Afro Latino Forum 

A nationality is a Nationality not a race

I was raised to honor the whole African-diaspora. No matter what language we speak or what country we come from, we are all black, all sons and daughters of Africa. And yes, those of us in the Americas have ancestry from Europe and Africa and other places, too. But honoring our blackness is not denying anything else. I look forward to the day when all people of African descent-- a little or a lot--can embrace one another.

EXCELLENT VIDEO!!! Excellent points about Afro Latinos in Hip Hop. I always talk about this. This is great!

I agree. I'll not date a Afro-Latina if she don't acknowledge her African roots. I'm sick of them saying "I'm not black, I'm Spanish".

That's true. I guess people think Alfonso Ribiero is Latino because of his name. It was good that Ribiero cleared up the rumors about his heritage.

Black is Black .. regardless where U R from ... easy and simple ... Black simply means obvious recent African descent -- aka as "BLACK" .... come guys this is elementary stuff ...

Just remember that majority of the slaves came in the 2nd part of the colonization of the new world and 18th century and slavery was not outlawed until the 19th century in most country so racial mixing was very taboo and not common. In Fact Puerto Rico outlawed slavery in 1873 and in Brazil it was outlawed in 1888. Interracial relationships did not start to be more common until after slavery was abolished less than 140 years ago.

Alfonso Ribiero parents are from Trinidad and Tobago, you are 100% correct. These brothers got to do a more thorough research before making such incorrect statements in the future.

Wonderful to see like-minded afrolatinos out there! However, Alfonso Ribiero is not Dominican. His parents are from Trinidad.

That's what I try to tell my family, and yet I still sometimes hear my mother saying something like "the Hispanic lady this..." or "the Hispanic lady that..." How can you tell whether or not someone is of Hispanic descent just by looking at them? Like you said, they don't have a particular look. Not all of them have the Mestizo look. Some are light such as Shakira, and some are dark like Zoe Saldana.

Trinidad & Tobago are the most southern of all the Caribbean island and is also located several miles away from Venezuela. It is known as a cosmopolitan island--- once being ruled by Spain, French, etc ---- therefore, Spanish is an element of its composition. Also, given its close proximity to Venezuela, one would expect migration of its people to occur. So it is quite obvious that Alfonso Ribiero's name, was most likely influenced by Trinidad's Spanish past.

Brother you're black and it's more than skinned Color and these Brothers are on point and we all part of the African Diaspora. It's all about Education and Exposing the truth about our people.

I don't know why they insist on identifying whith the latin culture. They don't even realize that the so called latin culture is Africanized anyway. The food, music, etc. is all African. You are extremely smart and have love for your people. African people. BLACK POWER!

Race seems to be very misunderstood in America, & in the media in particular as people seem to treat ethnicity & race as if they're mutually exclusive. Whenever I watch political shows, they always show polls and surveys that group Hispanic people along with actual races, and that is a major fallacy. Even though I'm not Hispanic, it still drives me a little nuts.

I speak about this all of the time. I think the issue of Blackness being assoicated with America does not come from America it comes from the horrible racism in Latin America. Latin America has a horrible race problem. I have a few videos on this topic on my RU-vid page.

@ Nation Builder1 Also, much of what passes for "Latin" culture, to include cuisine, dance, "flavor", is nothing more than latinized African culture. From the Caribbean it is African but many Latin American countries like Mexico and Guatemala are influenced by pre Hispanic culture that is Meso American/ Amerindian/ Native American culture. Example the corn Tortilla and Maize are Native American. Much of the food in Mexico is influenced by Meso Americans and Latin combination. In Argentina and Uruguay it is more influenced by Latin and European with some Amerindian influence. It really depends on the history of the country and the demographic makeup.

Caribbean yes, but not other countries like Mexico and Argentina which are more European/ Native Indigenous influenced. Both countries have the lowest African population. 1 because Mexico imported the least Africans to Mexico only 200,000 and their population is only 1% of Mexico. Argentina is more European and only like 0.2% of the population is of African ancestry. It really depends on the country.

We have to remember that Columbus found Hispaniola in 1492 and African slavery did not begin on the island till the Taino were in decline due to disease. Many Spanish had married Taino women. Almost 2 decades and half later the damage was so bad to the Native population that the Spanish allowed slavery in 1517 the first mass shipment of slaves went to Hispaniola.

Growing up in New York (Queens) Reginald Martinez Jackson..I’m a Yankees fan. Latinos only chose what’s in their best interest. I have 2 Dominican chicas that I know only date and marry white men. My first girlfriend was Puerto Rican and she said she really liked me but she couldn’t marry me because I’m dark skinned. But if I was Roberto Clemente (dark skinned) thats okay.Go figure!!!

