During one of the tutorials I attended last year as part of LAST 100 (taught by John), I asked the following question:<\/p>\n
While of course, Latin American countries are and were incredibly cruel to their black citizens, why did the treatment of Afro-Latinos in Latin America historically differ from the treatment of African-Americans in the United States? Why did it seem that assimilation between Afro-Latinos and non-African Latinos was always more accepted than mixing between African-Americans and non-African Americans in the U.S?<\/p>\n
If I remember correctly, John responded by saying that firstly, he did not know, and secondly, that perhaps the treatment of African Americans in the\u00a0 U.S. should be analyzed as a cruel anomaly, and not a standard. I agreed. Further, the class discussed that maybe systemic racism in Latin America did not turn out like the United States due to widespread rejections of Spanish influence that occurred during the first quarter of the 19th century. A byproduct of this revolutionary era was the mixing between races and ethnic groups, which then resulted in the creation of many different castas<\/em> or “lineages” (e.g. Mestizo<\/em> is a Spanish word used to describe someone with both Spanish and Indigenous lineage).<\/p>\n When watching the first part of Black Orpheus, I noticed that despite this film taking place in the late 1950s, people of all races were mixing and interacting. While this film alone can not be used as a trusted historical source, the reality of Black Brazilians depicted at the beginning of this film is infinitely better than that of those depicted of Black Americans in the late 1950s. Despite the film mostly starring Afro-Latino protagonists, it appears that no racism is evident between the characters.<\/p>\n Further, it seems like Afro-Latino culture is being celebrated. After a brief Google search, I discovered the version of the Greek legend featured in this film has influences from Candombl\u00e9 folklore tales. For example, Orpheus descending to the underworld. Candombl\u00e9 is an Afro-Brazilian religion developed during the early 19th century (around the same time of the Latin American independence revolutions) that is a mix of Yoruban religion from West Africa and Roman Catholicism. However, that being said the Greek influence in this movie is heavier than the Afro-Brazilian one. This speaks to a struggle between the dominant influences of European culture and less-dominant Afro-Brazilian culture in Brazil.<\/p>\n As a discussion question for this post, I will pose the question I asked John last year:\u00a0Why did the treatment of Afro-Latinos in Latin America historically differ from the treatment of African-Americans\/Canadians in the United States\/Canada?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During one of the tutorials I attended last year as part of LAST 100 (taught by John), I asked the following question: While of course, Latin American countries are and were incredibly cruel to their black citizens, why did the treatment of Afro-Latinos in Latin America historically differ from the treatment of African-Americans in the … <\/p>\n