Students in the class were given a very significant question at the beginning of the semester—a topic that most Cornell professors are reluctant to pose. What brought you to this class? What do you want to take away from the course? For me, it mattered that Professor Carol and Castillo showed genuine curiosity and enthusiasm in the responses from students. Afro Latinx history, identity, immigration, labor, and the struggles minorities confront in America are just a few of the topics that many students, including me, brought up in class.
As an Afro Latina (Garifuna) woman, I was inspired to do my final project and conduct more research on afro latinidad, different Afrodecentant groups across Latin America and the Caribbean Diaspora. The Caribbean can be defined through culture, history, and demography, however, many people only focus on Geography. In the 16th century, many enslaved Africans were forced to the Caribbean Islands. Many were taken to Jamaica, Dominican Republic, St. Vincent, and all the other Caribbean Islands. From the Caribbean, many of them were shipped off to different countries for free labor. Some were sent to Panama, Brazil, Colombia, etc. The enslavement of these African people is what forced many of them to create their Maroon communities.
Maroons are descendants of Africans who established settlements in the Americas to avoid slavery. They frequently intermarried with indigenous peoples, eventually separating into distinct creole cultures. Quilombos, Palenqueros, and Garifuna, are examples of how the Caribbean can be defined through culture in addition to being different Afrodecendant groups in Latin America. Quilombos are maroons of Brazil who escaped slavery. The quilombo diet is
organic, gluten-free, and lactose-free. Columbian Palenqueros is another group of maroons who created their own community in Columbia. Their food contains plantains, beans, corn, and many other essentials used in the Caribbean to create essential meals. They speak a Spanish-based “Creola language called ‘Palenquero’ influenced by the Kikongo language of Congo and Angola and Portuguese” (Romeo 2007). Garifunas are Africans who were brought to St. Vincent in 163. Either ship-wrecked or escaped from the Caribbean islands of Barbados, St. Lucia, and Grenada and intermarried with local populations of Arawaks and Caribs), immigrants from South America, to become known as Garifunas or Black Caribs. They lived peacefully alongside French settlers who reached St. Vincent Exiled by British troops in 1796 and eventually shipped off to Roatan, one of the Honduras Bay Islands. Garifuna culture combines Caribbean fishing and farming traditions with a mixture of South American and African music, dance, and spirituality. Garifuna food and drink combine native Central American crops and African staples, including fish, chicken, cassava, bananas, and plantains. Many countries in the Caribbean also make their traditional dishes with these crops. This further explains how the Caribbean can be defined in multiple ways; geographically, culturally, and historically. In addition, it shows that no matter where we go, we will always take our culture, heritage and embrace it. All in all, I had an enjoyable experience learning more about the various Afro-descendant groups that exist throughout Latin America and their historical journeys. Teaching my classmates and group members about my Garifuna culture was also very important to me.
Citations:
1. Romero, S. (2007, October 18). A language, not quite Spanish, with African echoes. The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/world/americas/18colombia.html
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