Venezuela Ricardo Zuloaga Experimental school, and the San José de Tarbes school...
, Allan Phillips
Allan Phillips
Allan Phillips was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He's a music producer, composer, arranger, and musician now residing in Southern California. His musical style is a blend of contemporary music with ethnic elements from around the world. On October 18 of 2008, he won an Emmy Award for the musical...
, Pedro Eustache, Frank Quintero, and many others. Miss Venezuela 1998, Carolina Indriago
Carolina Indriago
Lucbel Carolina Indriago Pinto is a Venezuelan show hostess and a pageant titleholder. She was born in Valencia, Venezuela on August 22, 1980. She is the first woman of noticeably black heritage to win the Miss Venezuela title...
, Miss Venezuela Universe 2006, Jictzad Viña
Jictzad Viña
Jictzad Nakarhyt Viña Carreño is a pageant titleholder born in Carúpano, Venezuela on May 27, 1983. She was Miss Venezuela 2005 and was the official representative of Venezuela to the Miss Universe 2006 pageant held in Los Angeles, USA on July 23, 2006....
, and Miss Venezuela World 2006, Susan Carrizo
Susan Carrizo
Berliz Susan Carrizo Escandela is a pageant titleholder, was born in Lagunillas, Zulia, Venezuela on April 24, 1984. She was the official representative of Venezuela to the Miss World 2005 pageant held in Sanya, China on December 1, 2005...
are mulatto.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
stated in an interview while visiting the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, "When we were children, we were told that we have a motherland, and that motherland was Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. However, we have discovered later, in our lives, that as a matter of fact, we have several motherlands. And one of the greatest motherlands of all is no doubt, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. We love Africa. And every day we are much more aware of the roots we have in Africa... Racism is very characteristic of imperialism. Racism is very characteristic of capitalism. Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
is—indeed, has a lot to do with racism–no doubt about it. Hate against me has a lot to do with racism. Because of my big mouth, because of my curly hair. And I’m so proud to have this mouth and this hair, because it’s African."
Central America
The Afro-Latin Americans of Central America mostly live in or near Caribbean coast. The blacks of BelizeBelize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, are of Garífuna
Garifuna
The Garinagu are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans...
, Afro-Caribbean and/or Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
heritage, as well as of Miskito heritage. Those of Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
are mostly of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Many Afro-Caribbean islanders arrived in Panama to help build the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
and to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to work in the banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
and sugar cane plantations.
Belize
Note:Common definitions of Latin America do not include BelizeBelizean culture is a mix of African, European, and Mayan
Maya society
Maya society shared many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations, for there was a high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion throughout the region. Although aspects such as writing and the calendar did not originate with the Maya, the Maya script and their calendar were among the...
but only 30% of the population is considered to be of African descent. The main community of African descent are the Creoles and Garifuna concentrated from the Cayo District
Cayo District
Cayo District is a district in the west of the nation of Belize. The District capital is the town of San Ignacio.- Geography :The Cayo District is the largest district in Belize. It is located on the western side of the country which borders Guatemala. The nation's capital, Belmopan, is...
to the Belize District
Belize District
The Belize District is a district of the nation of Belize, with its district capital being the nation's largest city, Belize City.- Settlements :...
and Stann Creek District
Stann Creek District
Stann Creek District is a district in the south east region of Belize. According to the 2010 census, the district had a population of 32,166 people...
(Dangriga
Dangriga
Dangriga, formerly known as Stann Creek Town, is a town in southern Belize, located on the Caribbean coast at the mouth of Stann Creek. It is the capital of Belize's Stann Creek District and also the largest town in southern Belize...
) on the Caribbean Sea. Belize City
Belize City
Belize City is the largest city in the Central American nation of Belize. Unofficial estimates place the population of Belize City at 70,000 or more. It is located at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and...
, on the Caribbean coast, is the center of West African culture in Belize, with its population being of mixed Black African, Maya, and European.
Costa Rica
Three per cent of the population is of Black African descent (called Afro-Costa Ricans) and are English-speaking descendants of 19th century black JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n immigrant workers. The indigenous population numbers around 1%, 41,338 individuals. In the Guanacaste Province
Guanacaste Province
Guanacaste is a province of Costa Rica located in the northwestern part of the country, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. To the north it borders Nicaragua. To the east is the Alajuela Province, and to the southeast is the Puntarenas Province. It is the most sparsely populated of all the...
, a significant portion of the population descends from a mix of local Amerindians, Africans and Spaniards. Most Afro-Costa Ricans are found in the Limón Province
Limón Province
Limón is one of seven provinces in Costa Rica. The majority of its territory is situated in the country's Caribbean lowlands, though the southwestern portion houses part of an extensive mountain range known as the Cordillera de Talamanca...
.
El Salvador
A total of 10,000 African slaves were brought to El Salvador. The African population completely mixed into the general Amerindian/Mestizo population. El Salvador has no English Antillean (West Indian), Garifuna, and Miskito population, largely due to laws banning the immigration of blacks into the country in the 1930s, these laws were revoke in the 1980s.Guatemala
Only 2% of the Guatemalan population is considered black or mulatto. The main community of African heritage are the Garifuna, concentrated in LivingstonLivingston, Guatemala
Livingston is the name of a town in Izabal Department, eastern Guatemala, at the mouth of theRío Dulce at the Gulf of Honduras. The town serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name.It was Guatemala's main port on the Caribbean Sea before the construction of nearby Puerto...
and Puerto Barrios
Puerto Barrios
Puerto Barrios is a city in Guatemala, located within the Gulf of Honduras at. The bay in which the harbour is located is called Bahia de Amatique. Puerto Barrios is the departmental seat of Izabal department and the administrative seat of Puerto Barrios municipality.Puerto Barrios was named after...
