Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events

[Yehuda]

A band called Niche that forever changed salsa

By Richard Emblin - July 27, 2017

Photo: Richard Emblin

When Grupo Niche burst on to the music scene in 1980, the people of Cali discovered a new sound that changed the way salsa was performed and danced, by incorporating in the brass, a brilliance that other ensembles couldn’t match. In live presentations, saleros moved and swirled with a jazzed-up air, not even caleños knew existed.

The brainchild of Grupo Niche was Jairo Varela (1949 – 2012), born in Quibdó, capital of Chocó. The son of an educator-turned-writer, Teresa Martínez de Varela, and an estranged father, Jairo discovered a love of words and music at an early age. By nine, he composed his first songs for a traditional folk group called La Timba. “He was very much a poet at heart,” states Cristina Varela, 27, and youngest of the musical legend’s four daughters. “Words came naturally to him.”

As an acute observer of life growing up in one of Colombia’s racially diverse towns, where being black is a source of pride, the affirmative term “niche” (slang for Afro Colombian) worked its way into Varela’s lexicon. When the band was created in 1978, Varela and musical associate Alexis Lozano decided on Grupo Niche as a fitting tribute to describe a sound that would go on to revolutionize the unsung world of salsa.

For scholars of the Cali sound, Varela is widely considered a musical genius. Mostly self-taught, the musician reached the pinnacle of success, a recognition many at the heart of this country’s rapidly expanding music scene, could only imagine. In his prolific compositions, Varela crystallized popular cultural expressions, those of the barrio, giving voice to the working class, and writing hymns to romance and passion.

Varela composed everyday until his death by heart failure in 2012, at age 62. “When he wasn’t writing music, he loved to watch sports, and would read the dictionary cover to cover,” recalls Cristina, gathered with three of the four lead vocalists, including the group’s recently appointed musical director, Javier Aguirre. The venue is the Museo Jairo Varela, a breezy museum in the heart of Cali, overlooking the square named after the musician and adorned with a giant trumpet-shaped monument, which relentlessly plays Varela’s most recognizable song: “Cali pachanguero.”

In Cali, salsa is held to a higher standard than any other musical style. It is revered as a native sound, as grass roots, as much as the cane fields that hem in this tropical city caressed by Pacific winds. For Varela, salsa was more than a string of chart-topping hits interpreted by four men on stage in dashing shoes and tailored suits. It had to be the sound of “the people” – his people – men from the Pacific coast with exceptional voices. Breaking with the salsa convention of having one or maybe two vocalists in a song, Varela’s ideal was four. This doubling of tonality marked Grupo Niche as a layered ensemble with a richly tinted sound. One of Varela’s songs “Mi pueblo natal” (My Birthplace) is the unofficial anthem of the Chocó, eulogizing the beauty of the landscape, and a yearning for a homecoming.

During the 1970s, Cali’s predominantly European social fabric was transformed when migrant workers from the Pacific arrived in Valle del Cauca to harvest the sugarcane plantations. With this movement of displaced ambition and promise for a better future, salsa took root in small towns, namely Juanchito, touching the banks of the Río Cauca, which is also a physical divide between an affluent industrializing city and the thatched huts of the rural dispossessed.

Varela united the social divide with songs now etched deep in the Colombian consciousness. The release of ‘Al pasito’ in 1979, launched Varela as a musical ambassador of Colombian salsa, identifiable for its rhythmic percussions and positive social message. With the acclaim of Varela’s first album, the internationalization of Colombian salsa had begun, and Grupo Niche born. Other big band orchestras followed suit, and Cali danced. A golden age of salsa had dawned, but only one maestro could baptize an entire city with a song – “Cali pachanguero.” And that, of course, was Varela.

A string of hit songs catapulted Grupo Niche to the world stage during the 1980s. Varela was intensely zealous of his sound and “a perfectionist in the studio,” recalls Aguirre, Varela’s closest non-family confidant, and an award-winning composer in his own right. As the band’s musical patrimony began to accumulate, Grupo Niche toured extensively, covering every major Latin American capital. In 1986, the band incorporated Puerto Rican vocalist Tito Gómez, who performed with the famous Puerto Rican salsa group Sonora Ponceña, and Ray Barretto, a pioneer of Latin Jazz. One of Grupo Niche’s most immortalizing moments was a 1989 concert to a full house in Madison Square Garden, New York.

Varela took his children on the road as much as he could. When not performing his trumpet or mulling over musical scores in a hotel room, he was very much a dedicated father to his five children from five different wives. “He was a very responsible man,” laughs Cristina, who, along with her elder siblings, runs different aspects of the group’s operations. “What I have achieved can last another 30 years,” recalls Cristina of her father’s words, knowing that his heart condition would worsen. “It all depends on you, how much more you want this all to last.”

Varela was an obsessive composer, often reaching back in time to melodies that accompanied him in his childhood. When Varela died, many doubted the future of the band that could dash fans to the dance floor with refrains such as “Que todo el mundo te canta” or “Una aventura.” Varela even wrote a song that tributes an innocuous landmark, the bridge spanning the Cauca River, that for decades united black and white, rich and poor – “Del puente pa’llá”.

In the mid 1990s, Grupo Niche could count themselves among the very best salsa groups in the world. But, the story of a city that they rewrote in music began a seismic transformation with the rise of the Cali Cartel. Run by brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orjuela, the crime syndicate laundered billions of U.S dollars through the many companies they owned (including a pharmacy and the main football club), and invested aggressively in real estate. With drug money nancing an unprecedented economic bonanza, this ‘white collar’ ma a also spent lavishly on parties. The best musical groups were coveted for piñatas, first communions, weddings. Salsa’s gilded image became tarnished by the cartel’s excessive lifestyle, and traditional salsa haunts, such as Juanchito, were off limits to those who didn’t have armed bodyguards.

The year 1995 marked a low point in the life of Varela, a composer branded as the soul of salsa. On 8 December, after returning from a tour stateside, he was arrested at Cali’s international airport for allegedly receiving illegal funds from the cartel for performing at a private party. Varela denied all charges, but was sentenced to serve one year in a low security prison near Cali. From prison he kept composing, while his wives and children put the company’s financial house in order. Varela’s eldest daughter, Yanila, assumed the global management of the band, and when he regained his freedom in 1996, the five families were more united than ever. “We realized that we had to set aside our personal differences,” recalls Cristina. “It wasn’t about my father, but the music. The continuation of a dream to compose salsa for Colombia.”

Varela’s death immortalized him as an architect of this nation’s rich musical history. In 2015, Grupo Niche celebrated 35-years as a group, and despite ebbs and flows, has launched the successful careers of many vocalists and band members. “Jairo wanted the group to be the protagonist, not an individual singer or musician,” states Aguirre, who last year led the band to their first Latin Grammy for Best Salsa Album. This year, the musical director headed into the studio to release Pánico, a song written by Varela that hadn’t seen the light of day. The single is making a splash on the airwaves for its pure, crisp salsa beat.

“People are grateful that we are still around,” states Cristina, as the band embraces a bold future in the hands of Aguirre, and preserves the traditional instruments that defined their sound three decades ago. For Elvis Magno, one of four vocalists, the opportunity to be part of this band is much more transformative than leading a performance in stadium filled venues. “This is a dream that sets an example to so many. The songs of our maestro are songs of life,” says Elvis. “We are one people, united by music.”

