Recuperando nuestra identidad: AfroLatinx students decolonizing their African lineage

Abstract

Educational researchers rarely disaggregated by Latinx student’s race, replicating the systemic omission of AfroLatinxs within the context of Latinidad and Blackness. The purpose of this study was to highlight AfroLatinx undergraduate college students experiences as members of the Latinx community, and to identify if their racialization as Black impacts their campus experiences and self-identification. I incorporated a critical analysis of the legacy of colonization by underscoring the role of mestizaje as usurper of Latinidad. The narratives of 12 self-identified AfroLatinx students reveal three major themes: their homes served as the primary site where colorist behaviors emerged but schools replicated their insidiousness; their sense of (in)visibility on campus arose from their institutions’ inability to recognize their holistic identity as AfroLatinxs; and they actively resisted their marginalization by engaging in decolonizing behaviors. I conclude with an analysis of how institutions operate as colonial sites but AfroLatinxs students are forging a resistance.

Keywords:

• Latinx heterogeneity
• decolonizing ethnicity
• AfroLatinx students
• Latinx racialization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claudia García-Louis

Claudia García-Louis is a Project MALES faculty & research affiliate, and an AfroLatin@ forum research associate. As an interdisciplinary scholar, her goals are to expand the definitions of Latinidad and Blackness in higher education, to make a critical contribution to literature that highlights Latina/o/xs racial, cultural, and linguistic heterogeneity.