. The rest are Afro-Caribbean and mulattoes who lives in Puerto Barrios
Puerto Barrios
Puerto Barrios is a city in Guatemala, located within the Gulf of Honduras at. The bay in which the harbour is located is called Bahia de Amatique. Puerto Barrios is the departmental seat of Izabal department and the administrative seat of Puerto Barrios municipality.Puerto Barrios was named after...
and Morales
Morales, Guatemala
Morales is a municipality in Izabal Department of Guatemala.The municipality was created in 1920 and is formed by the town of Morales, 9 villages and 56 rural communities.The Cuevas del Silvino National Park is located a few kilometers north-east of Morales....
. All these places belong to Izabal department, on the Caribbean coast. Sadly, because of unemployent and lack of opportunities, many Garifuna from Guatemala had left the country and move to Belize and the United States. Also many people of African descent are located in Amatitlán
Amatitlán
Amatitlán is a town in the Guatemala department of Guatemala. The main industry of the town during colonial times was the preparation of cochineal...
, San Jerónimo
San Jerónimo, Baja Verapaz
San Jerónimo is a municipality in the Baja Verapaz department of Guatemala. It is situated at 940 m above sea level. It contains 18,000 people. It covers a terrain of 474 km². The annual festival is September 28-September 30....
, and Jutiapa, although most of them may not recognize it because the loss of culture in these places.
Many of the slaves brought from Africa came to Guatemala to work on cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, and coffee plantations. The main reason for slavery in Guatemala was because of the large sugar cane plantations and haciendas located on Guatemala's Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The national folk instrument, the marimba, has its origins in Africa and was brought to Guatemala and the rest of Central America by African slaves during colonial times. The melodies played on it show native American, West African and European influences in both form and style.
Among the notable Garifuna from Guatemala are social leaders (Mario Ellington and Dilia Palacios Cayetano), musicians (Sofía Blanco, Silvia Blanco and Jursino Cayetano), poets (Nora Murillo and Wingston González), athletes (Teodoro Palacios Flores and Mario Blanco), soccer players (Guillermo la Pantera Enríquez Gamboa, Tomás Enríquez Gamboa, German Trigueño Castro, Clemente Lalín Sánchez, Wilson Lalín Salvatierra, Carlos Delva, Norman Delva, David Suazo, Tomás Suazo, Braulio Arzú, Ricardo Trigueno Foster
Ricardo Trigueño Foster
Ricardo Alberto Trigueño Foster is a Guatemalan football goalkeeper who currently plays for Deportivo Malacateco in Guatemala's top division.-Club career:...
, Guillermo Ramírez
Guillermo Ramírez
Guillermo "El Pando" Ramírez Ortega is a Guatemalan football midfielder. He most recently played for C.D...
el Pando, Florencio Martínez
Florencio Martínez
Florencio Martínez , is a Guatemalan football forward. He currently plays for Cobán Imperial.-Club career:At the age of 20, Martínez had shown his scoring ability in the little time given to him in Suchi...
, Renato Blanco and Marvin Avila
Marvin Ávila
Marvin Tomás Ávila is a Guatemalan football striker who plays for CSD Municipal.He is also a member of the Guatemala national football team...
), basketball players (Juan Pablo Trigueño Foster), a wrestler (El Cadete del Espacio) and a model (Deborah David).
From the Afro-Caribbean community comes doctors (Henry Stokes Brown and his son, Wilfredo Stokes Baltazar; Arla Cinderella Stokes), psychologists (Elizabeth Stokes), deacons (Sydney Samuels), a poet (Alan Mills), a journalist (Glenda Stokes Weatherborn), athletes (Roy Fearon, Salomón Rowe, Octavio Guillespie and Lidia Graviola Ewing), soccer players (Ricardo Clark, Jorge Lynch, Jerry Slosher, Royston Hall, David Stokes, Tony Edwin, Oscar Sims, Willie Sims, Vicente Charles, José A. Charles, Martín Charles, Selvyn Pennant, Douglas Pérez McNish, Mynor Pérez McNish, Carlos Pérez McNish, Leonardo McNish, Arturo McNish, Alfredo McNish, Julio César Anderson, Hermenegildo Pepp Castro, Stanley Gardiner, David Gardiner, Kenneth Brown, Mario la Gallina Becker, Freddy Thompson
Freddy Thompson
Fredy Williams Thompson León is a Guatemalan professional footballer, who currently plays for Comunicaciones in Guatemala's top division.-Club career:...
, Elton Brown and Jonny Brown), basketball players (Jeremías Stokes, Tomás Guillespie and Peggy Lynch), and a former Miss Guatemala (Marva Weatherborn).
Today, the Garifuna and Afro-Caribbean people of Guatemala are organized in a group called Organización Negra Guatemalteca (Onegua). According to its website, Onegua is "a non-governmental organisation established in 1995 with a mandate to promote the interests and fight for the rights of Guatemala's Garifuna and Afrodescendant populations". There is also an association, called Asociación Raíces Afrodescendientes Guatemaltecas.
Honduras
The official census of HondurasDemographics of Honduras
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Honduras, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.- Population Breakdown :...
indicates that 2% of the population, or about 150,000 individuals, self-identified as black during the last official census. This number is based on self-identification and does not use the American definition of blood quantum to identify "blackness" as Henry Gates does in his estimate of the black population of Honduras: "Estimates of people of African descent in Honduras vary widely, from 100,000 to 320,000 (1.8 to 5.8 percent of the country's 5.8 million people in 1994)."
