A Rising Voice: Afro-Latin Americans

A Rising Voice: Afro-Latin Americans is a a five-part series by Miami Herald which unveils the black experience through a journey: to Nicaragua, where a quite but powerful civil and cultural rights movements flickers while in neighboring Honduras, the black Garífuna community fights for cultural survival; to the Dominican Republic where African lineage is not always embraced; to Brazil, home to the world’s second largest population of African descent; to Cuba, where a revolution that promised equality has failed on its commitment to erase racism; and to Colombia, where the first black general serves as an example of Afro-Latin American achievements.

Part 1: A close-up look at a simmering civil rights movement in a tiny port settlement along Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.

Part 2: An examination on the sensitive nature of racial definition in a nation with inextricable ties to Africa.

Part 3: Black Brazilians speak out and push for affirmative action laws in the hemisphere’s most Africanized nation.

Part 4: Economic and political apartheid are alive in Cuba, despite a revolution launched in 1959 that promised equality.

Part 5: An overview on the achievement of Black leaders in the region. And a personal essay by Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr.