5 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2015
    1. We were walking along Washington Avenue, the main street that runs through the town, past the Town Hall that looks like a castle, and the duck pond. I don’t remember what we were talking about or if we were even talking, but I remember his face, bloated and red and angry. He stuck that face out of the truck that slowed down as it passed, then he threw a lit cigarette at us, two teenage girls – her 16, me 13 – and said, “Go home, n*ggers.” We jumped away to avoid getting burnt and stared at the truck as it sped off. She started crying, a quiet, blubbering cry that shook her shoulders. I stayed quiet the rest of the walk home. The following year, a black girl who was all of a shade darker than me told me I didn’t know prejudice – “because you’re not black.” She pursed her lips and shook her head. I thought back to that lit cigarette and that bloated, red face.

      A woman sharing the complexity of her identity as a black latina. Being seen as a "n*gger" by white people, yet not being accepted as black by African Americans, while at the same time her latino family refuses to acknowledge her blackness because of their negative perceptions on blacks.

    1. Calderón, who is a proud Afro-Puerto Rican independentista —his son’s name is Malcolm X and his daughter’s name is Ebony Nairobi— is in fact an interesting paradigm for further discussing the issue of gaining independence or progress in Puerto Rico. The fact of the matter is that most independentistas are white Hispanophiles who have socio-economic mobility and are invested in respectability politics. On the contrary, Calderón not only criticizes the United States and their mendacious treatment toward Puerto Rico, but also criticizes Puerto Rico’s racism, classism, corruption and, more important, advocates for people with few resources. He does not romanticize the country by blaming Puerto Rico’s current crisis on Puerto Rico’s colonial status but instead takes a firm and critical approach to a range of issues that affect the country altogether.

      Article focusing on the work of Tego Calderon and other Afro-Caribbean activists in Puerto Rico.

    1. They did not. According to the best estimates, there are some 45m indigenous people in Latin America today. Who are they? Those who define themselves thus, say social scientists. That self-definition does not turn on language and dress, nor still less on living in a rural community (though all those elements may be important to Indian cultural identities). The rise of the new Indian movements has several causes. First and foremost, most indigenous Latin Americans still live in poverty, and many in extreme poverty. Compared with the rest of the population, they have fewer years of schooling and are less likely to enjoy basic services, according to the World Bank. While access to primary schooling is now nearly universal, that is not true of higher education. Whereas 18% of Ecuadoreans aged between 18 and 25 are in full-time education, the figure for indigenous Ecuadoreans is only 1%, reckons Fernando García, an anthropologist at FLACSO, a postgraduate school in Quito.

      The Economist article (2004) recaping the overarching increase in Indigeniety and the problems it faces in our modern capitalist society.

  2. Sep 2015
    1. A pesar de ser un país esencialmente negro las posiciones de poder están ocupadas por gente de pieles claras.

      The article talks about systematic racism in Puerto Rico. Being black and successful is seen as an astounding achievement. Whereas being white and successful is simply expected. 80% percent of Puerto Ricans identified as white in 2010. The article ends with "We are a racist country that excludes, that is why we also exclude the dominicans, because they are black".

    1. "Hinton wants to foreground the story of the civil war and the class conflict that still rages in El Salvador. He doesn’t present gangs as mindlessly violent; their violence springs from an impoverished, divided society."

      Adam Hinton was welcomed by one of the most dangerous gangs in the world, MS-13, to photograph their community and learn about the reasons why gangs are unavoidable in their communities. Hinton through his photography and documenting of stories helps reveal that Salvadorians are normal people, like us, struggling everyday to survive.