Blackness in the Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean: A Sociological Literature Review Makenna Lindsay 2 November 2020
This literature review will address the sociological research that exists as it relates to
Blackness in the Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean. Personally, this topic was chosen largely because of my own Caribbean background and connection to the community, as well as my passions revolving around providing resources to and protecting the rights of Caribbean and
Latin American populations. Sociologically, this topic is fascinating in that it addresses how the concept of “race” and its discriminatory effects function in a part of the Caribbean. The sociological research brings awareness to how Afro-Latinx communities are affected by “race,” especially with regard to the larger Latinx ethnic group. Studying Blackness in the region is significant to society because it considers the implications of the social construction of “race” in the Caribbean. Moreover, the sociological research that has been conducted with regard to this topic illustrates the marginalization of Afro-Latinx communities both historically and presently, and as well as how racism is ingrained in Latinx culture. Thus, this research concludes that historical and present occurrences of anti-Blackness pervade the culture of the
Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean (including Haiti), isolating Afro-descendants in these countries from the rest of their populations.
The first and one of the most important sections of this research examines the history of race in the Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean. Though this research predominantly concerns the racialized history on the island of Puerto Rico, there is a brief summary of Cuba’s racialized past as written by sociologist Nadine Fernandez. In her article, “The Changing Discourse on Race in
Contemporary Cuba,” Fernandez discusses the enslavement of Africans on the island, and their laborious lives on plantations. Fernandez notes that Black and Mulatto Cubans resisted to racial discrimination and inequalities that pervaded Cuban life long after the end of slavery in the late
1880s. The research goes on to recall that the Cuban Revolution in 1959 generally classified race
as a taboo concept, as the government implemented color-blind policies despite very obvious racial differences (Fernandez, 2001, 118-121). Such research will be discussed further in the review as it relates to contemporary racial discourse in Cuba. As mentioned previously, there is more research available about the history of race in Puerto Rico. Multiple sociologists such as
Denton, et. al, Godreau et. al, and Gordon, write about the history of racial discrimintion in
Puerto Rico. Similarly to the research presented on Cuba, these sociologists note that racial discrimination and inequalities existed long after the end of slavery in 1873. In fact, in “Race
Patterns and Prejudice in Puerto Rico,” Gordon explains how Puerto Ricans with any drop of
Black ancestry worked to hide their racial background to avoid being discriminated against, as well as white Puerto Ricans isolating themselves from Blacks. Gordon writes:
“...since the white Puerto Rican is never sure of his status with continentals [in reference to the North American continent] he denies relationship to the Negro wherever he finds him: in Puerto Rico, on the continent, in the Caribbean, or elsewhere in Latin America. More significantly, he denies any tinge of Negro blood he himself may knowingly but secretly possess” (Gordon, 1949, p. 296).
Gordon also discusses difficulties Black Puerto Ricans have encountered with social status and employment opportunities, stating that “...although either Negro or mulatto Puerto Rican may
‘move up’ the social scale by his personal achievement, his movement is always relative; his final social position does not equal that of the white of ‘similar achievement’” (Gordon, 1949, p.
300).
The contemporary desire for Puerto Ricans to be perceived as white or white-passing is explored by Lloréns and Godreau, et. al, as anyone closer to Blackness is on the lower end of
Puerto Rico’s racial and social hierarchies. In her article, “Identity Practices: Racial Passing,
Gender, and Racial Purity in Puerto Rico,” Lloréns writes, “...in Puerto Rico it is expected that individuals who can pass as Hispanic white do so, and those who may not easily pass, because of
skin color, hair texture, or nose shape, make use of available body fashioning technologies to do so” (Lloréns, 2018, p. 38). Lloréns goes on to determine whiteness as the standard in Puerto
Rico, contributing to the idea that there is more power and freedom in whiteness. This idea references blanqueamiento or “whitening” on the island. Godreau, et. al also speaks of the culture of blanqueamiento in “The Lessons of Slavery: Discourses of Slavery, Mestizaje, and Blanqueamiento in an Elementary School in Puerto Rico,” stating that:
“Puerto Rican culture and Puerto Rican people are often represented as the product of the mixture between Taíno, Natives, Spaniards, and Africans. This mixture, however, implies blanqueamiento, or the notion that Puerto Ricans have whitened and ‘evolved’ by shedding most of their African ‘blood’” (Godreau, et. al, 2008, p. 117).