If one uses the blood quantum
Blood quantum laws
Blood Quantum Laws or Indian Blood Laws is an umbrella term that describes legislation enacted in the United States to define membership in Native American tribes or nations...
definition of blackness, then blacks came to Honduras early in the colonial period. One of the mercenaries who aided Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
in his conquest of Honduras
History of Honduras
Honduras was already occupied by many indigenous peoples when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lencas, the central north coast by the Tol, the area east of Trujillo by the Pech and the Miskito and Sumo...
in 1536 was a black slave working as a mercenary to earn his freedom. Alvarado sent his own slaves from Guatemala to work the placer
Placer mining
Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....
gold deposits in western Honduras as early as 1534. The earliest black slaves consigned to Honduras were part of a license granted to the Bishop Cristobal de Pedraza in 1547 to bring 300 slaves into Honduras. Certainly a large part of the modern Honduran population today identified as mestizo has at least some black ancestry, but they do not self-identify as black.
The self-identifying black population in Honduras is mostly of West Indian (Antillean origin), descendants of indentured laborers brought from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, and other Caribbean Islands. The Garifuna (or Black Caribs), a people of mixed Amerindian and Black African ancestry, were expelled from the island of Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent (island)
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains...
after an uprising against the English and in 1797 and were exiled to Roatan
Roatán
Roatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
. From there they made their way along the Caribbean coast of Belize, mainland Honduras and Nicaragua. Large Garifuna settlements in Honduras today include Trujillo, La Ceiba, and Triunfo de la Cruz. Even though they only came to Honduras in 1797, the Garifuna are one of the seven officially recognized indigenous groups in Honduras.
Slaves on the north coast mixed with the Miskito Indians, forming a group referred to as the Zambo Miskito. Today the Miskito consider themselves to be purely indigenous, denying this Black African heritage. Today there are a sizable number of people in the department of Olancho
Olancho (department)
Olancho is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. It is the largest of all the departments, and Hondurans frequently point out that the department is larger than the neighboring Republic of El Salvador...
(a center of gold mining and cattle ranching) that would be considered black by U.S. standards. They do not, however, identify as such but rather as mestizo. The Black Creoles of the Bay Islands
Bay Islands (department)
Islas de la Bahía is one of the 18 departments into which the Central American nation of Honduras is divided. The departmental capital is Roatan, on the island of Roatán....
are today distinguished as an ethnic group for their racial difference from the mestizos and blacks, and their cultural difference as English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
.There has been practically
no ethnographic research conducted with this population.
All these circumstances led to a denial by many Hondurans of their Black African heritage which reflects in the census even to this day. "Blacks were more problematic as national symbols because at the time they were neither seen to represent modernity nor autochthony, and their history of dislocation from Africa means they have no great pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas to call upon as symbols of a glorious past. Thus Latin American states often end up with a primarily "Indo-Hispanic" mestizaje where the Indian is privileged as the roots of the nation and blackness is either minimized or completely erased."
Nicaragua
About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black and mainly reside on the country's sparsely populated Caribbean coast. Afro-Nicaraguans are found on the autonomous regions of RAANRegión Autónoma del Atlántico Norte
Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte , sometimes shortened to RAAN, is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 32,159 km² and has a population of 249,700 . It is the largest autonomous region or department in Nicaragua...
and RAAS
Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur
Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur , sometimes shortened to RAAS, is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 27,407 km² and has a population of 382,100...
. The black population is mostly of West Indian
Antilles
The Antilles islands form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north and west, including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the...
(Antillean) origin, the descendants
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
of indentured laborers brought mostly from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and other Caribbean Islands when the region was a British protectorate
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. There is also a smaller number of Garífuna
Garifuna
The Garinagu are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans...
, a people of mixed Carib, Angolan
Demographics of Angola
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Angola, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
, Congolese
Kongo people
The Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...
and Arawak descent. The Garífuna live along in Orinoco, La Fe and Marshall Point, communities settled at Laguna de Perlas. Nicaragua has the largest population of blacks in Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
.
From these regions comes writers and poets like Carlos Rigby, David McField (current Nicaraguan ambassador in Jamaica), Clifford Glenn Hodgson Dumbar, June Beer (also a painter), Andira Watson and John Oliver, and diplomants and politicians like Francisco Campbell (current ambassador in the USA) and Lumberto Campbell. Among the musicians are Caribbean All Stars, Atma Terapia Arjuna Das, Osberto Jerez y Los Gregorys, Caribbean Taste, Spencer Hodgson, Philip Montalbán, Grupo Gamma, Anthony Matthews and Dimension Costeña, Charles Wiltshire (also known as "Carlos de Nicaragua", who played with Mano Negra
Mano Negra
Mano Negra was a music band in France, during 1987–1995, fronted by Manu Chao.The band, founded in 1987 by Chao, his brother Antoine, and his cousin Santiago Casariego in Paris, France, was very influential in Europe during the early 1990s. Although it reached mainstream success in countries...
in its 1994 record Casa Babylon
Casa Babylon
Casa Babylon is the fifth record album by Mano Negra, released in the month of May of 1994.-Track listing:-Group Line-Up: Manu Chao'Antoine Chao'Santiago Casariego'Philippe Teboul'Daniel Jamet'Olivier Dahan'Thomas Darnal'Pierre "Krøpöl" Gauthé'Fidel Nadal : Lead Vocals & Guitar: Trompet &...
