What Does it Mean to Be Afro-Latino?

This July 25th marks the International Day of Afro-descendant Women. In the Latino community, the vindication of African roots is recent. The word “Afro-Latino” only came into use about 20 years ago, and it’s been even less time since several celebrities began to proudly express that they identify as both Latinas and Afro-descendants.

First of all: what is Afro-Latino?

There are many reasons for that, but let’s start by clarifying what is Afro-Latino: is someone who has both Latin American and African roots. It means they are Latin American of African descent or Black Latinos. Although, more recently, the term Afro-Latinx is also used to avoid gender bias.

Those who belong to this group and live in the U.S. share the experience of having been obliged, especially in school, to “place” themselves in one of the two categories, so that it would be easier for others to identify them. Because, for many, you can only be either Latino or African Descent. That’s what happens with labels.

They have also “suffered” the confusion of those who observe their fairly dark or black skin color and curly hair but hear them speak Spanish. Once again, we human beings tend to feel the urge to categorize, as if history were not full of mixtures.

We can understand this, partially, because many identify Latinos with personalities like Salma Hayek or Jennifer Lopez, with a much lighter skin tone. But you only must think of Celia Cruz, the Cuban singer who became famous worldwide, to grasp that being Latin American does not exclude being of African descent.

We can turn to history to understand the origin of many Afro-Latino families. Although a large number of Africans were taken as slaves to the United States, many more were also enslaved and taken to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Central and South America. And this happened particularly in the Caribbean countries, where a significant percentage of the population has black roots, mixed with indigenous and European. Not only the appearance of the people is testimony to this, but also a good number of typical foods and types of music, which have a clear anchor in African culture.

The fact that skin color has been -and still is- a cause of discrimination, made most of these families deny and hide their African heritage, and choose to identify as Puerto Rican, Cuban or Dominican, or simply as Latino. And that only new generations have begun to claim that heritage and recognize themselves as Afro-Latinos.

However, there are also interracial families of much more recent origin. The singer and actress Mariah Carey was born in New York, to an Irish mother and a Black Venezuelan father. And there are other families in which interraciality is much deeper. In a 2013 tweet, actress Rosario Dawson stated that she is not biracial, but “half Puerto Rican / Afro Cuban & half Irish / Native Indian”. This is also the case of journalist Soledad O’Brien, whose parents were both immigrants: her father is from Australia and is of three quarters Irish and one quarter Scottish descent, and her mother is from Havana, Cuba, and is of Afro-Cuban descent.

Who is considered to be Afro Latino?

Although, in the U.S., most people still relate “black” to African American, a 2016 study of the Pew Research Center revealed that 1 out of 4 Latinos in the U.S. self-identify as Afro-Latino, Afro-Caribbean or of African descent with roots in Latin America. And this only reflects the people who perceive themselves as such, when many are still reluctant to embrace their African roots. It also means that, when they must complete an application and check their nationality, they have to choose between “Black” and “Latino”, when they should actually pick both.

The study also reflected that half of the population in Brazil is of African descent and more than a third in Cuba are Blacks or mixed-race Blacks. A valid question would be why, even with these numbers, many Latinos still refuse to call themselves Afro-Latinos.

Besides the racism we already referred to, there is a matter of ethnicity versus physical attributes. It’s easier to accept their African heritage for those who have darker skin or a distinctive hair appearance. In other words: those who “look Black”. But many are starting to feel the need to express that they are Afro-Latinos because of their African ancestry, even when it’s not so obvious. So, there is some historical vindication underlying this.

Throughout history, skin color has been used to divide people and to enslave, oppress or discriminate certain groups. By accepting their African ascend, Afro-Latinos are embracing not only their identity but also rejecting racism and making it easier for others to do the same. And, above all, they are celebrating diversity.

But there are other points of view. Rosie Perez, an actress and dancer who embraces her identity as a Black Puerto Rican pointed out, in an interview, that the separation of color within the Latin community is very dangerous and noted that Latinos who are not dark-skinned don’t call themselves White Latinos or Caucasian Latinos. “I think it’s important that we unify”, she said.

The long list of famous Afro-Latinos includes Elizabeth Acevedo, a poet and writer of Dominican and Puerto Rican background, who felt the need to reflect diversity in children’s books; Mariano Rivera (“Mo” or “Sandman”), from Panama, and the first baseball player to be elected unanimously to be part of the Baseball Hall of Fame; the television personality and producer Alani Nicole Vázquez (“La La Anthony”), who describes herself as an Afro-Puerto Rican; and the actor Lázaro or Laz Alonso, who has said: “I’m Black first. Cuban-American or Latin-American, that’s not a race; that’s an ethnicity. My race is Black. It doesn’t matter what country your Blackness is from”.

If you are interested in the intersection of Latino and African cultures, check this article about Bachata’s African Roots.