In New York's Cultural Mix, Black Latinos Carve Out Niche

I read an article from the New York Times that is about black Latinos and their struggle to identify with the Latino community, the African American community, or sometimes both. This struggle was brought to life because Dominicans in New York planned to open a museum and cultural center, surprisingly called, "Afro-Quisqueya." Only 2% of Latinos counted in the 2000 Census considered themselves as black, with a much higher density claiming to be black Latino within New York.

Many black Latinos have trouble identifying with only one of these communities. There were a couple people in this article whose mothers were black Dominican and fathers were white Puerto Rican. One of the people said that even though they were light-skinned, they needed to identify with the African American community to honor his or her mother. As we talked about in the first week of class, people identify themselves with different groups based on how connected they feel.

Hip-hop is often thought as something created by solely African Americans, but it has also been very important for the Latino community. Will Jones, a 26-year-old black Latino of Panamanian descent, said that hip-hop has become the middle ground that both African Americans and Latinos can be a part of.



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