In 2022, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Victoria Santa Cruz (1922-2014) will be celebrated, an icon of Afro-Peruvian culture and an exponent of African influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Woman, black, Latino and with strong African roots are elements that give legitimacy to Victoria’s opinions in discussions about racism, prejudice and inequality – historic structural illnesses and still present in the region.
The artistic, cultural and historical legacy of Victoria Santa Cruz is summarized in her poem “Me Gritaron Negra” (1960), a symbol of the fight against racism and the exaltation of black identity. The text is divided into two parts, each with its own perceptions about the condition of being black, at different times in life.
The first part witnesses childhood, marked by strong notes of prejudice, oppression, guilt, insult to self-esteem and social rejection – aspects related to the inferior position of black people in society. This is how it starts:
“Victoria Santa Cruz
I was only seven years old,
just seven years,
What seven years!
It won’t arrive for five hours!
Immediately some voices on the street
They shouted at me ¡Negra!
Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black!
I hate my hair and my thick lips
and miré apenada mi carne tostada
And I went back ¡Negra!
I went back…
The second part witnesses adult life and maturity, marked by pride, awareness, self-affirmation, exaltation and appreciation of identity – aspects that suggest the idea of rescuing self-esteem and equality in fact between blacks and whites.
Until a day that receded,
I went back and I was going to fall
Black! Black! Black! Black!
Black! Black! Black! Black!
Black! Black! Black! Black!
Black! Black! Black!
What?
What? Black!
Yes Black!
I’m Black!
Black Black!
black soy
From today onwards I don’t want
laciar my hair
I don’t want
What color! BLACK
How beautiful Suena! BLACK
What rhythm do you have!
BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK
BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK
BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK
BLACK BLACK BLACK
I’m black!”
The poem could not be more current. The report “La salud de la población afrodescendiente en América Latina”, by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), concluded that black Latin Americans live in a permanent situation of comparative disadvantage in relation to whites in the areas of maternal and child health , access to adequate housing and basic services such as water and sanitation.
In Ecuador, the maternal mortality rate for black women is three times the overall maternal mortality rate. In Nicaragua, 80% of blacks have limited access to potable water, while 35% of whites live in this situation. Not to mention the incarceration rates in countries such as Brazil and Uruguay, where black people make up the predominant skin color of incarcerated people.
It is estimated that around 220 million Latin Americans and Caribbeans are black (about a third of the subcontinent’s total population). Relative to whites, blacks tend to be structurally more impacted by poverty and marginalization. The first part of Victoria Santa Cruz’s poem has more resonance at this point.
One of the legacies of the slave system –which marked and continues to mark the socioeconomic structure of Latin America and the Caribbean– was to perpetuate skin color as an element that marks differences between people. The entire history of slavery, mandonism and social hierarchization in the Americas, associated with the insufficiency of measures to correct past mistakes and injustices, perpetuated a kind of “naturalization of inequalities” in the present time, as if this unequal and hierarchical social structure –with differences also marked by skin color – was something normal, as it has always been in the past. By naturalizing inequalities, one fails to perceive their existence.
As historian Lilia Schwarcz recorded, “our present is indeed full of the past”, with reference to the various forms of racism, violence and discrimination that still exist today. The reasoning also applies to indigenous peoples and quilombolas, equally imprisoned in the myth of racial harmony (and democracy) supposedly existing in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
This permanence of the past in the present –of which racism is an example– often occurs in a silent, veiled and disguised way (the prejudices that manifest themselves in the crevices of everyday life), but also in a public, ostensive and violent way. Successive episodes of racist and discriminatory demonstrations reveal how backward and involved we are in terms of human coexistence. They also reveal that we still haven’t made peace with our past, whose oppressive structure is still alive in the present.
One cannot ignore the phenomenon of “prejudice against prejudice” (“reactive prejudice”, as Florestan Fernandes suggested), which has to do with the denial of prejudice itself; that is, when people refuse to recognize the existence of prejudice in society, under the thesis that racism and discrimination are things of the past. Nothing more absurd. Some reach the limit of not recognizing “prejudice against prejudice”, creating vicious cycles that keep us away from the essence of the debate.
Victoria Santa Cruz’s legacy is extremely alive, so it’s worth remembering. Added to this are other equally relevant names such as Tereza de Benguela (Brazil), María Remedios del Valle (Argentina), Sara Gomez (Cuba), Amy Ashwood Garvey (Jamaica), Sanité Bélair (Haiti) and Martina Carrillo (Ecuador), among others. countless black women who made and make history in Latin America and the Caribbean, demanding respect and acting based on principles of equity, equality and justice (in the cracks of everyday life and in the most public and free forms of expression).
The second part of the poem gains resonance at this point.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
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