Its not. Haiti says hello
Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events
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That's not what article said. Most of the other islands are 90%+ African descent and Haiti for example was founded by Africans and speaks a highly African influenced language
Cuba has definitely retained alot of African culture though
When they say African they mean Pan-African i.e.
Cuba sending way more doctors to combat ebola than any other nations including African nations
Supporting and even financing liberations movements in Africa and America, even sending in military to battle US backed groups
Offering political asylum and free education to Blacks
Cuba has walked the walk.
Meet the beautiful candidates of bloco afro Ilê Aiyê’s 2015 Night of the Ebony Goddess contest!
Note from BW of Brazil: It’s that time once again! Every year the legendary bloco afro known as Ilê Aiyê pays homage to the beauty of the black woman in their yearly Night of the Ebony Goddess competition.
Candidates of Ilê Aiyê’s 2015 Ebony Goddess contest
Below, as in previous years (2014, 2013, 2012), we feature the women who will compete for the title. One will note that the women that will compete in the competition, as is the standard, fall on the darker shade of brown in terms of skin complexion and all wear natural, ethnic hairstyles and/or wear turbans.
The choice of these styles represent a clear statement that speaks to the necessity of showcasing black beauty without appealing to what could be called “European standards of beauty.” Salvador, which known as “Black Rome” because of it’s vibrant African cultural practices and 80% Afro-Brazilian population is all too familiar with this with recent controversial contests that featured large percentages of white or near white women and an agency that sought job candidates with white skin. Yes, it is clearly obvious that Brazil has an obsession with whiteness.
As such, we, as many within Brazil’s black consciousness movement, believe that Afro-Brazilian women of all skin shades are beautiful, but in Brazil’s mainstream media, darker-skinned women with more prominently African features are rarely if ever featured as epitomes of beauty. A recent controversy was a glaring example of this.
Last year in a reality show styled TV contest, the dark-skinned beauty Nayara Justinowas chosen by voters to become Globo TV’s new Globeleza girl, whose role is to hype up the coming Carnaval season in short vignettes that are broadcast on the channel several times per day before the week actually begins. But after viewers turned on Nayara, one reason being that she was “too dark-skinned”, Globo pulled her TV clips, silenced her and recently replaced her with another black woman of a much lighter skin tone. Brazil’s classic “mulata” look.
It is for this reason that we must celebrate the Ebony Goddess: black beauty comes in all shades and that must include women of the darker shades. Take a look at the beauties throughout this post to see who will compete for the crown one week from today!
Ilê Aiyê to choose Ebony Goddess of 2015. Meet the candidates
From the newsroom of Correio Nagô
The Senzala do Bairro Preto, headquarters of Ilê Ayê bloco, located in Salvador, in the neighborhood of Curuzu, will be on January 24 at 9pm, on the stage of the 36th Night of the Black Beauty, the final day of selection of the Ebony Goddess.
36th Night of the Black Beauty – Name – Neighborhood
15 candidates will compete for the title of queen.
In total, the competition received 60 entries.
According to the president of the bloco, Vovô, in order to win, the participant must be black and know how to dance.
For him, the contest contributes to the self-esteem of the woman of African descent.
“In Bahia, the queens of blocos and dances were hardly black. They favored light skin, thin lips. The creation of Deusa do Ébano (Ebony Goddess) is a major affirmative action of Ilê,” said the president to the newspaper A Tarde.
Candidate Juciara do Espírito Santo Silva, receptionist, 33, wants to be the Ebony Goddess when she saw Ilê parade at Carnival.
“I want to be the queen for self-affirmation, the cultural sense and appreciation of black women,” said the resident of Nordeste de Amaralina.
In addition to receiving a cash payment for the first time, the second and third place winners will parade in the allegorical position at side of the Ebony Goddess.
“We made this change to appreciate, besides the first place, the other two places,” Vovô said.
The celebration of the Queen’s choice will have participation of singers Lazzo and the Jamaican, Doctor.