Well just know this the reason there are places called San Antonio, New Mexico, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, El Paso, Fresno, Monterey, Palo Alto, Las Vegas, Colorado, Pueblo, Durango, La Junta, Los Alamos, Rio Rancho, Amarillo, Las Cruces, Pecos, Escondido, Santa Clarita was because of huge Mexican populations and most of these populations were really Indigenous and Mestizos not Spanish. Mexico was already in the Southwest b4 Anglos arrived.

Here I will give you another example. The flour tortilla is a hybrid of sorts. The white flour is European and process of making a tortilla is Meso American. In Mexico basically the flour tortilla is a Euro Latin/Meso American influenced produced by Mexicans.

Afro latino music includes, Tango, Salsa, Lambada, Merengue, bachata, samba ect. Just because someone carries the label "latino"(which is a label europeans forced on the africans and native americans) does not mean that whites can claim certain aspects of CURRENT day latino culture in south america who's culture is heavily influenced by their native american and african ancestors. The name latino belongs to europe, but a lot of culture such as dance and music, belongs to natives and africans

After the loss of the Southwest to the United States people couldn't just say they were Mexican so Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Tejano, La raza and other ways to identify came about. A few were pan ethnic and others were regional like Tejano. Now though the majority of people identify of Mexican ancestry as Mexican American. They have mostly dropped the Pan ethnic words and regional words.

Well the original Hispanics and Latins come from Europe just like Spanish and Portuguese other Latin based languages. It was not just a culture it was an actual tribe with many other tribes in Latium. A culture can not begin on its own. It has to have people who start it. You can look up Lazio, Italy or Latina Italy to find out the origins of Latins and look up Hispania and the origins of Roman Hispania. It is good 2 know from where you come from so you can know where U are going & who you are.

Afro latino is a term use by northamerican. African latino descendants did not experience segregacion and marriages were already between mulatos with both last names.

It's hard to take afro Latinos seriously as black like African American and jamaican and so on black people because for so long afro Latinos always said they where not black they where pr or Dominican and it separated all the black people. But black people in the past wanted to mean the bridge with all black people from everywhere. White people from all countries hold their numbers well until the ideal doesn't fit anymore. Your Peruvian until it doesn't work anymore than your just black.

Alfonso and Ribiero are of Spanish name origin so most likely he has a Spanish connection some where in his family.

What Mexico did was unite a huge amount of tribes. In order to have unity you needed one unified language and that is Spanish. However Mexico Constitution officially recognizes 60+ native languages as official languages including in North America since they were spoken first in the Americas. La Raza was just a way to identify people of Mexican heritage from different parts including the U.S but it is an inaccurate way to identify. Mexicans had to be clever with how they identified in U.S

lets face it. all such stuff is a "sorting thing". but you know what? its gonna get more complicated with each new generation. and if one in the future dont want say, ok, my roots are => german-italien-black-white-american-latino-alien-french-spanish-african-asia roots which would if each one has such a history make any introduction very complicated, then one should just consider "ok, i am am. the rest is interesting for scientific reasons but: who cares. there are more important criterions"

There is a rule called Majority Rules. 6 almost 7 out of 10 Hispanic/Latinos are of Mexican descent. Meaning they are the majority. Majority of Mexicans look Mestizo/Castizo or Amerindian/Hispanic or Amer Hispanic. If you were to add Central Americans who the majority look Amer Hispanic then you got probably 8 out 10 and an overwhelming majority. In fact they probably look more Amerindian then Mexicans. 80% of a population has a certain look so yes there is a typical look.

Exactly great point. Agree 100%

I think that is what these people are acknowledging. However some are Afro Hispanics and not just black. However the majority do have more African ancestry then any other because the Taino were all but wiped out. 98% of the Taino were wiped out in the D.R and Puerto Rico and Cuba also suffered great losses of Natives. The Spanish were always the minority in countries like the Caribbean because they shipped in more slaves than Spanish. 19+ Hispanic countries not enough Spanish.

Do more research. Trindad is a Spanish name because it was a Spanish Colony before it changed hands. Alfonso and Ribiero are Spanish name and surname. He most likely have a Spanish connection somewhere.

Good forum. Btw in africa there is a country where they speak spanish too.

That's 3 words.

You are talking about 2 whole continents of Native Indigenous people who mainly are brown people. Some tribes didn't even have contact with Europeans because they were isolated in areas the Spanish had yet to even find. Look at some of the Amazon people in Brazil and you will see the Native Indigenous brown people. They also were not White and they also wanted to lighting them up as well. Now in Argentina their DNA points more to Native Indigenous female compared to African DNA.

It's all good, b proud of your roots & soul. There's nothing wrong at all w/ AfroLatin soul. It's just that whites seem to pathologically need to point down at ppl of color. & unfortunately others, including some ppl of color, go & by into it. Especially when whites,see the neg stereotypes & lump the entire group into the same box.

