Jun 16
By Tina Machele Brown
Courtesy of Silvana Magda, CEO and Founder of Brazil Week and Brazilian Day Newark (Brazilian Day Newark). Check out Los Afro Latinos on Facebook for a Video of the Military Police Theater Group of Bahia (Grupo de Teatro da Policia Militar da Bahia).
Video on FaceBook Courtesy of Silvana Magda, CEO and Founder of Brazil Week and Brazilian Day Newark
By Tina Machele Brown
When you walk into the WorldBeat Cultural Center (WBCC) in San Diego, California, there is a feeling of community. High in the ceiling are flags from around the world, wall-to-wall paintings, pictures of familiar performers, graphic artwork, African masks, a ten-foot tall metallic statue of kids playing, and an art gallery. In addition to all the visual stimulation, you will always hear music. It is truly a cultural oasis with people from all ethnic backgrounds dancing to the beat of the same drum. Prior to attending Noche Cubana on March 25, I had the opportunity to meet with performers Juan Carlos Blanco, Angelica Cardona, and to my great surprise El Cubanísimo Edy, from Havana, Cuba, arrived in town early.
Juan, a Cuba native, now lives in San Diego. He is an Afro-Cuban dance teacher, percussionist, and performer. Angelica was a student of Juan’s at UCLA and now they have an Afro-Cuban infused hip-hop group called In-Flow. El Cubanísimo Edy is a professional dancer and singer, from Cuba.
El Cubanísimo Edy, Angelica Cardona, and Juan Carlos Blanco
As I approached the dance floor at Noche Cubana, a five-year old, dressed in a white button down dress shirt, dress slacks, dress shoes, and a grey Fedora hat, stole my attention as he danced with his friends to Cuban rhythms. Not far from him, a young boy, who could barely walk, held on to his sippy cup with one hand and pulled his mother on the dance floor with the other hand and began to teeter back and forth. He smiled, giggled, and danced to the music.
Are you ready for Noche Cubana?
Juan: There’s a lot to get ready for this show each and every time because we do something different at each show. We make it new again with new performers and new music. This is Edy’s first time performing at Noche Cubana and his first time in the United States. I rap and she (Angelica) sings.
Angelica gave me some background on how the duo came to be.
Angelica: I came from a gospel background singing in church. The music I grew up listening to was very much the African-American style of singing. It encapsulated everything I felt musically, everything that resonated with me. After I met Juan and he heard me sing in church, he asked me if I wanted to sing in the band. I said, I don’t sign in Spanish. He told me if you can speak in Spanish you can sing in Spanish. However, to me singing in another language was another feeling and I didn’t feel that I had that. Juan believed I could do it and he kept handing me music. Before long I was singing it naturally, then studying it more. I stepped out and tried it. Organically, in return, I thought Juan could rap. When he would speak, I could hear a certain timbre in his voice that would be great for rapping. So I gave him some artists to listen to. We pushed each other artistically. I also respect him because he’s my teacher too. The group In-Flow grew from us encouraging each other to try something new.
Edy, how does it feel to be in the United States for the first time?
Juan’s translation of Edy: It feels like a dream to be here. When I was a child I loved the music, the Dominican music that comes from the black influence from America. It is a dream come true.
Juan came to the United States over twenty years ago. He says he couldn’t find a place to call home where he could hear the music and dance. He started teaching at the WordBeat Center in 1998. He offered Rumba classes every Sunday as a method of bringing Cuban people and San Diego people together.
Do you think your goal of bring people together is working?
Juan: Right now it seems slow. It’s growing little by little, and it’s growing consistently.
How many people are lined up to perform at Noche Cubana?
Juan: We have a drum class that meets every Sunday at the WBC. The drum class is going to perform. They have a piece they’re going to show. We also have a Cuban Salsa Class. We do that with everyone that comes. So we’ll have everyone dance. We’ll have two parts. First half will have drum performance and lots of popular music, Soul and Timba, etc. The second half will be all performance, with In-Flow, a Latin dance group (Divas Dance Company) that performs around the city, and El Cubanísimo Edy.
