#afrolatinx

It needs repeating that Latino is not a race. It's a geographic, cultural, linguistic and politically relevant term for people from Mexico to Argentina, NOT a phenotype or a racialization. Black latinos like Amara la Negra exist, white latinos like José Antonio Kast exist, indigenous latinos like Rigoberta Menchú exist, Asian latinos like Keiko Fujimori exist.

Each country has its own race dynamics and applying the POC label to white latinos like myself who never had to endure systemic racism is both inaccurate and wrong. You may see Latinos who look stereotypically Spanish like Sofía Vergara, Guillermo del Toro and Rachel Zegler and count them as diversity in media, and that's okay if your criteria is culture, but NOT if it's racial diversity. These 3 people could be classified as POC in rural America, but none of them were racialized as POC back home. They are white people, white latinos, and that matters because we NEVER hear from Latinos of other backgrounds.

Afrolatinos have just gotten some attention in the past few years, Indigenous latinos are STILL fighting to preserve their languages, land, religion and other traditions, Asian latinos are literally never brought up at all despite having huge communities in Perú, Chile and Brazil.

It's always possible a Latino is white passing, but some latinos are JUST white. Don't count media as diverse just because it has white latinos in it, we have enough of that already.

idk that anyone will see or care for this but idc. the shame is long past for pan-Afro voices. call me "extra" or stereotype me as an angry Black woman. once i can bring up my own Afrolatinidad, my culture & my Black caribbean roots without having others, especially latinos, go full anti-Black on me, be they white latino Pacific-Atlantics or even fellow self-hating Caribbeans, then that's the moment i can well & truly say my Blackness & the experience of the life in it as is brings me all the joy & not also pain, & even then thats a weight to be healed. my degree of biracial-ness included. because why must so many pan-Afro people across the diaspora be made to carry their Black roots like a cross? aren't we free of the chains yet? when images are reproduced for me with whips as the punchline, am i supposed to find them funny? i think the fuck not. why do we latinos get brought up with "Blanco" as a compliment & the approximation to the peak beauty ideal, and "Negro" as an insult or the object of pity? why was i compelled to laugh as a kid whenever it was brought up that my great-grandfather, a stern but sensible hard-working man who faithfully married a dark-skinned woman, hated Black ppl & refused to meet his own Black grandchildren? i still carry the anti-Black slurs i got called as a child as is. "negrata" with Spaniards, the hard-R with the rest of the world... there also seem to be issues in common with those of us biracials who grew up with a white or even just white-passing mum, even if mine has some Afro roots as well, just not as many as my dad. but really, enough with the Black suffering. it can be a crazy upbringing, and with crazy i mean desolating & confusing. i need to integrate myself with some more hopeful stories of Black Excellence & success when everything that's thrown at me is Black trauma, or else that's how we inadvertently fall into self-loathing.

Nursing a wounded heart and bruised ego are never easy things to do BUT a glorious pop jam but a pop diva will always pull me out of the dumps. Baybee!, Doja Cat’s just released single “Jealous Type” did just that. And a person who is proudly perpetually in love with 80s music, “Jealous Type,” sounds and looks like the 80s never ended. The big synths, neon colors, MTV video vixen attitude. ALL OF IT! Miss Doja captured everything that made that era feel larger than life.

But Doja isn’t pulling from nowhere. By the late 80s, radio already belonged to the pop divas! I know this because I was there consuming it all like oxygen.

Paula Abdul. Janet Jackson. Pebbles. Jody Watley. Chaka Khan. Vanessa Williams. Karyn White. Apollonia 6. The Mary Jane Girls. These women gave us songs that blurred R&B and pop. Songs that lived on every radio format and songs that will no doubt be blasted at my funeral. Check out these jams!

CHAKA KHAN • THIS IS MY NIGHT (1984)

SHEILA E. • GLAMOROUS LIFE (1984)

APOLONIA 6 • SEX SHOOTER (1984)

MARY JANE GIRLS • IN MY HOUSE (1985)

JANET JACKSON • WHEN I THINK OF YOU (1986)

PEBBLES • GIRLFRIEND

PAULA ABDUL•THE WAY THAT YOU LOVE ME(1988)

VANESSA WILLIAMS • THE RIGHT STUFF (1988)

JODY WATLEY • REAL LOVE (1989)

KARYN WHITE • SECRET RENDEZVOUS (1989)

Together they not only broke ground for women in pop music but they built the blueprint. They made pop look bigger, sound brighter, and feel bolder.

I think it's extremely interesting how one of the biggest afrodiasporic cults native to Argentina is that of El Santo Negro (the Black Saint) St. Balthazar, the Wise King. Other syncretic saint cults make mention to african deities or saints with titles such as "The Queen of Rivers" or "The Queen of the Sea", making the deities involved easily identifiable, but this cult in particular is one of the most widespread across the black population of Argentina and yet the most elusive in regards to who may be behind the mask. At least, until you pay attention to the details.

The Church first introduced the cult of Catholic Figures and Saints such as San Baltasar (King Balthazar) or San Benito de Palermo (St. Benedict of Palermo, the Moor) as a way to control the enslaved population politically and culturally. Although their goal was to dissipate african religions and install catholicism among them instead, they underestimated black argentines: after much effort, the church allowed the enslaved faithful to organize socially and politically and perform dances, drumming and singing for the saints of their formed Cofradía (similar to a congregation, but including social and political structures within it, naming a king and queen or a president and other culturally and politically significant roles). Thanks to the passing down of african culture and customs through these organized societies and the syncretism within them, we can proudly say the church failed in their attempts. The african spirits are very much still an integral part of afroargentines' lives. Today, although it has spread across the country and beyond, the center of this cult is in it's origin, the capital city of Corrientes, Argentina, in a neighborhood called Cambá Cuá.

The cult to San Baltasar is clearly african in origin, although with indigenous (guaraní) influences, such as calling the saint Santo Cambá/Kambá (Black in guaraní language), calling his statues Cambára'angá (guaraní for Black Figure), and some dancers dressing up as indigenous figures like el pombero, among other things. Thus, it is an afroindigenous cult, developing amongst mixed descendants of african enslaved peoples and guaraní natives. The cult is also a local expression of the most african of customs: ancestral veneration. The festivities honor not only the Saint himself, but all the black ancestors before us who are present in pictures at the altar, and answer to the call of the drums. The color red, that covers the saint and adorns his followers, is the color of warriors and protection in African Traditional Religions. He's offered food and drink (such as wine and traditionally made sangría), and most importantly dance and drums. He is invoked and honored, along with the ancestors, through drumming and dancing, through La llamada a San Baltasar and Saludos de Tambores a los Santos Cambá (Calling Saint Balthazar and Drum Salutations to the Black Saints).

His festivities, held in Corrientes around Epiphany, from January 1st to the 6th, include dancing afroargentinean rhythms such as diverse forms of candombe and samba. Particularly, he was traditionally honored with a dance called bambula, a form of ring dance where women move in short and slow steps, barely lifting their feet, while men jump in the air, and where one singer sings a phrase that is then repeated or answered by the others present. This kind of dance is native to Congo and Angola, and widely practiced by enslaved people and their descendants in the Southern United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The music used to this day to petition favors, to invoke his spirit into his image and even dispel or call thunderstorms or other natural phenomena, is called charanda and includes drums, guitars and triangles. Just like in other afrodiasporic devotional and resistance dances, these dances involve Kings and Queens of the dance, a hierarchy of drummers including those called Master drummers, and a hierarchy of the drums themselves as Chico, Repique and Piano.

If you compare him to Xangó...

He carries a double-headed axe. He's often depicted wearing a crown. His colors are, surprisingly, also white and red, with gold accents. Also a King and a warrior, also associated with thunderstorms and fire, drums and dance. His followers also wear white and red beaded collares. Ringing any bells...?

Now, I am not saying they are the same Spirit, but there is an undeniable resemblance. You come to your own conclusions. It's kind of obvious that this afrodiasporic cult stems from either (a) a hidden, veiled cult to the orisha(s) or (b) a syncretic cult to african deities (not only orishas but maybe other african spirits too). There is, after all, strong ties not only to Yorubaland but also to Dahomey, Kongo, etc. Just in this instance, the spirit may resemble an orisha but the rhythms and dance are from kongo, so there is much more to it than just one or the other. There is a culture of resistance born from the union of Nations through music, faith and tradition.

Sources:

None of the images here belong to me: San Baltazar and festivities [1,2,3,4-6] and Xangó [1]

Festividad de San Baltasar : performances artístico-religiosas de la cofradía de la ciudad de Corrientes, by Cavalieri, Ana Belén, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Artes, Diseño y Ciencias de la Cultura, 2018. Available for download at [Link]

San Baltazar, Historias de Corrientes at [Link]

The bamboula Lineage at [Link]