Black Brazil

When discussing race in Latin America one must take 3 important pieces into consideration; the native and original inhabitants of the Americas, which are the indigenous of the Americas. Then there is the arrival of Europeans, Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, etc. Finally, the Europeans introduce Africans to the Americas. Throughout Latin America there are these three components and influences in all Latin America. But it started as three separate groups but with time through “mestizaje” the three or more, or two, or whatever combination of groups, made a new type of individual, and this is what “mestizaje” is. But this term is simple to say, but complex to understand and explain. Because one must consider if the blood was pure in Spain, or in other words not mixed with Jewish blood, and just one drop of Jewish blood for a Spaniard made the difference. So there is diversity in Spain. Then this another difference and that is between Spaniards and “criollos” this also made a difference in “mestizaje”. Now the indigenous tribes alone in what is now Mexico there were over 150 indigenous tribes, so now let’s consider all Latin America. The number of tribes is possible impossible to count. This is similar to the africand too, bevsuse again in most cases they were from different parts of Africa, but ended up on the western coast of the content.

Helen Marrow writes on Brazil, how this Portuguese colony deals with “mestizaje”. Brazil was a Portuguese colony, so the language is Portuguese, but Brazil is in South America- Latin America, so there are questions and assumptions since Brazil is located in South America with neighboring countries that were colonized by the Spanish and these country are Spanish speaking countries, where does Brazil fit? A similar trait is the experience of being a colony of an empire from the Iberian Peninsula, and another similarity is the arrival and slavery of Africans that Brazil and the rest of Latin America share. So Brazil deals with a discourse on language being Portuguese being surrounded by Spanish speaking countries, next is the geography, and finally race, because one must consider black Brazil. This brings issues to society because it is hard to place, identify, group, etc. these Brazilians once in the U.S.

Mayra Santos-Febres in her book Fe en disfraz writes on “mestizaje” through African slave women. She writes and discloses actual slave testimonies. The first narrative is on Diamantina of Brazil in 1785, her condition is that she is a slave and she is talking to the governor. Diamantina discloses that she has been abused by her owner, the lady of the house, she gets whipped, abused in public after getting out of church, and especially gets abused when she is pregnant. She has already asked for protection from her owner, and she has marks on her face. She declares that she gets abused and even gets pushed down by her owner; she demands that she and her children be sold to another slave owner. Next, the owner is called in and is questioned. She goes in and lets the governor know that she knows her husband uses Diamantina sexually, and that she has caught the two of them in the act, he abuses her sexually, but she screams out of pleasure, and says that Diamantina is like all African women, those who serve and do not give themselves respect and basically calling African women womanizers. She also states that her husband would initiate the act but Diamantina would be all over him and give it up to him in whatever position, place, or time of day.  10 days later it is announced that the owner and the lady of the house are legally married and Diamantina wants to take back her declaration she had made to the governor about changing owners. In a months’ time the lady of the house has become very ill and has declared that Diamantina and her 5 children be sold to cover her funeral costs. The lady dies, but by then the husband has already told Diamantina she is free, and whatever the wife had planned was not executed. The next time Diamantina goes to speak with the governor, she states that her owner along with his wife have both passed away, but a will has been left and that the inheritance is to be left to the owners illegitimate children, who also happen to be Diamantina’s children, since she was raped by her owner. She and her children are left the sugar plantation her owners have been running, and her oldest soon is now the legal owner of the plantation. This is typical during colonial time, for Europeans to abuse Africans for sex and abuse, pleasure, etc. but because of this abuse begins the idea of mestizaje in Latin America and later these outcomes of mestizaje travel to the U.S. in later years and are a huge part of history because of it. But one needs to consider the impact the African slave women had in history, because Europeans only saw them as sexual objects for their breasts, backsides, and ability to have children. But they are much more important than just that, they are a huge piece of history in Latin America.