Angelica: Juan told me I could play drums. I never thought I could drum. It happened naturally. I was moving to the drum as a dancer and I said, “Ah I get it. Let me touch that. Let me play that.” Then it’s started to feel really good and I said, “I like this. I can do this some more.”
What will people walk away with after Noche Cubana?
Juan: They will learn a little bit about my country. They’re going to understand a little bit more about us. People from the United States have many ideas about Cuban people but most of the ideas are wrong. They don’t know us. They’ve been talking about us for 15-20 years and they don’t really know who we are as a people. Part of my goal is for Noche Cubana to show the people who we are. We also have a program every year where we take people to Cuba to learn more about the culture, music, and dance. They learn about Cubans. We participate in one of the big folklore festival, Wemilére (Festival de Raices Africanas). We live with people 24-hours a day and we go to (Afro Cuban) ceremonies.
Edy, how long have you been performing?
I’ve been performing for 25-30 years.
How has your performing changed over the years? How has it grown?
Edy: Now I sing and I rap. I do a mixture of salsa, Cha Cha, Merengue. I was known for dancing in Cuba. I’ve been working hard at what I do. I started to find all these things I could do. I didn’t even think about it before. It was a natural outgrowth. I discovered I had the ability to do more than the same genre.
Juan: As I said, I started off as a dancer, that was my thing. I said, I’m going to be dancing all my life. But then, very quickly, I started playing drums. Then I started teaching, choreographing, and now I also do theater. You never know you’re going to do that much until you get here. Then you say, I wanna to do that too or I can try to do that.
How can we shed light on the Afro-Latino and Afro-Cuban culture?
Juan: I would say there is not enough information. Knowledge is information. When you don’t have the knowledge you don’t really know what you’re seeing. We need to give more information about who we are. These two ladies in my class mentioned that they come to my because their ancestors were from Nigeria. The tradition was the Yoruba tradition. Their family doesn’t practice anymore. These two girls tell me the come because they want to learn their religion because they don’t have access to it anymore. It made me feel proud that they come to me. The same thing happens with other students. They will say, you made me remember this or that. This guy from Curaçao, said he heard me say a familiar word. He heard me say “Awe (au – way).”
-He says, “Hey, we say that word in my country, what does that mean to you?”
I told him that “Awe” means “Today” in the Congo language.
-He says, “Yeah, that means the same in my language. I never knew there was a Congo language.”
So people can learn information here. We talk about the time before all the Colonial people brought Africans to America. We talk about what the religion was like before and how things were different. A different history. Many of our stories didn’t make it to America. They took the stories out of our history in America but in Cuba we save that information for over 500 years. Nobody can take this from us, Never.
You teach classes, at what ages can students start it?
Juan: We teach elementary students. Angelica met me in undergrad classes. We teach adults too. If you can walk and talk, you can learn.
I read something about food being available at Noche Cubana. What is on the menu?
Yucca, Azzoz Moro, and Cuban Chicken
Juan: Authentic Cuban Food! Azzoz Moro, which is rice with beans cooked together. We will have Yucca, which is like a potato, and Cuban chicken. Not everyone knows how to cook it but it will be authentic on Saturday.
At Noche Cubana, the food line wrapped around to the dance floor as the senses were tempted with the seasoned Cuban spices.
How do you keep a part of Cuba with you?
Juan: To keep a piece of Cuba with you, we need to be together. It’s the only way. (Angelica chimes in with, “Seek Community. “) It’s the only way. I can’t reach every Cuban in San Diego because it’s too big but we will try with WorldBeat Cultural Center and annual events like Noche Cubana. That’s why I started at WBCC. It’s grown since I started in 1998. In the beginning, we would go to someone’s house, play, sing, and dance. Then on Mother’s Day we go Mission Bay, Father’s Day we do the same thing, play music, sing, dance, and bar-b-cue. Now Noche Cuba is here. It’s a good start.
