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* Naming is always an act of power. What to call Cubans from African descent is complex. I debated which label would faithfully express the Cuban experience. Do I impose the English term “Black” or use the Spanish word “negro”? Aware of the similarity to the English word “Negro,” and the preference of U.S. Blacks for “African-Americans,” or simply “Blacks”; I, nonetheless, chose the term normatively employed by both Black and White Cubans: negros (which I italicized to distinguish my usage of Spanish). Writing with a Cuban voice, I rejected “African-American” because the word America, which supposedly encompasses all countries in the Amerícas (including Cuba), had been hijacked by one country for self-reference. I thought of using the term “Afro-Cuban” for those with West African ancestry but decided not because the term is uttered in the language of the colonizer. And while afrocubano was a possibility, I rejected its usage because there exists no term like eurocubano to distinguish Whites, thus making all cubanos White unless otherwise noted. Nonetheless, leaning toward using “negro” fails to eliminate other concerns, specifically the word’s masculine gender and its reinforcement of a neat male/female dichotomy. Although I thought of using the word negrx (as in Latinx) making room for gender fluidity; my concern is that few scholarly sources – especially among Cuban Blacks – employ negrxs. It was not my place to begin imposing this term. Hence, in spite of its limitations, I decided to use negro/as.
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