) and dancer Gloria Bacon. Miss Lizzie Nelson is a cultural promoter, Altha Hooker is the dean of the Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe, Neyda Dixon is a well known journalist and Scharllette Allen was elected as Miss Nicaragua in 2010.
Panama
Blacks in Panama are the descendants of West African slaves but later on blacks from the Caribbean islands arrived. The Afro Colonials are the group of Hispanics, while the Antillanos are those of Caribbean descent.Cuba
According to a 2001 national census which surveyed 11.2 million Cubans, 1.1 million Cubans described themselves as BlackBlack
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
, while 2.8 million considered themselves to be "mulatto" or "mestizo" or "javao" or "moro". Many Cubans still locate their origins in specific African ethnic groups or regions, particularly Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
, Igbo
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
and Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, but also Arará, Carabalí, Mandingo, Fula and others.
There is also a significant presence of black Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an immigrants in the country. Creole language and culture first entered Cuba with the arrival of Haitian immigrants at the start of the 19th century. Haiti was a French colony, and the final years of the 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution
Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
brought a wave of French settlers fleeing with their Haitian slaves to Cuba. They came mainly to the east, and especially Guantanamo, where the French later introduced sugar cultivation, constructed sugar refineries and developed coffee plantations. By 1804 some 30,000 French were living in Baracoa and Maisi, the furthest eastern municipalities of the province. Later, Haitians continued to come to Cuba to work as brazeros (hand workers, from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") in the fields cutting cane. Their living and working conditions were not much better than slavery. Although they planned to return to Haiti, most stayed on in Cuba. For years, many Haitians and their descendants in Cuba did not identify themselves as such or speak Creole. In the eastern part of the island many Haitians suffered discrimination. But since 1959 the Castro regime claims that discrimination against Cubans of Haitian descent has stopped. After Spanish, Creole is the second most-spoken language in Cuba. Over 400,000 Cubans either speak it fluently, understand it but speak with difficulty, or have at least some familiarity with the language. It is mainly in those communities, where Haitians and their descendants live, that Creole is most spoken. In addition to the eastern provinces there are also communities in Ciego de Avila and Camaguey provinces where the population still maintains Creole, their mother tongue. Classes in Creole are offered in Guantanamo, Matanzas and the City of Havana. There is a Creole-language radio program.
Some of the most famous Afro-Cubanos are writers Nicolás Guillén
Nicolás Guillén
Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista was a Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.Guillén was born in Camagüey, Cuba...
, Gastón Baquero, Nancy Morejón
Nancy Morejón
Nancy Morejón is one of Cuba's major authors and poets. She has gained recognition for work whose themes are centered on women and the Afro-Cuban experience.-Life history:...
, Alberto Guerra Naranjo and Ariel Ribeaux Diago; salsa legend Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums...
; Compay Segundo
Compay Segundo
Compay Segundo was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer.-Biography:...
, Rubén González
Rubén González
Rubén González was a Cuban pianist and member of the group Buena Vista Social Club and Estrellas de Areito.-Biography:...
, Orlando "Cachaito" López, Omara Portuondo
Omara Portuondo
Omara Portuondo Peláez is a Cuban singer and dancer whose career has spanned over half a century. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and has performed with Ignacio Piñeiro, Orquesta Anacaona, Orquesta Aragón, Nat King Cole, Adalberto Álvarez, Los Van Van, the Buena Vista...
and Ibrahim Ferrer
Ibrahim Ferrer
Ibrahim Ferrer was a popular Afro-Cuban singer and musician in Cuba. He performed with many musical groups including the Conjunto Sorpresa, Orquesta Chepin-Choven and Afro-Cuban All Stars...
of the Buena Vista Social Club; jazz musicians like Mario Bauzá
Mario Bauza
Mario Bauzá was an important Cuban musician. He was one of the first to introduce Latin music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles into the New York jazz scene...
, Mongo Santamaría
Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...
, Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés
Chucho Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. In 1972 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba's greatest jazz pianists...
, Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Gonzalo Rubalcaba is a Grammy Award-winning Cuban jazz pianist and composer.Gonzalo Julio Gonzalez Fonseca was born in Havana, Cuba, May 27, 1963, into a musical family rich in the traditions of the country’s artistic past...
, Alfredo Terry, Anga Díaz
Anga Díaz
Miguel 'Angá' Díaz , was a Cuban percussionist. With his explosive soloing and inventive five conga patterns, Angá was widely acclaimed as one of the world's greatest congueros...
, Orlando Valle 'Maraca', Jorge Varona and Jorge Alfonso 'el Niño'; songwriters like Carlos Alfonso, X Alfonso, Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés Arias is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana. He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola...
and Gerardo Alfonso; other musicians as Bebo Valdés
Bebo Valdés
Bebo Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. He was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music, led two famous big bands, and was one of the 'house' arrangers for the Tropicana Club.Valdés started his career as a pianist in the night clubs of Havana during the 1940s...
, Israel "Cachao" López, Orestes López
Orestes López
Orestes López was a Cuban musician and bandleader, often credited with popularizing the musical form Mambo, together with his brother Israel "Cachao" Lopez....
, Richard Egües
Richard Egües
Richard Egües nicknamed "la flauta magica" , was a Cuban flautist and musician, on of the country's most famous artists. Egües was a member of the Orquesta Aragón band which he joined in 1953...
, Dámaso Pérez Prado, Rolando Laserie, Miguelito Cuni and Tata Güines
Tata Güines
Tata Güines was a Cuban percussionist on the tumbadora, or conga drum, as well as a composer. He was important in the first generation of Afro-Cuban jazz....
