WINTER 2018 HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA AFRO-LATIN AMERICANS MUSICAFRO-LATIN AMERICANS EDITOR’S LETTER BY JUNE CAROLYN ERLICK HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA WINTER 2018 Resistance, Democracy and Music VOLUME XVI NO. 2 Published by the David Rockefeller Center My dear friend and photographer Richard Cross (R.I.P.) introduced me to the unexpected VOLUME XVII NO.2 for Latin American Studies world of San Basilio de Palenque in Colombia in 1977. He was then working closely with David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Harvard University Colombian anthropologist Nina de Friedemann, and I’d been called upon by Sports Illustrated Director to research a story why this little community off the Colombian coast had produced three Brian Farrell world-champion boxers. I soon found out that Palenque—as most call it—had been a runaway Executive Director slave community. The boxing techniques grew out of fist-heavy martial arts intended to fend Ned Strong off attacks. ReVista Richard, who knew everyone in the community, took me to talk to young and old alike, Editor-in-Chief to watch girls and boys practicing their boxing-like martial arts, to learn of the history of June Carolyn Erlick this valiant community. Now the struggle was not only one of resistance: it was one of Copy Editor democratic evolution, as the community aimed to make its voice heard to demand roads and Anita Safran AFRO-LATIN AMERICANS other basic services. Publication Interns Resistance and democracy became the two foundation stones on which this ReVista Isabel Espinosa FIRST TAKE BUILDING BRIDGES Sylvie Stoloff about Afro-Latin Americans has been built. But I also wanted to include a section on The Rise of Afro-Latin America by Alejandro de la Fuente 2 Compañeros En Salud humanities. At first, I thought of seeking articles on art, literature, music, dance and film... Design by Mercedes Aguerrebere Gómez Urquiza 75 Jane Simon Design certainly Afro-Latin American culture has been accomplished in all of these areas, both in the MEMORY AND RESISTANCE Printer past and nowadays. Slavery and Precarious Freedom by Sidney Chalhoub 10 BOOK TALK P+R Publications But I feared I would be expanding in too many directions. I settled on music alone, Afro-Boricua Agency by Agustín Laó-Montes 12 Social Policy in Cuba A Review by Chris Tilly 76 Contact Us A View of Afro-Diasporic History from Colombia by Cristina García Navas 16 Consumption as Resistance although I feared at first that it could be interpreted as a cliché. But I thought about the 1730 Cambridge Street Mining and the Defense of Afro-Colombian Territory in the Age of Late Capitalism shape of the issue. Music is resistance and the music of Afrodescendants past and present Cambridge, MA 02138 by Stephen and Elizabeth Ferry 18 A Review by Eduardo Ledesma 78 has been used to resist the dominant white culture. Music is identity—it is a way of asserting Telephone: 617-495-5428 African and Afro-Indian Rebel Leaders In Latin America by Omar H. Ali 21 Fighting Corruption through Diplomacy oneself and one’s heritage. And music is often democratic, allowing all to participate, Subscriptions, Back Copies and Comments [email protected] The Routine of an Unconventional Path by Antonio J. Copete 24 A Review by Claudia Escobar 80 whether as performer and artist or spectator. “I Found My Island” by Miari Taina Stephens 26 (Junk) Food for Thought Website And besides, San Basilio de Palenque—my first intensive experience with an Afro-Latin revista.drclas.harvard.edu Transforming Havana’s Gay Ambiente by Matthew Leslie Santana 28 A Review by Glenn Garvin 82 American community—literally explodes with the sound of drums. The performers of martial Sandoval Redux by Nicholas T Rinehart 30 Facebook arts move with the grace of dance, and the turban-clad Palenque women with basins of fruit ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America LAST LOOK 84 on their heads who ply the beaches of Cartagena sell their wares with uncanny songlike DISCRIMINATION AND FORMS OF ACTION Copyright © 2018 by the President and chants. Fellows of Harvard College. Reflections on the Afro-Chilean Social Movement So there we had it, resistance, democracy and music, a bit of Brazil and Colombia ISSN 1541—1443 by Cristian Alejandro Báez Lazcano 34 and Chile and Cuba and a flurry of other places. One issue ofReVista can’t pretend to ReVista is printed on recycled stock. Afro-Latin America by the Numbers by George Reid Andrews 38 ONLINE Prejudice and Pride by Lowell Gudmundson 41 Look for more content online at cover everything about a significant part of Latin America’s population and history. It’s This issue of ReVista is made possible Salvador de Bahia by Enrique Aureng Silva 44 revista.drclas.harvard.edu a beginning, an exploration. And it’s one that wouldn’t have been possible without the through generous support of Witches, Wives, Secretaries and Black Feminists by Tianna S. Paschel 46 excellent collaboration of Alejandro de la Fuente, director of the Afro-Latin American Santander Universities Global Division. Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research here MUSIC AND DANCE at Harvard. Not only did he provide inspiration and consultation with his deep and broad The Bearers by Ned Sublette 5 1 knowledge of Afro-Latin America, but he also is reponsible for the beautiful artwork that Afro-Roots and Mozart Too by Yosvany Terry 56 graces this issue and its cover. Thank you, Alejandro! Negra/Anger by Álvaro Restrepo 58 La Candela Viva by Rebecca Kennedy de Lorenzini 60 Multi-Faith Lives of Brazilian Congadeiros and Umbandistas ON THE COVER by Genevieve E. V. Dempsey 64 Sin Titulo, 2017 mixed media In the Footsteps of La Rebambaramba by Belén Vega Pichaco 68 on cardboard 40x30cm By Juan Roberto Diago Black Aesthetics and Afro-Latinx Hip Hop by Sujatha Fernandes 71 REVISTA.DRCLAS.HARVARD.EDU ReVista 1 FIRST TAKE FIRST TAKE later, as I came to Harvard to found the The Rise Afro-Latin American Research Institute, Romero Rodríguez, then president of the the first research institution in the United Uruguayan organization Mundo Afro, synthetized of Afro-Latin States devoted to studying the history and cultures of peoples of African descent in brilliantly the impact of these events: “entramos America Latin America and the Caribbean. The new field of study had come of age and negros, salimos Afrodescendientes” (“we came in By ALEJANDRO DE LA FUENTE this process owed much to the Santiago as blacks, but came out as Afrodescendants”). Regional Conference. The Conference contributed to the cre- ation of a transnational agenda on race, IT WAS A FOUNDATIONAL EVENT. NEVER justice and human rights focused on the before had so many activists concerned specific needs and histories of people of with issues of race and justice in Latin African descent, who in Latin America America come together to discuss their represent between 20 and 30 percent of experiences and to chart new agendas the total population. States began to see for the future. Never before had racism people of African descent as distinctive and racial inequality been so visible, political subjects with new legal, cultural so central in Latin America. Seventeen and ethnic connotations. The Plan of Ac- years ago, on December 5-7, 2000, more tion approved by the Conference “urged” than 1,700 activists, government officials states to compile and disseminate infor- and representatives from regional and mation that could be used to implement international organizations gathered programs of social inclusion and equal- in Santiago de Chile for the Regional ity, leading to important policy changes. Conference of the Americas. They were In country after country, activists used preparing for the World Conference these guidelines to demand the inclusion against Racism, Racial Discrimination, of ethno-racial categories in national cen- Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that suses and other official statistics, seeking would take place in Durban, South Africa, to counteract the previous invisibility of a year later. Romero Rodríguez, then Afrodescendants. The results are telling. president of the Uruguayan organization Whereas only the censuses of Cuba and Mundo Afro, synthetized brilliantly the Brazil gathered information according A young violinist plays in Cuba. impact of these events: “entramos negros, to skin color or race in the 1980s, today salimos Afrodescendientes” (“we came in as almost all countries in the region include inequality. These included conditional- their entering places for graduates of the blacks, but came out as Afrodescendants”). this question in some way. Numerous cash-transfer and income-maintenance country’s public schools; to guarantee that Romero was highlighting a momen- countries introduced constitutional re- programs such as Bolsa Família, which black, brown and indigenous students tous transformation. In many cases for forms to acknowledge the existence and supports families below the poverty level are represented in numbers equivalent to the very first time, the participating specificity of peoples of African descent on condition that their children attend their proportion in the local population; states officially recognized the persis- and to explicitly condemn racial discrimi- school regularly. At the same time, since and also to guarantee that at least half of tence of racism and discrimination in nation. The number of state offices devot- the 1990s different forms of racial quotas the quota students meet certain income countries that had frequently claimed to ed to issues of discrimination proliferated and affirmative action policies in higher criteria. These quotas are being phased be free from such ills. As the Conference’s across the region. Several countries intro- education and employment were imple- in gradually and it will take some time concluding declaration stated, “ignoring duced compensatory policies to counter mented in that nation, home to the second before we can evaluate their full impact the existence of discrimination and rac- the historical effects of racism and to cre- largest Afrodescendant population in the on Brazilian society.