The [email protected] Reader: History and Culture in the United States

The [email protected] Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of [email protected] in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and [email protected] are two distinct categories or cultures. [email protected] are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between [email protected] and African Americans; at the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among [email protected] and ethnocentrism among African Americans. Offering insight into [email protected] life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity, and antiracist politics, The [email protected] Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black [email protected] in the United States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews.

While the selections cover centuries of [email protected] history, since the arrival of Spanish-speaking Africans in North America in the mid-sixteenth-century, most of them focus on the past fifty years. The central question of how [email protected] relate to and experience U.S. and Latin American racial ideologies is engaged throughout, in first-person accounts of growing up [email protected], a classic essay by a leader of the Young Lords, and analyses of U.S. census data on race and ethnicity, as well as in pieces on gender and sexuality, major-league baseball, and religion. The contributions that [email protected] have made to U.S. culture are highlighted in essays on the illustrious Afro-Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and music and dance genres from salsa to mambo, and from boogaloo to hip hop. Taken together, these and many more selections help to bring [email protected] in the United States into critical view.

Contributors: Afroandndash;Puerto Rican Testimonies Project, Josefina Baandeacute;z, Ejima Baker, Luis Barrios, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Adrian Burgos Jr., Ginetta E. B. Candelario, Adriandaacute;n Castro, Jesanduacute;s Colandoacute;n, Marta I. Cruz-Janzen, William A. Darity Jr., Milca Esdaille, Sandra Marandiacute;a Esteves, Marandiacute;a Teresa Fernandaacute;ndez (Mariposa), Carlos Flores, Juan Flores, Jack D. Forbes, David F. Garcia, Ruth Glasser, Virginia Meecham Gould, Susan D. Greenbaum, Evelio Grillo, Pablo andldquo;Yorubaandrdquo; Guzmandaacute;n, Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Tanya K. Hernandaacute;ndez, Victor Hernandaacute;ndez Cruz, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, Lisa Hoppenjans, Vielka Cecilia Hoy, Alan J. Hughes, Marandiacute;a Rosario Jackson, James Jennings, Miriam Jimandeacute;nez Romandaacute;n, Angela Jorge, David Lamb, Aida Lambert, Ana M. Lara, Evelyne Laurent-Perrault, Tato Laviera, John Logan, Antonio Landoacute;pez, Felipe Luciano, Louis Pancho McFarland, Ryan Mann-Hamilton, Wayne Marshall, Marianela Medrano, Nancy Raquel Mirabal, Yvette Modestin, Ed Morales, Jairo Moreno, Marta Moreno Vega, Willie Perdomo, Graciela Pandeacute;rez Gutiandeacute;rrez, Sofia Quintero, Ted Richardson, Louis Reyes Rivera, Pedro R. Rivera , Raquel Z. Rivera, Yeidy Rivero, Mark Q. Sawyer, Piri Thomas, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Nilaja Sun, Sherezada andldquo;Chiquiandrdquo; Vicioso, Peter H. Wood

andldquo;[R]equired reading for all Latinos. . . . This important reader provides critical information from a wide variety of approaches on the evolution and current realities of Black Latinos and Latinas. From poetic to musical to social scientific sources, this is a powerful 360-degree treatment of the subject.andrdquo;

andldquo;This exciting collection is a great resource for anyone interested in Ethnic Studies, Cultural Studies, or American Studies.andrdquo;

andldquo;As a collection of pieces, many of which have been published previously, The [email protected] Reader ultimately serves as a compact archive of materials from various academic disciplines and creative genres that details the Afro-Latina/o experience in the United States. . . . The [email protected] Reader makes accessible to students, scholars, and the general public a virtually ignored set of important contributions, not only to the study of Afro-Latina/os, but to the discourse about race in the United States more generally.andrdquo;

andldquo;The collected works in The [email protected] Reader broaden definitions of blackness and latinidad and reveal the multiple ways in which Afro-Latino/as navigate national and cultural histories that have consistently denigrated or dismissed their African heritage and challenge US racial classifications that dismiss their cultural background and linguistic difference. The [email protected] Reader invites us to move beyond a binary understanding of racial identity and to embrace the allegiances that may be forged and, in many instances, have been forged among Afro-Latino/as, Latinos/as, African Americans, and other underrepresented groups in the US.andrdquo;