Source: Correio Nagô
Note from BW of Brazil: It’s that time once again! Every year the legendary bloco afro known as Ilê Aiyê pays homage to the beauty of the black woman in their yearly Night of the Ebony Goddess competition. 
Candidates of Ilê Aiyê’s 2015 Ebony Goddess contest
Below, as in previous years (2014, 2013, 2012), we feature the women who will compete for the title. One will note that the women that will compete in the competition, as is the standard, fall on the darker shade of brown in terms of skin complexion and all wear natural, ethnic hairstyles and/or wear turbans.
The choice of these styles represent a clear statement that speaks to the necessity of showcasing black beauty without appealing to what could be called “European standards of beauty.” Salvador, which known as “Black Rome” because of it’s vibrant African cultural practices and 80% Afro-Brazilian population is all too familiar with this with recent controversial contests that featured large percentages of white or near white women and an agency that sought job candidates with white skin. Yes, it is clearly obvious that Brazil has an obsession with whiteness.
As such, we, as many within Brazil’s black consciousness movement, believe that Afro-Brazilian women of all skin shades are beautiful, but in Brazil’s mainstream media, darker-skinned women with more prominently African features are rarely if ever featured as epitomes of beauty. A recent controversy was a glaring example of this.
Last year in a reality show styled TV contest, the dark-skinned beauty Nayara Justinowas chosen by voters to become Globo TV’s new Globeleza girl, whose role is to hype up the coming Carnaval season in short vignettes that are broadcast on the channel several times per day before the week actually begins. But after viewers turned on Nayara, one reason being that she was “too dark-skinned”, Globo pulled her TV clips, silenced her and recently replaced her with another black woman of a much lighter skin tone. Brazil’s classic “mulata” look.
It is for this reason that we must celebrate the Ebony Goddess: black beauty comes in all shades and that must include women of the darker shades. Take a look at the beauties throughout this post to see who will compete for the crown one week from today!
Ilê Aiyê to choose Ebony Goddess of 2015. Meet the candidates
From the newsroom of Correio Nagô
The Senzala do Bairro Preto, headquarters of Ilê Ayê bloco, located in Salvador, in the neighborhood of Curuzu, will be on January 24 at 9pm, on the stage of the 36th Night of the Black Beauty, the final day of selection of the Ebony Goddess.
36th Night of the Black Beauty – Name – Neighborhood
15 candidates will compete for the title of queen.
In total, the competition received 60 entries.
According to the president of the bloco, Vovô, in order to win, the participant must be black and know how to dance.
For him, the contest contributes to the self-esteem of the woman of African descent.
“In Bahia, the queens of blocos and dances were hardly black. They favored light skin, thin lips. The creation of Deusa do Ébano (Ebony Goddess) is a major affirmative action of Ilê,” said the president to the newspaper A Tarde.
Candidate Juciara do Espírito Santo Silva, receptionist, 33, wants to be the Ebony Goddess when she saw Ilê parade at Carnival.
“I want to be the queen for self-affirmation, the cultural sense and appreciation of black women,” said the resident of Nordeste de Amaralina.
In addition to receiving a cash payment for the first time, the second and third place winners will parade in the allegorical position at side of the Ebony Goddess.
“We made this change to appreciate, besides the first place, the other two places,” Vovô said.
The celebration of the Queen’s choice will have participation of singers Lazzo and the Jamaican, Doctor.
Source: Correio Nagô
.Why are Brazilians indifferent to the death of blacks, unlike in the US?
The answer to this can be applied to the plight of all blacks in central and south america. Because they never had a civil rights movement like us, they have no political power. Without the civil rights movement, they have no broad identity or support system and remain perpetual victims.
