Black Hispanic
Encyclopedia
In the United States, a Black Hispanic or Afro American Hispanic is an American citizen or resident who is officially classified by the United States Census Bureau
, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government agencies as a Black American of Hispanic
descent
. African American/Black American, itself an official U.S. racial category
legally refers to people residing in the United States who have "origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa." For further discussion on the term African American
, please see that article.
Hispanic
ity, which is independent of race, is the only ethnic category, as opposed to racial category, which is officially collated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The distinction made by government agencies for those within the population of any official race category, including "African American", is between those who report Hispanic
backgrounds and all others who do not. In the case of African Americans/Black Americans, these two groups are respectively termed "Black Hispanics/Afro American Hispanics" and "non-Hispanic Black Americans/non-Hispanic Black Americans", the former being those who report Black African ethnicity as well as a Hispanic ancestral background (Spain and Hispanic Latin America
), and the latter consisting of an ethnically diverse collection of all others who are classified as Black or African Americans that do not report Hispanic ethnic backgrounds.
For the remainder of this article, the term Black Hispanic will be employed solely and to the neglect of Afro American Hispanic.
population.
The main aspects which distinguish Black Hispanics from African American
s is their Spanish language (their mother tongue or most recent ancestors' native language), their Spanish cultural habits, and in most cases, their Spanish surnames. There is also increasing intermarriages and offspring between non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics of any race, especially between Puerto Ricans and African Americans, which increases both the Hispanic ethnic and black racial demographics.
and in general American social perceptions, where being "Hispanic" is often incorrectly given a racial value, usually mixed race, such as half-caste
or mulatto
. The same situation happens in the U.S. Hispanic media and the Latin American media through their telenovelas and in the general U.S. Hispanic and Latin American social perceptions.
Since the early days of the movie industry in the U.S., when Black Hispanic actors were given roles, they would usually be cast as African Americans (as in, NON-Hispanic black). For those with Spanish-speaking accents that betrayed an otherwise presumed non-Hispanic African American origin, they may seldom have been given roles as Hispanics, and the mulatto Hispanic and Latino actors of African appearance are mostly given Hispanic roles.
Those who claim that Black Hispanics are not sought to play Hispanic roles in the U.S. allege this unfairly leads the masses of viewers to an ignorance to the existence of Black Hispanics. Further, some Black Hispanics once affirming their Hispanicity may be deprived of their status as Black people, and categorized by society as non-Black in the U.S. historical context. This may in turn lead some to assume in them an innate knowledge of indigenous culture, e.g., in terms of customs, food and music, which is an individual inclination and not necessarily confined to Hispanics in general.
Throughout Thomas's youth, he grapples with being defined as "Puerto Rican" by his family and "Black" by the rest of the world. After he reaches an epiphany that leaves him deciding that he is both Black and Puerto Rican, he has a confrontation with his blond-haired
, blue-eyed brother that ends in a brawl. Thomas insists that he is ethnically "Negro" and not "Indian", the explanation that his family gives him for his and his father's dark skin. His brother, considered "white" by society, has internalized racism against blacks and refuses to accept his brother's newfound beliefs.
, during the 1930s among other Cuban immigrants. He and all other black Cubans was segregated from the white Cubans and ultimately integrated into the African-American community. Grillo says that the black Cuban parents, who did not speak English, did not allow their children to lose their Spanish, which led to tensions between the U.S. blacks and Cuban blacks. Further, the racial identity did not completely bridge the gulf between the two groups. "Black Americans spoke English and followed Protestant religions. Black Cubans spoke Spanish and practiced Catholicism". However, the common routines of attending the same schools, places of work, and sharing the same recreational activities overrode these initial differences. Grillo himself eventually completely assimilates to the lifestyle of American blacks, because he dealt with the same social ills of blackness (such as Jim Crow segregation and racism in school). Today, Grillo reconciles both his Black and Hispanic identities by being politically active in both Latino and black communities.
Candelario interviewed hundreds of U.S. born Dominicans about their self-defined heritage, and their relationship to their perceived blackness. Second-generation Dominican youth in Providence Rhode Island mark themselves as Hispanic, as opposed to black. They show that they can "speak spanish in order to counter others' assumptions that they are "black". They are regularly mistaken for African-American, but they mark themselves as Hispanic as a preferred alternative to blackness. Dominicans are also very particular about determining group membership: who is "Hispanic" and who is "Black". There are categories in which every Dominican is placed arranged by corresponding skin color and hair type.
Some of the women whom Candelario interviewed claimed a self-identity as both Black and Hispanic, unlike many other Dominican women. One woman said, "I'm still Dominican, but there is no question in my mind that I'm African. I describe myself as a black Hispanic woman. I'm black, but that's not all I am.
".
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government agencies as a Black American of Hispanic
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
descent
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
. African American/Black American, itself an official U.S. racial category
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
legally refers to people residing in the United States who have "origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa." For further discussion on the term African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, please see that article.
Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
ity, which is independent of race, is the only ethnic category, as opposed to racial category, which is officially collated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The distinction made by government agencies for those within the population of any official race category, including "African American", is between those who report Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
backgrounds and all others who do not. In the case of African Americans/Black Americans, these two groups are respectively termed "Black Hispanics/Afro American Hispanics" and "non-Hispanic Black Americans/non-Hispanic Black Americans", the former being those who report Black African ethnicity as well as a Hispanic ancestral background (Spain and Hispanic Latin America
Hispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
), and the latter consisting of an ethnically diverse collection of all others who are classified as Black or African Americans that do not report Hispanic ethnic backgrounds.
For the remainder of this article, the term Black Hispanic will be employed solely and to the neglect of Afro American Hispanic.
Demographic information
Black Hispanics account for 2.5% of the entire U.S. Hispanic population. Most Black Hispanics in the United States come from within the Puerto RicanPuerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States...
population.
The main aspects which distinguish Black Hispanics from African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s is their Spanish language (their mother tongue or most recent ancestors' native language), their Spanish cultural habits, and in most cases, their Spanish surnames. There is also increasing intermarriages and offspring between non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics of any race, especially between Puerto Ricans and African Americans, which increases both the Hispanic ethnic and black racial demographics.
Representation
Black Hispanics are often overlooked in the U.S. mass mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and in general American social perceptions, where being "Hispanic" is often incorrectly given a racial value, usually mixed race, such as half-caste
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
or mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
. The same situation happens in the U.S. Hispanic media and the Latin American media through their telenovelas and in the general U.S. Hispanic and Latin American social perceptions.
Since the early days of the movie industry in the U.S., when Black Hispanic actors were given roles, they would usually be cast as African Americans (as in, NON-Hispanic black). For those with Spanish-speaking accents that betrayed an otherwise presumed non-Hispanic African American origin, they may seldom have been given roles as Hispanics, and the mulatto Hispanic and Latino actors of African appearance are mostly given Hispanic roles.
Those who claim that Black Hispanics are not sought to play Hispanic roles in the U.S. allege this unfairly leads the masses of viewers to an ignorance to the existence of Black Hispanics. Further, some Black Hispanics once affirming their Hispanicity may be deprived of their status as Black people, and categorized by society as non-Black in the U.S. historical context. This may in turn lead some to assume in them an innate knowledge of indigenous culture, e.g., in terms of customs, food and music, which is an individual inclination and not necessarily confined to Hispanics in general.
Black Hispanic culture
Although Black Hispanics are often overlooked or dichotomized as either "black" or "Hispanic", Black Hispanic writers often reflect upon their racialized experience in their works. The most commonly used term in literature to speak of this ambiguity and multilayered hybridity at the heart of Latino/a identity and culture is miscegenation. This "mestizaje" depicts the multi-faceted racial and cultural identity that characterize Black Hispanics and highlights that each individual Black Hispanic has a unique experience within a broader racial and ethnic range. The memoirs, poetry, sociological research, and essays written by the following Afro-Latino writers reflect this concept of mestizaje in addition to revealing the confusion and uncertainty about one's self-image of being both "Black" and "Hispanic". The psychological and social factors also prove to be central in determining how one ultimately defines him/herself.Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas
Thomas's ground-breaking autobiography, first published in 1967, was pivotal in introducing the broad American population to the Latino inner city youth's experiences with poverty, racism, and marginalization. A major theme of Thomas's book is his growing confusion about his racial identity. Though Thomas is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, his dark complexion and facial features which expose his African ancestry and define him as "black" in the U.S. summarily subjects him to the racism imposed upon African-Americans during the 1940s:I was on my way home from school when someone called: "Hey you dirty fuckin’ spic." I turned around and found my face pushing in the finger of an Italian kid about my age. He had five or six friends with him. "Hey you, what nationality are ya?" I looked at him and wondered which nationality to pick. And one of friends said "Ah, Rocky, he's black enuff to be a nigger. Aint that what you is, kid?" My voice was almost shy in its anger. "I’m Puerto Rican. I was born here." I wanted to shout it, but it came out like a whisper.
Throughout Thomas's youth, he grapples with being defined as "Puerto Rican" by his family and "Black" by the rest of the world. After he reaches an epiphany that leaves him deciding that he is both Black and Puerto Rican, he has a confrontation with his blond-haired
Blond
Blond or blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
, blue-eyed brother that ends in a brawl. Thomas insists that he is ethnically "Negro" and not "Indian", the explanation that his family gives him for his and his father's dark skin. His brother, considered "white" by society, has internalized racism against blacks and refuses to accept his brother's newfound beliefs.
I don't give a shit what you say, Piri. We're Puerto Ricans and that makes us different from black people...We're Puerto Ricans and we're white.
Jose, that's what the white man's been telling the Negro all along, that 'cause he's white he's different from the Negro; that he's better'n the Negro or anyone who's not white.
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa
Borderlands, part manifesto/part poetry/part forgotten Latina history, is arguably Anzaldúa's magnum opus. In her book, a central theme is her revised self definition as the "new mestiza". An ethnically Mexican woman, she redefines her race from being a Chicana Latina to a "Chicana, india, latina, black mestiza" who must "work to break down the subject-object duality that keeps her prisoner and show in the flest and through images in her work how duality is transcended". Anzaldúa has a particularly unique experience because her appearance does not reveal her African ancestry, yet she embraces it as a part of the new mestiza consciousness. In one of her final poems, she shows her loyalty to not being defined as just one race, but as multiple, intertwined ethnicities.
To live in the Borderlands means you
are neither hispana india negra española
ni gabacha, eres mestiza, mulata, half-breed
caught in the crossfire between camps
while carrying all five races on your back
not knowing which side to turn to, run from;
To live in the Borderlands means knowing
that denying the Anglo inside you
is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black
Black Cuban, Black American by Evelio Grillo
Grillo's memoir is about his experience as a black Cuban immigrant in the United States who grew up in Tampa, FloridaTampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, during the 1930s among other Cuban immigrants. He and all other black Cubans was segregated from the white Cubans and ultimately integrated into the African-American community. Grillo says that the black Cuban parents, who did not speak English, did not allow their children to lose their Spanish, which led to tensions between the U.S. blacks and Cuban blacks. Further, the racial identity did not completely bridge the gulf between the two groups. "Black Americans spoke English and followed Protestant religions. Black Cubans spoke Spanish and practiced Catholicism". However, the common routines of attending the same schools, places of work, and sharing the same recreational activities overrode these initial differences. Grillo himself eventually completely assimilates to the lifestyle of American blacks, because he dealt with the same social ills of blackness (such as Jim Crow segregation and racism in school). Today, Grillo reconciles both his Black and Hispanic identities by being politically active in both Latino and black communities.
Black Behind the Ears by Ginetta Candelario
Candelario's non-fiction ethnography about U.S. Dominican's racial self-identity as "not black" reveals the historical and social processes that reared this now-popular belief. Through participant observation in a Dominican beauty salon, Candelario discovered exactly how prevalent "anti-black" feelings are. In her introduction, Candelario gives the reader an explanation for the title, and the major theme of her book:
Dominicans will often say 'Tenemos el negro detras de las orejas [We have black behind the ears] when speaking to matters of black and Dominican identity. They are affirming their overwhelming desire to "whiten". For much of Dominican history, the national body has been defined as not-black even as black ancestry has been acknowledged. In place of blackness, officially identity discourses and displays have held that Dominicans are racially Indian and culturally Hispanic.
Candelario interviewed hundreds of U.S. born Dominicans about their self-defined heritage, and their relationship to their perceived blackness. Second-generation Dominican youth in Providence Rhode Island mark themselves as Hispanic, as opposed to black. They show that they can "speak spanish in order to counter others' assumptions that they are "black". They are regularly mistaken for African-American, but they mark themselves as Hispanic as a preferred alternative to blackness. Dominicans are also very particular about determining group membership: who is "Hispanic" and who is "Black". There are categories in which every Dominican is placed arranged by corresponding skin color and hair type.
| Racial category | Racial types Included |
|---|---|
| white | rubio blanco pelirrojo blanco jipato |
| white-mulatto range | blanco jojoto indio lavado indio claro trigüeño claro trigüeño |
| mulatto | pinto pinto jovero jabao indio canelo |
| black-mulatto range | trigüeño oscuro indio quemao |
| black | moreno mulato prieto negro cenizo cocolo |
Some of the women whom Candelario interviewed claimed a self-identity as both Black and Hispanic, unlike many other Dominican women. One woman said, "I'm still Dominican, but there is no question in my mind that I'm African. I describe myself as a black Hispanic woman. I'm black, but that's not all I am.
".
See also
- Black history in Puerto Rico
- Afro-LatinoAfro-Latin AmericanAn Afro-Latin American is a Latin American person of at least partial Black African ancestry; the term may also refer to historical or cultural elements in Latin America thought to emanate from this community...
- Afro-HispanicAfro-Hispanic peopleAn Afro-Hispanic American is an Hispanic American with black African traces. They are more common in the Hispanic Caribbean and Northern South America...
- Asian Hispanic and Latino AmericansAsian Hispanic and Latino AmericansFor the Asian population of Latin America, see Asian Latin American.Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans is a term for Hispanic and Latino Americans having Asian blood and for those Hispanics who consider themselves or were officially classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of...
- List of Famous Afro-Latinos
- List of Hispanic and Latino Americans
- White Hispanic and Latino AmericansWhite Hispanic and Latino AmericansWhite Hispanic and Latino Americans are citizens and residents of the United States who are racially White and ethnically Hispanic or Latino.White American, itself an official U.S...
Further reading
- The Afro-Latin@ Project - The Afro Latin@ Project aims to document, promote, coordinate and support the development of Afro-Latin@ studies and grass roots activities in the United States. This primary focus is informed and enriched by the historical and contemporary experience of African-descendant peoples in the Americas.
- Las Culturas.com - Las Culturas.com is a website filled with links to other websites about the influence of the African Diaspora on the Latin world.
- RUSQ Afro-Latino Archives - An extensive list of books, films, memoirs, databases, and articles which provide more insight into the Afro-Latino experience, in and out of the United States.
External links
- PBS: A CULTURAL IDENTITY An essay on the meaning of the Hispanic label. By Richard Rodriguez.