Mixed and multiracial in Trinidad and Honduras: rethinking mixed-race identities in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore what it means to be mixed in Latin America and the Caribbean and to ask if mixing in the ‘South’ can always be understood within the so-called racial continuum as opposed to the racial binary of the ‘North’. I do this through a comparison of two potentially mixed-race identities, the afro-indigenous Garifuna of Honduras and peoples of East Indian and African mixture (douglas) in Trinidad. Through this comparison I show that in both Honduras and Trinidad classification of mixed-race peoples can follow the logic of the racial binary or of the racial continuum depending on the historical context and the particular mix. I also discuss the way that mixed-race identities can sometimes be radical critiques of state racial projects of pluralism and at other times they can be the basis of state racial projects meant to obfuscate racial pluralism.

Keywords:

• Garifuna
• dougla
• Honduras
• Trinidad
• multiracial
• mixed

Notes

1. Based on the work of Joseph Palacios, a Belizean Garifuna anthropologist, it seems that there is a stronger identification of Garifuna as indigenous in Belize (Palacios 2007). This may be due to the fact that in Belize the majority population against whom Garifuna have constructed their ethnic identity are Black Creoles, making it therefore more expedient to emphasize their Carib heritage in order to differentiate themselves from the Black Creoles. This is further proof that, even when discussing the same ethnic group, it is important to pay attention to how their identities are negotiated within distinct racial formations in different national contexts