The development or lack thereof of racism, in Latin America follows a very different path to the one we learnt about in North America and the rest of the world. The highly mixed society, and complex slave economy placed slaves into a category of their own, leaving the rest of society “void” of racial stratification. While it can be argued that racial stratification is prevalent in Latin America, historically, it does not come from purposely segregating Afro Latinos. Equal rights regardless of race, make slavery in Latin America a unique phenomenon. Slave owners were not only limited to people of european background, but to anyone partaking in economic activity that used slavery as a means of production. This meant that, in general, there were slave owners of African descent, Indigenous descent, and mixed race.

Policy worked hard against racial discrimination, banning racially segregating parties such as the PIC (Partido Independente de Color) in Cuba. Countries with slave economies thrived production-wise, argument that trumped the fight for slave freedom and gave way for more political discourse disfavoring the slave population. Examples of such governmental policies could be observed in 19th century Cuba, and Brazil. While, in principle, rights were given to everyone regardless of race and social standing, the subsistence of inequality based on circumstances such as native origin, mixed race, and slave descent, led to socioeconomic differences that were inherently tied to race. On the other hand, women’s civil rights were also ignored. This could be traced back to implementation of european ideology, modeling policy based on the Napoleonic Code, and the 19th century european Civil Rights, where women were not really included.

The development of Racism, Citizenship, and Rights in Latin America, could be seen as flawed, but taking into account, that most ideology was merely borrowed, Latin America did what it could, and adapted to what it needed at the time. It wasn’t necessarily the best Latin America could do, but it was an attempt at a better society. I guess we should take into account the colonial era Latin America comes from when talking about progress.