Beautiful and Black – See the work of the Bahian photographer that values black beauty
DoubleClutch
Superstar
Beautiful and Black – See the work of the Bahian photographer that values black beauty
Note from BW of Brazil: Welcome to 2015! Hoped you’ve recovered from the party and you brought in the new year safely! After a great 2014, we at BW of Brazil are back to business as usual and our first post of 2015 is a great start! The photos presented in today’s post represent everything we discuss and what our objective is here: exposing the darker faces that Brazil’s ultra Eurocentric media prefers to hide, the beauty of Brazil’s black women and highlighting the fact that there is a whole people in Latin America’s largest, most populous country who deserve to represent the image of their country as much as those who classify themselves as white. Today’s photo exhibit follows past projects by other photographers who also chose to focus their attention on black women (see here, here, here and here). Hope you enjoy the photos and keep your eye on the blog in 2015! It’s gonna be a great year!
Beautiful and Black – See the work of the Bahian photographer that values black beauty
Courtesy of Maria Preta
Marcus Socco was born in Salvador, Bahia. Since always his eyes have seen moments between light and human facts that only photography could have supported for the materialization. Even before photography came into his life, he thought of the forms of expression and on this path he went a theater meeting and also discovered stage lighting that enchanted him and he decided to study it, also becoming a professional in the art of lighting.
Photography is a support for images, it is the individual look of each one about the world that materializes. The path of expression in the work ‘Linda e Preta’ (Beautiful and Black) (1) was motivated principally by Marcus’s liking of photographing Black Women, whom he finds beautiful and always caught his attention, the other motivation is his activism in the production of content and images of common black women on the internet, escaping from Renaissance legacies, legacies which are used by the advertising and marketing world.
Shot on the streets in Salvador and Feira de Santana (Bahia), in cultural events circulating in cities, where he captures and catches the everyday, where he meets and hears stories and thoughts of these people on what they are and their attitudes towards their own image and ethnicity. “I realized that one comment was repeated over time, in which women said they were not photogenic and so their photos were not pretty, but what I saw was non-recognition of one’s image due to being far this aesthetic. The first person that has to see herself as beautiful in the pictures is the ‘model’. It’s for her and by her that I do this work,” he emphasizes.
Last year, the photographer participated in four collective exhibitions at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Feira de Santana (MAC Feira or Contemporary Art Museum of Feira de Santana), and one of them was ‘Linda e Preta’, the others were works produced for releases of collections of poems (Cidades, meaning cities) a free theme on the work Temporalidade (meaning temporality) to erotic and pornographic photography (Eros Illuminado).
And over the lifetime of this work ‘Linda e Preta’ a good of the photos are from 2013 and 2014. It is noteworthy that some pictures are from when he started shooting in 2012, a period in which Marcus didn’t have a direction of conception for this work.
With information from Marcus Socco and text editing by Emerson Azevedo.
See all of the photos on our Tumblr page here, here and here.
Source: Maria Preta
Note
1. It’s worth mentioning here that both the terms negro/negra and preto/preta means black Portuguese. As a general rule within the Movimento Negro, the preto/preta refer to the actual color black while negro/negra is used in reference to persons of African descent and considered part of the black race, or raça negra. Sometimes people will use the terms interchangeably, while others consider the term preto/preta to refer to Afro-Brazilians of very dark brown or black skin tones. In the 1970s, it became fashionable for people to say Negro É Lindo, meaning ‘black is beautiful’. The phrase was also the title of a popular song in 1971 for well-known singer/musician Jorge Ben.
Salvador
Why are there no links to these articles?
Black Cubans: Restoring US Ties Is Cool, but America, Keep Your Hang-Ups About Race at Bay
Will the current racial tensions in America seep into Cuba and awaken a sleeping giant? Black Cubans say probably not.
BY: DIANA OZEMEBHOYA EROMOSELE
Posted: Jan. 21 2015 3:00 AM
An Afro-Cuban sugarcane cutter in Pinar del Río, Cuba
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
It doesn’t matter how much Cuba’s culture changes now that the U.S. has restored diplomatic relations; if you’re waiting for black Cubans to set off some sort of racial revolution, don’t hold your breath.
That’s according to some black Cubans who shared their thoughts on race with The Root in the edited Q&A below.