andldquo;The [email protected] Reader assembles in one place an extraordinary range of articles, chapters, and first-person accounts of [email protected] identity. These pieces show that explorations of [email protected] identities quickly reveal significant hidden histories of racialization, colonization, exploitation, and social mobilization. They complicate our understanding of the U.S. racial order and its complex systems of inclusion and exclusion. This collection is a much-needed addition to scholarship in ethnic studies.andrdquo;andmdash;George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger

andldquo;The [email protected] Reader is a superb collection, one that I cannot wait to use in my own courses. For some time now, scholars have engaged the history and anthropology of Black populations in Latin America, but the scholarship on the [email protected] presence (as configured on this side of the Rio Grande) has been more episodic and, to some extent, under-theorized. The breadth of The [email protected] Reader, as well as its effort to actually define the entire field, makes it a unique scholarly contribution.andrdquo;andmdash;Ben Vinson III, co-author of African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean

An edited volume on the history and culture of Afro-Latino/as in the US

The [email protected] Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of [email protected] in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and [email protected] are two distinct categories or cultures. [email protected] are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between [email protected] and African Americans; at the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among [email protected] and ethnocentrism among African Americans. Offering insight into [email protected] life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity, and antiracist politics, The [email protected] Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black [email protected] in the United States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews.

While the selections cover centuries of [email protected] history, since the arrival of Spanish-speaking Africans in North America in the mid-sixteenth-century, most of them focus on the past fifty years. The central question of how [email protected] relate to and experience U.S. and Latin American racial ideologies is engaged throughout, in first-person accounts of growing up [email protected], a classic essay by a leader of the Young Lords, and analyses of U.S. census data on race and ethnicity, as well as in pieces on gender and sexuality, major-league baseball, and religion. The contributions that [email protected] have made to U.S. culture are highlighted in essays on the illustrious Afro-Puerto Rican bibliophile Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and music and dance genres from salsa to mambo, and from boogaloo to hip hop. Taken together, these and many more selections help to bring [email protected] in the United States into critical view.

A kaleidoscopic view of Black [email protected] in the United States, addressing history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including essays, memoirs, journalism, poetry, and interviews.

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

Acknowledgments xiii

Editorial Note xv

Introduction 1

I. Historical Background before 1900

The Earliest Africans in North America / Peter H. Wood 19

Black Pioneers: The Spanish-Speaking Afroamericans of the Southwest / Jack D. Forbes 27

Slave and Free Women of Color in the Spanish Ports of New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola / Virginia Meacham Gould 38

Afro-Cubans in Tampa / Susan D. Greenbaum 51

Excerpt from Pulling the Muse from the Drum / Adrian Castro 62

II. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

Excerpt from Racial Integrity: A Plea for the Establishment of a Chair of Negro History in Our Schools and Colleges / Arturo Alfonso Schomburg 67

The World of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg / Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof 70

Invoking Arturo Schomburg's Legacy in Philadelphia / Evelyne Laurent-Perrault 92

III. [email protected] on the Color Line

Black Cuban, Black American / Evelio Grillo 99

A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches / Jesus Colon 113

Melba Alvarado, El Club Cubano Inter-Americano, and the Creation of Afro-Cubanidades in New York City / Nancy Raquel Mirabel 120

An Uneven Playing Field: Afro-Latinos in Major League Baseball / Adrian Burgos Jr. 127

Changing Identities: An Afro-Latino Family Portrait / Gabriel Haslip-Viera 142

Eso era tremendo!: An Afro-Cuban Musician Remembers / Graciela Perez Gutierrez 150

IV. Roots of Salsa: [email protected] Popular Music

From andquot;Indianolaandquot; to andquot;No Colandaacute;andquot;: The Strange Career of the Afro-Puerto Rican Musician / Ruth Glasser 157

Excerpt from cu/bop / Louis Reyes Rivera 176

Bauzandaacute;andndash;Gillespieandndash;Latin/JAzz: Difference, Modernity, and the Black Caribbean / Jairo Moreno 177

Contesting that Damned Mambo: Arsenio Rodriguez and the People of El Barrio and the Bronx in the 1950s / David F. Garcia 187

