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Follow Ayannas interview, Maria's Memories: Congo After Independence tracing one woman's journey from Harlem to Kinshasa during the years following Congolese independence. Blending personal memory with historical context, the interview reveals how African American and Caribbean diasporic communities helped shape postcolonial Congo through education, culture, and everyday life, offering a rare…
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descends upon cities throughout the U.S., its presence has created a tense and ever-changing situation for impacted communities. Whether you’re experiencing a crackdown or are fearful of where agents will head next, it’s important to support your neighbors and help your community through this unique situation. On this page, the team of compassionate…
For many, if not most, of the intended audience, accustomed to thinking of Latin Americans as simply a Spanish and Indian mix, Black in Latin America is nothing short of a revelation, the very title presenting us with two concepts not usually linked together. The series challenges this long-standing perceptual disconnect between blackness and Latinidad with facts and figures that firmly locate…
I was connected with Miriam Jiménez Román in May 2020 as part of my “Afro-Latinx Revolution: Puerto Rico” documentary project, but her book The Afro-Latin@ Reader sat on my shelf much longer. Those who know the pioneering scholar and activist’s work (recently profiled in The New Yorker ) understand the significance of her book published in 2010, just a couple years after I graduated college. I had…
What makes the work of Miriam so profoundly unique is her ability to build bridges across academic traditions. Whether engaging with historiography, sociology, the arts, or archaeology, Miriam was a scholar who fearlessly delved into every facet of academia to unearth the stories of Black Latinos and to firmly center Blackness in her work and in the world. A testament to this legacy is her…
Miriam was more of a tía to me than the one I was related to by blood. It wasn’t necessary because of the quantity of time we spent together, but, like anyone of us who realize we share a soul with someone else, it was because of spirit — alma y corazón. Miri was an uptown kid, like me, but she was of my parent’s generation. When I met Juan in college and our relationship evolved from…
What would have made Miriam incredibly proud is that the figures were chosen by the two schools who collaborated on the murals themselves. The principals of the schools chose the theme, while the students and teachers selected the icons who would grace the facade. The creation process was as impactful as the final image, especially considering that for many students, this project was their first…
March 30, 2012 - In February, Latina magazine listed “6 Afro-Latinas Who Are Changing the World.” Naturally, Miriam Jiménez Román was second on the list.
It’s June 11th, your birthday, and I can imagine myself ending a long subway ride at the Atlantic Station, still wrestling with which ofrenda to bring you, or better said: which would least frustrate you. El biscochito you love pero hecho por “el presentao,” whose bakery you vowed to never patron again, or pick up another pinot? I know this to be your favorite wine though you never drink a drop of…
To understand the implications of the people of Yanga--and of Cuajinicuilapa, El Ciruelo, Corralero, and other like communities--we must go beyond physical appearance, cease determining the extent of Africa's influence simply by how much one "looks" African, and go forward to critically examine what indeed is Mexico and who are the Mexicans. So, yes, there are black people in Mexico.