There is no doubt that Noche Cubana was a cultural awakening, as a young lady celebrated her 18th birthday by singing a song on stage, her friends filled the room and the DJ’s mix of music kept people dancing all night. There were people, young and seasoned, from many different ethnic backgrounds dancing to Cuban rhythms. The electric sounds of El Cubanísimo Edy and In-Flow, along the Divas Dance Company topped off the evening as the audience danced from wall-to-wall, making it hard to leave the building.
The next Noche Cubana will be this Saturday, June 10, WorldBeat Center in San Diego, California. For more information visit http://events.worldbeatcenter.org/?event=noche-cubana-8.
by Kim Haas
Bogotá, Columbia
I’m just back from an amazing trip to Columbia. During the 6 days, I visited Bogotá, Cartagena, Palenque San Basilio (Palenque) and Islas Rosario with the Travel Professionals of Color. The visit was designed to introduce travel agents to Columbia and highlight the country’s Afro-Columbian communities. Researchers estimate that between 10-25% of Columbia’s nearly 50 million residents are of African descent.
A heartfelt thank you to the sponsors, hosts and everyone who contributed their time, talent and hours to make this trip possible.
Cartagena, Columbia
Tasty delights at Hotel Charleston in Cartagena and savory empanadas at a Bogotá pub.
Sponsors and Hosts: Avianca; Travel Professionals of Color (Betty and Colin Jones) with Edwin (center) from Hotel Sonesta (Bogotá); Juliana, Gema Tours; and Luciana Cherques, Downtown Travel; Juliana, Gema Tours and Yahaira Lopez, Avianca.
InterContinental Hotel (Cartagena)
Estelar Windsor House Hotel (Bogotá) – Ricardo
Crystal clear waters of Islas Rosario, an hour boat ride from Cartagena.
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Each year, Columbia observes Afro–Colombian Day on May 21. The annual commemoration celebrates the contributions of Afro-Columbians and the official abolition of slavery in the country in 1851. Kim and Miriam Padilla of M Travel and Events, Yahaira Lopez and Luciana Cherques; Travel Professionals of Color and residents of Palenque.
New friends in Bogotá (Mariela Palacios, Maria Jose Gomez and husband, Antonio Posada); resident of Palenque; and guide, Marelvy Peña-Hall in Cartagena. (Photo of mural courtesy of Kim Haas, Jan. 2015)
Kim Haas, Founder, Los Afro- Latinos
By: Donte Kirby
Art can be a window into the soul and a pressure valve, releasing life’s traumas. As an artist, Gina Echeverry uses painting as gateway to self-love and healing from traumatic violence.
Echeverry grew up in the Chocó region of Columbia. In this area of the country, 82% of the population according to a 2005 census, is of African descent. The Chocó region borders both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and is a place filled with beautiful beaches, including the the black sand beach of Playa Guachalito and the two weeklong festival of San Pacho in Chocó’s capital, Quibdó. Chocó is also home to the Bojayá Massacre, where 119 people (including 45 children) died in a clash between guerrilla and illegal paramilitary groups at the town’s church in 2002. The more than five decade long internal war in Columbia claimed the lives of at least 220,000 people since 1958.
“My mission is to show what’s happening in the world and in my places” said Echeverry. This could mean violent paintings that draw on her experiences in Columbia or vibrant portraits that capture the beauty of her Afro-Columbian heritage. “I paint Afrolatina women and children, their reality and time, right now. We were surrounded by music and paradox.”
Photos courtesy of Gina Echeverry
Echeverry has been in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for 17 years. She uses her experience with trauma and art to help children deal with their traumatic experiences through art therapy.
“I was not in violence but I was affected by the environment of violence,” said Echeverry.
