Afro-Latino identity has become a political hot potato, and the answer to the question of who is included depends largely upon the agenda of the person doing the identification. Are Haitians Afro-Latino? Are people with origins in Iberia, Latin America and Africa still Afro-Latino if they have lived in the US for more than two generations and are not bi-lingual? Are people who live in former Italian/Portuguese colonies in Africa or those in mainland Europe Afro-Latinos? For the purposes of this blog, the answers to these questions is YES. Though there are cultural aspects to the question of who is an Afro-Latino, our focus in this blog is to examine the genetic similarities, bottlenecks, disease propesities, etc. among those of whole or partial the African descent who have origins in countries governed by, or colonialized by, the Latin countries of Europe: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy. Romania is technically included, but for all practical purposes, the number of Afro-Romanians appears to be quite small. Moreover, though our definition of Afro-Latino is quite expansive, for all practical purposes, the Afro-Latino identity has largely been adopted only by individuals of whole or partial African ancestry who have origins in Latin-America. Though there are quite a few individuals of Afro-Italian/Afro-French ancestry, few of them appear to seek inclusion within the Afro-Latino community.
So, what do we know about the origins of these people? We know that the African component of the Afro-Latino genome derives largely from the West/Central-West Coast of Africa, as well as Madagascar and Mozambique on the South Eastern Coast of the African continent. We know that the European component is primarily Iberian: Spanish; Portuguese; Basque. We know that once these cultures came into contact, their interactions occurred primarily in what is now called Latin America. Over the ensuing 500-600 years, these cultures intermixed, not only between themselves, but with other groups as well, including groups such as the indigenous populations of the Caribbean and South America, the Roma and also Jews deported from Iberia to the New World. Additionally, the 19th and 20th centuries saw an influx of immigrants from Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia whose cultures and genomes were all added to the mix, so to speak This extensive intermixing produced descendants who not only created new cultures, but also descendants with entirely new genomes. These are the Afro-Latinos of today.
Why is this all important? It is always important to know one's ancestry. Many of the original ancestors of today's Afro-Latinos were oppressed people, the Africans, the indigenous, the Roma. For most of human history, the recording of history was under the control of the powerful, who, not surprisingly, took little interest in recording, accurately, the histories of the people they suppressed. As a result, much of what is known today about the history of these suppressed populations has been recorded based upon the agenda/lens of those who didn't necessarily have the best interests of the suppressed populations in mind.
A keen example of this problem can be found in Argentina. The visual demographics of Argentina today might indicate that the population as it exists today is as it has always been, predominantly European. The prevalent phenotype of today's Argentinians appears to be exclusively White European. Recent DNA data reveals, however, that substantial portions of the DNA of contemporary Argentinians is Black African in origin. How did that happen? It happened because Argentina had vibrant Black communities in Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities as recently as the early 1900's. Many of those communities have declined and have become less visible through migration and intermarriage. Thus, the African presence in Argentina is often hard to see on the faces of Argentinians today. As a result, some feel free to spread the slander that Blacks constituted only a minor presence in Argentina, and were only minor participants in Argentine history. The one piece of irrefutable evidence available to challenge the slander is found in Argentine DNA.
Clearly, the preservation of accurate historical data makes exploration of the Afro-Latino genome necessary, as does the need to pay homage and tribute to the legacy of our ancestors.
(Map courtesy of Joshuarosenstock.com)