; and politicians like Juan Almeida and Esteban Lazo.
Dominican Republic
Accoding to the CIA Factbook, 16% of the Dominican population is White, 11% is Black and 73% is "mixed".
This source, however, does not define "mixed", nor does it indicate the specific demographic or genetic study from which these percentages were obtained. Other sources give similar figures,
, but also without naming a specific study.
Regardless of the specific racial breakdown of the Dominican population, it is generally acknowledged that a large percentage of it is of mixed ancestry, including Black African. Some commentators and race/ethnicity scholars have been harshly critical of Dominicans of mixed racial background for their reluctance to self-identify as Black. However, this reluctance is shared by many people of multiracial background, who find inappropriate to identify with only one side of their ancestry,
. Those people refuse to express a preference for any of the races that make up their background, and resent being ascribed to any single race.
Dominican culture is a mixture of Taino Amerindian, West African, and European origins. While Taino influences are present in many Dominican traditions, the European and West African influences are the most noticeable.
Afro-Dominicans make the largest presence along the south coast of the nation in cities like the capital Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
.
Notable Dominicans whose physical features suggest Black African ancestry include bachatero Antony Santos
Antony Santos
Antony Santos is a bachata musician from the Dominican Republic, renowned for his role in redefining the genre to include romantic music.Santos entered onto the scene in the early 1990s, beginning his career as the guira player for fellow bachatero Luis Vargas, only to leave the group and maintain...
, Sammy Sosa
Sammy Sosa
Samuel Peralta "Sammy" Sosa is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder. Sosa played with four Major League Baseball teams over his career which spanned from 1989-2007....
, Pedro Martinez
Pedro Martínez
Pedro Jaime Martínez is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. He is an eight-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young Award winner, and 2004 World Series champion...
, salsa singer Jose Alberto
José Alberto
José Alberto is a Dominican salsa singer. José Alberto moved to Puerto Rico with his family at the age of 7, and inspired by Latin music went on to polish his singing at Las Antillas Military Academy...
, and 2009 Miss Universe runner-up Ada De La Cruz
Ada de la Cruz
Ada Aimée de la Cruz Ramirez is Miss Dominican Republic 2009 and Miss Universe 2009 first runner-up.-Biography:...
, among others. However, there is no reliable procedure to ascertain the degree, if any, to which their ancestry is Black African.
The most common Black African ethnic groups among all Dominicans are the Bantu-Congo peoples and the Yoruba (known as Lucumi). Other small ethnic groups but yet sagnificant are the Akan, Mandinga, Igbo, Ewe, Fon, Bambara, and as well as the Fula.
A system of racial stratification
Casta
Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...
was imposed on Santo Domingo by Spain, as elsewhere in the Spanish Empire.
Haiti
Note: Popular definitions of Latin America do not include HaitiThe population of Haiti is 8.7 million, of which 95% are of Black African descent and the remaining 10%–5% is mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
and white. Slavery in Haiti was established by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
colonialist.
Many Haitians are descendants of Taino
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
or Caribs who cohabitated with the African descendant population.
Haiti is an Afro-Latin nation with strong African contributions to the culture as well as its language, music and religion. To a lesser degree French, Spaniard, and in rare occasions (food, art, and folk religion) Taino and Arab customs are present in society.
Martinique
Note: Popular definitions of Latin America do not include MartiniqueThe population of Martinique, an overseas region of France, is 397,730 (January 1st 2007 est.), 90% of the population has Black African descent. Moreover, the island emphasizes its diversity because of natives of Black African-Caucasian descent or Black African-Indian descent. Their West African ancestors were imported from the Guinean Coast for sugar cane plantation labor during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Antillean Creole
Antillean Creole
Antillean Creole is a creole language with a vocabulary based on French. It is spoken primarily in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary also include elements of Carib and African languages. Antillean Creole is related to Haitian Creole, but has a number of distinctive features; they are...
- which is a french-based creole, is widely local language spoken among the natives of the island and even the immigrants who have been living on the island for a couple of years. French - the official language, is still the most common language used and heard on the island. Used during more intimate/friendly conversations, Martiniquean people switch to French - which is their first and native language, when in public.
Puerto Rico
According to the 2010 U.S. Census taken in Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, 75.8% of Puerto Ricans identified as White, 12.4% of the population as Black and 11.1% as of mixed or other race. An island-wide mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
(mtDNA) study conducted by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez in Spanish , is a land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant state university located in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico...
revealed that 61% of Puerto Ricans have maternal Native American ancestry, 26.4% have maternal West
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
or Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
n ancestry, and 12.6% have maternal European ancestry. On the other hand, the Y chromosome
Y chromosome
The Y chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes in most mammals, including humans. In mammals, it contains the gene SRY, which triggers testis development if present. The human Y chromosome is composed of about 60 million base pairs...
evidence showed Puerto Ricans' patrilineage to be approximately 75% European, 20% Black African, and less than 5% indigenous. The combined results reveal a mostly mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
(Taino
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
and European) population with important Black African elements (Demographics of Puerto Rico
Demographics of Puerto Rico
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Puerto Rico, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
).
An interesting anecdote to consider was that during this whole period, Puerto Rico had laws like the Regla del Sacar or Gracias al Sacar where a person of black ancestry could be considered legally white so long as they could prove that at least one person per generation in the last four generations had also been legally white. Therefore people of black ancestry with known white lineage were classified as white, the opposite of the "one-drop rule
One-drop rule
The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered black...
" in the United States.