Omar Diaz is a 28-year-old black Cuban actor living in Miami who immigrated to the U.S. when he was 4 years old. He said that while he’s rooting for a democratic Cuba, he hopes that black Cubans will continue to benefit from the Castro revolution’s decree that Cubans prioritize nationalism overrace.
Ruben* is a 52-year-old black photographer and book publisher. He is the only interviewee still living in Cuba. Even though he spoke passionately about racial inequality in Cuba, he explained why he and most black Cubans don’t quite see themselves as Afro-Cuban or black Cuban—just Cuban.
Afro-Cuban boys playing in Trinidad, Cuba
JPLAVOIE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
First cousins Elia E. Espuet and Sira Perez, on the other hand, both strongly identify as Afro-Cubans. Both women, ages 63 and 62 respectively, immigrated to the U.S. when they were teenagers in the late 1960s, Fidel Castro having assumed power in 1959. They could easily pass as African Americans, though they vividly remember how they were advised not to, in order to escape the brutality facing black Americans fighting for civil rights. That distinction—Cuba’s kind of racism versus America’s kind of racism—stuck with them. They maintain that black Cubans have it better in some ways on that front.
Georgina Rodriguez, 53—their mulatto, as she describes herself, cousin (who was categorized as “white” in Cuba when she was born)—doesn’t want Americans spewing their “racial framework” and “neoconservatism” all over Cuba. She argues that the former doesn’t account for all of Cuba’s ethnicities, and the latter will only widen the inequality gap.
An interracial couple in Havana City with pictures of Ché Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos on the wall and a bust of Cuban national hero José Martí on the shelf
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Root: As American influences trickle into Cuba in the years to come, is there a concern that the racial progress that Castro’s communism ushered in will become undone?
Elia Espuet: Yes—I’m inclined to believe that as relations with Cuba and the United States go forward, the rich white Cubans will marginalize the black Cubans on the island. Unfortunately, I don’t see things becoming better for black Cubans.
But there is a degree of wariness with regards to the potential socioeconomic inequalities that America’s kind of neoconservative capitalism brings with it.
Georgina Rodriguez: Agreed. I mean, everyone in Cuba—black, white and mulatto—will benefit from better infrastructure and greater access to goods, food and medicine. The Castro regime will no longer have an excuse for its totalitarian control over people’s thoughts or actions, and the Cuban people will finally be thrust into the modern world with Internet and everything. But there is a degree of wariness with regards to the potential socioeconomic inequalities that America’s kind of neoconservative capitalism brings with it.
TR: But doesn’t socioeconomic inequality already exist in Cuba? White Cubans are disproportionately represented in politics; they have the best-paying jobs—they live in the best neighborhoods. Communism certainly didn’t cause that inequality, but it doesn’t exactly allow for social and civic expressions like homosexuality or freedom of speech, either.
GR: African Americans have more equal rights “on paper” than Afro-Cubans, but that hasn’t eradicated racism in American society or its institutions like the police. Look at Ferguson and Trayvon Martin, for instance.
In Cuba, the races live side by side much more than they do in the U.S. There is far less de facto segregation in Cuba. Families are so much more mixed, and so racial hatred in Cuba doesn’t run as deep as in America, because everyone has a black grandma cooking in the kitchen unseen. So I would definitely say that there is more racial equality in Cuba than in the USA in many ways.
A Cuban prepares popcorn for St. Lazarus pilgrims in Havana, December 2009. Thousands of believers gather annually to fulfill vows made to St. Lazarus (also referred to as Babalu Aye) for worshippers of the Afro-Cuban religion Santería.
ADALBERTO ROQUE/GETTY IMAGES
TR: There’s poverty in Cuba. Black Cubans—who were always marginalized—have felt that the hardest. Will their financial well-being improve if the embargo is lifted and American dollars start to trickle into Cuba with more ease and less restrictions?
