Abstract
For many Afro-Latinos, their journey began in the southeast then moved up to the East Coast and to the rest of the country. Recounting their forced settlement in the Caribbean and the United States may take many years of research, especially when it came to writing every single aspect of their history, ethnic backgrounds, and their locations which have been placed in a hyphenated “box.” Historically, Africans in the United States have struggled with the binary mentality. Now Brown Latinos have joined the group, thus creating a dynamic combination even while voices rise. Food, music, holidays, customs, and spirituality have been carried through the centuries. The influence of Afro-Latinos on gender roles and expectations during the diaspora and an overview of the chronology of Afro-Latinas are divided in this chapter into two sections starting from where their settlement is recorded in the Southeast and following their movement to the Northeast of the United States.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Afro-Latino Food: The root of Latin American and Caribbean flavors and seasonings in Afro-Latino food is very unique.
Spanish-American War: In 1898, a conflict between the United States that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America (Britannica, 2020).
Platt Amendment: A rider appended to the U.S. Army appropriations bill of March 1901, stipulating the conditions for withdrawal of U.S. troops remaining in Cuba since the Spanish American War and molding fundamental Cuban-U.S. relations until 1934 (Britannica, 2020).
Castas: Is a term which has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spaniards ( españoles ), Ameridians ( Indios ), and Africans (Negros). Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation.
Santería: Vudú mixed with Catholicism, offers the main religious practices Afro-Latinos follow in the Caribbean and Latin America. The hybrid cosmology of santería is a West African–based religio-spiritualidad of healing and wellness which remained popular across the Caribbean and Latin America (Pew Research, 2020).
Wet-Foot, Dry-Foot Policy: The wet foot, dry foot policy is the name given to a consequence of the 1995 revision of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 that says, essentially, that anyone who fled Cuba and got into the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later. After talks with the Cuban government, the Clinton Administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people found at sea. Since then, in what has become known as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, a Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (i.e., with “wet feet”) would summarily be sent home or to a third country. One who makes it to shore (“dry feet”) gets a chance to remain in the United States, and later would qualify for expedited “legal permanent status” and, eventually, US citizenship.
Afro-Latino: Refers to people from Latin American countries with African ancestry.
Teller Amendment: In 1898, sponsored by Republican senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado this amendment was adopted along with congressional authorization, 20 April 1898, for the use of U.S. military force to establish Cuban independence from Spain, following President William McKinley’s request for force on 11 April (Britannica, 2020).
Diaspora: The movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland (Merriam-Webster, 2020). In both Latin America and the United States, this population is usually coded as being black (Dictionary, 2020).
Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA): This Act was designed to permit thousands of Cuban refugees to adjust to requirements for lawful permanent residence. Most of these Cubans were parolees or nonimmigrants who could not return to Cuba for political reasons, but could not seek residence through other means (USCIS, 2020).