A band called Niche that forever changed salsa

@Donovan Gumby since you're in interested in Black music from Latin America

 

[Yehuda]

The Forgotten Betrayal of Southern Brazil’s Black Revolutionaries

BY ANDREW JENNER

A 19th-century massacre reveals fault lines coursing through Brazil today.

A 19th-century portrait of a black soldier who fought for the army of rebels known as Farrapos. AP Photo/Eraldo Peres

This article is adapted from AQ's print issue on youth in Latin America.

Every September, the famously proud residents of Rio Grande do Sul state celebrate Farroupilha Week, a remembrance of a 19th-century revolution in which the region tried — but ultimately failed — to secede from the rest of Brazil. In the state capital of Porto Alegre, festivities feature parades, a rodeo and a mind-boggling amount of churrasco, grilled cuts of meat that are the local specialty.

The celebrations are also notable for what they leave out — and what the omission says about Brazilian society today.

The story begins in 1844, when Brazil was still an imperial monarchy ruled by Dom Pedro II, who was facing a serious rebellion in the country’s deep south. After nearly a decade of fighting, a large imperial army was closing in on a shrinking corner of the pampas near the Uruguayan border, where they’d trapped the dwindling army of rebels known as Farrapos, or “rags” in Portuguese —initially a derisive nickname for the poorly equipped soldiers but later proudly adopted by them.

Resigned to their imminent defeat, the Farrapos’ leaders entered negotiations with the imperial government to bring the war to an end. There was, however, a major impediment to that agreement: the fate of hundreds of black soldiers in the rebel ranks, said Juremir Machado da Silva, a historian at the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul.

At the time, enslaved blacks represented more than a third of the sparsely populated province’s population, and were fundamental to its cattle-based economy. They primarily worked on Rio Grande do Sul’s massive ranches and in its charqueadas, where cattle were turned into charque, the dried meat that was the province’s primary export and gave the English language the word “jerky.”

The Farroupilha Revolution was led by wealthy ranchers who resented the imperial government’s tax policies and wanted greater autonomy. Desperate for manpower, these revolutionaries persuaded several hundred enslaved blacks to flee their owners and join their cause with a simple promise: Fight for us, and win your freedom.

When peace talks began, the Farrapos negotiators insisted that the black soldiers fighting for them — who, by that point in the war, made up about 25 percent of their army — should remain free. This was, however, a condition the imperial court in Rio de Janeiro was completely unwilling to accept. With little bargaining power, the Farrapos’ leaders began to quarrel among themselves about how to proceed.

Then, on November 14, 1844, an imperial cavalry launched a predawn attack on a Farrapos encampment at a place called Porongos, in the modern-day municipality of Pinheiro Machado. More than 100 were killed, and several hundred more taken prisoner. Nearly all the dead were black, as were many of those captured. The separate camps for white and indigenous soldiers, on the other side of a small creek, were not attacked.

Nostalgic tributes to the revolution are a popular tradition in Rio Grande do Sul

Based on documents and other evidence from the era, many present-day historians conclude that the black Farrapos were betrayed by their commanders. In return, negotiations with the imperial government got a jump start. Also, both sides’ fears of a potential uprising by these trained, experienced black soldiers — fueled by events like the Haitian revolution and a more recent slave revolt in the Brazilian province of Bahia — were put to rest.

The imperial commander “came with orders not to allow the black Farrapos to go free. So what was the fastest solution? Massacre them,” said Moacyr Flores, a scholar whose many books on Rio Grande do Sul’s history include Blacks in the Farroupilha Revolution.

To this day, the story of these black soldiers remains almost entirely absent from classrooms and the popular commemorations of the Farroupilha Revolution seen every September.

To many in the state’s Afro-Brazilian community, the exclusion of the black Farrapos’ story feels all too familiar in a state where more than 80 percent of the population identifies as white and which prides itself on being the most European part of Brazil. Meanwhile, a United Nations Development Program report recently identified Porto Alegre as the Brazilian city with the greatest inequality in the living conditions of its black and white residents.

But things may be starting to change. Since the introduction of affirmative action policies at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) within the past decade, the university has become a hotbed of civil rights activism. Increased dialogue about race has meant that students are more openly inquiring about the state’s black history.

“We didn’t learn about (the black Farrapos) in school,” said Andressa das Neves, an Afro-Brazilian graduate student studying sociology at UFRGS.

“We found out because we were curious to learn more about our people,” added Ana Danielle Cavalheiro, another student at the university. She first heard the story of the black Farrapos from fellow civil rights activists.

Armed with this knowledge, Neves remained seated during her undergraduate graduation ceremony in 2015 to protest the playing of the state anthem. Written to honor the Farroupilha Revolution and fiercely beloved by most gaúchos, the song’s lyrics include a line that many Afro-Brazilians find deeply offensive: “Povo que não tem virtude/Acaba por ser escravo,” or “A people without virtue/End up being enslaved.”

Cavalheiro and two other black students also sat during their graduation earlier this year.

Neves and Cavalheiro in Porto Alegre

For Neves and Cavalheiro — and others like them who have made sitting during the anthem during graduation ceremonies a regular event in recent years — it’s a small, symbolic way of resisting the erasure of the black experience from history and the ongoing marginalization of Afro-Brazilians in Rio Grande do Sul.

“We’ve always been invisible,” said Rosi Pontes, an Afro-Brazilian woman who became active in civil rights issues when she was a university student about a decade ago. “And that continues today. ... We have this idea (here) that all races and all people live together well. No. We don’t live together well. We don’t live together. Everyone has their place.”

For Pontes, proper acknowledgement of Afro-Brazilians’ contributions to Rio Grande do Sul, including their role in the state’s iconic revolution, is past due. While a small, anonymous plaque in a Porto Alegre park pays homage to the black soldiers betrayed by the revolutionaries, it is — much like the memory of the black Farrapos — largely overlooked and forgotten.

“We want recognition that Afro-Brazilians were important in building the state,” Pontes continued.

“Recognition that, yes, we exist, and thanks to us, Rio Grande do Sul is Rio Grande do Sul.” 

--

Jenner is a freelance journalist based in Porto Alegre, Brazil. His reporting on topics ranging from local politics to elite marathoners has appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, the Atlantic and Roads and Kingdoms.

The Forgotten Betrayal of Southern Brazil’s Black Revolutionaries



Don't know if anyone understands the language but this movie touches on the war and what became of the Lanceiros Negros.

 

[BigMan]

I knew about that revolt but not about the role of blacks in the army there


Smfh


In other news I need to learn Portuguese

 

[Red Shield]

I knew there were revolts, didn't know about this

 

[BigMan]

I knew there were revolts, didn't know about this

A large amount of blacks participated in all of Brazil's wars especially the war against Argentina and Paraguay in the 1860s, which set the stage up for the abolition of slavery in Brazil

 

[BigMan]

There's a good doc on Cuba on Netflix called the Cuba Libre story

 

[Yehuda]

Privatization Made Our Land ‘Little Canada’: Afro-Hondurans

Published 3 August 2017

The Garifuna people of Honduras have lived along the country's Caribbean coast since the 18th century. | Photo: EFE

The Garifuna people of Honduras’ Caribbean coast are fighting neoliberal reforms that force them off of their lands for private tourism companies.

