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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The devil wears military bootsMark Doyle writes for the BBC News about Father Elkin Nazrallah, a priest
in Riosucio, Colombia, who is not afraid to speak out about how the wealthy have used the excuse of guerrilla fighting in
the country to steal land from the poor: "Father Elkin's devil was a paramilitary
group led by businessmen and landowners - and, to my astonishment and admiration, he was not afraid to say so, quite openly,
to the BBC. "The right-wing paramilitaries said they were fighting
left-wing rebels on behalf of the government. But the Catholic priest of Riosucio said the truth was rather different. " 'These unscrupulous businessmen said they were fighting the rebels. But that was just their
way getting into the area - their way of throwing the black population, and the other poor people around here, off their land,'
the priest said. " 'Massacres started taking place - we don't know why or
how. But they caused the black people and the other poor farmers to flee from their farms.' "
'The justification from the paramilitaries was that they had to chase the rebels but the result was the illegal expropriation
of the peoples' farms by this group of unscrupulous businessmen,' Father Elkin said."
12:13 pm edt
Monday, October 5, 2009
Negro League survivors reunite in Atlantic City for Pop Lloyd weekend
Jerry Izenberg wrote a column for the Associated Press that talked about an Atlantic
City, New Jersey reunion for former members of the Negro League baseball Newark Eagles: "These
11 who will gather in Atlantic City for Pop Lloyd Weekend are the keepers of a flame of conscience that reminds us that Lloyd
and Rube Foster and Josh Gibson and Leon Day and Cool Papa Bell and Ray Dandridge and so many others didn't "just"
play the game. "Pop Lloyd, for whom this reunion weekend is named, was a ballplayer, a superstar
in the 1920s and early ‘30s and a manager in every country where baseball was played - except on that slice of America's
diamonds that remained lily white. "It didn't matter where you played him. As a shortstop,
it wasn't black baseball that referred to him as the Black Honus Wagner. It was white baseball. But the men who played in
the Negro Leagues figured that was all right because in their heart of hearts, they believed that Wagner was the White Pop
Lloyd."
2:40 am edt
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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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