Celebrating Afro-Latinos in the Spanish Class

It is already February, and with its arrival, we have started to celebrate Black History Month. No matter who we are or where we are, we should pay attention and celebrate Afro-Latinidad in our courses. What does it mean to be Afro-Latino? Who are some famous and notable Afro-Latinos? What are some contributions of Afro-Latinos and Afro-Latino culture within music, dance, and food in the Spanish-speaking world and in U.S.?

The first question I would like my students to answer is to think about the term Afro-Latino. Even though it is a term that comes from the U.S and refers to heritage rather than skin color, there is a movement of people who embrace African heritage and pride and use the prefix “Afro” as a way to claim such a heritage. Therefore, we can talk about afrocubanos, afromexicanos, afroperuanos, or afrovenezolanos, etc. In Latin America, one out of four people identifies themselves as African descendants. One hundred thirty-three million people in Latin America are of African heritage or afrolatinos and 98% of them live in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela. In the United States, Afro-Latinos with Caribbean heritage are more likely to identify themselves as afrolatinos and afrocaribeños than in other countries. The social movement “Black Lives Matter,” after George Floyd’s death, became a symbol for the fight of many Afro-Latino populations that have suffered discrimination, persecution, and extermination. The new Disney film, Encanto, released last November, is a good of example of Afro-Latinidad and the separation of race and ethnicity. You can be Black and Latino and that is something that a lot of people do not understand. There is no such a thing as too Black to be Hispanic, or too Hispanic to be Black. This gap not only fed self-awareness for many Afro-Latinos but opened their mind to the fractures that we have today in society. Latinos come in all kinds of shapes, colors, and sizes. There are many charismatic people of African heritage who are considered the most influential throughout the last years, including Martina Arroyo, Roberto Clemente, Celia Cruz, Sandra Guzmán, Sunny Hostin, Soledad O’Brien, Rosie Pérez, Dámaso Pérez Prado, Judy Reyes, Zoe Saldaña, Arturo Schomburg, Piri Thomas, Félix ‘Tito Trinidad, among others.

In celebration of Black History Month, I would like my students to discuss why representation matters as we all build our perspectives of our own ethnic-racial group and who we are as we see ourselves reflected in media. Teaching diversity is important and celebrating it in the classroom allows us to make connections among cultures and reduce our implicit bias. Surrounding ourselves with individuals from different backgrounds will help us understand each other and support the Afro-Latino community. We should then be curious and open-minded.

I have looked at different resources to put together a list of materials that educators could use in our Spanish classes. Particularly, I found very useful “Celebrate Afro-Latinos in Spanish Class”. The reader will find many resources that I also include in this post along with materials available for purchase from TeachersPayTeachers. I particularly recommend this bundle. Here “20 Notable Afro-Latinos” can be very helpful for our classes as it provides us with 23 brief biography slides in Spanish, printable versions of each slide, and a reflection card that students can use to record information about each figure and connect him or her to their own lives. I also found other wonderful resources, such as articles pertaining to Afro-Latinos from El mundo en tus manos, “11 One-Page Biographies of Afro-Latinx Influencers,” “Los rakas: Music and Reading Pack,” and “Afro-Latinx Music for Spanish Class.” Among the many resources that I searched on, I found Allison’s YouTube channel, The Cultural Classroom. She loves to write and to create products to bring authentic culture into the classroom. On her channel, Allison has many videos celebrating Afro-Latinos in Spanish Class. In “My Story: Afro-Latino Culture in the Spanish Classroom,” Allison shares with us how she got interested in Afro-Latino & African culture in the Spanish classroom. In “Africa in the Spanish Classroom,” she talks about why it is important to talk about Afro-Latino and African culture in the Spanish classroom. In “Spanish Class Mini-Lesson: Afro-Latinos & Africa in Latin Music,” Allison shows how you just can spend 20 minutes of a class to bring the joy, vibrancy, and education of Afro-Latino in the Spanish classroom. Some resources created by Allison are available for purchase on TeachersPayTeachers: “Afro-Latino Heritage Research Project,” and “Mix-Musical: Afro-Latinos # 1,” and “Mix-Musical: Afro-Latinos # 2.” Finally, I found three more interesting resources on the SrtaSpanish website: “Black History Month in Spanish Class,” “Black History Month Reading for Spanish Class,” and “Authres for Juneteenth in Spanish Class.”