These critics maintain that a majority of Puerto Ricans are racially mixed, but that they do not feel the need to identify as such. They argue, furthermore, that Puerto Ricans tend to assume that they are of Black African, American Indian, and European ancestry and only identify themselves as mixed if having parents "appearing" to be of separate "races". It should also be noted that Puerto Rico underwent a "whitening" process while under U.S. rule. The census-takers at the turn of the 20th Century recorded a huge disparity in the number of "black" and "white" Puerto Ricans between the 1910 and 1920 censuses. "Black" suddenly began to disappear from one census to another (within 10 years' time), possibly due to redefinition of the term. It also appears that the "black" element within the culture was simply disappearing possibly due to the popular idea that in the U.S. one could only advance economically and socially if one were to pass for "white".
Misinformation of ethnic populations within Puerto Rico also existed under Spanish rule, when the Native Amerindian (Taino) populations were recorded as being "extinct". Biological science has now rewritten their history books. These tribes were not voluntary travelers, but have since blended into the mainstream Puerto Rican population (as all the others have been) with Taino ancestry being the common thread that binds.
Many blacks in Puerto Rico are found in the coastal areas, areas traditionally associated with sugar cane plantations, especially in the towns Loiza
Loíza, Puerto Rico
Loíza is a small town and municipality in the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico, north of Canóvanas; east of Carolina; and west of Río Grande. Loíza is spread over 5 wards and Loíza Pueblo...
, Carolina
Carolina, Puerto Rico
Carolina is a city located in the northern part of Puerto Rico, bordering the Atlantic Ocean; it lies north of Gurabo and Juncos; east of Trujillo Alto and San Juan; and west of Canóvanas and Loíza. Carolina is spread over 12 wards plus Carolina Pueblo...
, Fajardo
Fajardo, Puerto Rico
Fajardo is a small city in Puerto Rico located in the east region of the island, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, north of Ceiba and east of Luquillo.Fajardo is spread over 7 wards and Downtown Fajardo , which serves as the administrative center of the city...
, and Guayama
Guayama, Puerto Rico
Guayama is a municipality of Puerto Rico founded on January 29, 1736 and located on the Southern Coastal Valley region, bordering the Caribbean, south of Cayey; east of Salinas; and west of Patillas and Arroyo. Guayama is spread over 9 wards and Guayama Pueblo...
. Although, due to the DNA evidence that is being presented by UPR at Mayaguez, many African bloodlines have been recorded in the central mountains of the island, though not written in the Spanish history books of the time. Consequently, Taino bloodlines have begun appearing in the coastal towns. All this suggesting that escaped enslaved Black Africans ran off to the mountains to escape the slaveowners, while some Tainos remained close to their main staple food, fish.
The Puerto Rican musical genres of bomba and plena
Plena
Plena is a folkloric genre native to Puerto Rico. Its creation was influenced by African and Spanish music.-History:The music is generally folkloric. The music's beat and rhythm are usually played using hand drums called panderetas, but also known as panderos or pleneras. The music is accompanied...
are of West African and Caribbean origin, respectively; the are danced to during parties and West African-derived festivals. Many Taino
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
Boricuas who claim West/Central African ancestry are descendants of enslaved Congo
Kingdom of Kongo
The Kingdom of Kongo was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Igbo and Yoruba from Africa. After the abolition of slavery in 1873 and the Spanish-American War of 1898 a number of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s have also migrated and settled in Puerto Rico.
Two of the most famous Afro-Latin Americans are Puerto Rican Boxer Felix "Tito" Trinidad
Félix Trinidad
Félix 'Tito' Trinidad, Jr. is a Puerto Rican professional boxer, considered one of the best in Puerto Rico's history. After winning five National Amateur Championships in Puerto Rico, he debuted as a professional when he was 17. He won his first world championship when he defeated Maurice Blocker...
and Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican Major League Baseball right fielder. He was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. Clemente played his entire 18-year baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates . He was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award in...
.
United States
Many Afro-Latino immigrants have arrived, in waves, over decades in the US.Mexico
The vast majority of contemporary Afro-Mexicans inhabit the southern region of Mexico; those that migrated north in the colonial period assimilated into the general population, making their existence in the country less evident than other groups. Some Afro-Mexican facts:- Mexico's second President, Vicente GuerreroVicente GuerreroVicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña was one of the leading revolutionary generals of the Mexican War of Independence, who fought against Spain for independence in the early 19th century, and served briefly as President of Mexico...
, an Afro-Mexican, issued a decree abolishing slavery and emancipating all slaves in 1829, during his short term as president. - Race is not considered for any official purpose, including the census.
- Gaspar YangaGaspar YangaGaspar Yanga—often simply Yanga or Nyanga—was a leader of a slave rebellion in Mexico during the early period of Spanish colonial rule. Said to be of the Bran people and member of the royal family of Gabon, Yanga came to be the head of a band of revolting slaves near Veracruz around 1570...
founded the first free African township in the Americas in 1609. - a Black man named Esteban el NegroEstevanicoEstevanico , "Black Stephen", "Esteban", "Esteban the Moor", "Estevan", "Estebanico", "Stephen the Black", "Stephen the Moor", "Stephen Dorantes" after his owner Andres Dorantes, and "Little Stephen") was the first known person born in Africa to have arrived in the present-day continental United...
(Steven the Black), a North African MoorMoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
from Spain, searched for the fabled city of CíbolaQuivira and CíbolaQuivira is a place first mentioned by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado in 1541, who visited it during his searches for the mythical "Seven Cities of Gold". The location and identity of the "Quivirans" has been much debated over a wide area, including Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri...
with Cabeza de VacaÁlvar Núñez Cabeza de VacaÁlvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition...