The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras, Ofraneh, issued a statement on Thursday opposing President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s “Honduras 2020” development plan, claiming it promotes privatization policies which force them off of their ancestral coastal lands.

RELATED: Garifuna Exchange on the Fight for Land: Honduras and Belize

The development plan, imposed by the ruling right-wing National Party, establishes “free trade zones” along the Caribbean coast, enticing foreign tourism companies to construct resorts in the area. The “free trade zones” are constructed in public areas that have belonged to the Garifuna people for hundreds of years.

Hernandez claims the plan is intended to create jobs and improve the economy. Ofraneh, however, reaffirms that it is systematically forcing their people off of their lands.

“The Bay of Trujillo (one of the areas undergoing privatization) is now known as ‘Little Canada’ with the presence of a dozen enclave tourism projects and real estate speculations of Canadian citizens,” Ofraneh said.

“This situation has had severe consequences for our people, who are forced to migrate because of the loss of territory and zero social investment by the government of Honduras.”

Ofraneh also criticized the Tourism Promotion Law, which exempts foreign investors in the area from taxation.

Since the 2009 coup that removed leftist President Manuel Zelaya, the National Party has implemented a “model cities” program across the country, allowing foreign businesses to operate in certain areas without paying taxes or abiding by labor regulations. The program, which preceded the “Honduras 2020” plan, has forced thousands of Black and Indigenous groups off of their lands.

Privatization Made Our Land ‘Little Canada’: Afro-Hondurans

 

[Yehuda]

The countdown for Haitians with TPS has started. And that has many in Haiti worried.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
AUGUST 04, 2017 2:36 PM

BELLADÈRE, HAITI — In the two years since his deportation from the neighboring Dominican Republic, Odnell Ceant has wallowed in despair. He's unable to find work. He’s facing eviction and his children don’t always have food to eat.

“I never thought Haiti was difficult like this,” said Ceant, 35, his eyes welling with tears as he reflected on his desperate plight. “Once you’re working, you aren’t hungry. Once you have a job, you have hope. As long as you don’t have work, you can never have a plan for your life.”

Four years after the Dominican Republic began cracking down on undocumented Haitian workers following a decision by one of its courts to retroactively strip Dominicans of Haitian descent of their citizenship, tens of thousands of Haitians like Ceant have ended up in Haiti after being expelled or forced to flee. Their arrival, mostly ignored by Haitian authorities, has burdened humanitarian organizations that have struggled to help amid deep budget cuts and indifference.

Now the prospect that thousands of Haitians temporarily living in the United States could soon find themselves in a similar situation should the Trump administration end their special immigration status, worries humanitarians and U.S.-based activists, who have watched with trepidation at the Haitian government’s inability to absorb the influx from the neighboring Dominican Republic.

“We’re not ready and we don’t have any support to help those people,” said Olivier Tenes, in charge of northeast Haiti for the International Organization for Migration, which monitors the 245 miles border and has registered 192,685 returnees and refugees since June 2015. “That can be really difficult and that can lead to a big issue.”

In May, the U.S. Department of Homeland and Security announced that it would extend Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for only six months after it expired on July 22. John Kelly — then secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, now White House chief of staff — said he would review the designation ahead of the new Jan. 22 expiration date to see if conditions in Haiti warranted an additional extension.

But last week, as the 180-day countdown began for what some fear could be the final TPS extension and Kelly’s surprise promotion deepened uncertainty, Haitians were reminded by DHS to start preparing to return home “in the event Haiti’s designation is not extended again.”

“We’re in a crisis here,” said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, who has used Haiti’s treatment of deportees from the Dominican Republic in her fight for TPS renewal. “Eighty-percent of TPS holders are employed and you want to send them back to a place where you have all of these people who aren’t working and the Haitian government hasn’t been able to house [returnees from the Dominican Republican], employ them and provide them with even the most basic necessities to live with dignity? This is the Haiti you want to send 58,000 families to?”

That Haiti is not just a country of extreme poverty, but unrelenting unemployment. A country where 59 percent of the 10.5 million population live on less than $2.42 a day; its people, most of them young, are fleeing en masse to Brazil, Chile and Canada in search of refuge; and its largest private sector employer, the apparel industry, is losing jobs amid a volatile U.S. retail climate.

Ceant ended up in this Haiti on a rain-soaked day in May 2015 after Dominican immigration arrested him as he prepared to head out to his $10.50 a day construction job. After two days in detention, he, his wife and five kids were dumped at the Belladère-Elias Piña border in Central Haiti. It was his first time back on Haitian soil since his mother crossed with him when he was 12 to go pack onions on a Dominican farm.

“I grew up in Saint Domingue,” said Ceant, referring to the Dominican Republic’s French colonial name. “I don’t know Haiti.”

At the border, he hired a motorcycle with the only cash he had, $12.60, and ended up at the local offices of the Support Group for Refugees and Returnees (GARR), a Haitian nongovernmental organization. When a counselor asked where he was headed, Ceant reached for the only memory of Haiti he recalled:

“I said, ‘Saint Raphael,’ because it was the only name I knew. That’s where my mother said she was from,” he said. “They gave me [$8]. But when I looked, I didn’t know where to turn.”

RELATED STORIES FROM MIAMI HERALD

• Haitian advocates start 180-day countdown urging Trump administration to extend TPS
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So he stayed in Belladère, where he found a place to rent, and spent “three months crying as my children slept on a sheet on a floor because they were now living a miserable existence.”

Rigard Orbé, who is in charge of advocacy for GARR, said there are many Ceants among the dozens of returnees who come seeking help on a daily basis after being kicked out of the Dominican Republic. They arrive demoralized, and psychologically destabilized after having lost their livelihoods, and sometimes the only life they have known.

“The majority of people who left [for the Dominican Republic], did so in search of work,” he said. “They couldn’t find it in their own country, so they took the chance to go to Saint Domingue in search of life. But when immigration arrests them and send them back, they now have a new worry —unemployment.”

Orbé said GARR would like to do more than provide returnees and refugees with a toothbrush, a hot meal, a temporary bed and transportation money. It would also like to help individuals better integrate in Haiti by helping them find housing and income-generating opportunities. But the funds are limited.

The idea that 60,000 Haitian emigres, or any percentage of that, could find themselves back in the very place they escaped from, would only aggravate an already grave situation, he said.

“Haiti’s biggest problem today is unemployment,” Orbé said. “There are too many young men and women who have finished school but they are in the streets; they have all of this potential but can’t find a place to work. That’s a problem.”

Tenes, the IOM official, fears it’s a problem that will spur another travesty as people seek a way to have an income: trafficking.

“The risks are really high,” said Tenes, adding that when people cannot use the official border crossing points, “they are going to use the unofficial points where all of the traffickers are working.”

