Dartmouth Symposia to Showcase the Afro-Latinx Experience

During Latin America's colonial era, about 15 times as many African people were taken to Spanish and Portuguese colonies than to the United States to be enslaved. Today, about 130 million people of African descent live in Latin America, according to the Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America at Princeton University. 

Although about 6 million U.S. adults identify as Afro-Latino, many are misidentified as either African American or Hispanic/Latinx, says Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Israel Reyes. 

This month, a series of symposia at Dartmouth will illuminate the complexities of what it means to be Black from Latin America. The Afrolatinidades Afro-Latinx Symposium series will take place over a span of three weeks, with events on April 13, 18-19, and 27.  

"The title of this series underscores the contemporary realities, violent histories, and struggles for resistance that are part of the Black experience in Latin America," says Reyes, who also serves as chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. 

Reyes and senior lecturer Kianny Antigua conceived of the conference with Puerto Rican author Mayra Santos Febres, who will serve as a keynote speaker.  

"We perceived a lack of awareness in the U.S. of the rich and diverse history of Blackness and African descendancy in Latin America," Reyes says. "AfroLatinx people in the U.S. are often doubly excluded from U.S. Black identities and Hispanic/Latino identities. We decided to invite AfroLatinx artists, writers, performers, and filmmakers to bring visibility to the intersectional complexity of what it means to be Black from Latin America."

Students in visiting lecturer Magdalena López's course Caribbean Afrodescendancies: Identity, Culture, and Community will serve as moderators for several of the panels, and will conduct short interviews with the participants as part of their final projects. Students in Spanish and Portuguese language courses will also engage with select events.

Organizers of the symposia hope that students, faculty, staff, and members of the public will take advantage of the breadth of performances, talks, poetry readings, discussions, and screenings. Highlights include a performance by the multidisciplinary artist Helen Ceballos on April 18 at 6:45 p.m. at College Park; Brujaja: A Filmed Theatrical Experience on April 19, at 4 p.m. in Haldeman 041; a live musical performance and dance with Robe L Ninho, on April 19 at 8 p.m. in Collis Common Ground; and a film screening of Candela on April 27 at 5 p.m. in Haldeman 041. 

"We hope participants will gain new knowledge and awareness of the diversity of the AfroLatinx experience and the many forms of artistic expression that convey those complexities," Reyes says. "We also hope students from AfroLatinx heritage will have the opportunity to see their cultures and identities shared more broadly with the Dartmouth community."