Q&A with director of Harvard’s Afro-Latin American Research Institute
As Latinos of African descent, soccer legend Pele, former Red Sox star David Ortiz, and “Avatar” actress Zoe Saldana help make up a minority within a minority: Although they represent roughly a quarter of the Latin American population, African-descended Latinos are often largely invisible. But times are changing. Over the past 30 years, social movements led by people of African descent in Latin America have managed to put issues of racial justice at the forefront. With sponsorship from the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center, representatives from 13 Latin-American countries in June launched an inter-American network of government officials to advance Afro-descendant issues in the region. According to statistics, the slave trade brought 15 times as many African slaves to Spanish and Portuguese colonies than to North America. Roughly 42 million African-Americans call the U.S. home, but 130 million people of African descent live in Latin America. The Gazette sat down...