Afro-Latino Culture & History

SAME AS SPAN-UA 403.005. Counts as an SCA Faculty Elective for these majors/minors: Africana, American, Gender & Sexuality, Latino, and SCA.

In this course we will examine the profound sociological and cultural implications of the growing Afro-Latino presence in light of recent theorizing on race and diasporas. After an overview of the historical background of African-descendant peoples in the Spanish-speaking Americas, we well then trace the longstanding social experience of black Latinos in the United States. Along with a discussion of migration patterns and community formations, there will be a focus on narrative accounts of Afro-Latino life and on the traditions of cultural expression; special attention will go to Afro-Latino poetry and to the rich history of Afro-Latino music through the generations, from rumba, mambo and Cubop to salsa, Latin soul and hip-hop. Finally, we will turn to the possible theoretical and political consequences of this increasingly self-conscious transnational identity formation. (Common elective, AF, AM, LAT)