Omar Diaz: Definitely—I’m looking forward to the economic benefits. Most black Cubans aren’t receiving financial help from relatives abroad—like white Cubans do—because, remember, blacks didn’t leave Cuba at the time of the revolution. Castro’s policies appealed mostly to the poor, so they stayed. Now that the channels are opening up, someone like me, a black Cuban, can go back to my island, open up a business there, or open up a business here in the U.S. and help my black Cuban relatives.
TR: What do Cuba and the U.S. have in common when it comes to race relations? What are some of the differences?
GR: In terms of similarities, a white or light-skinned Cuban would definitely prefer their children not to marry a negro because there is the idea that their descendants are going to take a step back socially—atrasarse.
But people are very understanding of attraction, lust and love. So interracial couples happen a lot in Cuba, and it’s definitely not a taboo; people don’t stare at you and your kids don’t get stigmatized.
The differences: The day-to-day experience of the average black person in Cuba is far less scary than in America. Black lives are not endangered in Cuba, simply because there is far less crime and guns are illegal.
Now, racism does exist in Cuba, but again, it’s just different.
Sira Perez: Yeah,I don’t recall being threatened in Cuba, nothing like the racism here in the U.S. Now, racism does exist in Cuba, but again, it’s just different. For instance, when I was a child, I wanted to take ballet lessons at a school in Havana, but I knew that was a dream that would never come true because of the color of my skin and not having the right connections.
Sira Perez at age 17 in Kingston, Jamaica, 1970. She had just arrived from Cuba and was en route to the U.S.
COURTESY OF SIRA PEREZ
I also remember looking through the holes of the gate to this exclusive tennis club and dreaming of one day to be able to participate. That was also an impossible dream at the time, but I guess that as a black Cuban, I conformed and accepted our place in society.
TR: Do you think black Cubans will become more racially conscious and want to exalt their blackness—for lack of a better term? Bring more awareness to their African ancestry?
Ruben: I don’t think America’s social influence will affect black Cubans. Cuba has been exposed to tourism and has had contact with the developed world for 20 years; that exposure hasn’t triggered a renewed awareness of ethnic identity. Nor has racism become stronger or weaker, in my opinion.
OD: I do think there would be a rise in black culture, but there wouldn’t be a movement to create a Black History Month in Cuba, per se, because, again, Cubans were conditioned to put nationalism before race. Black Cubans wouldn’t do anything to separate themselves, but more so to bring more awareness to black culture and to celebrate it.
I do think there would be a rise in black culture, but there wouldn’t be a movement to create a Black History Month in Cuba, per se, because, again, Cubans were conditioned to put nationalism before race.
Black Cuban public figures, like Celia Cruz, for example, will be celebrated. If a democracy is put in place and restrictions against certain kinds of activism are lifted, people that need to be celebrated in Cuba are going to be celebrated. And a lot of those people are going to be black Cubans for sure. African culture is in the food and it’s in the music—and those are the two most important things in Cuba. [Laughter.]
An Afro-Cuban dancer performs in Havana May 27, 2009, during the Wemilere festival, the most traditional event aimed at maintaining African roots.
STR/GETTY IMAGES
TR: Is that level of racial consciousness a good thing or a bad thing?
GR: I prefer the racial framework in Cuba and other Latin American countries because there are more options than black or white—an attitude that I think the USA needs to adopt now that there are so many bi- and multiracial people. Ruben in Cuba rejects the term “Afro-Cuban,” while Elia and Sira in the U.S. accept it. In my opinion, that’s the U.S. racial framework that Elia and Sira have learned to apply.
*Ruben is a pseudonym. He lives in Cuba and would speak to The Root only on condition of anonymity.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/cul...ion_of_us_ties_and_how_their_experiences.html
Will the current racial tensions in America seep into Cuba and awaken a sleeping giant? Black Cubans say probably not.
