El Reconocimiento (Acknowledgement)

Getting to the Roots with Yvette Modestin: Why it Matters    

https://dollywrites.com/2017/07/04/for-the-black-queens-black-girl-magic/

  By: Amiya Turner

In the world we live in it’s hard to talk about identity without bringing up the normative structural systems of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, etc. Systems uphold and define social identities. Discussing intersectionality is an opportunity for dissecting the underlying operations of power and people hidden by such structures. Kimberlé Crenshaw, coined the term intersectionality, defining it as “a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.” It is the overlap within aspects of identity. 

“Who are today's marginalized peoples and groups?” In much of Latin America, they are the Afro-Latin population. Afro Latinx have been ignored or not considered Latin enough because of their darker skin color. They have been left out of the social movements because of existing racism. In this post, I am interested in rendering visible the remarkable Afro Latina women who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.  Such women are at an intersection between gender, race, and sexuality that has often been overlooked, which leads me to Yvette Modestín.

Yvette Modestin

is an award-winning poet and activist raising consciousness about African descendants in Latin America. She created and founded the Encuentro Diaspora Afro, a Massachusetts-based organization founded in 2004 to “provide a vital space for Afro-Latinos and all people of African descent.”  She’s recognized for uniting communities of  color, and her work as the Diaspora Coordinator of the Red De Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas, Afrocaribeñas y de la Diáspora, a national and international network of Afro-Latin American women, is just an example. Through her organization, Modestin has organized workshops for Afro-Latino students in middle school and high school, in hopes that they learn to embrace their Afro roots, by discussing their racial makeup. “In all the years I’ve been doing this, there’s never a time when I’m not faced with a young Afro-Latina who stops her movement when asked if she’s of African descent,” Modestin said, according to Latina. “It’s ‘I don’t know,’ even if the child is visibly of African descent.” This shows the ingrained and internalized racism that occurred. This is very different from any racism that the overall Latin population may face. This has roots in slavery and attempts to deny a entire racial category, thus trying to make them invisible. This cloak of invisibility in turn denies the history of colonization and mixing of races rather than a homogenous Latin America. Afro-Latinas are seen as a threat to the European influence. However, Modestin is simply trying to create a community that acknowledges their history which further binds them together. A connected and shared history is one that transcends time and constructs an identity amongst generations so that everyone feels accepted and present in society. I truly think that there is something powerful in connecting with your roots and ancestry. We can't let go of the past because it shapes who we are how the world sees us. It may not define us fully, but it is the context that we need.
Sources: Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality, More than Two Decades Later.” Columbia Law School, www.law.columbia.edu/pt-br/news/2017/06/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality. “9 Inspiring Women Who Have Fought for the Rights and Visibility of Afro Latin Americans.” Remezcla, 31 Oct. 2018, remezcla.com/lists/culture/9-inspiring-afro-latin-americans/.