Review also covers Whither Thou Goest -- Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country by Carl A. Brasseaux and others; and 'Who Set You Flowin'?' by Farah Jasmine Griffin
Discusses the reasons the customs of Africa are being steadily diluted in Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Cuba, the centers of significant black minorities
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
289 p, explores the multiple ways that Africans have affected political, economic, and cultural life throughout the region. Focusing on areas traditionally associated with Afro-Latin American culture such as Brazil and the Caribbean basin, this innovative work also highlights places such as Rio de La Plata and Central America, where the African legacy has been important but little studied.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
259 p, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. set out on a quest to discover how Latin Americans of African descent live now, and how the countries of their acknowledge—or deny—their African past; how the fact of race and African ancestry play themselves out in the multicultural worlds of the Caribbean and Latin America. Starting with the slave experience and extending to the present, Gates unveils the history of the African presence in six Latin American countries—Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, and Peru—through art, music, cuisine, dance, politics, and religion, but also the very palpable presence of anti-black racism.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
140 p, Includes Anne Dimock's "Capoeira Angola"; Bernice Reagon's "Interview with Freddy Massey, Director of the Guybau Invaders, Champion Steelband of Guyana"; and Leonard Goines' "Black music of Latin America and the Caribbean";
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
365 p, Discussion of the experience of blackness and cultural difference, black political mobilization, and state responses to Afro-Latin activism throughout Latin America. Its thematic organization and holistic approach set it apart as the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of these populations and the issues they face currently available.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
257 p, Part One: Engaging the Transnational, Cosmopolitan and Postcolonial in Afro-Hispanic Texts. Introduction to Part One / Antonio D. Tillis ; Roots and Routes: Transnational Blackness in Afro-Costa Rican Literature / Dorothy E. Mosby ; Los nietos de Felicidad Dolores (The Grandchildren of Felicidad Dolores) and the Contemporary Afro-Hispanic Historical Novel: A Postcolonial Reading / Sonja Stephenson Watson ; Cultural Transnationality and Cosmopolitanism in the Poetic Journeys of Nancy Morejón / Antonio D. Tillis. -- Part Two: Africa and African Cosmology and Literary Tradition in Hispanic (Con) Texts. Introduction to Part Two / Antonio D. Tillis ; Yoruba Cosmology as Technique in Malambo by Lucía Charún-Illescas / Aida L. Heredia ; Myth, Legend & Reality: Redesigning the Narrative Style in Manuel Zapata Olivella's Hemingway, the Death Stalker / Cristina Cabral ; Nicomedes Santa Cruz: A Clarion for Black Cultural Traditions in Peru / Martha Ojeda ; Bridging Literary Traditions in the Hispanic World: Equatorial Guinean Drama and the Dictatorial Cultural-Political Order / Elisa Rizo. -- Part Three: Defining and Redefining Identities in Latin American Literature. Introduction to Part Three / Antonio D. Tillis ; Black, Woman, Poor: The Many Identities of Conceição Evaristo / Ana Beatriz Rodrigues Gonçalves ; The Triumph Within: Carolina Maria de Jesus and Strategies for Black Female Empowerment in Brazil / Dawn Duke ; Talking Back with Ana Lydia Vega: Identity, Gender and the Subversive Portrayal of Mestizaje / Emmanuel Harris, III ; Dialogically Redefining the Nation: Hip-hop and the Collective Identity / Lesley Feracho.; "After generations of being rendered virtually invisible by the US academy in critical anthologies and literary histories, writing by Latin Americans of African ancestry has become represented by a booming corpus of intellectual and critical investigation. This volume aims to provide an introduction to the literary worlds and perceptions of national culture and identity of authors from Spanish-America, Brazil, and uniquely, Equatorial Guinea, thus contextually connecting Africa to the history of Spanish colonization. The importance of Latin America literature to the discipline of African Diaspora studies is immeasurable, and this edited collection provides a ripe cultural context for critical comparative analysis among the vast geographies that encompass African and African Diaspora studies. Scholars in the area of African Diaspora Studies, Black Studies, Latin American Studies, and American literature will be able to utilize the eleven essays in this edition to enhance classroom instruction and further academic research."--Publisher's website.
