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There are more than 62 million Latinos living in the United States. Six million identify as Afro-Latino, though about one in seven do not identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to Pew Research.
“We have always been here,” said Miriam Jiménez Román, Puerto Rican scholar, activist, and author on Afro-Latino culture. “Invisible, but always there.”
In 2010, Jiménez Román and her partner Juan Flores published The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States, a book that she was missing when she was growing up and grappling with her own identity.
62.1 million
Latinos living in the US1
6 million
Adults who identify as Afro-Latino in the US2
1 in 7
Afro-Latinos do not identify as Hispanic or Latino2
Top Descent Groups3
Panamanian | 37.0%
Dominican | 18.0%
Puerto Rican | 12.2%
Sources: 1US Census Bureau; 2Pew Research, 2022; 3Centering Black Latinidad, UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute 2023
The term Afro-Latino refers to those of African descent from Latin America or the Caribbean, and when The Afro-Latin@ Reader was published, the term still wasn’t universally accepted.
“When I grew up, people weren’t really using the descriptor Afro-Latino,” says Honest Company CEO Carla Vernón in a 2018 interview with The Alumni Society. “It was a time when it was a cultural norm that in America you had to pick one racial or cultural affiliation. Even when I came to General Mills in the earliest parts of my career, there wasn’t quite an openness to the interesting mosaic that people could be.”
That has shifted in a positive direction over the past fifteen years since the publication of The Afro-Latin@ Reader. Jiménez Román and Flores founded the afrolatin@ forum, a research and resource center that centers Blackness within Latinidad. More executive leaders like Vernón are connecting and identifying with their Latino identities as younger generations are proudly doing the same.
During Black History Month—and any time of the year—we invite you to expand your understanding about the nuances and vibrancy of the Afro-Latino experience.
Listen
Dialogues in Afrolatinidad
Hosted by Dr. Michele Reid-Vazquez, Dialogues in Afrolatinidad educates, amplifies, and elevates the history, culture, and contemporary issues in Afro-Latin America and US Afro-Latino communities.
Listen to Dialogues in Afrolatinidad
Caras Lindas
Hosts Manuel Mendez and Gyselle Garcia dive into the intersection of Blackness in Latino communities through sharing the untold stories of Afro-Latino people.
Majestad Prieta
Inspired by the poem “Majestad Negra” by Luis Palés Matos, Majestad Prieta explores Blackness in America, the Caribbean, and the larger diaspora.
An AfroLatinx Experience | Latinx Therapy with Adriana Alejandre
In this episode of Latinx Therapy, Adriana Alejandre speaks with Jersey Garcia about the realities of identifying as Afro-Latina as well as being Afro-Latina as a mental health professional.
Diversity in the Diaspora | A Word … With Jason Johnson
In this episode of A Word … With Jason Johnson, journalist Natasha Alford shares how she navigated America’s complicated ideas of race in her book American Negra: A Memoir.
A Family Conversation on Race and Latinidad | Latino USA
A year after George Floyd’s death, two Afro-Latinx cousins dive into their experiences with racism and struggles faced by Black Latinos on this episode of Latino USA.
Watch
AfroLatinos
Directed by Emmy Award-winning television producer Renzo Devia and produced by playwright, speaker, and activist Alicia Anabel Santos, AfroLatinos illustrates the history and culture of Afro-Latinos, from the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the race identity issues that continue to exist today.
The Last Mambo
Directed by Rita Hargrave, The Last Mambo showcases the salsa/Latin jazz community in the San Francisco Bay area and traces the sixty-plus-year evolution of West Coast Latin sound through interviews, archival material, photographs, and concert footage.
Daughter of the Sea
Directed by Afro-Boricua Alexis García and shot in Puerto Rico, Daughter of the Sea follows a young woman experiencing a spiritual awakening after the death of her grandfather.
Read
The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States by Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores
The Afro-Latin@ Reader is a collection of essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews that showcase “a kaleidoscopic view of Black Latin@s in the United States.”
An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
Paul Ortiz draws on rich narratives and primary source documents to share a history of the US told from the interconnecting points of view of Latinos and African Americans and offer a way forward in the ongoing struggle for universal civil rights.
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction, Family Lore follows the lives of three generations of a Dominican American family, told through the voices of its women.
Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda
Raquel Cepeda writes to understand the concepts of race, identity, and ancestral DNA among Latinos by using her own journey of understanding her Dominican-American story as a foundation.
