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Who Is Afro-Latin@? Examining the Social Construction of Race and Négritude in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Who Is Afro-Latin@? Examining the Social Construction of Race and Négritude in Latin America and the Caribbean Social Education 81(1), pp 37–42 ©2017 National Council for the Social Studies Teaching and Learning African American History Who is Afro-Latin@? Examining the Social Construction of Race and Négritude in Latin America and the Caribbean Christopher L. Busey and Bárbara C. Cruz By the 1930s the négritude ideological movement, which fostered a pride and conscious- The rejection of négritude is not a ness of African heritage, gained prominence and acceptance among black intellectuals phenomenon unique to the Dominican in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. While embraced by many, some of African Republic, as many Latin American coun- descent rejected the philosophy, despite evident historical and cultural markers. Such tries and their respective social and polit- was the case of Rafael Trujillo, who had assumed power in the Dominican Republic ical institutions grapple with issues of in 1930. Trujillo, a dark-skinned Dominican whose grandmother was Haitian, used race and racism.5 For example, in Mexico, light-colored pancake make-up to appear whiter. He literally had his family history African descended Mexicans are socially rewritten and “whitewashed,” once he took power of the island nation. Beyond efforts isolated and negatively depicted in main- to alter his personal appearance and recast his own history, Trujillo also took extreme stream media, while socio-politically, for measures to erase blackness in Dominican society during his 31 years of dictatorial the first time in the country’s history the rule. On a national level, Trujillo promoted blanqueamiento (whitening), encouraging Mexican government will allow those of the immigration of single Europeans to the island and offering refuge to Jews during African descent to identify as such on the World War II because they were considered white—thus attempting to mejorar la country’s census in 2020.6 raza or “improve [whiten] the race” of the Dominican Republic.1 How and why is such an important part of the region’s multicultural and Citing a threat to national security, of Hispaniola and culminated in Haiti’s multiethnic heritage overlooked, mini- Trujillo’s most extreme measure was independence in 1804.3 mized, or overtly rejected? How is the massacre of over 20,000 Haitians Trujillo embodied the desire for négritude defined and constructed in and black Dominicans in 1937. Known European racial identification, which Latin America and the Caribbean, and as Kout kouto a (the knife blow) in continues today as evidenced by efforts more importantly, how has it impacted Haiti and El Corte (the cutting) in the to deport hundreds of thousands of black, identity in the Americas? The purpose Dominican Republic because of the Dominican-born Haitians in the sum- of this article is to explore négritude wide use of machetes, the slaughter was mer of 2015. Although the Dominican in Latin America through the lens of a direct order from Trujillo.2 Trujillo’s Republic has been called the “cradle of social construction, race mixing, and antihaitianismo was rooted less in a fear blackness in the Americas,” the rejection racial stratification. We argue that this of a Haitian-supported coup and more in of négritude continues to manifest itself is an important foundation to under- his fear of blackness—a fear many whites in contemporary Dominican society stand Afro-Latinidad*—not only in and colonial powers held of Haiti ever with practices such as hair straightening, Latin America and the Caribbean, but since Toussaint L’Ouverture led a suc- avoiding the sun, skin bleaching, and the also in the United States—and discuss cessful slave revolt against the French many racial terms that effectively temper with students not just the historical con- that emancipated blacks across the island and erase blackness.4 text of this demographic group, but also * In this article we use terms such as Afro-Latinidad in addition to using the symbol “@” (e.g., Afro-Latin@), which is a scholarly writing expression of gender inclusion, reflect- ing both Latinos (male) and Latinas (female) as a whole. The term “Latin@” may be pronounced as “Latino-Latina” or as “Latinao,” with the ending pronounced as in “now.” January/February 2 017 37 the implications of black identity for white” through education, profes- a divorce from blackness.12 From this per- Latin@s today (Latin@ is pronounced sional standing, wealth, and social sta- spective then, mestizaje functioned as a “Latinao” and rhymes with “now.”) tus. Through mestizaje (race mixing or racial veil and Afro-Latin@s, especially We also recognize that our article, like miscegenation), people with African those with darker skin or other African this special issue, is meant to situate black or indigenous features can intermarry features, have often found themselves history into social studies curricula from with Europeans or lighter-skinned excluded from the “cosmic race.” a contemporary lens. Interrogating race people, resulting in children with more To understand the social construc- and racism, in addition to offering stories European-looking phenotypes. tion—how understandings of a particu- of black agency from varied perspectives, In Mexico, educator and politician lar phenomenon or idea are created and is vital to the sustainability of a culturally José Vasconcelos was central in helping applied by society—of race and black- diverse curriculum. Furthermore, stu- to build a national identity that embraced ness in Latin America, it is important to dents in the United States should know mestizaje. With his 1925 publication consider how racial identification and about this important part of the history of La Raza Cósmica, Vasconcelos ascription occurs. Racial stratification of the Americas and reflect on how it envisioned an all-encompassing Latin is the systematic ranking or ordering impacts their own society. American human race that placed mes- of people in Latin America. Unlike the tizaje in a shared Latin American his- United States, where race is both binary The Construction of “Black” in torical context.9 The phenomenon of and fixed, race in Latin America is a Latin America race mixing was embraced throughout much more fluid concept. For example, As a result of pre-Columbian African Latin America due in part to self-jux- the identification of someone as black exploration and participation in large taposition to the United States. Despite in the United States is both static and expeditions organized by explorers from their own systematic racist practices, stable as it is noted on an infant’s birth the Iberian Peninsula, black presence in Latin Americans universally viewed records and reflected in school records. Latin America existed before the slave twentieth-century society in the United In contrast, the identification of someone trade.7 However, the African diaspora in States with disdain.10 Racism, particu- as black or negro in Latin America is not the Americas, which began around 1516, larly against African Americans, in the as immutable, with a person’s racial clas- would exponentially multiply the black United States was much more overt, as sification impacted by self-identification, population when Spain began export- images and stories of beatings, lynch- marriage, professional status, and other ing milled sugar and enslaving Africans ings, racial terrorism, and “separate but variables. to work the plantations. Over the next equal” laws that divided American insti- Skin tone or complexion color has 300 years, enslavement resulted in the tutions between black and white became contributed to racial stratification, as displacement and dislocation of more a stain through which the United States have hair texture and facial features. than 10 million Africans throughout was viewed globally. Mestizaje allowed These complex classification systems Latin America and the Caribbean, with Latin American countries to compara- exist with dozens of terms and attendant almost 5 million going to Brazil. Left tively claim moral superiority through social strata. It is through this form of to the colonizing Europeans, from this their alleged progressive, nationalistic racial stratification that Afro-Latin@s, point forward, Afro-Latin@ history, embrace of a multiracial society. especially those with observable African identity, and agency become problema- characteristics, are assigned lesser worth tized. Black history discourse cannot be Social Construction and Racial or value than those with more European- understood without examining how race Stratification in Latin America looking features.13 Racial stratification, was, and continues to be, socially con- On the surface, mestizaje may symbolize like mestizaje and blanqueamiento in structed. Race in Latin America and the racial unity in Latin America, yet racial Latin America, has also muddled the Caribbean is complex and discussions of inequities nonetheless exist and dispro- concept of négritude as it is more than mestizaje (race mixing) as well as racial portionately affect Afro-Latin@s as well phenotype and appearance, but also a stratification are vital to understanding as indigenous groups. Anthropologist social assignment without static bound- how négritude and Afro-Latin@ identity Peter Wade noted, “mestizaje is about aries. are defined. processes of transformation (of people, of communities, of nations) in which Casta Paintings in Colonial Latin Blanqueamiento and Mestizaje things (‘blood,’ appearance, culture) America Blanqueamiento, or the process of whit- change in the direction of inclusion, Historically, racial stratification in Latin ening, can be used in both a social and yet other things (racialised hierarchies) America can be viewed in seventeenth- biological sense as a policy or practice remain the same and point towards and eighteenth-century casta paintings that attempts to “improve the race.”8 exclusion.”11 Some scholars argue that (see Figure 1 on p. 41). Casta paintings Socially, individuals can become “more mestizaje in Latin America was, in effect, were created to ease anxiety over the Social Education 38 breakdown of socio-racial hierarchy, and setting used to stratify groups into Latin@s. Approximately 150 million with the goal of convincing Spanish elites rigid taxonomies.
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