In the last several months, he said, there have been several trafficking-related deaths along the northeast Ouanaminthe-Djabon border, for example, as the Dominican military, spurred by rumors of a Haitian invasion, stepped up control of the porous border by adding additional checkpoints, barbed wire and cameras. A United Nations affiliated agency, IOM used to monitor 96 crossings but now only monitors about 50 due to budget cuts, he added.

“Every migrant has their reason for leaving, but in the end they know that they don’t have the best opportunity where they are in their own country and they want to look for the best opportunity abroad,” Tenes said.

There are many similarities, he said, between Haitians who fled to the U.S. and now facing an end of TPS, and those who went to the Dominican Republic.

“It’s people with different incomes, living in different countries, but in the end, the essence and the dynamics are all the same,” he said.

In recommending an end to TPS for Haitians, James McCament, the acting director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a memo that conditions in Haiti no longer support its designation. Seven years after the 2010 Haitian earthquake, “circumstances in the country have continued on an upward trajectory since,” he argued.

Others disagree. The Haitian economy, which had a 3 percent growth a year before the quake left 300,000 dead and 1.5 million displaced, is projected to have negative growth this year. And inflation, which averaged around 5 percent that same year, is now 15.8 percent, said economist Kenser Pharel.

“The Haitian economy is not in the best situation to absorb people coming from the DR and the U.S.,” Pharel said.

Last week, after months of violent protests over low factory wages, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse announced he would raise the minimum wage from $4.75 for eight hours of work to $5.55. The 80 cent hike is far less than the $12 workers were demanding, and while it seems to have dampened protests, for now, analysts say it’s not enough to raise Haitians out of extreme poverty, especially given the high inflation cutting into the poor’s purchasing power.

“We have the working poor in Haiti,” said Pharel. “Wages are barely enough to allow people to survive. They cannot eat the best foods, and they do not have enough money to pay rent or transportation. They are heavily dependent on remittances for making a living.”

Odnell Ceant, 35, was deported from the Dominican Republic two years ago with his wife and five kids. Since then, he has been unable to earn a living in his native Haiti, where he’s facing eviction from his home because he lacks the $100 in yearly rent. jcharles@Miamiherald.com - Jacqueline Charles

In this Aug. 4, 2015 photo, Dominican Republic soldiers and civilians stand at the gate that separates the D.R. from in Malpasse Haiti. After the D.R.'s June 17 deadline to apply for legal residency under a new program to organize the flow of migrants across the border from Haiti, more than 288,000 people applied. Dieu Nalio Chery - AP

In this March 21, 2016 photo, 15-year-old Guerline Augustin washes her 8-month-old daughter at a borderland encampment outside the southeast Haitian town of Anse-a-Pitres, Haiti. The encampment is filled with people who either fled or were deported from the neighboring Dominican Republic amid an immigration crackdown. Dave McFadden - AP

Individuals who were living in the Dominican Republic and voluntarily returned to Haiti are being assisted by Soeurs Saint Jean and the International Organization for Migration’s Haiti and Dominican Republic offices. Courtesy of the International Organization for Migration Haiti

Haitians being deported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti along the Ouanaminthe -Djabon border. Courtesy of International Organization for Migration Haiti

Recent deportees from the Dominican Republic being interviewed by the International Organization for Migration along the Ouanaminthe-Djabon border. Courtesy of International Organization for Migration Haiti

The countdown for Haitians with TPS has started. And that has many in Haiti worried.

 

[Yehuda]

In Little Guyana, Proposed Cuts to Family Immigration Weigh Heavily

By VIVIAN WANG | AUG. 11, 2017

A performance at the Guyanese Community Association camp. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Richard David’s face is plastered around the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens. Along Liberty Avenue, on posters in the windows of sari shops and roti restaurants, Mr. David advertises his campaign for City Council, which, if successful, would make him New York’s first city councilman of Guyanese descent.

One of Mr. David’s campaign promises: securing money for resources like immigration lawyers or language assistance for the diverse neighborhood that includes Little Guyana, a hub of the largest Guyanese community outside of the country itself.

It is also the community in New York City that could lose the most from a new federal effort to cut legal immigration in half, in part by limiting what are known as family preference visas, which go to the siblings, grandchildren, in-laws or adult children of United States citizens, as well as the spouses and children of legal permanent residents. That is exactly the kind of visa that allowed Mr. David to immigrate from Guyana in 1995, and that helped bring other members of his family into the country, too, as recently as last month.

“Eight family members of mine just came through family sponsorship on the Fourth of July,” Mr. David said. His grandmother sponsored two adult daughters, who also brought their children. Of the proposed immigration bill, which was endorsed by President Trump last week, Mr. David said, “This could cease or significantly reduce Guyanese migration to the country.”

It is unclear if the bill will ever become law.

The Guyanese community brings in more people through family preference visas than any other immigrant group in the city. Of the Guyanese in New York City who received legal permanent residence between 2002 and 2011, 60 percent entered on family preference visas, according to a 2013 report by the Department of City Planning. Thirty-seven percent entered as immediate relatives, an uncapped visa category that includes the spouses, parents and minor children of citizens.

Foreign-born Guyanese people make up a tiny share of the United States as a whole — just over 280,000 people in 2015, or 0.09 percent of the total population — but a hefty share of New York City’s immigrant population. More than half of the Guyanese population in the United States lives in New York City, according to city data, making it the fifth-largest immigrant population in the five boroughs and the second-largest in Queens.

“Their propensity to come to New York City is very high,” said Joseph J. Salvo, chief demographer at the Department of City Planning. “And they are heavily reliant on family preferences — and reliant on categories that, under this proposal, would disappear. There’s no question that they would be affected in a dramatic fashion.”

The bill, sponsored by Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, seeks to reduce the number of people granted legal permanent residency each year — currently more than one million — by 41 percent in its first year and 50 percent by its 10th year, according to its sponsors’ estimates.

To do that, it proposes narrowing the definition of immediate relatives, removing parents from the list and lowering the age of qualifying children to 18 from 21. Siblings of citizens, as well as the adult children of citizens or permanent residents, would no longer be eligible for family sponsorship. The total number of family preference visas would be cut to 88,000 a year, a 60 percent reduction from the current 226,000.

Of New York City’s Guyanese immigrants who became legal permanent residents from 2002 to 2011, 45 percent were the parents, married children or siblings of citizens, or their spouses or children, according to the city’s data. If the proposed bill had been law at the time, nearly half of new Guyanese immigrants to the city would have been ineligible.

The Little Guyana neighborhood is a hub of the largest Guyanese community outside of the country itself. Damon Winter/The New York Times

For a community that relies upon tightly knit family units, where multiple generations live together in one house and grandparents often care for grandchildren while parents work, the constriction of family immigration would be especially wrenching.

“In our Guyanese community, nuclear family is not tied down to mother, father, children,” said Deborah Assanah, 56, associate director of the Guyana Cultural Association. “We have like a village of family members who assist with raising the kids.”

The Guyanese community, which includes people of Indian, African, Chinese and indigenous descent, has one of the highest rates of female labor force participation among New York City immigrants, perhaps aided by the availability of extended family to care for young children, said Philip Kasinitz, a sociology professor at the City University of New York.

And because many Guyanese immigrants send remittances to relatives at home, cutting off family immigration would effectively make immigrants responsible for financially maintaining two households, with no prospect of reunification, said Vishnu Mahadeo, president of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council.

