While some forget that the United States does not have a monopoly over the title "America," the term, with some exceptions, encompasses most of the Western Hemisphere. As such, many of the communities of African descent that reside within this range possess equal claim to the name "African Americans." The event commemorated "Black Consciousness Day," an annual holiday that is celebrated in Brazil on November 20. The public holiday pays tribute to an African ancestor, Zumbi dos Palmares, revered by Blacks in the country for his fierce resistance to slavery in the 17th century. The day was consciously chosen to symbolize the ongoing struggles of Blacks to achieve social and economic equality in Brazil.
For [Heidi Rondon], the opportunity to express her African roots through music and dance was a calling. "In our veins we carry the African feeling," she explained. "We are direct descendants of slaves that cultivated cocoa and coffee in the central coast of Barlovento many years ago." "These Africans were Latin America's first liberators," says historian and activist Jorge Guerrero Valez accompanying the group. A dignified Venezuelan enormously conscious of his African heritage and history, Jorge spoke eloquently about the solidarity Afro-Venezuelans, as they call themselves, feel with their African American brothers and sisters in the United States and the need to enhance the relationship.
