Developing a National and Global Identity

African American History, African American literature, African Diaspora, Afro-Latinos, Central America, descendants of slaves, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans, Mexico, slavery

The previous post, Imagine: From the Black Atlantic to a New World Order, triggered an idea which we would like to continue to explore. First, what image comes to mind when you are asked to envision or describe a person from Ecuador? Brazilian religious practices? Traits of the Mexican persona? Cuban music? The literature of Uruguay or the politics of Columbia? Do any of these reflect an African influence in Read More

Source Documents for Blog Visitors, February 2012

African American History, African American music, African Diaspora, African ethnic groups, Afro-Latinos, burial ceremonies, captured Africans, descendants of slaves, enslaved women, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans, oral history, Slave economy, slave ships, slavery, transatlantic slave trade

This project is committed to getting out information to those who are interested. We pledged to provide readers quarterly with materials that we base the posts upon, so here are the second quarter’s materials as promised by category with annotation. Articles: African Burial Ground Project: paradigm for cooperation? by Michael Blakey (Museum International, UNESCO, 2010). Professor Blakey is on our project’s advisory board and worked continuously on the Manhattan African Burial Ground Project. Read More

Ethnic Studies: The Rest of the Story

African American History, ethnic studies, Mexican Americans

During the last week of December 2011, Arizona Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal ruled that the curriculum used in Tucson’s Mexican American studies programs was biased. Part of his decision stated: …However, teaching oppression objectively is quite different than actively presenting material in a biased, political, and emotionally charged manner, which is what occurred in MAS classes. Teaching in such a manner promotes social or political activism against the white Read More

Mexico: Defining the Mix

African American History, Afro-Latinos, descendants of slaves, Mexican Americans

A great number of the posts for this blog have referred to the history of the U.S. mainland. The African Diaspora includes, obviously, other regions of the Western Hemisphere as well. Mexico is such an example, and as a neighbor of the United States has shared culture, history and even land. Both countries practiced slavery, first of the indigenous people and later Africans and Asians. Both countries are ambivalent in Read More