AFRC155 - African Diaspora in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean

This course will explore the arrival, establishment and contributions of free and enslaved Africans in Ibero-America, the region presently known as Latin America, and the Spanish Speaking Caribbean. It will look at how these actors and their descendants known today as Afro-Latinos, shaped and built the foundations of Latin American society and culture throughout the centuries from colonial period to present. The course will seek to understand Afro- Latinos' agency and negotiations as intellectual contributors to the ideologies that led to independence and the creation of Latin American nations.Likewise, the course will also explore the accomplishments, controversies and tensions in race dynamics and politics, gender relations, socio-economic issues, among others factors that took and continue to take place as people of African descent negotiate their identity and struggle to uphold their space in Latin America and the U. S.A. today.