During the first week, I plan on presenting to my students some videos that show what it means to be Afro-Latino, the experience of an afroamericano, and what Afro-Latinos want us to know about themselves. We will look at the history of Afro-Latinos in Latin America, the difference between African-Americans and Afro-Latinos, why Latinos should be proud of their African heritage, and the struggles of the Afro-Latino community. I would like to introduce some Afro-Latino personalities, such as Bruno Marx and ChocQuibTown.

I would like my students to do a research project on different Afro-Latino personalities, including the following: Miriam Jiménez Román (Afro-Puerto Rican professor, editor, activist, curator, social theorist, author, and activist), Piri Thomas (Afro-Puerto Rican-Cuban writer and activist), José Celso Barbosa (Afro-Puerto Rican physician, sociologist, and politician), Gwen Ilfill (Afro-Panamanian-American journalist and television news anchor), Sylvia del Villard (Afro-Puerto Rican activist, dance, and actress), Felipe Luciano (Afro-Puerto Rican poet, activist, musicologist, and journalist), Julia de Burgos (Afro-Puerto Rican poet and activist), Arturo Schomburg (Afro-Puerto Rican historian). Other personalities that they could do research on are María Elena Moyano (Afro-Peruvian community organizer), Modesto Cepeda (Afro-Puerto Rican musician), José Francisco Gómez Peña (Afro-Dominican politician), Carlos Moore (Afro-Cuban writer), Zulia Mena (Afro-Colombian activist and politician), Pedro Albizú Campos (Afro-Puerto Rican attorney, social activist, and nationalist), Zoe Saldana (Afro-Dominican and Afro-Puerto Rican actress), Elizabeth Acevedo (Afro-Dominican-American poet and novelist), Gina Torres (Afro-Cuban-American actress), Rafael Alomar (Afro-Puerto Rican baseball player), Victor Cruz (Afro-Puerto Rican-American football player), Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Afro-Puerto Rican writer), Lupita Nyong’o (Afro-Mexican filmmaker and actress), Ariana Brown (Afro-Mexican-American poet), Carmelo Anthony (Afro-Puerto Rican-American baseball player), La La Anthony (Afro-Puerto Rican-American television personality, author, businesswoman, producer, and actress), Ilia Calderón (Afro-Colombian journalist), Rosario Dawson (Afro-Cuban-Puerto Rican-American actress), Nicolás Guillén (Afro-Cuban poet), and Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (Afro-Cuban pilot and cosmonaut). My students will write an original biography in Spanish about the Afro-Latino person that has been assigned to you. In addition to the reading in English linked to their celebrity, you will look for information about him/her in either English or Spanish. Then, they will write a 15-line paragraph. Once they are done editing and writing your biography, they will make a video presenting the information in Spanish.

During the second week, I would like my students to do research on Afro-Latino music and food. We would explore how the influence of Africa has been interpreted in various Latin and Caribbean cultures. The music of West Africa, where the majority of those enslaved in the Americas came from, was diffused through both indigenous and Spanish filters to become the distinct sounds and rhythms that we know today (“For Black History Month, Celebrate Afro-Latino Music with Smithsonian Folkways”). Students could explore bachata (Dominican Republic), bomba (Puerto Rico), candombe (Uruguay), cumbia (Colombia and Panama), festejo (peru), landó (Peru), marimba (Guatemala), merengue (Dominican Republic), palo de mayo (Nicaragua), plena (Puerto Rico), punta (Honduras), reggaeton (Puerto Rico), reggae in Spanish (Panama), salsa (Cuba and Puerto Rico), saya (Bolivia), son (Cuba), among others. I would also like my students to do research on the African roots of several dishes, including caldo santo (Puerto Rico), carapulcra chinchana (Peru), frituras de frijol carita (Colombia and Cuba), fufú (Cuba and Dominican Republic), mofongo (Puerto Rico), quimbombó (Cuba), pollo triturado con salsa de cacahuete (Mexico), rondón (Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela), sancocho (Puerto Rico), and sangrecita de pollo (Peru).