United in the Struggle in Washington, D.C.
Posted on May 20, 2008

Grupo Afro Descendiente (GAD)—the Afro-Descendent Group in English—was born out of a panel discussion held at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) entitled “Open Forum on Afro-Latinos: Race and Identity.” The panel, held November 20, 2007, was comprised of business consultant Aisha Brown, activist Roland Roebuck, educator Adrian Valdivia, UDC professor Sandra Jowers-Barber, Howard University professor Clemente Animan Akassi and economist Farrah Barrios.

The program drew participation from the community and students alike. Unlike many academic presentations at institutions of higher education, the fervor and interest behind the issues and the passion of the panelists did not end that day.

They continued communicating and strategizing how to effectively mobilize resources and create a vehicle to defend their views on Afro-Latino issues. More people joined the conversation and in December, Grupo Afro Descendiente formalized itself and members began to organize a Black History Month event.

Two short months later, in partnership with Fiesta DC, a coalition which promotes Latino culture in the Washington metropolitan area, GAD hosted “Afro-Latino Celebration 2008.” Featuring music, dance and art, this event honored and showcased Latin America’s African heritage.

Beyond putting on cultural shows during a single month, Grupo Afro Descendiente seeks, without fear of controversy, to unite African descendents from Latin American in the United States, to raise awareness of racist policies in their home countries. To that end, the organization has just sponsored “Black Brown Solidarity in Action Week.” Every day from May 11 to May 17, a special event was held in a different venue in Washington, D.C. Among the activities were a film screening and discussion and a town hall meeting. The entire week was a tremendous success.

“Our communities split when we get to this country,” complains GAD co-founder Aisha Brown, an Afro-Panamanian. “Some of us line up behind African Americans and others behind Latinos.” In her eyes, GAD is creating an opportunity for Afro-Latinos to feel proud and self-identify as an Afro-Descendent from Latin America.

Furthermore, the group has an ambitious aim to unite groups which are unlikely allies: of Afro-Descendents from Panama, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, among other countries.

Co-founder Adrian Valdivia, an Afro-Venezuelan, likens expressing self-awareness of Afro-Latino identity to “coming out of the closet” and being proud of a rich cultural heritage. GAD boldly approaches the development of Afro-Latino self-awareness simultaneously on a global, national and local scale. The group is still figuring out how to successfully inform an U.S. population that can be hostile to immigrants and new understandings of issues of identity.

Members of GAD are motivated, mostly young professionals from a variety of sectors, including education, government, business and the nonprofit arena. The group is growing as more individuals and organization find out about GAD and join. Yet challenges lie ahead. All of the members work full-time and the group is currently working with little resources. Only time will tell if the group’s work is sustainable.

GAD is fighting a battle on two fronts. Within the Latin American community, it is working to incite activism around race and identity issues, including pride in African ancestry. Among the general public, GAD is expanding people’s knowledge of Afro-Descendents from Latin America.

Afro-Descendents make up about one-third of Latin America's population. GAD wants to make this information mainstream in the U.S. and globally.

The organization intends to achieve this by inspiring unity among all Afro-Descendents and implementing initiatives such as an exclusively Afro-Descendent directory of businesses and organizations to, as Brown says, “recycle the Black dollar.” Presently, it is impossible to identify Afro-Latinos in any such directory.

Ultimately, founders and current members hope to define who they are. Brown predicts, “There is no end in sight for this work so long as there is racism, oppression and marginalization of our people.”

Both Brown and Valdivia envision a world in which GAD can fulfill its mission. They say that the organization will transform our world into one that understands what it means to be an Afro-Descendent from Latin America. In this new world, Afro-Descendent immigrants who come to the U.S. have similar social networks like in their home countries, which nourish families and communities, and Afro-Descendents will be able to practice self-determination on policies that affect them.

Felicia Montgomery is an international development specialist, writer and activist. She is the board chair of Proyecto LIDER, an all-girls leadership organization in the Dominican Republic. She can be reached at fmontgomery56@yahoo.com.