black and latino

What does it mean to be black and Latino in the U.S.? Featuring interviews with Latino actors Laz Alonso, Tatyana Ali, Gina Torres, Judy Reyes, singers Christina Milian and Kat DeLuna, journalist Soledad O'Brien and others.

piri thomas (1928-2011)

Piri Thomas' Official Website
NPR: Piri Thomas, Poet And Novelist, Remembered
Democracy Now!: Author Piri Thomas Dies at 83
LA Times: Latino writer Piri Thomas dies at 83

i'm just hoping blair underwood doesn't end up sounding like al pacino in scarface

I was already intrigued by the ads I saw for the new NBC series The Event. The mix of science fiction and political conspiracies seemed right up my alley. Now I just found out that in the fictional world of the show, the president is an Afro-Cuban-American named Elias Martinez. Should be interesting. I think he's probably the only Afro-Cuban character on national (English-language) television since Gina Torres (who is Afro-Cuban herself) played Anna Espinosa on Alias.

The Grio: Playing a black president gets complicated in age of Obama by Ronda Racha Penrice

reyes de las calles - el mundo va acabarse

Just some amusing Afro-Cuban, Afro-futuristic, anti-racist, apocalyptic hip-hop. If I had more patience I would transcribe the lyrics along with the translation. (And I'm actually surprised and a little disappointed that no one else out there seems to have done it already.) The group's name means "Kings of the Streets" and the song's title means "The world is going to end". The lyrics tell the story of what happens when God (and the Martians) come down to Earth to set things right.

check both! / ¡chequea las dos!

CAMPAIGN TO INCREASE THE AFRO-LATIN@ COUNT ON THE 2010 CENSUS

(New York, NY) In an effort to achieve an accurate count of Afro-Latinos in the United States Census, the nonprofit afrolatin@ forum has produced a series of public service announcements that call on Latinos of African descent to identify as both Hispanic and Black on the 2010 form. By proclaiming “Check Both!/¡Chequea las dos!” the bilingual spots highlight the importance for Latin@s of African descent to self-identify as such on the Census.

The count has far-reaching implications, determining how $400 billion in federal funds are distributed to local governments each year. Over 10 years, a community could lose a projected $1.2 million of federal funding for housing, health and education programs for every 100 persons that are not counted, according to the NAACP. Studies have established that despite a higher educational level, Black Latin@s are more likely to live below the poverty level than other Latin@s and have the highest unemployment rate.

Afro-Latin@s and Census 2010
Yo Soy
Y Tu Abuela
Facts

walterio carbonell (1920-2008)

From The Passing of a Black Giant in Cuba: A Tribute to Walterio Carbonell by Carlos Moore:

Widely regarded as the father of a Black Consciousness movement in Cuba, the Cuban ethnologist and historian, Walterio Carbonell, died on Sunday, April 13, 2008, at the age of 88. For Cuba, whose Black population now comprises 62 percent of the total, it is a great loss. Carbonell was regarded as one of the most profound Cuban intellectuals for the latter half of the 20th century. His work, On the Origin of National Culture, published in Havana in 1961 but immediately banned by the Castro regime, made him an instant icon to Black Cuban racial dissidents. The book was published in France only a few weeks ago.

See also AfroCubaWeb: Walterio Carbonell passed on to the ancestors Sunday, 4/13/08

cheikh lo

I'm going to have to check him out the next time I go to a CD store. Muslically, he performs African music tinged with Cuban sounds. Spiritually, he is a member of the Senegalese Sufi order known as Baye Fall Sufi (sometiems called "Muslim Rastas").

Myspace: Cheikh Lo
catching up

everything is separated by water

A few weekends ago I was able to catch Everything is separated by water; an exhibition of 17 major pieces by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, an Afro-Cuban artist from Matanzas. I was stuck by how several of the pieces touched on questions of identity in a way which could be generalized to people of African descent, Latinos and immigrant Muslims. Whether you are talking about the Rio Grande, the Atlantic Ocean or the 90 miles which separate Miami from Cuba, 'everything' really is separated by water.

Memory, historical connections to Cuba and Africa, her dislocation and that of her ancestors fuel the 17 major works that comprise the Campos-Pons retrospective Everything is Separated by Water at the Bass Museum in Miami Beach.

''Her work is about constructing identity and cultural histories,'' says curator Lisa D. Freiman, who organized the retrospective for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, where it was staged more amply in 12,000 square feet of space. ``It's about who we become when we move to new places, and the feeling of not completely being whole in any place.''

'In my country, in my setting, in my town, `the problem' of being African wasn't about physical placement or about land,'' Campos-Pons explains. ``When we talked about Africa, we didn't talk about the continent. Africa was in my Cuban backyard.

''Africa was my father, my mother, my cousins and my aunts and uncles,'' she adds. ``They played the drums in the patio at all hours. The question of Africa arose from the point of view of the United States. When I was in Cuba, it was never a question.''

Using paint, herbs and wood sculpture -- sight, sounds and smells -- Campos-Pons conjures the image of the forest where the gods of santería are said to dwell. The forest also is the realm of their messenger and keeper of the roads, Eleguá, the orisha after whom Campos-Pons titles another work, The One Who Opens the Path (1997), a composition of 10 mammoth Polaroid Polacolor photographs.

Likewise, in another piece, The Seven Powers Come by Sea (1992), the seven orishas of the Yoruban pantheon are present in large wood sculptures that resemble slave ships and are carved with stick figures, showing how slaves were tightly stacked on ships sailing to the New World.

For the rest of the story, check out the Miami Herald: Cuban artist connects memories of a fragmented life