The IACHR's report found that there are some 150 million people of African descent in the Americas- we make up some 30 percent of the total population in the hemisphere. However, studies by the World Bank show that a person's racial background continues to determine the social and economic stations they can obtain in the Americas. One long-lasting problem has been the tact that many Afro -Latinos in particular live in nations that perpetuate the myth that they are the citizens of racial democracies, "The idea," read the report, "according to which ... there is no racism because ... all races and cultures melted into a happy combination."
The trailblazer, born in Spanish Harlem, who said she always knew she was "Puerto Rican and Black," started her journey in the '70s to learn more about her roots. She revealed that back then she personally felt she "didn't fit anywhere" because of a lack of knowledge of self and that she "looked around" and noticed her African-descendent students were suffering the same dilemma. Years later, the critically acclaimed scholar, who holds a doctorate from Temple University, is a published author of "When the Spirits Dance Mambo" and "The Altar of My Soul," also a film documentarían for "When the Spirits Dance Mambo," world traveler and a Lucumi/Santeria priestess initiated in Cuba. She's also an associate adjunct professor of AfroLatino studies at Hunter College and a co-director there of the Afro-Latino Global Initiative.
The Organization of Africans in the Americas, a Washington DC-based organization, will sponsor a symposium entitled "Afro-Latinos and the Issue of Race in the New Millennium."