Boogaloo and Latin Soul / Juan Flores 199

Excerpt from the salsa of bethesda fountain / Tato Laviera 207

V. Black [email protected] Sixties

Hair Conking: Buy Black / Carlos Cooks 211

Carlos A. Cooks: Dominican Garveyite in Harlem / Pedro R. Rivera 215

Down These Mean Streets / Piri Thomas 219

African Things / Victor Hernandez Cruz 232

Black Notes and andquot;You Do Something to Meandquot; / Sandra Maria Esteves 233

Before People Called Me a Spic, They Called Me a Nigger / Pablo andquot;Yorubaandquot; Guzman 235

Excerpt from Jandiacute;baro, My Pretty Nigger / Felipe Luciano 244

The Yoruba Orisha Tradition Comes to New York City / Marta Moreno Vega 245

Reflections and Lived Experiences of [email protected] Religiosity / Luis Barrios 252

Discovering Myself / Un Testimonio / Josefina Baez 266

VI. Afro-Latinas

The Black Puerto Rican Woman in Contemporary American Society / Angela Jorge 269

Something Latino Was Up with Us / Spring Redd 276

Excerpt from Poem for My Grifa-Rican Sistah, or Broken Ends Broken Promises / Mariposa (Marandiacute;a Teresa Fernandez) 280

Latinegras: Desired Womenandmdash;Undesirable Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, and Wives / Marta I. Cruz-Janzen 282

Letter to a Friend / Nilaja Sun 296

Uncovering Mirrors: Afro-Latina Lesbian Subjects / Ana M. Lara 298

The Black Bellybutton of a Bongo / Marianela Medrano 314

VII. Public Images and (Mis)Representations

Notes on Eusebia Cosme and Juano Hernandez / Miriam Jimenez Roman 319

Desde el Mero Medio: Race Discrimination within the Latino Community / Carlos Flores 323

Displaying Identity: Dominicans in the Black Mosaic of Washington, D.C. / Ginetta E. B. Candelario 326

Bringing the Soul: Afros, Black Empowerment, and Lucecita Benandiacute;tez / Yeidy M. Rivero 343

Can BET Make You Black? Remixing and Reshaping [email protected] on Black Entertainment Television / Ejima Baker 358

The Afro-Latino Connection: Can this group be the bridge to a broadbased Black-Hispanic alliance? / Alan Hughes and Milca Esdaille 364

VIII. [email protected] in the Hip Hop Zone

Ghettocentricity, Blackness, and Pan-Latinidad / Raquel Z. Rivera 373

Chicano Rap Roots: Afro-Mexico and Black-Brown Cultural Exchange / Pancho McFarland 387

The Rise and Fall of Reggaeton: From Daddy Yankee to Tego Calderon and Beyond / Wayne Marshall 396

Do Platanos Go wit' Collard Greens? / David Lamb 404

Divas Don't Yield / Sofia Quintero 411

IX. Living Afro-Latinidads

An Afro-Latina's Quest for Inclusion / Yvette Modestin 417

Retracing Migration: From Samana to New York and Back Again / Ryan Mann-Hamilton 422

Negotiating among Invisibilities: Tales of Afro-Latinidades in the United States / Vielka Cecilia Hoy 426

We Are Black Too: Experiences of a Honduran Garifuna / Aida Lambert 431

Profile of an Afro-Latina: Black, Mexican, Both / Maria Rosario Jackson 434

Enrique Patterson: Black Cuban Intellectual in Cuban Miami / Antonio Lopez 439

Reflections about Race by a Negrito Acomplejao / Eduardo Bonilla-Silva 445

Divisible Blackness: Reflections on Heterogeneity and Racial Identity / Silvio Torres-Saillant 453

Nigger-Reecan Blues / Willie Perdomo 467

X. [email protected]: Present and Future Tenses

How Race Counts for Hispanic Americans / John R. Logan 471

Bleach in the Rainbow: Latino Ethnicity and Preferences for Whiteness / William A. Darity Jr., Jason Dietrich, and Darrick Hamilton 485

Brown Like Me? / Ed Morales 499

Against the Myth of Racial Harmony in Puerto Rico / Afro-Puerto Rican Testimonies Project 508

Mexican Ways, African Roots / Lisa Hoppenjans and Ted Richardson 512

[email protected] and the Latino Workplace / Tanya Kateri Hernandez 520

Racial Politics in Multiethnic America: Black and Latina/o Identities and Coalitions 527

Afro-Latinism in United States Society: A Commentary / James Jennings 540

Sources and Permissions 547

Contributors 551

Index 559