This research illuminates how deeply stigmatized Blackness is in Puerto Rico, and how whiteness is the most desirable, “evolved,” state of being in which a Puerto Rican can exist.
With regard to race relations in the Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean, many sociologists reviewed two issues in particular: that of statelessness, and experiences of racial discrimination.
Bartlett, author of “South-south migration and education: the case of people of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic,” goes into great detail about how the citizenship statuses of those of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic are distinctively regulated by the Dominican government. Bartlett writes:
“Though the youth were born in the Dominican Republic...they had the right to a birth certificate and the benefits and entitlements of citizenship…only eight of the forty participants in our study were granted these flights at birth or soon after. That figure gives a strong sense of exclusion faced by Haitian-descent peoples in the Dominican Republic.” (Bartlett, 2011, p. 403).
Bartlett also studied young people’s perceptions toward Haitian and Dominican identity in the
Dominican Republic. In one of her interviews, a young Dominican of Haitian descent states that,
“‘if the person is light, although he’s Haitian, he is treated like a Dominican. The person’s skin
colour is an important element’” (Bartlett, 2011, p. 408). Bartlett’s research exemplifies how having African ancestry greatly affects how one is treated in the Domincan Republic, both politically and socially. Similarly to this research, in “Racializing Ethnicity in the
Spanish-Speaking Caribbean,” Duany considers how those with African ancestry in the
Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are consequently treated. Duany writes:
“many Dominicans believe that Haitians are savage, ugly, violent, and bloodthirsty because of their African ancestry, just as many Puerto Ricans feel that Dominicans are strange, dangerous, criminal, and sexually obsessed, largely because of their blackness” (Duany, 2006, p. 242).
Sociologists Pashel, et. al also discuss how migrants from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Haiti are affected by race relations in “WE DIDN’T CROSS THE COLOR LINE, THE
COLOR LINE CROSSED US: Blackness and Immigration in the Dominican Republic, Puerto
Rico, and the United States.” The writers state that they focused on these countries in particular
“...in order to understand the ways in which people get racialized in similar ways across different contexts” (Paschel, et. al, 2007, p. 314). These patterns found in all three articles explain how
Blackness is contemporarily stigmatized from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, and the
Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, essentially serving as a social marker that excludes and isolates those of African descent from the rest of the population.
The final subject matter found throughout this research is that of the contemporary discourse surrounding race in the Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean. The sociologists quoted largely provide information on the discourses in Puerto Rico and Cuba. Principally, the writers discuss how racism is recognized as a prominent social issue in Puerto Rico. Several sociologists, including Lloréns and Godreau, conducted a survey in 2017 that addressed whether or not individuals believe that racism is a distinguished issue on the island. They report that the findings “suggest that, rather than popular disbelief, it is the lack of an ‘official’
acknowledgement by the government that racism in Puerto Rico is indeed a social problem―a problem that presents an obstacle for civil rights protections” (Lloréns, et al., 2017, p. 175).