Photos courtesy of Gina Echeverry
She recognizes that Columbia may no longer be the violent place she grew up in but the fear stayed with her. Painting was her path to healing, and time in the United States fostered belief in hope. Echeverry’s mission in life is to get brown and black children who grew up in an environment seeped in violence to transition from fear to hope through art.
Photos courtesy of Gina Echeverry
“I lead them to express themselves, open up and express their trauma,” said Echeverry. “To liberate their souls and transform their pain into freedom.” According to Echeverry, the method is irrelevant. Some express themselves through painting others through poetry.
Echeverry has worked in summer programs and with youth on an individual basis at Northeast Community Mental Health center in the Fairhill section of Philadelphia, an area known as a center of the Hispanic community. She now works at Cognitive Behavioral Services which services the same area of the city.
Photos courtesy of Gina Echeverry
In Echeverry’s experience learning a new skill heals trauma. “You learn that life is not a repeated pattern.” That things can change.
Photos courtesy of Gina Echeverry
“My purpose is to continue painting hope, peace and people struggling” said Echeverry. “Because we struggle again and again. We must continue showing that life is something else. Life is also love. Life is also peace.”
By Donte Kirby
Lakou Mizik is taking the traditional rhythms and spirit of Haiti across the United States to show the world Haiti’s resiliency and shed a positive light on the country. Los Afro-Latino’s journalist, Donte Kirby, caught up with the group on Sunday, April 23, 2017, before a performance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The multi-generational collective of musicians formed after the 2010 earthquake, by Steve Valcourt, Jonas Attis and Zach Niles. Lakou Mizik began when Attis and Valcourt went to displacement camps with a guitar and congo to bring joy to the residents through music. Upon meeting Zach Niles, the trio broadened their vision.
Niles’ documentary work with Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars set the stage for what Lakou Mizik would become.
“I saw the ways that music could connect people in positive ways to places that only get negative news,” said Niles. Showing the culture of Haiti allows the country to persevere despite natural disasters and corrupt politicians.
The band re-imagines traditional Haitian folk or racine (roots) music.
“We started working with old songs and giving them new life,” said Niles.
Lakou Mizik’s debut album Wa Di Yo encompasses all the multitudes of rhythms and cultures that intertwine to make Haiti. Poly-rhythms originating from Africa, vodou spiritualism and folk song, coupled with the French accordion all mix together to create a sound rooted in the melting pot of Haiti.
“Everyone of us comes from different backgrounds and that gives a little pepper to what we do,” said Valcourt. “Which is bring the Haitian culture all around the world where we go.”
As a nine-piece ensemble, Lakou Mizik spans generations. There’s the father and son, Sanba Zao and Woulele who bring the traditional racine (roots) music. There’s Nadine Remy that comes from a Christian background and brings powerful feminine vocals to the predominantly male band. Accompanied by the joyous festival rhythms of Rara Cornet players Peterson “Ti Piti” Joseph and James Carrier.
The lyrics and vocals are in creole and the energy and rhythms of the band are universal. Lakou Mizik is about building cultural and generational bridges through music. In Haitian Creole, lakou has multiple meanings. It can mean “home,” or “backyard” or gathering place where people meet to sing and dance. Lakou can also be defined as “where you are from” and is filled with the spirit of ancestors born of the locale.
“It’s the soul, the positivity and vibe that goes through the songs,” said Valcourt. “Lakou Mizik is going to give you some joy straight from Haiti.”
As the band takes its second tour through the states, its members are excited to get back to Haiti and start production on their sophomore album. It will incorporate the rhythms and lessons they’ve learned traveling the world.
The band has begun melding racine music with EDM (Electronic Dance Music) in recent songs like Gaya with Michael Brun and J. Perry. The track takes the joy of a Caribbean festival and packs it inside a strobe light filled nightclub. Lakou Mizik is blending genres to bring racine to modern audiences.