BY: DIANA OZEMEBHOYA EROMOSELE
Posted: Jan. 21 2015 3:00 AM
An Afro-Cuban sugarcane cutter in Pinar del Río, Cuba
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
It doesn’t matter how much Cuba’s culture changes now that the U.S. has restored diplomatic relations; if you’re waiting for black Cubans to set off some sort of racial revolution, don’t hold your breath.
That’s according to some black Cubans who shared their thoughts on race with The Root in the edited Q&A below.
Omar Diaz is a 28-year-old black Cuban actor living in Miami who immigrated to the U.S. when he was 4 years old. He said that while he’s rooting for a democratic Cuba, he hopes that black Cubans will continue to benefit from the Castro revolution’s decree that Cubans prioritize nationalism overrace.
Ruben* is a 52-year-old black photographer and book publisher. He is the only interviewee still living in Cuba. Even though he spoke passionately about racial inequality in Cuba, he explained why he and most black Cubans don’t quite see themselves as Afro-Cuban or black Cuban—just Cuban.
Afro-Cuban boys playing in Trinidad, Cuba
JPLAVOIE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
First cousins Elia E. Espuet and Sira Perez, on the other hand, both strongly identify as Afro-Cubans. Both women, ages 63 and 62 respectively, immigrated to the U.S. when they were teenagers in the late 1960s, Fidel Castro having assumed power in 1959. They could easily pass as African Americans, though they vividly remember how they were advised not to, in order to escape the brutality facing black Americans fighting for civil rights. That distinction—Cuba’s kind of racism versus America’s kind of racism—stuck with them. They maintain that black Cubans have it better in some ways on that front.
Georgina Rodriguez, 53—their mulatto, as she describes herself, cousin (who was categorized as “white” in Cuba when she was born)—doesn’t want Americans spewing their “racial framework” and “neoconservatism” all over Cuba. She argues that the former doesn’t account for all of Cuba’s ethnicities, and the latter will only widen the inequality gap.
An interracial couple in Havana City with pictures of Ché Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos on the wall and a bust of Cuban national hero José Martí on the shelf
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Root: As American influences trickle into Cuba in the years to come, is there a concern that the racial progress that Castro’s communism ushered in will become undone?
Elia Espuet: Yes—I’m inclined to believe that as relations with Cuba and the United States go forward, the rich white Cubans will marginalize the black Cubans on the island. Unfortunately, I don’t see things becoming better for black Cubans.
But there is a degree of wariness with regards to the potential socioeconomic inequalities that America’s kind of neoconservative capitalism brings with it.
Georgina Rodriguez: Agreed. I mean, everyone in Cuba—black, white and mulatto—will benefit from better infrastructure and greater access to goods, food and medicine. The Castro regime will no longer have an excuse for its totalitarian control over people’s thoughts or actions, and the Cuban people will finally be thrust into the modern world with Internet and everything. But there is a degree of wariness with regards to the potential socioeconomic inequalities that America’s kind of neoconservative capitalism brings with it.
TR: But doesn’t socioeconomic inequality already exist in Cuba? White Cubans are disproportionately represented in politics; they have the best-paying jobs—they live in the best neighborhoods. Communism certainly didn’t cause that inequality, but it doesn’t exactly allow for social and civic expressions like homosexuality or freedom of speech, either.
GR: African Americans have more equal rights “on paper” than Afro-Cubans, but that hasn’t eradicated racism in American society or its institutions like the police. Look at Ferguson and Trayvon Martin, for instance.
In Cuba, the races live side by side much more than they do in the U.S. There is far less de facto segregation in Cuba. Families are so much more mixed, and so racial hatred in Cuba doesn’t run as deep as in America, because everyone has a black grandma cooking in the kitchen unseen. So I would definitely say that there is more racial equality in Cuba than in the USA in many ways.
A Cuban prepares popcorn for St. Lazarus pilgrims in Havana, December 2009. Thousands of believers gather annually to fulfill vows made to St. Lazarus (also referred to as Babalu Aye) for worshippers of the Afro-Cuban religion Santería.
