Las Minorías Étnicas

Lo grave de la columna de María Isabel Rueda en la que descalifica la protesta indígena con el argumento de que las minorías indígenas son bárbaros que amenazan con sus costumbres incivilizadas la preeminencia de nuestra cultura occidental, no es que sea un exabrupto del tamaño de una catedral, lo realmente preocupante es que ella no es la única que piensa así en este país.

De hecho, el general Valencia Tovar el viernes en El Tiempo afirmó más o menos lo mismo, cuando cuestionó a la…

SAN BASILIO DE PALENQUE, Colombia — The residents of this village, founded centuries ago by runaway slaves in the jungle of northern Colombia, eke out their survival from plots of manioc. Pigs wander through dirt roads. The occasional soldier on patrol peeks into houses made of straw, mud and cow dung.

On the surface it resembles any other impoverished Colombian village. But when adults here speak with one another, their language draws inspiration from as far away as the Congo River …

Durante una ceremonia simbólica que se realizó en San Basilio de Palenque, primer pueblo libre de América Latina, declarado Patrimonio Oral e Inmaterial de la Humanidad en 2005, los Ministros de Cultura de Colombia, Angola, Bahamas, Barbados, Brasil, Guatemala, Guinea Ecuatorial, Jamaica, México, Panamá, Paraguay y República Dominicana firmaron la ‘Declaratoria de Cartagena’, en la que se comprometieron a definir una agenda conjunta para las comunidades étnicas de América Latina y el …

A winter wave has hit the department of Choco in Colombia. The natural disaster has caused floods which have destroyed  houses, crops and belongings of the inhabitants of the region. A great number of Afrodescendants inhabit this department. The Diocese of Quibdo invites people to contribute to this cause. The physical donations (clothing, toys, kitchen implements,etc)  will be received in Bogota and Quibdo,on December 10,2008. That is the only day to make physical donations. Economic…

Nancy San Martin is an assistant world editor of The Miami Herald
in charge of
coverage from the Americas. She has written extensively about Cuba
and elsewhere
across Latin America. Among the award-winning Miami Herald projects
she has been
involved with are ''Children of the Americas'' and ``A Rising
Voice: Afro-Latin
Americans.''
She asked these questions of Carlos Moore, author of Pichón: A
Memoir, Race and
Revolution in Castro's Cuba. (2008: Lawrence Hill Books, $26.95)
…