{"id":45497,"date":"2016-02-01T01:08:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T01:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=45497"},"modified":"2016-02-01T01:08:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T01:08:42","slug":"eventually-after-deep-study-and-reflection-i-had-discovered-a-racial-and-cultural-fusion-and-finally-admitted-that-i-am-the-following-an-afro-latino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=45497","title":{"rendered":"Eventually, after deep study and reflection, I had discovered a racial and cultural fusion and finally admitted that I am the following: an Afro-Latino&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>As a brown-skinned Dominican, the idea that I was somehow Black never crossed my mind. But what does it mean to be Black? Who is considered Black, and who is not? Am I Black? If I\u2019m Dominican, can I be Black too? Am I Black <em>enough<\/em>? These are questions I struggled to answer as I embarked on a journey to come to terms with my European, Indigenous, and African ancestry and define my racial and cultural identity. Eventually, after deep study and reflection, I had discovered a racial and cultural fusion and finally <em>admitted<\/em> that I am the following: an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Afro-Latin_Americans\" target=\"_blank\">Afro-Latino<\/a>, or a Latino of African-descent, who identifies with their African roots; and an Afro-Dominican, which is simply a nationalized Afro-Latin@ identity. An Afro-Latin@ embraces four elements of African identity: their racial African features, like my thick, Black, curly afro; their cultural traits, which descend from African traditions such as music, food, language, and dance; their political identity, which is molded by their shared experience within a racist, anti-Black, system of white supremacy; and their social characteristics and personalities, which are African in nature. A Latin@ is simply someone mixed with African, European, and Indigenous blood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jonathan Bol\u00edvar Espinosa (Jay Espy), \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=45481\" target=\"_blank\">Dominican, Black, and Afro-Latino: A Confession\/Dominicano, Negro, y Afro-Latino: Una Confesi\u00f3n<\/a>,\u201d <em>La Galer\u00eda Magazine: Voices of the Dominican Diaspora<\/em>, April 10, 2015. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lagaleriamag.com\/dominican-black-and-afro-latino-a-confessiondominicano-negro-y-afro-latino-una-confesion\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.lagaleriamag.com\/dominican-black-and-afro-latino-a-confessiondominicano-negro-y-afro-latino-una-confesion\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a brown-skinned Dominican, the idea that I was somehow Black never crossed my mind. But what does it mean to be Black? Who is considered Black, and who is not? Am I Black? If I\u2019m Dominican, can I be Black too? Am I Black enough? These are questions I struggled to answer as I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22863,22862,22861,22860],"class_list":["post-45497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excerpts","tag-jay-espy","tag-jonathan-bolivar-espinosa","tag-la-galeria-magazine","tag-la-galeria-magazine-voices-of-the-dominican-diaspora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45498,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45497\/revisions\/45498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}