. - Veracruz, Campeche, Pánuco and Acapulco were the main ports for the entrance of African slaves.
- In the past, offspring of Black African/Amerindian mixtures were called jarocho (wild pig), chino or lobo (wolf). Today jarocho refers to all inhabitants of the state of Veracruz, without regard to ancestry.
Afro-Latino populations in the Americas
| Region / Country | Country population | Afro-descendants | population* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caribbean Caribbean The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north... |
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| Haiti Haiti Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island... * |
9,648,924 | >95% | 8,583,759 |
| Dominican Republic Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries... |
9,650,054 | 84% | 8,106,054 |
| Cuba Cuba The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city... |
11,451,652 | 34.9% | 3,999,626 |
| Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an... |
3,978,702 (2010 Census Numbers) | 23.5% - 40% | 873,170 - 1,490,315 |
| South America South America South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east... /Central America Central America Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent... |
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| Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast... |
13,550,440 (July 2010 est.) | N/A | N/A |
| Belize Belize Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official... * |
314,522 (July 2010 est.) | N/A | N/A |
| El Salvador El Salvador El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America... |
6,052,064 (July 2010 est.) | N/A | N/A |
| Honduras Honduras Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize... |
7,989,415 | 2.0% | 159,788 |
| Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean... |
5,995,928 (July 2010 est.) | 9.0% | 539,633 |
| Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east.... |
4,516,220 (July 2010 est.) | 3.0% | 179,877 |
| Panama Panama Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The... |
3,410,676 (July 2010 est.) | 14.0% | 477,494 |
| Colombia Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the... |
44,205,293 (July 2010 est.) | 21.0% | 9,283,111 |
| Venezuela Venezuela Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south... |
26,414,815 | 26.5% | 6,999,926 |
| Brazil Brazil Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... |
198,739,269 | 6.9% | 13,252,000 |
| Ecuador Ecuador Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border... |
14,790,608 (July 2010 est.) | 3.0% | 443,718 |
| Peru Peru Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.... |
29,907,003 (July 2010 est.) | <3.0% | 2,000,000 |
| Bolivia Bolivia Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America... |
9,775,246 | <3.0% | 725,000 |
| Chile Chile Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far... |
16,601,707 | N/A | N/A |
| Paraguay Paraguay Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the... |
6,375,830 (July 2010 est.) | N/A | N/A |
| Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires... |
40,913,584 | N/A | N/A |
| Uruguay Uruguay Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area... |
3,494,382 | 4.0% | 209,662 |
| North America North America North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas... |
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| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
299,398,485 | 12.2% | 616,953 |
| Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... |
112,468,855 (July 2010 est.) | <1.0% | <1,124,688 |
(*)Note that population statistics from different sources and countries use highly divergent methods of identifying race, ethnicity, or national or genetic origin of individuals, from observing for color and racial characteristics, to asking the person to choose from a set of pre-defined choices, sometimes with an "other" category, and sometimes with an open-ended option, and sometimes not, which different national populations tend to choose in divergent ways. Color and visual characteristics were considered an invalid way to determine the genetic "racial" branch in anthropology (the field of science that original conceived of race, as a genetic branch of people who could have a relative success together compared with other branches, now considered invalid) as of 1910. It is likely these numbers do not fully reflect the percentage of the population that is of Black African heritage if you use any method of identification other than that of self-identification such as; the blood quantum definition, identification based on physical characteristics and identification by cultural traces. Self-identification also fails to identify those who would consider themselves of Black African heritage if the option were given in the national census. Furthermore, the categorization of people of mixed racial background is controversial. Should a person of mostly non-Black African background be categorized as if his or her ancestry was 100% Black African? What percentage of this person's ancestry needs to be Black African in order for him/her to be considered of Black African descent?
See also
- Black history in Puerto Rico
- Afro-American peoples of the Americas
- Afro-BrazilianAfro-BrazilianIn Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
- Afro-MexicanAfro-MexicanPeople of African descent in Mexico is a term mainly used outside of Mexico to identify Mexicans of predominantly African ancestry. Now largely assimilated into the general population, Afro Mexicans historically have been located in certain communities, most notably in two coastal areas of Guerrero...
- African diasporaAfrican diasporaThe African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world—predominantly to the Americas also to Europe, the Middle East and other places around the globe...
- African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
- Afro-CaribbeanAfro-CaribbeanThe term Afro-Caribbean applies to Caribbean people of African descent. It may also refer to:*British African-Caribbean community*Afro-Caribbean music*Caribbean Australian*Caribbean Brazilian*West Indian American...
- Atlantic CreoleAtlantic CreoleAtlantic Creole is a term used in North America to describe the Charter Generation of slaves during the European colonization of the Americas before 1660. These slaves had cultural roots in Africa, Europe and sometimes the Caribbean. They were of mixed race, primarily descended from European...
- Afro-Hispanic peopleAfro-Hispanic peopleAn Afro-Hispanic American is an Hispanic American with black African traces. They are more common in the Hispanic Caribbean and Northern South America...
- Black PeopleBlack peopleThe term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
- Black ladinoBlack LadinoBlack Ladinos were Spanish-speaking black Africans born in Latin America, or exiled to the Americas after spending time in Castile .They were often referred to as negros ladinos , as opposed to negros bozales .Between 1502 and 1518, Spain exiled hundreds of black slaves who had spent time in...
