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Sunday, January 4, 2009
'The tragedy is that we are invisible' The Final Call's Charlene Muhammad interview ed Peru's Dr. Jorge Ramirez Reyna, the Executive Director of the Black Association for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (ASONEDH), about the difficulties Afro Peruvians continue to face following a massive 7.9 level earthquake in August of 2007, and in
terms of making their way into the Peruvian political arena: Dr. Jorge Ramirez Reyna, Executive Director of the ASONEDH (Photo by Karen Juanita Carrillo)
"FINAL CALL (FC): Our culture experiences some of the same issues.
"DR. JORGE RAMIREZ
REYNA (JRR): The difference is that in Peru Black people don't have high political positions as you do here. The Black
theme is not in the public agenda.
"FC: Understanding that difference that you mentioned, many people here
are elated that Barack Obama won the presidential election but we're clear that our condition will not change over night.
We suffer mass incarceration, miseducation, and poor healthcare but I hear what you're saying, it doesn't compare?
You're saying people from your community would come here and see great opportunity?
"JRR: The tragedy
is that we are invisible. You are all visible. We don't have a history. We are not considered citizens. They don't
care about our votes. The political parties do not go to our communities because we are not important. The worse racism
in the total of Latin America is the invisibility. The educational texts do not talk about us. At school and the universities,
they don't talk about us."
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Visit www.afropresencia.com to find listings and links to areas where you can find out
about upcoming events, as well as links to articles, photos and videos on Life in the Black Americas.
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The Sound of My Footsteps: Narratives of Migratory Jamaican immigrants
Interviews with over 30 Jamaican immigrants on their
pre-migratory perceptions of New York and England Click
here to view and purchase the book.
The Afro-Latin@ Reader:
History and Culture in the United States
 The Afro-Latin@ Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community
in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of Afro-Latin@s
in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and Latin@s are two distinct categories
or cultures. Afro-Latin@s are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between Latin@s and African
Americans. At the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among Latin@s and ethnocentrism among African
Americans. Offering insight into Afro-Latin@ life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity,
and antiracist politics, The Afro-Latin@ Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black Latin@s in the United
States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including
scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews. Click here to view and purchase the book.
African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events by Karen Juanita Carrillo The proof
of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation
of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history
is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just
such an opportunity. Click here to view and purchase the book.
The
View from Chocó: The Afro-Colombian past, their lives in the present, and their hopes for the future by Karen Juanita Carrillo The View from Chocó: The Afro-Colombian past, their lives in the
present, and their hopes for the future is an introduction to the lives of Blacks in Colombia. Afro-Colombians
live in a resource-rich yet remote region of Colombia. They only recently won recognition as one of that nation's
distinct ethnic groups. But Colombia's on-going civil war has led many Afro-Colombians to reach even farther than
their nation's borders for recognition: many have made their way to the United States as refugees and as political
activists working for peace in their homeland. The View from Chocó introduces the lives and struggles of a too-long neglected community of Colombian Blacks. Click here to view and purchase the book.
Raise Your Brown Black Fist is a collection of essays
written by Kevin Alberto Sabio during his time as a Contributing Writer  for an online magazine.
The book combines his two article series, "Black
vs Brown" and "Black Thoughts: A Political Ideological Perspective
for Afrolatinos" into one volume, plus three other miscellaneous entries. The book
is currently available through his publisher, AuthorHouse. Click
the logo above to view and purchase the book.
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