“It’s one big thing,” said Valcourt about the popular music of the past, present and future. A young musician whose grown into the wisdom of an old soul, recognizing there’s nothing new under the sun. “You cannot separate the old tradition from the new generation.”
Visit crossroadsconcerts.org/lakou-mizik for more information about future events.
By Donte Kirby
Photo courtesy of Balé Folclórico da Bahia
Brazil’s only professional folk dance company Balé Folclórico da Bahia just completed their North America tour celebrating nearly 30 years of dance. This year’s performance displayed never before seen sacred rituals of Candomblé. Walson Botelho, founder of Balé Folclórico da Bahia, talked about the oldest black professional folk dance company in Brazil, prior to the their February 17, 2017 performance at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Brazil is home to the largest black population outside of Africa with 97 million people who define themselves as black according to the most recent census by The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Balé Folclórico da Bahia showcases the culture and tradition of the state of Bahia in Northeastern Brazil, near the Atlantic coast, where 80% of the population is of African descent.
For Botelho, showcasing the culture, inherited 500 years ago from ancestors that survived the voyage through the middle passage from Africa to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade, is the show’s main purpose. Each section of Balé Folclórico da Bahia’s performance is crafted to highlight a different section of the legacy of Bahia’s ancestors. “Dance is a universal language,” said Botelho. “It’s different from plays and music where you have to understand the words, in dance you use just the movement, so it’s very easy to understand, even for those not linked with African culture.”
With dance, Botelho believes he can explain how the Candomblé religion was kept alive and used during the slavery period. Through singing, percussion, classical ballet, and Afro-Brazilian dance forms, he can show how the folkloric practices passed down for generations are still sung on the beaches of Bahia before fisherman head out to sea. Botelho seeks to culturally exchange with the world through this art form. “The goal is not just to preserve, but show the world that Brazil is not just about samba, football and coffee,” said José Carlos Arandiba, Balé Folclórico da Bahia’s Artistic Director.
“This is a very important legacy left to us,” said Botelho. “The heritage they left to us are responsible for the Brazilian culture for the whole country. Everything we have in Brazil was made by the mix of the Indigenous, Portuguese and especially from the African people.”
Photo courtesy of Balé Folclórico da Bahia
Arandiba, whose stage name is Zebrinha, trains the next generation of Balé Folclórico da Bahia dancers and for 24 years has made sure dancers from the company achieve a world-class standard. One of the main tenets Arandiba teaches his students, who normally train with the company for two years, is “that we open doors for the other kids that are coming behind us.” He understands that his students act as ambassadors of art and dance for not just the company but all of Brazil.
“This show is a class in art and anthropology,” said Arandiba about this year’s tour. The show for those of the African Diaspora is a chance to recognize the connective tissue in the shared history.
Photo courtesy of Balé Folclórico da Bahia
For more information about Balé Folclórico da Bahia and future shows, visit http://www.balefolcloricodabahia.com.br/eng and follow Balé Folclórico da Bahia on https://twitter.com/BFBahia
By Kim Haas
This interview was conducted on Saturday, April 1, 2017.
Two years ago, in 2015, Daniel Morales-Armstrong began working as a college counselor at Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS). Washington Heights is a predominately Dominican neighborhood in New York City. A month after arriving at the school, Morales-Armstrong asked the principal,
“What do you think about taking some kids on a trip, maybe to Puerto Rico or Cuba?
The principal responded, “If you can put it together,… that would be cool.”
Daniel Morales-Armstrong Begins “Putting It Together”
With support from colleagues, Critical Theory and Social Justice Club, was established. Its primary purpose was to encourage, support, promote and guide students as they deepen their thinking, through study and travel. The Club was popular, especially among senior high school students who made up about a third of the group. Members of the Club began analyzing messages in the media, especially visuals and what the images represented and the language used. Soon after the formation of the Club, the members began focusing on racial justice.
