February is known as Black History Month, but little is discussed about the role that Afrolatinos play in celebrating the African American identity.
Jasmine Cannon, a junior studying women and gender studies, currently serves as the secretary for the Black Students board and the Society of Afrikan American Culture. She was inspired to collaborate with other organizations after reading up on Pan-Afrikanism, which promotes unity.
“I really wanted to go back to the roots of the movement by intentionally promoting unity within the African Diaspora, by bringing together the Black, African, Caribbean, and Latino communities,” Cannon said.
The result was to plan Afrolatinidad, an event to promote these identities through cultural displays, music, and food. Afrolatinidad is still in the planning stages, but organizers are optimistic about the opportunity that the event will afford other students outside of minority communities.
Lisbeth Arias, President of Mi Familia and a senior studying fashion and textile management, was excited to begin planning the event, which will expose others to talk about the intersection of multiple identities that unite these communities.
“We’re just trying to bring our two cultures together and create a bridge,” Arias said. “We’re always educating the educators, when Mi Fam does events there’s a lot of Latin American students who come in, and the same thing for the African American community, and so we wanted to combine the two so that everyone could go home having learned something.”
Tiana Salas-Ali, a junior studying chemical engineering, takes pride in being multiracial and claims both her Latina and African-American identities. She came to NC State at her mother’s suggestion, and she says this campus was her favorite of the ones she visited in the South. Growing up, she just went with the flow of her identities.
“Where I’m from in New York, your culture and your background are more important than your race,” Salas-Ali said. “I am a person and I happen to have multiple cultural backgrounds, and I think that all makes me who I am, not one of them more than the other,” Salas-Ali said.
Salas-Ali is currently taking a course in diversity and coalition building, and feels like it’s one of the best ways to introduce diversity to the university at large.
“I feel like what they do a good job of is the classes you can take, obviously it’s a predominantly white institution and they have classes that teach diversity because there’s more than one culture and more diverse people going to them,” Salas-Ali said.
Tiana Salas-Ali is a member of the Caribbean Student Association, which will be one of several organizations sponsoring the event next month. The sponsoring organizations include the SAAC, Mi Familia, the African Student Union, the Multicultural Student Association and the African American Cultural Center. The event will occur during Pan-African Week.