Additionally, many Guyanese parents prefer for their children to come to the United States either as very young children or after they have completed their education, so that they can integrate more easily into American society or the work force, Ms. Assanah said. But that means many are older when they immigrate, making them targets of the new proposal. Ms. Assanah immigrated in 2008, sponsored by her husband, who is a citizen. A few years earlier, he also sponsored their twin daughters, who were 21 at the time — older than the proposed new cutoff.

Many Guyanese had not yet focused on the bill. Vrinda Jagan, a lawyer in Richmond Hill who works on immigration, said that immediately after the November election, clients flooded her office with questions and pleas for reassurance that they would not be deported en masse. But nobody had asked her about the new bill, she said. And applications for family sponsorship have not flagged since President Trump’s endorsement of it.

“I sent out a few this week,” she said. “They’re continuing to petition for their family members, and they’re petitioning for their spouses, their children, a lot of children over 21. That hasn’t changed.”

The policy would be most devastating to people whose applications for family-sponsored visas had been pending for years, said Randy Capps, director of United States research at the Migration Policy Institute.

Especially for those with lower priority cases, like siblings or married children, the wait can be over 10 years or more.

At Singh's Roti Shop and Bar on Liberty Avenue, Sandra, who asked to identified only by her first name because she feared disrupting her immigration proceedings, said she had been waiting on family sponsorship for 12 years; she was in the United States on a tourist visa.

She was being sponsored by her sister-in-law, who had submitted an application for her brother, Sandra's husband. Under the current system, Sandra and her three children would be allowed to enter as well.

If the bill was passed, Sandra said, “I would feel bad, because you wait so long.” Her children, who have never been to the United States, are eagerly awaiting the day the application is approved. “They’re so excited,” she said.

In Little Guyana, Proposed Cuts to Family Immigration Weigh Heavily

 

[loyola llothta]

Caricom Holds Emergency Meeting Backing Venezuela Dialogue

The three-hour-long meeting was "varied and robust" and was centered around “promoting dialogue” between the Venezuelan government and the opposition.

Representatives of the Caribbean Community, Caricom, held an emergency meeting earlier this week to discuss the ongoing political turmoil in Venezuela.

RELATED:
Caricom Will Not Interfere With Venezuelan Domestic Affairs

The three-hour-long meeting, according to Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was “varied and robust” and centered around “promoting dialogue” between the Venezuelan government and the opposition.

Although no official statement has been made, a report from Caribbean360 stated that the group’s chairperson, Grenadian Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, will make fresh overtures to Venezuela's political leaders.

Following the 38th Caricom meeting in July, the group stated that the only real solution to the South American nation’s political turmoil is communication.

Caricom called on “all parties to commit to engage in renewed dialogue and negotiations leading to a comprehensive political agreement with established timetables, concrete actions and guarantees to ensure its implementation for the well-being of the nation.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro responded almost immediately, saying that he “wholeheartedly welcomes the valuable proposal … to reactivate an agenda of constructive dialogue among the political parties of (our) country.”

Earlier this week, New York-based Institute of the Black World 21st Century, IBW, encouraged Caricom to continue to resist pressure from Washington, which it says has influenced nations in the region to deny recognition of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly.

The Black rights group also condemned recent efforts by the Organization of American States, OAS, and a “small group of powerful states in the OAS" to support diplomatic aggression against Venezuela.

Caricom was established in 1973 to promote unity among Caribbean nations. It includes 15 member nations.

Source:
Caricom Holds Emergency Meeting Backing Venezuela Dialogue|News|teleSUR

 

[Yehuda]

Colombia’s Next Pertinent Deal: Buenaventura

August 15, 2017


By Felipe Galvis-Delgado, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

To download a PDF of this article, click here.

Nearly eight months after finalizing the negotiation of the peace agreement with the guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian government has made another accord – this time with the port city of Buenaventura in the department of Valle del Cauca. From May 16 to June 6, residents of Buenaventura went on strike and protested against the city’s poor living conditions, such as the lack of potable drinking water, inaccessible hospital services, and a weak and corrupt security apparatus. It was not until Colombia began to lose millions of dollars from delayed shipments due to the strike that the federal government took the manifestations seriously and negotiated a deal with Buenaventura’s Civic Strike Committee, a coalition of civil society organizations. Within the provisions of the deal, called el Fondo de Patrimonio Autónomo de Buenaventura (Fonbuenaventura), the government pledges to invest millions into the city’s infrastructure. However, nearly two months after its negotiation, the deal has not been implemented. Although this negotiation is encouraging for the people of Buenaventura, the government must uphold its promise and implement the deal as soon as possible. The following are some of the main takeaways from the recent developments in Buenaventura:

Buenaventura is in desperate need of investment

Buenaventura, a coastal city consisting of about 400,000 residents – most of whom are Afro-Colombians – has long been one of Colombia’s most violent and resource-deprived cities. According to Human Rights Watch, locals live in constant fear of paramilitary groups such as los Urabeños and la Empresa. These groups ruthlessly impose their will through coercive means such as dismemberments in “chop-up houses,” disappearances, and forced displacements.[ii] In fact, Buenaventura leads Colombia in forced displacements with over 107,000 displaced people from 2011 to 2014.[iii] Local authorities have been unsuccessful in combatting these crimes, as police forces are scarce in the city. Additionally, of the few police officers, many have succumbed to corruption or fear retaliation from los Urabeños and la Empresa.[iv] In the rare instances of prosecution, culprits are often not charged because of the lack of accountability in Buenaventura’s judicial system.[v]

Besides extortion and violence, residents of Buenaventura also suffer from uninhabitable living conditions. Due to a lack of government investment, Buenaventura’s water infrastructure is comparable to one of a low-income country; 71% of residents only have access to potable water eight hours a day and many fishermen are forced to fish in waters contaminated by the city’s sewage.[vi][vii] For the ill and injured, the city’s clinics do not have the capacity to attend the entire population, which is detrimental considering the high levels of violence and poverty in the city. In many cases, patients are referred to hospitals in Cali, a neighboring city about 123 kilometers away, and risk dying en route.[viii] Moreover, Buenaventura has an unemployment rate of 62%, a major contributor to the city’s impoverishment.[ix] In general, 91% of Buenaventura’s rural population and 64% of its urban population live under the poverty line.[x]

Buenaventura’s size is not representative of its importance to Colombia

Buenaventura is essential to Colombia’s international trade as it accounts for 60% of the country’s international commerce.[xi] In fact, according to Buenaventura’s Chamber of Commerce, during the twenty-two day strike of Buenaventura’s residents, Colombia lost an estimate of 300 billion Colombian pesos (COP), about 100 million U.S. dollars (USD).[xii] Such national reliance on Buenaventura’s port gave the people leverage during negotiations for increased funding. The impact that the protests had on Colombia’s economy has proven to the federal government that the small city of Buenaventura deserves much more investment and national attention for how much wealth it brings into the country.

