African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) is an independent, non-partisan think-tank dedicated to strengthening Canadian relations with Latin America and the Caribbean through policy dialogue and analysis. It seeks to create new partnerships and policy options throughout the Western Hemisphere through its promotion of good governance, economic prosperity and social justice.
Discusses the highlights of a seminar on democracy, freedom and reproductive rights sponsored by Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales-Chile in Santiago, Chile on June 21, 2011. The event recognized abortion as a priority issue in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
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."
In this, he's not unlike his counterparts in the United States, where black people also have an extensive vocabulary to describe variations in skin tone. In the United States, one can be "high yellow" (i.e., of very light skin); one can be "red" (i.e., with a reddish tint; one of Malcolm X's early nicknames was "Detroit Red"); or one can be any of a number of synonyms for dark. Like, for instance, "Smokey." In fact, the famous (and "high yellow") Motown singer William Robinson was given that nickname in affectionate irony by one of his father's friends - sort of like calling a fat guy Tiny. The same is not true in Brazil. And if the United States is a country where black people with light skin used to sometimes "pass," i.e., pretend to be white, well, in this country "passing is a national institution." So says Elisa Nascimento with a laugh. She is white, American-born and the wife of Abdias do Nascimento, a 90-year-old black Brazilian artist and political icon. And the insistence of some Brazilian blacks on "passing," she says, has political consequences in that it tends to distort statistics on black life. "The way racism works in Brazil . . . there is a hierarchy, and so people tend to identify themselves lighter than they necessarily would be." "It was a rough time," she says in her imperfect English. "For me, was impossible to live there. We could not be married. Why I married with a black guy, you know? So when I say to you that Brazil was different . . . even my first husband didn't think of himself as black. In Brazil, he was a Brazilian, even though he was black. He never thought of himself as someone different from me because he was another color."
Princeton University Library Latin American microfilm collection (Author)
Format:
Microfilm
Language:
Spanish
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Woodbridge, CT: GALE, Cengage Learning
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
From the holdings of the Firestone Library, Princeton University, based on the original inventory prepared by the library staff., 2 microfilm reels., Collection of Peruvian ephemera contains flyers, pamphlets, and reports, as well as magazines and serials. The publications reflect the cultural reality of Peru's ethnic minority groups in the years between 1982 and 2008 and address a variety of subjects from indigenous rights movements and local handicrafts to everyday discriminatory practices. Contents include: Part 1. Afro-Peruvian peoples -- pt. 2. Amazonian peoples -- pt. 3. Andean peoples -- pt. 4. Arts and crafts -- pt. 5. Legal rights and reforms -- pt. 6. Pan-ethnic and indigenista issues -- pt. 7. Racism and discrimination.
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.
Weintraub,Andrew Noah (Editor) and Yung,Bell (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
313 p., Global and local perspectives on the meaning and significance of cultural rights through music. Includes Javier F. León's "National patrimony and cultural policy: the case of the Afroperuvian cajón" and Silvia Ramos and Ana María Ochoa's "Music and human rights: the Afroreggae cultural group and the youth from the favelas as responses to violence in Brazil"
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
401 p, The distinct but extraordinary diverse ethnic and cultural identities of Afro-Latin Americans have received little official recognition. But today a growing movement is voicing pride in the Afro-Latin American heritage, asserting common identities and working to defend and advance collective rights. This book provides a major human-rights-focused survey that aims to reflect and be part of that process of rediscovery and renewal. Each chapter considers a particular country or subregion.
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.