Supporting the notion that racism is not addressed on a governmental or even societal level in
Puerto Rico, in a separate article Godreau et. al explains how slavery and race are not explicitly addressed in Puerto Rican school curriculum, creating a barrier between Puerto Rican identity and the concept of Blackness (Godreau, et. al, 2008, p. 130). In terms of cultural discourse, research shows that a commonly shared idea in Puerto Rico is that mestizaje, or interracial mixture, is more important than identifying with one race. In “Ethnic Classification in
Southeastern Puerto Rico: The Cultural Model of ‘Color,’” Gravelee explains that:
“in Puerto Rico, the concept of raza is closely linked to an ideology of mestizaje, or intermixture, that rejects racial differences among Puerto Ricans and emphasizes instead the blending of Spanish, Taino, and African influences into a singular form of Puerto Ricanness…” (Gravlee, 2005, p. 966)
Nonetheless, as supported by Duany and Denton et. al, whiteness is more identified with and is even preferable. In ““Racial Segregation on the Island: The Role of Race and Class in Puerto
Rican Neighborhoods,” Denton et. al discloses that “...80.5% of the population reported themselves as ‘white only,’ and if multiple races are included, 84%, 11%, and 8% reported themselves white, black, or ‘other,’ respectively” (Denton et. al, 2007, p. 61). Duany reveals another discrepancy between the idea of mestizaje pride and its actual effects, writing that “...the much-vaunted myth of a ‘racial democracy’ based on the ideology of mestizaje or mulataje continues to subordinate blacks, mulattoes, and other ‘people of color’ in the Spanish-speaking
Caribbean” (Duany, 2006, p. 243). With regard to the island of Cuba specifically, Fernandez discusses the emergence of racial discourse in academia and popular culture, which is attributed to both research and influence from outside the island. That said, Fernandez acknowledges that race is still a “taboo” discourse, concluding that, “a genuine and profound reckoning with the
race question in Cuba will only come, however, when an unshackled civil society breaks the intellectual and political constraints still imposed by the state” (Fernandez, 2001, p. 130).
The sociological literature concerning Blackness within the Spanish-speaking/Latin
Caribbean is a solid, thoroughly researched index that provides a lot of information and empirical evidence regarding anti-Blackness in the region. A lot of the research reviewed also attests to anti-Blackness being a critical and recognizable social issue in the area. Nevertheless, there are some topics that are underdeveloped and not completely explored. Most notably, there’s a lack of sociological research that speaks to Blackness in Cuba, especially concerning contemporary perceptions of Blackness and race relations. Research on the Dominican Republic is also lacking in discussing racial discourse on the island. Further, as Haiti’s official language is not Spanish, but it is still considered to be a Latin American nation, it would be constructive to include more material on Blackness on that island that is not directly related to the Dominican
Republic. Withall, because this research establishes anti-Blackness as a pervasive pattern in the
Spanish-speaking/Latin Caribbean, future research on this topic could benefit from focusing on the contemporary consequences of anti-Blackness as they relate to Afro-Latinx populations, as well as involving data specifically about Afro-Latinx populations and their experiences. In doing so, one may be able to consider how anti-Blackness can be combated and properly assessed in the region.
References
Bartlett, Lesley. 2011. “South-south migration and education: the case of people of Haitian
descent born in the Dominican Republic.” Compare. Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 393-414. Denton, Nancy A., Villarrubia, Jacqueline. 2007. “Racial Segregation on the Island: The Role of
Race and Class in Puerto Rican Neighborhoods.” Sociological Forum. Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 51-76.
Duany, Jorge. 2006. “Racializing Ethnicity in the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean.” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 231-248 Fernandez, Nadine. 2001. “The Changing Discourse on Race in Contemporary Cuba.”
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Vol. 14, No. 2. Pp. 117-132 Godreau, Isar P., Reyes Cruz, Mariolga, Franco Ortiz, Mariluz, Cuadrado, Sherry. 2008. “The
Lessons of Slavery: Discourses of Slavery, Mestizaje, and Blanqueamiento in an
Elementary School in Puerto Rico.” American Ethnologist. Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 115-135 Gordon, Maxine W. 1949. “Race Patterns and Prejudice in Puerto Rico.” American Sociological Review Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 294-301. Gravlee C. Clarence. 2005. “Ethnic Classification in Southeastern Puerto Rico: The Cultural
Model of ‘Color.’” Oxford University Press. Vol. 83, No. 3, pp. 949-970 Lloréns, Hilda., García-Quijano, Carlos G., Godreau, Isar. P. 2017. “Racismo in Puerto Rico:
Surveying Perceptions of Racism.” Centro Journal. Vol. 29, No. 3, pp.154. Lloréns, Hilda. 2018. “Identity Practices: Racial Passing, Gender, and Racial Purity in Puerto
Rico.” Afro-Hispanic Review. Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 29-147, 197. Paschel, Tianna S., Sawyer, Mark Q. 2007. “WE DIDN’T CROSS THE COLOR LINE, THE
COLOR LINE CROSSED US: Blackness and Immigration in the Dominican Republic,
Puerto Rico, and the United States.” Du Bois Review. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 303-315.