SPAN 399C Explorations in Afro-Latino Cltrl Stdies
Who is "Afro-Latino"? Afro-Latinos are African-descended peoples from Latin America and the Caribbean who may also reside in the United States. In this course, a focus on Afro-Latinx voices and cultural expression allows us to study and question the history of racial categories in the Americas. Students will examine literary and cultural works across an array of Afro-Latinx experiences and diasporas, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. We will situate these productions in historical and social contexts to analyze how race, gender, and sexuality complicate easy definitions of latinidad. By privileging the Black perspective, we will explore how the category "Latino" has been shaped by racial hierarchies and internal gaps/silences. In this way, students will explore how the relatively new category of "Afro-Latinx" allows us to occupy borders and examine a history that has been silenced within the broader categories of "Latinx", "Black," and "African American." Some of the topics to be discussed may include: identity formation and negotiation in terms of language, race, euro-centricity; diaspora and emigration; anti-racist, and anti-colonial activism; and activism through art. Note: While a few materials may be in English, class will be conducted strictly in Spanish.