Book Explores History Of Black Latinos In The U.S.

An interesting new book has been released just in time for Black History Month: The Afro-Latin@ Reader edited by Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores. Here’s the book blurb from promotional materials:

The Afro-Latin@ Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of Afro-Latin@s in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and Latin@s are two distinct categories or cultures. In fact, Afro-Latin@s are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between Latin@s and African Americans. At the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among Latin@s and ethnocentrism among African Americans. Offering insight into Afro-Latin@ life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity, and antiracist politics, The Afro-Latin@ Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black Latin@s in the United States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews.

Capital Wire PR tells us a little about the editors: Román is a visiting scholar in the Africana Studies Program at New York University and executive director of Afrolatin@ Forum, a research and resource center focusing on black Latinos in the United States. Flores is professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. His most recent books include The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning and From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity as well as the English translation of Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá’s book Cortijo’s Wake.