My name is Shannon and I created this site inspired by my own experiences as someone who identifies as Caribeña in the United States. The recent popularity of the term "Afro-Latinx" being used in mainstream media made me reflect on my own experiences as someone who would fall into this category but also as someone who was also learning how this novel term operated in a modern American cultural space.

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When I asked my friends and family if the had ever heard the term growing up, many responded with a simple "No" and an eyebrow raise. Phrases like "morena" or "negrita" were familiar but "Afro-Latinx" stood out among the antiquated terms (often settled in colonialism) and presented something new. "Afro-Latinx" has surged during a time of global generational shifts as many young people and the nascent movements they carry seek to express their unique experiences, especially in response to race and ethnicity. 

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In the United States I have experienced firsthand the fluctuation in visibility for Afro-Latinx identities. Growing up in El Barrio, New York City, I never questioned my own racial condition of belonging to a simultaneously Black and Latinx community. In many ways, the two felt inseparable until I left for the rest of the United States where I experienced a strange exclusion and often confusion at living my own truth as Black, Latin, and Caribbean in spaces that were unfamiliar to my customs, culture, and family. I often found myself attempting to negotiate one without considering the other which left me often feeling fragmented and at a loss of words to contain my experience and my identity.

 

Later, while starting this project and working with my professor and advisor Dr. Catalina de Onís I realized the mistake I was making and the gem I had gained: there would never be a single word to contain my own experience of identity just as there is no singular, all-encompassing definition for afro-latinidad. Instead, I was welcomed to the universe of a multitude of various afro-latinidades expressed by various individuals and contexts that contribute to a greater (but constantly transforming) experience.

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I hope this site can serve as a starting point or maybe a place of familiarity or comfort for individuals looking to learn more about a small segment of the Afro-Latinx diaspora. Overall, I find that if we approach identity as a static and inherent trait of an individual we lose the nuances and dynamicism of how identity is a constantly changing expression of a larger human experience.

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(Also this is my favorite mural of my favorite neighborhood I grew up in and my first home: Check it out HERE)