No longer invisible : Afro-Latin Americans today

From the US South and the Mexico altiplano in the north, to the Peruvian coastal lowlands and the Argentine pampas down south, the rhythms of Africa continued to beat. [...] The samba and Candomble of Brazil; the son and Santeria of Cuba; the street car- nivals of Salvador de Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and a host of other towns and cities; the merengue of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela; modern-day salsa; the very ingredients of the lan- guages spoken and the foods eaten; family, community and other organizational forms: in all lie manifestations of the striv- ings of. [...] Blaming the victim - perhaps the most damning outcome of the denial of the African past - made subsequent re-evaluations of the African contribution to the development of Latin American society imperative. [...] There is thus a serious discrepancy between the usual portrayal of racial matters in the country and the reality as experi- enced in the lives of millions of Afro-Brazilian people.3 The African contribution to Brazilian life has been one of the most significant factors in its formation and development, but there is little official acknowledgement of its importance. [...] With the colonial conquest, the Portuguese promoted both the ethnic and cultural dismembering of Africa,8 the cradle of human civilization and knowledge, and the genocide of indige- nous Brazilians.