New spring course focuses on global Blackness and Afro-Latinidad identity

OCTOBER 27, 2021 — The University of Texas at San Antonio will present a new course this spring that will explore racial identity and histories and look at the African Diaspora through a transnational lens.

“Global Blackness and Afro-Latinidad” — a cross-listed course in African American and Mexican American Studies in the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies — is spearheaded by Marc Perry, an associate professor in the UTSA College of Education and Human Development.

The course will explore the lived experiences of African-descended peoples from Latin America and the Caribbean, many of whom reside in the U.S.

“Many students at UTSA have families and share histories of transnational migration. They are part of these movements, histories and ideas that cross borders.”

“I bring a transnational perspective to my work and the teaching I do. And I try to encourage students to think expansively beyond national boundaries that tend to want to confine us,” Perry said. “Many students at UTSA have families and share histories of transnational migration. They are part of these movements, histories and ideas that cross borders.”

Many individuals of Latino backgrounds aren’t aware of communities of Afro-Latinos who live throughout places like Mexico, Brazil and Columbia, Perry added.

“A lot of times these histories have been erased or made invisible,” Perry said. “What my course is trying to do is help us explore some of those connections and break down some of the artificial divides between Blackness and Brownness that many of us and our communities tend to live.”

During the new course, students can expect to discuss the history of mestizaje (racial mixing), a central paradigm throughout Latin America.

“It’s important to understand some of this history. We’re going to be focusing on experiences of racism within different countries throughout the Americas and their impact on African-descent people,” Perry said. “We will also spend time exploring music, culture, religion and how African-descended communities create spaces of culture and community that relate to their African roots as well as their contemporary Latin American circumstances.”

A big focus of the course will be on connecting the dots between different spaces, Perry said. “We’re going to be in the Caribbean, South America, Mexico, Central America and here in the United States,” he said. “It’s important to know that these histories are tied to communities here in the United States.” The class will also look at how younger individuals navigate their experiences in their contemporary settings, Perry added.

Families with connections to these histories who immigrated to the U.S. have helped shift how we think about race and Afro-Latinidad and global Blackness within local settings, Perry added.

For the students who experience the course, Perry hopes they can begin to think more critically about Black and Brown divides that many tend to experience.  

“My encouragement is to really challenge and break down some of these artificial divides that separate us,” he said, “and to understand that in fact both historically and contemporarily we have a lot to share and a lot of overlaps. At the end of the day, we’re all trying to get to the same place. As I tell my students, we’re all trying to get free of systems that want to deny our full freeness and ultimately our full humanity as people.”

— Valerie Bustamante Johnson