- Cape VerdeanDemographics of Cape VerdeThis article is about the demographic features of the population of Cape Verde, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
- CreolesCreole peoplesThe term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
- List of Famous Afro-Latinos
- List of topics related to Black and African people
- MaroonsMaroon (people)Maroons were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together...
- Miskito
- MulattoMulattoMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
- NégritudeNégritudeNégritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Spanish EquatoguineansSpanish EquatoguineansSpanish Equatoguinean is a person of Spanish descent who are residents born or living in the Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, as well as indigenous Equatoguinean descendants living in or born in Spain. The population living in Equatorial Guinea numbers an estimated 16,000...
- ZamboZamboZambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...
External links
- Joshua Project – Afro-American, Hispanic
- Oro Negro (Afrodescendants Foundation in Chile)
- Virginia Rioseco, "Oro Negro Foundation: Afro descendants organize themselves," Nuestro.cl (Chilean Cultural Heritage Site).
- Black Latin America
- Afro Mexico or Bobby Vaughn's The Black Mexico website
- Latin American Network Information Center's (LANIC) African Diaspora webpage with links to various websites (LANIC is affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin)]
- Young Lords origins web site
- Cowater International Inc of Ottawa's preliminary report (1996) for the Inter-American Development Bank titled: "Poverty Alleviation Program for Minority Communities in Latin America—Communities of African Ancestry in Latin America: History, Population, Contributions, & Social Attitudes (Social and Economic Conditions with Partial Bibliography)". This report is 188 pages and contains history of Spain and Latin America, the African contributions to Latin America and pages 46 to 61 in Acrobat (or pages 31 to 46 in the document) is titled "Analysis of Social Attitudes Towards Afro-Latin Americans".
- Clare Ribando, CRS Report for Congress: Afro-Latinos in Latin America and Considerations for U.S. Policy, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress (January 4, 2005).
- The Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin America (IAC) (archived from the original on 2007-05-07)
- English version of Judith Morrison's Presentation to the Inter-American Dialogue's Working Group session (held on September 23, 2005) in Microsoft Word format.] (archived from the original on 2008-06-25) Morrison is the Executive Director or the Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin America.
- Judith Morrison, "The High Cost of Discrimination in Latin America" (2005).
- Jere R. Behrman, Alejandro Gaviria, & Miguel Székely's "Social Exclusion in Latin America: Introduction and Overview" report for the Inter-American Development Bank.
- The World Bank Group's website titled "Afro-Latin Americans" from 2001 and not updated
- The World Bank's Latin American and Caribbean Social Development Unit's newsletter "La Ventana" Webpage contains links to three editions to newsletters detailing World Bank activities toward the social inclusion of Afro Latin American and indigenous peoples.
- The World Bank's Publications on Afro Latin Americans (see column on right side for Acrobat documents available for download).
- David de Ferranti's (former Regional Vice President of the World Bank, Latin America & the Caribbean) remarks of June 18, 2002 to the Annual Meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin America titled: "Advancing Public Policy for Afro-Descendents in Latin America: Social and Economic Development, Legal Issues and Human Rights"
- Josefina Stubbs, "Afro-descendants in Latin America: Poverty, Inequality and Discrimination".
- Tanya K. Hernández' (Professor of Law & Justice, Frederick Hall Scholar, Rutgers University School of Law) speech given November 28, 2005 Washington, DC titled: "Discrimination and Education in Latin-America" The speech was given at the Special Meeting to Examine and Discuss the Nature of a Future Inter-American Convention Against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.
- The World Bank's website titled: "The World Bank and Afro-Latins – Overview"
- World Bank webpage announcing their report titled: "Inequality in Latin America & the Caribbean: Breaking with History?" (archived from the original on 2007-06-15)The webpage includes links to specific report chapters, including Chapter 3, which considers racial factors involved in inequality.
- The multiple author publication "Race and Poverty: Interagency Consultation on Afro–Latin Americans (LCR Sustainable Development Working Paper No. 9)" published November 2000 by the Inter-American Dialogue, Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank of their roundtable's proceedings held June 19, 2000 in Washington, D.C. (archived from the original on 2007-08-09)
- Ivan Briscoe, "The time of the underdog: rage and race in Latin America," Open Democracy (19 December 2005).
- Mayra Buvinic and Jacqueline Mazza with Ruthanne Deutsch, ed. Social Inclusion and Economic Development in Latin America, (Inter-American Development Bank, 2004) (by various authors and with considerable parts dealing with Afro Latin Americans).
- Peggy A. Lovell, "Gender, Race, and the Struggle for Social Justice in Brazil," Latin American Perspectives (November 2000), pages 85–103.
- Omar Arias, Gustavo Yamada, & Luis Tejerina, "Education, family background and racial earnings inequality in Brazil," (Abstract) the International Journal of Manpower, Volume 25, Number 3/4 (2004), pages 355–374.
- Maria do Carmo Leal, Silvana Granado Nogueira da Gama and Cynthia Braga da Cunha, "Racial, sociodemographic, and prenatal and childbirth care inequalities in Brazil, 1999–2001," Revista de Saúde Pública, vol. 39, no. 1 (São Paulo Feb. 2005).
- "Palenque San Basilio, Bolivar, Maroon Community in Colombia" (CNN video of Afro-Colombian community).
- Colombian 2005 Census Television Commercial Orgullosamente Afrocolombiano
- The World Bank's Sector Report "The Gap Matters: poverty and well-being of Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples" Click here for the report
- Law 70 of Colombia (1993): In Recognition of the Right of Black Colombians to Collectively Own and Occupy their Ancestral Lands. English Translation (April 2007)