The out of Africa theory is just a theory and not everyone believes that is correct due to other evidence that has come out. google it on internet. Recent African Origin or 'Out of Africa.' He now calls the theory into question: Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory

Alfonso Ribeiro is afro trinidadian, not afro dominican fresh prince of bel air.

alfonso ribeiro(carlton) isnt dominican. His parents are from Trinidad and Tobago. Another example of why u shouldn't trust wikipedia. In an interview, he expressed how much this irritated him.

It's all about the money and nice cars when your afro Latino these Latina will look at that and feel your worthy if you got your life together, the light skin Rikki martin looking dudes the Latinas will get with them even if there broke with no job and have 2 or 3 babies until they realize that light skin dude ain't going to be perfect or be the man she wants him to be, that what I called karma, the average Latino tends to get with a guy over looks first and put with all his bullshit after they go through that phase they realize a relationship is not all about looks, it's about trust, love, stability, responsibility, parenthood, financial comfort

Question: If an African ascended person is born and raised in the US to African ascended parents that are natives of a spanish speaking country, are they Afro Latino? At what point do they become African American i.e. African ascended American citizens? I understand the who cultural thing. More than likely you speak your mother's tongue and eat her cooking, but we all lost our true mother's tongue a long time ago.

Either way he is from the Cairbbean and Trinidad use to be part of the Spanish Empire. Also Jamaica use to be part of the Spanish Empire as well. Then you have Haiti which use to be part of the French Empire.

1 word AFRO LATIN AMERICAN

History repeats and will repeat. The most common identity you all have is the African heritage and 100% same history.. With such identity, you are purely in the position to get together to protect yourself in the future. AfricanAmerica, AfricanLatinos, etc are all the same people, same history, etc....

This is an interesting show/topic. I must say that I do not agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments of the guests. They seemed very reluctant to admit the strong racial bias towards "Afro" latinos in latin american culture. Perhaps my living in the Caribbean, and a very visitor to the spanish speaking islands makes this prejudice more apparent to me.

Why cant someone be more than 1 thing? You can be African and American &Latino all at the same time? Hello Slavery happened?, Europeans owned kidnapped West African people. teach people about history, racist media needs to change negative stereotypes attached to Blacks. I am Black British &my parents are Black Jamaicans. My Mum had African & Indian Nana's, my Dad is 'Jamerican' plus my dad had a Portuguese Dad his name is Da Costa. People who descend from Africa come from anywhere in the world.

Do more research on what? Do you read? I said that He is not Dominican. I'm not debating his cultural lineage

You can't look Hispanic or Latino it's a culture

Actually U might want 2 do a bit more research yourself. The Spanish were the first 2 Colonize Trinidad & Tobago. Look at its name Trinidad. The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 to the capitulation of the Spanish Governor, Don José Maria Chacón, on the arrival of a British fleet of 18 warships on 18 February 1797.[8] During the same period, the island of Tobago changed hands between Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers.

Dude with the Afro and glasses is datker yhen me and I would think he is black like all the way. I'm black and my kids are however everyone thinks im mixed. That's what ppl say, Are you black? You look mixed. Fyi thats rude to say and another ppl say. But you don't act black.....ummmm WTF? ?? Like please tell me what that means.

Actually according to DNA their is not much African lineage in the Argentinean people. It is under 5% of the total population. You can't compare middle passage countries in the Caribbean & Brazil because one the Portuguese controlled the Slave trade and 40% of the slaves went to Brazil and the other hub was the Caribbean islands with Hispaniola now DR andHaiti and Cuba, Puerto Rico, along with carribean islands almost 38% went to all those islands and 6% went to North America United States.

Oye ya tu sabe

Also, much of what passes for "Latin" culture, to include cuisine, dance, "flavor", is nothing more than latinized African culture. This is what many so-called Latinos fail to admit. I am speaking specifically of those with large African ascended populations. Generally speaking, the english and french African ascended people tend to celebrate and not deny nor down play their African heritage. We have incorporated it in various ways according to our nationality, but we know it's African.

To call yourself a latino is to accept your Colonialism father history treatment of your people.

Where did Latin culture come from? Europe and where do Caucasoid come from? Europe. Where does Spanish come from? Europe. Hispanic comes from Hispania or Espana. Same meaning just spelled differently. False not everyone in Latin America is mixed. There are still White Hispanics unmixed and Blacks unmixed and Asians unmixed and Native Americans who are unmixed.

Thats fine with me. Just stop calling yourself black then.

jeremiah 16:15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. 12tribes.net

These guys are clearly mixed with other races within their Latino ethnicity so for them to say that they’re strictly Afro-Latino is like another form of segregating themselves from the other non Black Latinos and it also makes it seem like they’re ashamed of their indigenous and European blood by not acknowledging it.

African slaves were dropped off in many different places. If you are Latino of African descent just say I am Latino of African descent I don't understand the problem by telling the truth...,it is almost as if some latinos are ashamed if their blackness because why is not just stating what is true sufficient ??????