The predicament of Afro-Latinos: Comments about Rosie Pérez's documentary about Puerto Ricans

[Colobo]

I just bought the IFC documentary "¡Yo Soy Boricua, Pa' Que Tú Lo Sepas!", which is directed by Rosie Pérez and attempts to explain what being "Puerto Rican", or to be more specific, what being an American of Puerto Rican descent means. She tries to explain why are Americans of Puerto Rican ancestry and Puerto Ricans in general so proud of their "Puerto Ricanness"- proud almost to the point of exaggeration.

Rosie attempts to find answers in our ethnic background and political history, which I believe are good places to start. However, I couldn't help notice how easily Rosie basically omitted the presence and history of Africans and their descendants in Puerto Rico- omission that reminds me, a black Puerto Rican, of the racism our community is subject to by our fellow Latin Americans.

We, Puerto Ricans, can take pride of our ethnic diversity. Generally speaking, Puerto Ricans are the result of hundreds of years of coexistence and, in many cases, intermixing of people of Spanish, Corsicans, English, Irish, German, French, West African and Indigenous descent. It is very probable that most Puerto Ricans today are of mixed ancestry to some degree. However, there is a fact that shouldn't be denied but often is: Of those groups, the ones that have had the greatest impact on the formation of the Puerto Rican being are the Spanish, Corsicans (both European groups) and the descendants of West African slaves.

It is no secret for any educated Puerto Rican (or, to be more precise, any Puerto Rican with some basic knowledge about our history), that the Taíno people (the Indigenous people of the island) were almost completely exterminated in the 16th century and that by the late 18th century, the number of Taínos in Puerto Rico was around 200. However, by the late 18th century, around 50,000 Puerto Ricans were of African descent, and around 35,000 were of European descent.

The 19th century would see the number of both groups go up, with 50% of the population being either mulatto or black, and the other 50% being of European descent around 1847. With the mass immigration from Europe and other Latin American nations, the number of Europeans went up considerably while the number of people of African descent remained stable.

However, it has been common practice throughout the history of our people to diminish the importance of the African component of our identity while giving much more importance to the European and the minimal Taíno component. Not to say that the indigenous people of our island didn't contribute to our formation- they left us very valuable linguistic and gastronomic contributions. However, it has been a constant throughout our history to use the Taíno heritage as an excuse to hide or minimize the impact of West African peoples in our identity.

Rosie Pérez is no exception. Her documentary starts with a brief review of pre-colonial and colonial Puerto Rican history. Rosie spends several minutes talking about the Taíno people and how similar Puerto Ricans of today are to the Taíno people, implying that Taíno culture survived the genocide committed against them through the Spaniards, who did nothing but to adopt that culture after they killed the Tainos. Rosie then implies that Puerto Ricans are mixture of different racial groups, including "black" (the famous "We got some black in us" line Americans of Puerto Rican descent like to use), but she forgot to include the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and its long lasting impact on Puerto Rican culture and history.

That didn't stop Rosie Pérez, a Puerto Rican of predominantly African descent herself (her father, mother and grandma, as the movie shows, are Puerto Rican "mulattoes"), from expressing her pride Puerto Rican musical traditions like "bomba" and "plena" and on our very particular instruments (including the "bomba drums" and "panderos", which are handheld drums). The only problem is that Rosie forgot to mention where that music and those instruments come from: West Africa.

Then Rosie spent quite a few minutes talking about Puerto Rican pro-independence icon Pedro Albizu Campos and about how he was the "Puerto Rican MLK". Of course, Rosie never mentioned him as an example of a great Puerto Rican of African descent who contributed to the history of his people.

Rosie's cousin, who has stronger African features than her, does mention the topic of blackness in Puerto Rico, although very casually. He avoids to talk about racism among Puerto Ricans of different skin colors, even though he winds up narrating how he was discriminated in New York by the parents of one of his girlfriends once because he happened to be "dark-skinned" (notice that he avoids calling himself black while talking about this incident, but in other moments, when making jokes and fun about himself, he calls himself black).

So, as I am watching this documentary, thinking about if I should show it to my Spanish students next week, I feel pain because I know this documentary will be seen by many people across America and the world, and all of them will not have the chance of learning that in Puerto Rico there have been and are are millions of descendants of Africans slaves throughout our history, who have fought slavery, racism, poverty and rejection and have given glory, culture and pride to the land they were born in. I felt the sadness of knowing that for many Puerto Ricans, I am not one of them, or maybe I am, but just an unimportant part of them. A part that doesn't deserve any attention or mention. A part that can't be exterminated like the Tainos were, but that can be ignored and eventually wiped out of the map of our existence by the silence of history.

