A Colombian-Dominican Collaboration Documents the Afro-Latino Experience
Posted by VidaAfroLatina.com on August 12, 2008

 
Renzo’s Story

As the television producer for TV shows like “American Latino TV” and “LatiNation,” I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel and meet hundreds of Latinos worldwide with many stories to tell. For six years, I told those stories and broadcast them to millions of households.

But there was one story in particular that was too big to be covered in a single television show. It was the story of Afro-Latinos.

I couldn’t stop asking myself: Why didn’t learn about this history? Why didn’t I know how large this population is? Why are there so many Latinos that negate their African roots? Latinos would not be who we are if we did not have African blood.

I, like many Latinos, celebrate Afro-Latino culture every day—appreciating the art, dancing to the music and eating the food—but I have never been taught where it came from or what it means to be a Latino of African decent.

In January of 2008, I sold my New York-based company, American Latino Television, and dove into a quest to find the truth and learn about my history. During my search, I found the lack of information available so discouraging that I decided this story needed to be shared. The more I searched, the more I found there was to learn.

I finally accepted that what I am searching for may take years to comprehend. From contemporary injustices in Afro-Latino towns and the history kept from us because of discrimination and self-hatred, to the theory about Africans coming to the Americas before Columbus and the caste systems that currently exist in Latin America—there is so much still to learn.

After years of hearing about the experiences of friends of African decent from all over Latin America, I am now visiting their homes and learning, up close and personal, our true history. And I am documenting it on film, along with a talented writer with the same passion. In February, I was fortunate enough to meet Alicia Anabel.

Alicia’s Story

It’s no coincidence that Renzo and I met when we did. We were meant to work together on this project. We are living a history lesson, a lesson we never learned in textbooks. We are devoting our lives and time to telling this story. This project is about learning where we come from. It’s about our roots. It’s about documenting, investigating, searching for and learning about the influence and contributions of Africans all over Latin America.

It’s about telling the story of a shared history with our ancestors from Africa. The history of enslaved Africans taken to almost every country throughout Latin America—many more than in the United States—began with much cruelty and has left incredible riches in our traditions, our culture, our food, our music and much, much more. We aim to celebrate and honor the gifts that were brought, that remain and that have become our own—gifts that for the most part are in tact hundreds of years later.

Currently, we are abroad filming and will be until 2009. Our target date to complete our documentary is the summer of 2009.

Separately, we were both researching the subject of Afro-Latinos. Featured in Urban Latino magazine early this year was an article I wrote entitled “Two Cultures Marching to One Drum,” which honors the contributions of Africans in both the Black and Latino communities. In my article, I define what it means to be Afro-Latino and discuss why some Latinos have rejected their African ancestry, “fearing all things Black.”

Renzo contacted the magazine to get in touch with me. When we met, he shared his vision for creating a project focusing on Afro-Latinos throughout Latin America.

Both of us were very passionate as we shared our perspectives about the segment of our communities some like to keep secret. He’s a light-skinned Colombian embracing a part of his culture that has been ignored for far too long. I’m a Dominican writer who is on the same journey searching for my identity. Renzo was born in New York and raised in both Colombia and the U.S., and I am a proud Dominicana born and raised in New York.

We both were interested in delving deeper into what it means for us to be Latino. We recognized that we might share a bloodline with Africa, and that this idea is hard to except for some. The rest, as they say, is history.

This journey is about going back to our Latin communities where those of African descent have been ignored and oppressed for far too long. We aim to be apart of a discussion that isn’t new. There are Latinos of African descent who have been striving to document their stories, but haven’t received the exposure they deserve. We plan to build on their work.

Since we first met, Renzo has been incredibly excited about traveling to these communities throughout Latin America for a first-hand account of what is and is not being done to help Black Latin America, and what they are doing to create positive change for themselves. We want to be a voice for a community of people who have been silenced and ignored by the powers that be.

Our mission is to create awareness and be apart of a dialogue on Afro-Latino issues. Through Renzo’s vision behind the lens and my words on the page, we plan to create a project that will be everlasting.