Chocó general strike reaps results By Karen Juanita Carrillo
A Chocó general strike that took place on February 19, 2009 has reaped results.
Some twenty thousand Chocóanos took part
in a Feb. 19 general strike against the government.
Following a massive 24-hour general protest the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez has
signed an agreement and claims it will begin paving the Quibdó-Medellín road immediately with the funds it currently
has at its disposal. By April, the government also plans to ask for bids from companies who wish to complete the roads’
pavement. The terms of the agreement can be read online at the website, Chocó 7 días.
Barbara Starr and Bill Mears write about a man in the United States, who was one of many
enslaved Africans to work as a spy against the Southern Confederacy:
"William
Jackson was a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. It turns out he was also a
spy for the Union Army, providing key secrets to the North about the Confederacy.
"Jackson
was Davis' house servant and personal coachman. He learned high-level details about Confederate battle plans and movements
because Davis saw him as a 'piece of furniture' -- not a human, according to Ken Dagler, author of Black Dispatches,
which explores espionage by America's slaves.
"If there is one thing that
unites Latinos — regardless of the color of their skin — it is the language," Maria
Elena Salinas notes in "A double minority," an article that talks about Afro Latino identity. "Angie, who was born in Santo
Domingo and raised in Venezuela, married a U.S.-born Black man of Dominican descent who did not speak Spanish. She says at
first she did not identify with her husband’s family because of the language barrier.
"For Carmen, it
was somewhat of a relief to see that in her daughters’ school, there was a choice between 'ethnic origin' and
'race' to identify the children, which allowed them to be both Hispanic and Black. Now they can celebrate Black History
Month as well as Hispanic Heritage Month."
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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.
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 bookis currently available
through his publisher, AuthorHouse.
Click the logo above to view and purchase the book.
