Afro-descendant civil society organizations in Latin America have pursued an important strand of advocacy on reforming national censuses. The aim has been to increase the visibility of Afro-descendant populations through disaggregated data and thus to improve recognition of their distinct identity. Brazil is leading the way on such data collection while other countries are taking first steps, like Argentina and Chile.
Focuses on calls by the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN) for the full exercise of human rights regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Highlights the discrimination facing lesbian women in the field of healthcare services.
History shows close to two million enslaved Africans were taken to South America. A great number of them were taken to Bahia, Brazil, to work on the sugar cane plantations. [Dionisio] has hope for the future of Brazilian Blacks. "If America can elect a Black president, I know that our time will one day come when a Black Brazilian will look after the wellbeing of his or her people. But at the way things are in Brazil, it is only through education that we will one day be equal to the whites, if you know what I mean." At this point, it sounded as if Dionisio was engaged in a monologue. "But many children dream of one day being like Pele, our greatest football star," he continued as he gazed in the distance, his eyes resting on the humming bird doing battle with the sweet nectar. The mention of Pele changed the contour of his face and I could see the veins in his face clearly showing. "Most of our people have let us down. Most, like Pele, can be considered Black, but we have a saying here that 'You are a Black person with a white soul. We say that of Black leaders and football celebrities who do not support any Black agenda."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
316 p., Demonstrates how the lambada —a genre of electric guitar-based dance music consolidated in the port city of Belém, Pará in the 1970s— makes audible a history of mobile, cosmopolitan connections that transcend and transgress the boundaries of the Amazon region proper. These submerged "translaterai" links with the circum-Caribbean and the Brazilian Northeast challenge hegemonic constructions of Belém as a provincial outpost or pocket of exclusion "at land's end."
About the Colectiva Mujer y Salud or Women and Health Collective from the Dominican Republic leadership in coordinating efforts to decriminalize abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean through the September 28 Campaign. Notes that the Campaign's action is driven by factors including restrictive abortion laws, persecution of women who engage in the practice despite the risks, institutional obstacles, and interference from organized religion.
As Angola restructures following a long civil war and Brazil takes a leading role among the rapidly developing BRIC nations, new questions arise pertaining to the African heritage in Brazilian music and to Brazil's role in Angolan cultural initiatives and musical markets. Through examination of Brazilian discourse about such exchanges, combined with a comparative analysis of three versions of Angolan musician Teta Lando's 1974 song, Angolano segue em frente—the original, a recent Brazilian re-recording, and a Brazilian remix—new attention is given to the South-South dialogue that builds on historical connections yet also establishes new resonances in musical evocations of Atlantic affinities.
This spring, Professor [Henry Louis Gates Jr.] returns to PBS with "Black in Latin America," a new four-part, four hour series. Focusing on six Latin American countries - Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru - the series explores the influence of the African diaspora on Latin America. On his journey. Gates discovers a shared legacy of colonialism, slavery and people marked by African roots. In his new series. Gates sets out on a quest to discover how Latin Americans of African descent live now, and how their countries acknowledge - or deny - their African past.
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.