The deal has great potential – if it is implemented

After more than three weeks of protests, the Colombian government struck a deal with the Civic Strike Committee by creating Fonbuenaventura, a development project for the city.[xiii] The project has a budget of COP 1.6 trillion, roughly USD 500 million, which will be invested over the next ten years into the small city’s infrastructure, economy, and social services.[xiv] Of that sum, COP 350 billion (USD 120 million) will be allocated to invest in Buenaventura’s sewage and aqueduct systems, which guarantees a clean water supply 24 hours a day.[xv] Additionally, about COP 180 billion (USD 60 million) will go towards the construction of hospitals, COP 170,000 million (USD 58 million) towards education, and COP 62 billion (USD 20 million) towards the judicial system.[xvi][xvii][xviii]

Fonbuenaventura is certainly encouraging for Buenaventura’s residents; however, the fight with the Colombian Congress to implement the deal lies ahead. It is likely that the project’s implementation will face obstruction since the Colombian government has other pending financial expenses, such as the economic implementation of the peace deal with the FARC.[xix]Additionally, the proposed foreign aid budget for 2018 of Donald Trump, the president of the United States, includes a 36% cut from assistance funds to Colombia, resulting in about a 140 million dollar loss.[xx] With more expenses and less capital, the implementation of Fonbuenaventura seems unpropitious.

ESMAD’s excessive use of force was unwarranted

Although the Colombian government’s negotiation with the Civic Strike Committee is an excellent first step towards the development of Buenaventura, it must be noted that negotiations came only after the government ignored the protests and later attempted to brutally suppress them. Specifically, the Mobile Anti-Riot Squadron (ESMAD) used tear gas and tanks to disperse protestors including minors, elderly and disabled people.[xxi]Additionally, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) has suggested that there may have been racial discrimination against the Afro-Colombian community in Buenaventura by ESMAD.[xxii] The violent and discriminatory suppression of the right to peaceful protest of Buenaventura’s residents is condemnable and contradicting to the purported values of Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, the newly Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Fonbuenaventura is paramount

Moving forward, the Colombian Congress must ratify Fonbuenaventura as swiftly as possible. Residents in Buenaventura simply cannot afford to wait any longer – hence their willingness to go on a general strike for over three weeks. For about ten months President Santos has prioritized the negotiation and implementation of the peace deal with the FARC. Now it is time for Santos to shift Colombia’s attention towards the impoverished areas of the country – something that is long overdue. To help with the expenses and execution of the project, the international community should play a role in implementing Fonbuenaventura. For example, within the World Bank there is a unit called the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), which has previously helped cities in Latin America develop sustainable access to clean water.[xxiii] In the United Nations (UN) there is the UN-Water division, which coordinates international organizations focusing on water and sanitation issues.[xxiv] If the Colombian government can collaborate with international organizations like these, it will not have to bear the brunt of Fonbuenaventura, making its implementation more feasible. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: if Colombian President Santos wants to foster harmony and stability in the country, he must set a framework for future administrations to implement Fonbuenaventura and other developing projects in impoverished cities.



By Felipe Galvis-Delgado, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Additional editorial support provided by Clement Doleac, Senior Research Fellow, Emma Tyrou, Research Fellow, Peter Kohne, Extramural Contributor, and Emma Pachon and Laura Schroeder, Research Associates at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs



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Colombia’s Next Pertinent Deal: Buenaventura

 

[loyola llothta]

86% of Venezuelans Reject Foreign Military Intervention

A new poll shows that people in Venezuela repudiate U.S. attempts to intervene with force.
A new poll has found that around 86 percent of people in Venezuela are against international military intervention that would remove the democratically-elected government of President Nicolas Maduro.


About 71 percent of Venezuelans also disagree with the decision by the United States to apply economic sanctions against Venezuela, according to a report by the company Hinterlaces.

The figures come after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said that the United States would "bring the full measure of American economic and diplomatic power to bear" to see "democracy restored" in Venezuela. His remarks came just days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wouldn't rule out a “military option” in the country.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Argentine President Mauricio Macri both said the region would not accept a military intervention in Venezuela, after their respective meetings with Pence

Around 67 percent of Venezuelans support the upcoming presidential elections which are scheduled to be held in 2018. The Venezuelan opposition has demanded elections since they began anti-government protests in April.


The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has long made calls for peace, dialogue, and negotiated solutions to resolve an ongoing crisis stemming from right-wing opposition protests that have claimed over 120 lives.

In the survey, it was also reported that 66 percent of Venezuelans would prefer that Maduro's government take effective measures and resolve the country's economic problems, while 30 percent would prefer an opposition government to undertake the task.

The report was done between July 22 and Aug. 9 through 1,580 telephone interviews in several cities in Venezuela.

Source:

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/am...eign-Military-Intervention-20170815-0025.html

 

[Yehuda]

Brazil and Philly: a common story of an education marked by segregation

By Celia Alves - Especial para AL DÍA News | August 16, 2017

The consequences of slavery to education both in Brazil and in the USA is the scenery for Baobab Flowers, a film directed by the Brazilian filmmaker Gabriela Watson.

Slavery is a stain in the history shared by Brazil and United States. Brazil was not just the country that received the most number of Africans it was also the last country in the Americas to end its slavery, doing so in 1888. The US ended slavery in 1865, but segregation kept Afro-descendants from merging into society. More than a century has passed, a lot has been improved in Civil Rights, but Afro-descendants still struggle living, mostly in low income neighborhoods where they don’t have access to good education. This scenery is the plot for Balba Flowers, a documentary directed by the Brazilian filmmaker Gabriela Watson Aurazo, which received the Audience Award for Favorite Documentary Short at 2017 Blackstar Film Festival.

Baobab Flowers portrays the toughness and tenderness of two educators, one from Philadelphia and the other from São Paulo - Brazil, showing that, in essence, the issues faced by public schools in the USA and in countries in development like Brazil are very much the same.

With a multicultural staff and the support of Dr. Doris Derby, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, the movie gained the admiration of the public, but according to Dr. Derby a lot has to be done yet. The work towards equality has to continue.

“I could see from the public's reaction that they were very touched by the stories portrayed by the teachers.” Says Watson. “The idea was to make a very personal film with which the audience could feel connected to the characters, and I believe it worked. We showed moments of intimacy but from a poetic point of view and I think the public identified itself with the difficulties our characters face.”

Watson, who was born and raised in Brazil, moved to Philadelphia to pursue graduate school and recently finished her Masters of Fine Arts in Film and Media Arts at Temple University. Baobab Flowers was her theses film and the decision on the subject came from the observation that even in the US, Afro-descendants go through similar struggles to the ones they face in Brazil.

With this film, Watson invites people to reflect on the unequal access to good education faced by people of African descent, and if the formal education most students have access to is representative of Afro-descendants.

The film was named after the iconic African tree, the Baobab, whose flowers blossom just once a year. According to the myth, Africans, after being captured, walked around the Baobab in order to leave behind their culture and identity. The characters portrayed in the film try to do the exact opposite in their communities: rescue the African identity that the Afro-descendants were forced to leave behind.

The characters, Nyanza Bandele in Philadelphia and Priscila Dias in São Paulo give the tone to the movie. Both black women who are politically active, divorced mothers and educators with strong ties to their communities.