The Critical Theory and Social Justice Club
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: We were learning about how activism happens and what’s happening in our community, regarding gentrification. And, one of the things that kept coming up was racial dynamics in Latino communities, particularly anti-blackness. So, that developed as the theme for our first trip (to Cuba) in April 2016.
Morales-Armstrong Connects with Afro Latino Travel & Develops Afro-Cuban Curriculum
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: Afro-Latino Travel (http://afrolatinotravel.com/) is excellent. One of its founders, Dash Harris put together a mini documentary series called, “Negro” about being black in Latin America. I met her a few years before and, she helped us put together an excellent itinerary to learn about Afro-Cuban Culture. So with Afro Latino Travel, we developed an unapologetically black learning experience for our students.
I wanted to demystify Cuba as a country and see it as an opportunity for deep, reflective, and consequential conversations about what it means to be Latin American, what it means to be Latino, and how Afro-Latinos play a role in Latinos’ history. I really wanted it to be a chance for students to learn histories beyond the white washed narratives about Latin American and Latinos. Because when we see pictures, when we think of Cubans most often we think of (white) Cubans in the US.
Many of the people we meet with are black. They celebrate their blackness through their work— musicians, artists, dance, food. So, they’re modeling how to acknowledge who they are.
New York public schools are very Eurocentric in their presentation of history. Traveling makes an impression.
Every once in awhile, I’ll get a text from a student (from the 2016 Cuba Trip) Here’s one,
“Hey in my African Civilization class we talked about the area where the Yoruba people come from. And I was like, oh, I learned this when I was in Cuba.”
And they light up and so do I.
Travel Expands Students’ Experiences
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: I’ve seen many positive effects travel has had on students. It’s given them a different set of tools to analyze their experiences, using multiple perspectives. We talked about how it’s not just race but what it’s like to be an Afro-Cuban, what it’s like to be a woman in Cuba and what’ it’s like to be poor.
Goals for the Trip
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: My goal is that students contextualize what we’ve been learning, for the last couple of months. That they recognize that the research we’ve done prepares us for what they will experience on the island (Cuba), especially how we can combat anti -blackness and historiography.
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: Students are having conversations around it (anti-blackness) with their peers and families. Last year, some educators at our school and group of people from our community heard one of the juniors, who is now a senior say:
“I am realizing how often our stories get left out of history, but I’m only 16. Teachers are older and have many more opportunities to learn about this stuff, and you’ve heard about it. It’s your responsibility, when you’re teaching in a school that has brown and black bodies, to include our perspective in your teaching.”
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: Her comment struck me. From that, one of the teachers that was there became engaged in critical conversations around race. Its impact is already shaping some changes in our school curriculum, just from her comment. My goal for the kids is for them to pick up those things and come to “aha moments.” I want them to come away with a greater understanding of what it means to acknowledge blackness within the Latino context and what does it look like when people embrace it unapologetically.
Morales-Armstrong Explains the Importance of Community Support
Daniel Morales-Armstrong: We were the first public high school to go (to Cuba) since the relations between Cuba and the US changed. We are funding 65% of the students’ trip. The chaperones pay significantly more. The realities of our communities made it easy to not ask students to pay everything. I’m pretty sure we’re the only school going to Cuba that is doing that. Students pay $300 and that’s it. Everything else is up to us and our community to fund raise.
Please consider supporting the wonderful work of Daniel Morales- Armstrong and the students at WHEELS on their April 6, 2017 trip to Havana, Cuba: https://www.gofundme.com/WHEELStoCuba2
Daniel Morales-Armstrong
Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS)
UAlbany, 2010: Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and Psychology
Harvard University, 2011: Master of Education in Prevention Science and Practice
An Afro-Chilean Three Kings’ Day celebration in Arica, Chile. (Ibar Silva C. (flickr) Jan. 6, 2015 CC by NC – ND 2.0)
Seventeen years ago, a group of Latin American and Caribbean NGOs, government agencies and regional bodies officially adopted the term “Afro-descendant” to refer to the region’s approximately 150 million citizens of African origin. The occasion was the Latin American Regional Conference Against Racism in Santiago, and the host was the government of Chile.
