Black/Latinx D.C.: Afro-Peruvian Identity Formation in the Washington, D.C. Area

• In Event: Place and Space in Multiracial Organizing

Abstract

The 2023 study titled “Centering Black Latinidad: A Profile of the U.S. Afro-Latinx Population and Complex Inequalities” conducted by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute found that the U.S. Afro-Latino/a/x population more than doubled from 978,000 to 2.2 million from 2000 to 2019 and that the growth rate of the Afro-Latino/a/x population was almost twice the growth rate of the non-Black Latino/a/x population during this period (Galdámez et. al. 12). This rise in the U.S. Afro-Latino/a/x population has coincided with a rise in attention to the history and experiences of U.S. Afro-Latino/a/xs in academic literature and popular discourse. As this population continues to increase, I believe that it is important to expand our understanding of the multitude of experiences that make up the U.S. Afro-Latino/a/x community and how U.S. Afro-Latino/a/xs both build on and unsettle the ways Blackness and Latinidad are often conceptualized in American Studies.

In this paper, I will present part of my dissertation research on the identify formation of Afro-Peruvians from the Washington, D.C. area. In my dissertation, I employ Afro-Latino/a/x Studies as a theoretical framework and ethnographic methods that combine semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and archival research to examine how the identity formation and experiences of D.C. area Afro-Peruvians are shaped by the interaction between U.S. and Peruvian racialization and the regional racial and social dynamics of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Much of the existing scholarship on U.S. Afro-Latino/a/x identity formation has focused on Afro-Latino/a/xs of Caribbean origin and those living in cities traditionally associated with having significant Latino/a/x populations such as New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. This study complicates our understanding of U.S. Afro-Latino/a/x identity formation in two ways. First, by focusing on a population from a South American nation where people of African descent do not make up a significant portion of the population and where they are often invisible in national political discourses. As a result, Afro-Peruvian migrants may have experienced a specific type of racialization prior to migrating to the U.S. that differs from that experienced by Afro-Latino/a/x migrants from the Caribbean. Second, by focusing on one of the nation’s first majority-Black cities where the Latino/a/x population only began to arrive in significant numbers in the late 20th century.

In my presentation, I will draw from my interview and participant observation data to discuss how discourses around Blackness, Latinidad, and Afro-Latinidad are being constructed in the Washington, D.C. area. I will consider how these discourses are tied to the specific history of the region and how they shape the ways that Afro-Peruvians self-identify. In the process, I aim to highlight not only how Afro-Peruvians navigate through constructions of Blackness and Latinidad that at times exclude them but also how they construct their own understandings of Blackness, Latinidad, and Afro-Latinidad that seek to create linkages between various Afro-diasporic and Latin American communities in the Washington D.C. area and in the U.S. more broadly.

Biographical Information

Rene O. Ayala is a PhD Candidate in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). He received an M.A. in American Culture Studies from BGSU and a B.A. in Sociology with a concentration in American Studies from Grinnell College. His research interests are in Afro-Latino/a/x Studies and Peruvian migration to the U.S. His dissertation explores the experiences of Afro-Peruvians in the Washington, D.C. area to highlight the rich history and diversity of the Black and Latino/a/x communities that make up the Washington, D.C. area.

Author

• Rene O Ayala, Bowling Green State University