In Philadelphia, the educator Nyanza Bandele tells us about the difficulties she faces while teaching at Overbrook High School where she had to deal with a hostile school district, lack of teaching material and uninterested students. Students sleeping in class and with difficulty of concentration were frequent moments captured by Baobab Flowers.

In Sao Paulo, Jardim Horizonte Azul at State School Amelia Kerr, in an underprivileged neighborhood, among broken chairs and desks in a poorly kept facility, the educator Priscila Dias uses her time in class not only to teach, but to help her students to connect with their roots and better understand their importance in society. Priscila, an Afro-Brazilian woman whose parents are illiterate, was in the first generation that was able to attend college in her family. With her Masters in History in hands, she decided that it is in the underprivileged areas that she is needed.

They teach at schools in low-income areas, deal with the lack of resources and infrastructure, students that often come from broken homes and face a curriculum that does not portray their history, but above all they use education to promote change in the life of their students.

To Watson, the main contribution of Baobab Flowers is to bring side by side the experience of these two women and show how they are similar or different. Watson wants to show the public how Black women play an important role in their community, importance that requires women to stay strong as a pillar for the community.

Although we had a lot of progress in civil rights, there are still a lot of issues that combine poverty and race. “When you look at statistics, equality is not there. And for me, as a black woman and a filmmaker I want to give voice to people that have a unique perspective on these issues”.

Watson’s attention towards equality and diversity started before filming Baobab Flowers. In 2012 she directed Nosotros, Afroperuanos” -Brasil/Peru 45 min - that brings a reflection over racial issues in Peru. For Baobab Flowers’ production, she managed two different crews, one in Philadelphia and another in Sao Paulo, and both crews were formed by people of diverse backgrounds and identified with the theme in some way.

For the Creative Producer Melissa B. Skolnick, having a crew of both women and people of color made the crew representative of some of the content of the film.

“It’s important to create coalitions and connections across our community”. Says Skolnick. “And I feel Baobab Flowers is doing exactly that”.

She believes that especially now, when we see so much injustice happening around the world, it’s important to build on these connections so a bigger impact on these communities can be made.

Watson also counted with Dr. Doris Derby as Executive Producer for Baobab Flowers. Dr. Derby is a renowned Civil Rights activist, anthropologist and documentary photographer who has been a long-time supporter of Watson’s project. They met in 2014 when Dr. Derby funded a scholarship to the Temple alumni through the Black Women Film Network, an Atlanta-based organization. Dr. Derby then became Watson’s mentor.

According to Dr. Derby, what these teachers go through today is very similar to what she faced in the 60s while part of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). Although a lot has changed, the Black communities still need to improve, and the best way to reach this improvement is through education. For Dr. Derby the film is just the start, the effort must continue. After telling Nyanza and Priscila's story, it’s time to raise funds and help them to help their communities.

Brazil and Philly: a common story of an education marked by segregation

 

[Poitier]

For the second year in a row, a black woman is crowned Miss Brasil! More black women have earned the title in the past two years than the previous 61!

Miss Piauí Monalysa Alcântara crowned Miss Brasil 2017

Note from BW of Brazil: What the….?!?!?! How did this contest creep up on me and I didn’t even see it? I have to admit, when I received this news in one of my social networks, I thought, “How can this be? A year couldn’t have passed by that quick!!” (Also, this year, there was nowhere near as much buzz for the contest as it was last year) As it turns out, I was right about that, as it’s only August and last year’s Miss Brasil winner was crowned last October, so she didn’t even wear the crown for a full year. But it did catch by surprise that they would crown another Afro-Brazilian woman Miss Brasil so soon. I mean, lest not forget, until last year, one hadn’t won since 1986 and that year was the first time in more than 30 years. But I still stick to what I said last year. Allow me to quote myself:

“before we go too far in our celebration, let us remember that this is simply one small step. We still have a LLOONNGG ways to go for black Brazilians to be represented in the same proportion of which they make up the overall Brazilian population. And this writer has no reason to believe that Brazil’s media will easily relinquish the adoration of white women as the standard of beauty any time soon.”

With the crowning of the new winner of the 2017 winner of Miss Brasil, this means that a black woman has won the competition for two years straight! In others words, in two years, more black women have been crowned Miss Brasil than in the previous 61 years! Who-da thunk it? I certainly wouldn’t have, considering Brazil’s record of always presenting its more European-looking citizens in the media spotlight. But on the other hand, true to form, even crowning another black woman, there still weren’t as many black competitors this year as there were last year when a record six black women competed for the crown.

As a matter of fact, one could argue that, according to the representatives chosen from the 26 Brazilian states and one Federal District, the preference for fair skin continues to dominate when the topic is standards of beauty. Am I exaggerating? Well, let’s take a look at the competitors from this year’s contest.

As we can see, even with there being a few visibly Afro-Brazilian women among the 27 women, how many do you see that have darker skin? Most of the black women that you see here, including the winner herself from the state of Piauí, have skin tones that don’t break from the fair skinned aesthetic.

In fact, all told, there is actually only one black woman who has skin that is dark enough in which she stands out from the rest of the women, and she apparently straightens her hair. Not to judge her at all, but one has to wonder if already having dark skin, Miss Rio de Janeiro felt that she wouldn’t have a chance if she had dark skin AND natural hair. Miss Piauí and Miss São Paulo have hair textures that could be described as cabelo crespo (kinky/curly hair) but they both have fair skin.

Of the rest of the women, many are white and others have a look in which one would really have to analyze more photos of them to determine whether they would be considered black or the light-skinned Latina type. And again, we have fair skin women representing northeastern states where there is an abundance of dark skin (such as Bahia – again – Maranhão, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais or Alagoas.

Ahh Brazil. As the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same! But anyway, congratulations are in order for Miss Piauí, Monalysa Alcântara, a record-breaking second straight black woman and third overall to be crowned Miss Brasil!

Representative of Piauí is elected Miss Brazil 2017

The Piauiense (native of the state of Piauí) Monalysa Alcântara was the winner of the Miss Brasil Be Emotion 2017 contest, held on Saturday in Ilhabela, located in the state of São Paulo. In second place was the gaúcha (native of the state of Rio Grande do Sul) Juliana Mueller and in third was the candidate from the state of Espírito Santo, Stephany Pim.

 

[Poitier]

Miss Brasil 2017 – Monalysa Alcântara

Receiving the crown from Raissa Santana, Miss Brazil 2016 representing the state of Paraná, Monalysa maintains the title among black women. Although it has happened for two consecutive years, it is only the third time that a black candidate has won the contest.

In one of the stages, when she had 30 seconds to talk about what her “reign” would be like, the Piauí native said she wanted, through her history, to “help mulheres negras(black women) to see themselves as beautiful and show that they are capable of following their own dreams.”

Rio Grande do Sul is the state with the highest number of titles in Miss Brasil. 13 winners have come from the state: the first one in 1956, with Maria José Cardoso, and the last one in 2015, with Marthina Brandt. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais tie in the vice-leader of the ranking, with eight winners each. Monalysa is the first woman from Piauí to receive the title.

The Miss Universe, the world stage of the contest, will be held in January 2018, still without a host country and date set.

