UF Center for Latin American Studies
Days: Thursdays
Times: 1:55 - 4:55 pm
Location: Grinter 376
Course description
Between 1502 and 1868, 12.5 million Africans suffered through the Middle Passage and arrived in the Americas. The vast majority -- 95 percent -- arrived in Latin America and the Caribbean. Only five percent came to the British colonies that became the United States. Early arrivals came to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Brazilian coast. Succeeding generations continued to arrive in Central America, crossing overland to the Pacific coast, down to what became Spanish South America. Africans worked on large sugar and coffee plantations, as well as smaller farms and mines. While many were forced to work in rural areas, others arrived in urban centers as domestics and skilled workers. The history of Africans and their descendants, in addition, was not restricted to slavery. Freed blacks also owned property, founded businesses, and traveled as merchants. Today, the majority of African-descended Latin Americans descend from workers, intellectuals, mothers, and fathers who participated in independence and nation-building movements since the early nineteenth century. With a special focus and attention to gender and sexuality, the course surveys the history of Africans and their descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean and introduces graduate students to the major debates, arguments, and case studies.
Solsiree del Moral
Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar
Center for Latin American Studies
E-mail: TBA
Phone: TBA
Research Interests
Afro-Latin American History, U.S. Afro-Latinx Studies, Caribbean History; Race, Nation and Empire; Migration and Diasporas; Crime and Punishment; and Childhood Studies.
Geographic Expertise
Caribbean
