Portuguese and Spanish slavers supplied the Americas with "los Negros," the Blacks. Only those young and strong, impervious to European disease and able to withstand months of torturous living packed in the cruel quarters of slave shipholds survived the middle passage. Those who arrived, stunned and malnourished, lost in a foreign land, were easy prey to the slavers. Removed from a world that had nourished them, left to the mercy of those whose own lack of humanity prevented the recognition of theirs, they were utterly dependent and at the mercy of their captors. Vestiges of racism threaten to dismantle further progress in South America, as they do here. The prophecies of Willie Lynch, a slave owner who created a divisive plan to keep Blacks separate by fostering dissent among them, are coming true. Lynch outlined the differences in physical characteristics among the slaves-skin shade, hair texture, height, etc. By playing up these differences, Lynch promised, "The Black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands." Throughout North and South America, Lynch's plan lives on. Color lines rule, with the predominantly European strains remaining in power, and those of darker skin and crisper hair texture continue to be oppressed. It is a chilling reality that echoes down from the brutal suppression of the native peoples of Chiapas to the continued repression of Mexicans here and in their own country, to the harsh discrimination shown the Blacks of Brazil and America.
Reviews the book "Women's Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Engendering Social Justice, Democratizing Citizenship," edited by Elizabeth Maier and Nathalie Lebon.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
213 p., A ollection of stories about the lives of 10 remarkable people in the region. From Trinidad, Grenada, St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic to Columbia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico, readers will come to know individuals whose lives reflect the history and immense changes underway in these countries.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
310 p., Explores aboriginal and Creole identities in Guyanese society. Reveals how Creoles, though unable to usurp the place of aboriginals as First Peoples in the New World, nonetheless managed to introduce a new, more socially viable definition of belonging, through labor. The very reason for bringing enslaved and indentured workers into Caribbean labor became the organizing principle for Creoles' new identities.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
292 p., Definitive information on the identity and status of the emancipados who were a special group of Africans in Brazil, Cuba and Latin America. The author establishes that the peculiar nature of the introduction of the emacipados into Brazil and America made them free Africans, both de jure and de facto, thereby setting them apart from freed Africans or slaves in Brazilian and Cuban societies. Emancipados held a much better status within these societies.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Institute for Ibero-American Studies aims to observe and scientifically analyze political, economic, and social development processes in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Academically and legally independent research establishment connected with the German Overseas Institute (Deutsches Übersee-Institut, DÜI), which is funded by the German federal government and the city-state of Hamburg. Links to online newspapers and magazines in Latin America (annotations in German), to institutes researching Latin America, and to other resources; projects descriptions, newsletter, and several papers online.
Yovanovich,Gordana (Editor) and Huras,Amy (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
316 p., Takes an interdisciplinary approach to Latin American social and cultural identities. With broad regional coverage, and an emphasis on Canadian perspectives, this book focuses on Latin American contact with other cultures and nations. Includes Jessica Franklin's "Afro-Brazilian women's identities and activism : national and transnational discourse," Adrian Smith's "Legal creolization, 'permanent exceptionalism,' and Caribbean sojourners truths" and Janelle Joseph's "The transculturation of capoeira : Brazilian, Canadian, and Caribbean interpretations of an Afro-Brazilian martial art."
Discusses the 2011 May 28 Call to Action for the Ongoing Campaign for Comprehensive Health, Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights of Women and Girls. References a 1987 proposal of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN) for an International Day of Action for Women's Health, the first of which was launched in May 28, 1988.
Crocoll,Sophie (Author) and Steiner,Susan (Author)
Format:
Journal Article
Language:
German
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Hamburg, Germany: Institut fur Iberoamerika-Kunde (IIK), GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies/Leibniz-Institut fur Globale und Regionale Studien
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Analyzes the growing problem of poverty and international efforts during various financial crises in Latin America and the Caribbean regions. The authors focus primarily on Honduras, Mexico and Argentina, examining each nations separate crises over two decades through data collected by the United Nations (UNDP) and Comision Economica para America Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
