This week, we discuss global blackness, Panama and meaning of what Afrolatinidad means with Natasha Rodriguez. Natasha is a mother, travel addict, educator, DEI advocate, and storyteller. She was born and raised in Washington, DC, yet identifies as a global citizen. Growing up in an immigrant household, Natasha realized at a young age how big the world was after traveling to her family’s native country, Panama, at the age of seven. Being raised in a multicultural home shaped her identity over the years, indirectly shaping her life’s work in diversity.
Notes and References
Articles:
Community And Belonging: Bridging The Americas
http://cdi.anacostia.si.edu/2015/04/21/community-and-belonging-bridging-the-americas/
Majority of Latinos say Skin Color Impacts Opportunity in America and Shapes Daily Life
https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2021/11/04/majority-of-latinos-say-skin-color-impacts-opportunity-in-america-and-shapes-daily-life/
Latinidad Through an African American Lens
https://www.blacklatinasknow.org/post/latinidad-through-an-african-american-lens
Enter The Post Panamax World
http://cdi.anacostia.si.edu/2016/06/29/enter-the-post-panamax-world/
Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum Exhibition Examines Connections between Metro DC Panamanians and Panama https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-s-anacostia-community-museum-exhibition-examines-connections-between-metro-dc-p
Latinos find that darker skin hurts their chances of getting ahead
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/04/1052593455/latinos-darker-skin-colorism-discrimination
Skin-Color Prejudice and Within-Group Racial Discrimination: Historical and Current Impact on Latino/a Population https://www.utep.edu/liberalarts/george-floyd/Skin-Color-Prejudice.pdf
The Spectacle of Latinx Colorism
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/opinion/latino-racism-colorism-latinx.html
Journey Mom articles:
My Hair Speaks Volumes
https://journeymom.com/f/my-hair-speaks-volumes
Black Boy Mom
https://journeymom.com/f/black-boy-mama
The Middle Child
https://journeymom.com/f/the-middle-child
Books:
Curtis, Ariana Alyce. 2018. "Identity as Profession: on Becoming an African American Panamanian Afro-Latina Anthropologist Curator." in Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism, edited by Clark, Msia Kibona, Mnyandu, Phiwokuhle, and Azalia, Loy L., 259-270. Lexington Books.
Gibbings, Julie A. Review of Blacks and Blackness in Central America: Between race and place ed. by Lowell Gudmundson and Justin Wolfe, and: Labor and Love in Guatemala: The eve of independence, by Catherine Komisaruk. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, vol. 15 no. 2, 2014. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cch.2014.0025.
Oral History:
Arturo Griffiths
History of First Latin American Festival on the Mall: 1989-1990
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/dcplislandora:297084