How Afro-Latinos Came To Be

Did you know that millions of Africans were enslaved not only in the United States, but across Latin America and the Caribbean? Under Spanish, Portuguese, and French rule, they shaped cultures through music, spirituality, and food—leaving lasting traditions like conga rhythms, plátanos, and Brazil’s feijoada. Today, Afro-Latinos carry this powerful legacy, speaking Spanish, Portuguese, or French while celebrating their African roots. Discover how deeply African heritage transformed Latin America in ways many never realize.

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I’m a Proud Afro-Latina

Afro-Latina scholar Melanie Falu shares how her father’s guidance shaped her pride in being both Black and Puerto Rican. Despite prejudice from multiple sides, she celebrates Afro-Latino heritage and its deep African roots in Latin culture. Her journey highlights resilience, visibility, and the importance of honoring one’s true identity.

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14 sunken slaver ships found in Bahamas

Largest cluster of sunken vessels from the 18th and 19th centuries have been identified, bearing ‘silent witness’ to the colonial past. A summary of Dalya Alberge’s article “‘Highway to horror’: 14 wrecked slavers’ ships are identified in Bahamas” published at The Gaurdian.

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We Still Can’t See American Slavery for What It Was

What is known about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade? We know a great deal about the scale of human trafficking across the Atlantic Ocean and about the people aboard each ship. Much of that research is available to the public in the form of the SlaveVoyages database. A detailed repository of information on individual ships, individual voyages and even individual people, it is a groundbreaking tool for scholars of slavery, the slave trade and the Atlantic world. And it continues to grow. Last year, the team behind SlaveVoyages introduced a new data set with information.

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The Last Slave Ship review: the Clotilda, Africatown and a lasting American injustice

Ben Raines’s perceptive new book, The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning, is a welcome and affecting history lesson.

This story from long ago puts into context what the new spate of lawlessness in the US is all about. Raines tells a tale of racism and greed. Anyone who imagines that attempting to circumvent democracy is a new thing has forgotten the civil war.

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Reckoning With Slavery Requires Access to Records of the Past

The consequences of 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade are still felt today. Untangling the power structures and systemic racism that came with slavery is ongoing, with police brutality, memorials to slave owners, and reparations forming part of the discussion.

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