Ironically, nearly two decades later and Chile is one of just a handful of countries in Latin America that do not explicitly include an Afro-descendant category on their official census forms. Despite a push from Chile’s Afro-descendant community, that absence will continue in a condensed census set to take place on April 19.
“Afro-descendant people’s fight for inclusion in Chile’s national statistics started in 2005 … There is a vicious cycle of the state denying the existence of Afro-descendants,” said Cristian Báez, director of the Afro-Chilean NGO Lumbanga.
The National Institute of Statistics’ (INE) decision not to incorporate the category “Afro-descendant/Black” in a question about inclusion in indigenous and ethnic groups in this year’s census came as a surprise to some activists. They say that a 2013 regional pilot project by the INE, which identified approximately 8,415 Afro-descendant people in Arica and Parinacota in northern Chile, was supposed to be a precursor to a reference in future censuses.
Read entire article at Americas Quarterly: http://americasquarterly.org/content/afro-chileans-first-step-getting-counted
By Donte Kirby
Along the walls of the Du Bois College house, a dormitory at The University of Pennsylvania, a photo gallery created by Sandra Andino, Ph.D., illustrates through audio storytelling and black and white portraits experiences of Afro Latinos living in Philadelphia. Highlighting the importance and beauty of being Afro Latino is a focus and personal mission of Andino.
Andino’s gallery at the University of Pennsylvania showcased ten individuals. For those who missed the exhibit (November 11, 2016 to December 12, 2016), the interviews can be heard and portraits viewed at Andino’s Negraluz site. It is a blog dedicated to showcasing visuals of Latinos of African descent, their heritage, and positive aspects of their ancestry as well as their contributions as change agents throughout the world.
Last December, the University of Pennsylvania was the third stop for the photo exhibit, “The Afro-Latinx Experience: Philadelphia Stories,” curated at North Philadelphia’s Taller Puertorriqueño and South Philadelphia’s Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial. Attendees walked through and listened to the audio interviews through their phones hosted at Andino’s Negraluz site. As portrait subjects speak their stories, attendees gaze at snapshots, possibly imagining the thoughts and experiences of each subject.
The project was originally inspired by a conversation with Andino’s good friend, who is also a subject in the exhibit, Evelyne Laurent-Perrault. As the two shared their experiences as Afro Latinas, Andino realized her story wasn’t unique. From that seed, she interviewed more of her friends about their experiences as Afro Latinos in an effort to highlight the similarities and complexities among Afro Latinos in Philadelphia.
According to Pew research a quarter of Hispanics in the U.S. identify as Afro Latino. Of the 1.5 million people living in Philadelphia 14% are Hispanic according to the U.S. Census. That means there are close to 53 thousand Afro Latinos experiences, providing Andino with a vast pool of untold stories to showcase, which are likely not to be told elsewhere.
By claiming and highlighting being Afro Latino, Andino hopes to break some of the stereotypes and people’s preconceived notions about not only Afro Latinos but also of the humanity of the entire African Diaspora, especially in the Americas (a number totaling 165 million with Latin America, North America and the Caribbean according to the World Bank projections.)
Andino speaks with optimism and authority,
When people see the exhibit she wants them to appreciate and understand the breath of the Afro Latino experience. “There are so many different aspects about being Afro Latino. Each one of these stories has something different to say about culture, about being identified as black in the U.S, and also identifying as Latino. I think that’s a great feeling when you feel like part of what you’ve gone through in your life is validated because you see there are others that think or feel the same way.
“I felt like [The Afro-Latinx Experience: Philadelphia Stories] was important because it also validated my story and the story of being Afro Latina in Latin America, the Caribbean, and also here in the U.S. It’s about trying to find the commonality, through the exhibit. In this case the commonality is our African heritage, ancestry and claiming that ancestry.”