ADALBERTO ROQUE/GETTY IMAGES
TR: There’s poverty in Cuba. Black Cubans—who were always marginalized—have felt that the hardest. Will their financial well-being improve if the embargo is lifted and American dollars start to trickle into Cuba with more ease and less restrictions?
Omar Diaz: Definitely—I’m looking forward to the economic benefits. Most black Cubans aren’t receiving financial help from relatives abroad—like white Cubans do—because, remember, blacks didn’t leave Cuba at the time of the revolution. Castro’s policies appealed mostly to the poor, so they stayed. Now that the channels are opening up, someone like me, a black Cuban, can go back to my island, open up a business there, or open up a business here in the U.S. and help my black Cuban relatives.
TR: What do Cuba and the U.S. have in common when it comes to race relations? What are some of the differences?
GR: In terms of similarities, a white or light-skinned Cuban would definitely prefer their children not to marry a negro because there is the idea that their descendants are going to take a step back socially—atrasarse.
But people are very understanding of attraction, lust and love. So interracial couples happen a lot in Cuba, and it’s definitely not a taboo; people don’t stare at you and your kids don’t get stigmatized.
The differences: The day-to-day experience of the average black person in Cuba is far less scary than in America. Black lives are not endangered in Cuba, simply because there is far less crime and guns are illegal.
Now, racism does exist in Cuba, but again, it’s just different.
Sira Perez: Yeah,I don’t recall being threatened in Cuba, nothing like the racism here in the U.S. Now, racism does exist in Cuba, but again, it’s just different. For instance, when I was a child, I wanted to take ballet lessons at a school in Havana, but I knew that was a dream that would never come true because of the color of my skin and not having the right connections.
Sira Perez at age 17 in Kingston, Jamaica, 1970. She had just arrived from Cuba and was en route to the U.S.
COURTESY OF SIRA PEREZ
I also remember looking through the holes of the gate to this exclusive tennis club and dreaming of one day to be able to participate. That was also an impossible dream at the time, but I guess that as a black Cuban, I conformed and accepted our place in society.
TR: Do you think black Cubans will become more racially conscious and want to exalt their blackness—for lack of a better term? Bring more awareness to their African ancestry?
Ruben: I don’t think America’s social influence will affect black Cubans. Cuba has been exposed to tourism and has had contact with the developed world for 20 years; that exposure hasn’t triggered a renewed awareness of ethnic identity. Nor has racism become stronger or weaker, in my opinion.
OD: I do think there would be a rise in black culture, but there wouldn’t be a movement to create a Black History Month in Cuba, per se, because, again, Cubans were conditioned to put nationalism before race. Black Cubans wouldn’t do anything to separate themselves, but more so to bring more awareness to black culture and to celebrate it.
I do think there would be a rise in black culture, but there wouldn’t be a movement to create a Black History Month in Cuba, per se, because, again, Cubans were conditioned to put nationalism before race.
Black Cuban public figures, like Celia Cruz, for example, will be celebrated. If a democracy is put in place and restrictions against certain kinds of activism are lifted, people that need to be celebrated in Cuba are going to be celebrated. And a lot of those people are going to be black Cubans for sure. African culture is in the food and it’s in the music—and those are the two most important things in Cuba. [Laughter.]
An Afro-Cuban dancer performs in Havana May 27, 2009, during the Wemilere festival, the most traditional event aimed at maintaining African roots.
STR/GETTY IMAGES
TR: Is that level of racial consciousness a good thing or a bad thing?
GR: I prefer the racial framework in Cuba and other Latin American countries because there are more options than black or white—an attitude that I think the USA needs to adopt now that there are so many bi- and multiracial people. Ruben in Cuba rejects the term “Afro-Cuban,” while Elia and Sira in the U.S. accept it. In my opinion, that’s the U.S. racial framework that Elia and Sira have learned to apply.
*Ruben is a pseudonym. He lives in Cuba and would speak to The Root only on condition of anonymity.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/cul...ion_of_us_ties_and_how_their_experiences.html