Unidos por siempre: Why we need to teach Afro-Latine theological perspectives
Originally published for AETH
by Guesnerth Josue Perea
“Unidos por siempre, por la sangre, el color, y hasta por la tierra” - Tostao, Somos Pacifico, ChocQuibTown
“For us, [Afro-Latin@s], personal and physical reaffirmation is of extreme importance.” - Rev. Luis Barrios, “Reflections and Lived Experiences of Afro-Latin@ Religiosity” in The Afro-Latin@ Reader
29 “The Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and meet that carriage." 30 When Philip ran up, he heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" 31 "How can I," the eunuch replied, "unless someone explains it to me?" With that, he invited Philip to get in the carriage with him. - Acts 8:29-31, Inclusive Translation
In Acts 8:29-31 we read of the time when one of the many people of African Descent mentioned in the Bible, in this case an Ethiopian eunuch, asks for guidance about what he was reading. While, we can certainly get into a conversation of what the passage means and how it is important in the context of the Church in Acts, it is a pericope that allows us to discuss how we get to understanding any subject, whether related to scripture or not, if we do not have people who explain it to us.
That is the case with considering and including theological and spiritual perspectives from Afro-Latines. Many people who do not understand the concept, idea and lived experience of AfroLatinidad do not ask for it to be defined or explained and therefore do not understand why it is important and essential for Latines to learn from a vantage point of folks who are of African Descent.
One of the reasons for that is our history. People in nations that today make up what we call Latin America, or as the Kuna people of Panama call it ‘Abya Yala’, were divided into castes and classes solely based on race and encouraged the erasure of Blackness and indigeneity in the culture. As a result, a pigmentocracy was developed to ensure that the whiter one’s skin was the more access one had to services, wealth and resources. In fact, in this pigmentocracy, Blackness was always less valued than any other racial identity. The most complete definition of Afro-Latines is found in the introduction to The Afro-Latin@ Reader. It states that Afro-Latines are “people of African descent in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and by extension those of African descent in the United States whose origins are in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The problem is that the understanding and recognition of Blackness or Africanity as an important influence of the Latine community has been systemically erased over centuries in various Latine communities and nations. In Latin America, Black people have not always been statistically enumerated in official census counts; in fact, many nations did not have a category to count their Black populations. It was just in 2020 that the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, Mexico, began to officially count Afro-Mexicans. Issues with counting and acknowledging the Black population throughout Latin America and in the U.S., become even more complex when you consider the problems encountered as these counts are taken. Some of these issues include the biases of census enumerators when speaking with Black people, the lack of infrastructure in Black communities that prevent an accurate and full count of Black people, the different names that are given to Black people (in Colombia, for example, there are four official names for Black Colombians ‘negro, afrocolombiano, raizal y palenquero’ not to mention the unofficial names like ‘moreno’ and ‘trigueño’,) and the apprehension of a number of people of African descent in the Americas to embrace Blackness and identify as a person of African descent. This apprehension is due to the years of racialized ideologies, passed down from the Spanish built pigmentocracy and policies of different institutions that have made people of African descent want to identify as anything other than Black. All of these issues contribute to a lack of acknowledgement of Blackness and are one of the many results of internalized racism that has plagued Latine communities.
Even despite all of these issues, the reality is that Afro-Latines have for a long time been a part of the Latine theological and spiritual landscape. No matter the Christian denomination, the influence of Afro-Latines into the Latine theological and spiritual landscape is present. One of the most renowned Catholic Saints, San Martin de Porres, is Afro-Peruvian, it was an Afro-Cuban nun, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, who founded a religious Order with the purpose of educating Black children in Baltimore. The rise of Pentecostalism, especially in the northeast of the U.S. and the Caribbean, would not have been as fruitful without Afro-Puerto Rican converts. In short, Afro-Latinidad has not only been important, it’s been an essential part of Latine religious history.
Sadly, far too often Afro-Latines are not included when discussing Hispanic/Latine theology or spirituality. We know that Afro-Latines are present, we see them in our churches, we know they attend our institutes but we often do not allow their lived experiences, their faith and their navigating of the world to inform our theological perspectives that come from a Latine perspective. That is often because we do not ask, and we don't ask, because we don't know where or what to seek.
And that's where the AfroLatine Theology Project comes in. The AfroLatine Theology Project, or ALTP for short, is a project that aims to share the narratives of Afro-Latines it relates to faith and religion. We want to be able to showcase all of the expressions of faith and how our identity plays a role therein. What we hope can happen with the ALTP is that it is used in educational institutions and churches to add the much-needed perspectives of AfroLatine religiosity to discussions of Latine religion.
As the Latine population continues to grow in the United States, and as the church continues to grow in Latin America, we need to continue to broaden our understanding of all of our people. The influence of people of African descent is enmeshed within many aspects of Latinidad that to not center it would be a disservice to our students. We should educate about the importance of Blackness within Latinidad. We often do so when it comes to our gastronomy, our music and our sports, but wouldn't it be much more powerful to do so when we discuss literature and theology? When we talk about the lived experiences of Afro-Latines as a way to understand God’s will for our people? There is importance and power in reaffirming Black stories as part of our Latinidad because it will help our students of theology, lay or non-lay, feel seen and develop a more comprehensive understanding of Latinidad.
As we continue during this Black History Month, and as the year progresses, let us seek out those stories. Once the ALTP is live, we hope to have some of these stories for you to share, because, as Tostao says, we, Latines are always united by what is inherent within us.
Guesnerth Josué Perea is the Executive Director of the afrolatin@ forum, Associate Pastor of Metro Hope Church, Co-Curator of the AfoLatine Theology Project, Co-Host of the Majestad Prieta Podcast, a Novice of the Community of Incarnation and a Sojourner's Rising Leaders Fellow. His research on Afro-Colombianidad has been part of various publications including Let Spirit Speak! Cultural Journeys through the African Diaspora and the Revista de Estudios Colombianos. Josué was named by the newspaper amNewYork as one of five Colombians "making a mark" in New York City. Josué holds a MA in Theology from Alliance Theological Seminary, and BA in Latin American History from the City College of New York.