As I watched this documentary, I wondered how I was going to explain to my students why Rosie Pérez left me, herself, and so many others out...

[msedano]

1. i love to be in a-mer-i-ka

lennie bernstein helped awaken unitedstatesians to puerto rican identity in a favorable way with that heartbreakingly ironic song from his "west side story". i believe one of my earliest memories of puertoricanness was a character in "blackboard jungle", and the word "spic". in califas we were derogated with "greaser" or "mexican" and learned to appreciate "spic" once the term migrated west. i thank my boricua bros and sis' for sharing the load.

don't know that celebrating one vision of ethnicity necessarily discriminates against other elements. then again, it could be racism. there's a monton of afro genes in mexico yet if you want to pick a fight, raise the issue. you'll have mexicans and chicanas chicanos screaming in outrage.

in mexico, a fellow named jose vasconcellos celebrated a "raza cosmica" that acknowledged the rich genetic diversity of mexico's people. i know, some gente say vasconcellos was a eugenicist who preferred the lighter skinned euro mexican heritage, but that's neither there nor here. the point is he acknowledges the heritage.

i've been reading a lot of cuban writers and not surprisingly you'll find a lot of reference to afro cuban racism. haven't read too many puerto rican books. can you suggest a few? there's "america's dream" by esmeralda santiago, with in passim references. ah, there's a pr detective writer i haven't read yet.

for los cubanos (no women writers yet), i'll recommend heartily
http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/06/review-tango-for-torturer-daniel.html - a black whore runs afoul of a torturer and colludes with a former victim to exact revenge.

http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/07/review-initials-of-earth.html - touted as the premiere novel of the revolu, diaz has lots of references to racism, including race riots and allusions to angola

then there's havana bay by martin cruz smith, a detective story featuring a russian and a handful of black prostitutes

btw, other than the 100% successful tasmanian genocide, the spaniards did the same to puerto rico, didn't they?

mvs

[Brewman_Jax]

2. Series on Afro-Latin Americans by the Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/index.html

The Herald did an excellent 5-part series covering the history and issues that Afro-Latinos face.

[Lost-in-FL]

3. I have to disagree with you

So because Tainos where exterminated in the 16th century we should just move on and talk about our African ancestry alone? Give me a break. Rosie Perez spoke about "El Maestro" (Pedro Albizu Campos)... Does that make her anti-American or a Commie...right? i didn't think so.

I don't see anything wrong with reminding others of our Taino roots. It is no different to me than Mexicans talking about their Azteca ancestry or Peruvians about Mayan ancestry, etc. or Japanese talking about "Kamikazes". Not everything is about racism. Tainos were decimated in their own land, at least we "negros" can look to the place we came from and say with certainty that we are Africans, that we came a long way and that we are still alive even if many African descends do not see us as blood.

I don't see your point at all and I think you are being took harsh. I am "Negra" and proud. I am called "prieta", "mi negra", "morena", "negrita" and I see absolutely nothing wrong with being "Negra" and Puertorrican. Unfortunately some people live too hang up on the negative side of things and won't see the whole picture without being biased. I guess I was raised in a different Puerto Rico, the one where I was proudly taught that I am a descendent of Espanoles (el burro alante para que no se espante), Africanos y Tainos. Rosie is no historian but at least she is making the attempt to show others of our ancestry and why we are so proud. That we are proud Puerto Ricans? The only thing she is guilty of is her level of knowledge about our culture from the Puerto Rican and not the NY Rican stand point. She managed to talk about our African ancestry and its influence in our culture. Notice that in your "semi-rant" you managed to pinpoint her and her cousin's African ancestry in a negative tone thus perpetuate the notion that being African or for that matter "Black" or "Mulato" is a bad thing.

If she was to talk about our African heritage alone, she would need a a mini-series and not a full documentary. Our culture is simply too rich from our African ancestry and its positive impact in our culture.

Please don't take this personal. I just had to disagree with you on that one.

You are free to disagree with me on this one: Si todos los Puertorriquenos fueramos tan orgullosos de nuestra isla como decimos, tuvieramos solamente una bandera y un solo himno. Es todo apariencias.