Note from BW of Brazil: In the piece below, that appeared online shortly after Monalysa took the crown in her state, we see that growing up, she faced many of the same challenges facing Afro-Brazilian women living in a racist, class-oriented country. Seeing few women who look like her competing in competitions like Miss Brasil, having been indoctrinated into believing that she was not pretty and rejecting her natural hair texture.

Granddaughter of coconut breaker Miss Piaui 2017 tells of her trajectory from humble childhood to coronation

In an interview with Portal AZ, Monalysa Alcântara tells her life story, dreams and plans for the future.

By Marta Alencar

Miss Piauí Be Emotion 2017 Monalysa Alcântara told her life story, such as the loss of her father when she was five years old, her dream of being a teacher and company administrator, as well as her adventures in Piauí. The new Miss also spoke of her plans for the final phase of the Miss Brasil, which takes place next month in São Paulo.

Despite having achieved the title of Miss Piauí Be Emotion 2017, the young Monalysa Alcântara, only 18 years old, hasn’t forgotten her origins. Even walking high-up on the catwalks, the Miss doesn’t give up walking barefoot on the beaten floor and in the woods when she visits União, the city where her father was born.

Courage, determination, and strength are qualities she claims to have inherited from her father, who passed away when Monalysa was five years old. And it is his characteristics, besides the desire to make a difference, which the young woman declares will lead her to the final phase of the Miss Brasil, to be held on August 19, in Ilhabela, on the north coast of São Paulo, and will be broadcast by Band TV.

Born in Teresina, Monalysa currently resides in the neighborhood of São Cristovão, on the east side. Her dream of being a model emerged in childhood, but the desire to shine as Miss was born in her teens. “I’ve always wanted to be a model. Even as the dream of being Miss was a distant dream in childhood. Because you didn’t see many black women participating in beauty contests at the time, that’s why I did not really believe that one day I would participate and have a chance to win. At that stage, I also felt very ugly and didn’t like my hair and my thinness. And because of that, I received many nicknames. But it was in my teens that things changed and I assumed my cachos (curls) and my personality. And I sought in fashion, a refuge and a door. And at the age of 16, I began to study, to like beauty contests and walk on the catwalks,” she says.

During the competition for the handing over of the state title promoted by the Band Piauí TV network, Monalysa declared that through the history and the victory of Raíssa Santana in Miss Brasil 2016, she felt motivated to participate in the contest. “If you had such a long period for a black woman to become a Miss Brasil (Raissa was the second black woman to win the contest in history. More than 30 years ago, Deise Nunes won the title and became the first black Miss Brazil), taking into account that the majority of the population is black, there’s still something wrong there and it needs to be changed. It’s not that when I participate I’ll have some kind of quota or favor, I’m not saying that. And when I heard Raíssa tell her story, I and so many other girls recognized each other. I believe that now I can fight equally with the other candidates. And that was one of the reasons I participated in the contest,” she says.

Attributes of the Miss

Even with the death of his father at the age of five, Monalysa says people still praise her character and personality. “My father is my reference. Of course, my mother was and is important to me. She is a lumber supervisor and has many qualities, such as a very strong force, and that has helped her support her children. My father, I hear a lot still today, how honest, simple, humble and how he helped people. And I don’t forget those characteristics, just to base himself on them and pride himself wherever he was. Because I feel so many of his stories, (it’s like) he didn’t die, you know ?! Because we have many things in common, like color. And that’s why I always tried to get inspired by him,” she said.

Still according to the young woman, the family has always taught her to have tenacity, focus and not give up on dreams. “My family is a great example that I can never give up. And that if you are poor it doesn’t not mean that you can’t ‘rise’ and win in life. My father came from a poor interior and that only now has energy arrived there. My father had the opportunity to win, joined a family, as a child, focused on the area of law, and he studied hard, worked and entered the civil police. He was the proof that you have to battle. My father’s family was very large and very poor. My grandmother was a babassu coconut breaker, and my grandfather was a security guard for a school in Teresina. And it was when my father decided to change his reality and came to Teresina, where he was adopted by his godparents. And here he was able to improve his life and be able to help my uncles. To this day my uncles are very grateful for what my father did for them.”

Monalysa dreams of being a teacher

From the example and the overcoming of her father, Monalysa declares that she has always believed in education and therefore hopes to one day be a teacher. “I believe in education and I believe it can save Brazil. Of course, that dream was dropped at this time, because I’m focused on other projects, but it’s my dream and I still want to work with it and bring knowledge to many people. And I think that being a Miss I can take that too,” she said. The young woman is already admitted in the course of Business Administration and believes that the area is essential for life. “It’s a course that will help me a lot, mainly because I plan to build my own and work with beauty. Also because I want to learn as much to run my business as my life,” she adds.

The beauty from Piauí speaks on how she maintains her beauty and spends up to two hours taking care of her hair

The beauty and charm of the mulher negra (black woman) distributed in a sculptural body of 58kg (128 lbs.) and 1.77m (5’9 1/2″). And it was these physical attributes, besides the beautiful smile, that made the Teresina native stand out in front of the other finalists in the state dispute. That’s why as for beauty tips, Monalysa confesses that she spends more than two hours caring for her hair.

“If there’s one thing I know and I like to do is take care of my hair. Sometimes I take one or even two hours, just taking care of the hair and I don’t get tired of doing it. Because my hair is a way of expressing myself. So I always look for creams for cabelos cacheados(curly hair) to moisturize it a bit. Because hydration is life, mainly because of our climate. In addition, I use oils to balance oiliness and specific products,” she says.

But she adds that she does not use a comb for her hair. “I use the fork comb (pick) to give it volume, but the comb itself I don’t use because it breaks the curly hair too much. I use my fingers and some techniques that I learned with the YouTube tutorials. So I tell the girls to follow these tutorials to have healthy hair.”

Miss Piauí 2017 also says that she drinks a lot of liquid and that she is always careful to remove her makeup to keep her skin healthy. “It is very important to take care of the skin, like the lips. I confess I did not have this habit of moisturizing my lips.”

From the title of Miss Piaui, Monalysa Alcântara declares that she didn’t have time to rest. “I’ve still been at a loss since the confinement. And now I have made a battery of visits and several interviews. And all this is important for spreading and to unite Piauí in this battle. Because I believe that I will only play a good role in the final phase of Miss Brasil, if I count on the unity and strength of my state. Of course, there are still other questions, such as English courses, oratory training, a lot of research and more understanding of current affairs in the country. My preparation is based on this,” she says.

When asked about her best quality, Monalysa declares that she is not wanting to be like other people and making a difference. “I’ve always liked being different and making a difference. Do something new and innovate.” Meanwhile, her biggest defect is forgetfulness. “I forget many objects, but I’m very determined and I like to learn, so that’s why I decided to buy an agenda so I don’t forget anything else,” she confesses.

The Miss is also inspired by the model of the Victoria’s Secrets international brand, Laís Ribeiro, who is also from Piauí. She also enjoys listening to rapper Karol Conka, practicing volleyball and eating Maria Isabel (see note one).

Source: Diário Catarinense, Portal AZ, Correio 24 Horas

Note

1. Maria Isabel is a typical food from the northeast and center-west region of Brazil, which consists of a mixed rice with dried meat. It’s also served with banana farofa.