Bridging Cultures and Crossing Academic Divides: Teaching the Americas in the New Millennium

Abstract

African Diaspora Studies and Latin American (and Latino) Studies are traditionally seen as two distinct disciplines, each having its own perspective, each having its particular areas of concern.  Some scholars, however, see each of these fields of study as complementary, and take the position that neither field can be fully understood or appreciated without including the history, culture and theoretical framework of the other.  I make this argument based on four factors: 1) Over 90% of the Africans brought to the Americas as slaves were sent to Latin America  2) A documented shared history for more than 500 years 3) A trend toward interdisciplinarity and multicultural perspective among scholars in the two fields  4) The shared political genesis of Black Studies and Latino Studies in the 1960s and 1970s. As someone who teaches Spanish language, and researches Afro-Hispanic writers and themes, I welcomed the challenge to enhance an existing Latin American and Latino Studies course with a curriculum to more fully reflect the development of the modern Americas as both a clash and combination of African, Native American (indigenous), and European peoples: their bloodlines, cultures, languages, faith traditions, and political struggles.  This course is called “Founding Myths and Cultural Conquest in Latin America.”  It is one of two courses prerequisite to a major or minor in Latin American and Latino Studies, and is now regularly cross-listed in the African and Black Diaspora Studies Program.