Contesting Politics as Usual: Black Social Movements, Globalization, and Race Policy in Latin America

Abstract

The intensification of ethno-racial protest in Latin America has led to the adoption of targeted legislation for Black and indigenous populations, signaling a new moment in race politics in this region. Existing literature has failed to account for this shift either because it held that race was not salient in Latin America, or it presumed that racial hierarchy existed, but that the obstacles to Black mobilization were insurmountable. We argue the literature must contend with this new reality of what we call “Black politics” in Latin America. While impediments to race-based mobilization, which are rooted in color-blind nationalism, the fluidity of identity, and poverty, do in fact exist, we argue that Black social movement organizations have overcome some of these obstacles. We examine the development of Black social movements in a number of Latin American countries, focusing specifically on the political contexts in which they emerge, their articulation, the nature of their claims, and measures of their effectiveness. We argue that despite many obstacles to Black mobilization in Latin America, Black organizations are beginning to constitute viable political interest groups. In all of the cases that we analyze, we find that Black social movement organizations have been effective not only in bringing about symbolic and material policy changes, but have also shaken national ideologies of mestizaje and racial democracy. We also contend that while Black social movements in Latin America are very much rooted in domestic politics, transnational networks and international institutions are central to the articulation and effectiveness of these movements.

Keywords:

• Afro-Latin America
• Brazil
• Central America
• Colombia
• Cuba
• Puerto rico
• race
• racism
• social movements
• transnational activism

Notes

Political Scientist Michael Hanchard, in his book Party/Politics: Horizons in Black Political Thought (2006), argues, “Both ‘mixed race’ and miscegenation assume that there are indeed distinct races to mix. Thus, race mixture and miscegenation, as conceptual premises, allow the biological/polygenic mode of racial reasoning to sneak into constructivist accounts of the race concept, which is then linked to the concept of hybridity (190). Thus, the language of hybridity or concepts of mestizaje (race mixture) or a mixed race movement themselves reify biological notions of race. Further, the insistence that people can and must identify with hybridity, mestizaje, or being mixed race and not Black belies notions of racial identities as socially constructed and fluid.

Some scholars, in rejecting a biological or essentialist view of race, have suggested that identifying people as Black is not appropriate given social relations in Latin America. However, we argue here that by adopting the social constructed view of race, scholars and activists have demonstrated that for political and social reasons, many have opted into the category of Blackness and into a discourse of African diaspora in order to provide solutions to every day problems and create a platform for political and cultural contestation.

Pierre Bordieu and Loic Wacquant argue that racism in both Europe and Brazil cannot be compared with racism in the U.S. They use notions of republican ideals from the French experience and the myth of racial democracy from the Brazil experience to suggest that any comparison or perhaps even the existence of racism in either case is an impossibility (Bordieu and Wacquant 1999). Of course this position is challenged by Black activists in both Brazil and France and was especially challenged in the civil unrest that gripped the suburbs of Paris in 2005.

By colorblindness we mean the belief that society is not stratified by race, and that race is not salient in determining social relations. It follows that the state should not consider, reference, or collect data about race, even if such efforts are aimed at rectifying historic racial inequality or discrimination.

For a thorough response to the charges leveled by Bordieu and Wacquant and the position it represents see Hanchard (2003, 2006).

Mestizaje is the process of sexual or biological mixture as well as cultural hybridity. Wade (1997) argues that nationalist ideologies of mestizaje in Latin America have two predominant assumptions: (1) They are essentially about the creation of a homogeneous mestizo (mixed) future, which are then opposed to subaltern constructions of the nation as racially and culturally diverse; (2) They emphasize an inclusive process, in that everyone is eligible to become a mestizo, but in reality it is exclusive because it marginalizes Blackness and indigenousness, while valuing whiteness. While Wade complicates these assumptions, arguing that mestizaje is not merely ideology, but a lived experience, it is still the case that ideas of racial superiority and whitening are both explicit and implicit in ideologies and practices of mestizaje.

Quilombos are communities formed by maroons or escaped slaves. Zumbi do Palmares was the founder of the first of these communities in Brazil and has since taken on an iconic status in Brazil and in the Afro-Brazilian movement in particular (Hanchard 1994).

Interview with Marcio Alexandre in Afropress, 16 November 2005, Rio de Janeiro.

Organizing by Garifuna communities is particularly interesting because although their social conditions and organizational structures are similar to other Afro-descendants in Latin America, their unique history of never being enslaved and having negotiated with Spanish authorities for autonomy resulted in the continuation of an ethnically distinct population with its own language. Interestingly, Garifuna leaders are very involved in transnational networks of Afro-Latin American leaders. However, the fact that they do not share the same history of enslavement as others in the African Diaspora—a point emphasized by Garifuna leaders—has led to some tension between them and other leaders.

Given the presence of Garifuna people in Central America before national territories were defined and the treaties signed by Spanish authorities guaranteeing autonomy for Garifuna people throughout the Central American region, this group has always been transnational in their identity, migration flows, and politics. Similarly, among English-speaking Creole populations throughout Central America, it is not uncommon to have relatives scattered up and down the Atlantic coast of Central America.

Although we do not focus here on the Southern Cone here, interestingly, the leader of one of the largest networks of Afro-Latin American organizations (Alianza Estratégica Afro-Latinoamericana) is Romero Rodríguez, an Afro-Uruguayan and founder of an active and long-lasting Afro-Uruguayan organization, Mundo Afro. There are also important efforts in Argentina that should be noted.

There have been some important symbolic gains, including the inclusions of symbols on the Venezuelan flag representing the African contribution to Venezuelan society.

Ibid.

Grueso (2002); Paschel (2007).

The raizal or Anglophone Afro-Caribbean populations located on the Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia did achieve similar rights; however, this was separated from what would become Law 70.

Paschel (2007).

The Afro-Colombian Working Group has disbanded due to a number of factors, including political fragmentation over issues such as free-trade and U.S. foreign policy toward Colombia. Another coalition with many of the same organizations has emerged in its place.

Still, Teodora Hurtado and others have asserted that while their participation is important, such leaders rarely talk about gender or advocate for Black women's rights specifically.