Afróntalo (2023)

21 September 2023 - 19 June 2024

One in four Latin Americans has African ancestry. And yet, there is a general deficit of knowledge regarding the presence and prevalence of blackness throughout the Americas. This is more than a simple matter of obscurity. It is a problem of erasure, invisibility and dislocation. Afróntalo introduces you to four communities in Mexico and twenty-one Californians, all in their own words, to explore the depth and breadth of Afrolatine histories, cultures and identities.

News Coverage for Afróntalo: Black Voice News 10/3/2023; The IE Voice 10/2/2023; Precinct Reporter 9/28/2023; LAist 3/3/2023; Black Voice News 2/28/23

K-12 Tours: Cal-SOAP organized field trips to CSUSB that included a tour of Afróntalo and related educational and college prep programing. Read more.

K-12 Initiative: Following the success of our May 2022 K12 Symposium, we spearheaded a learning community for educators called Afrolatinizamos, directed by ïxkári estelle and funded through the CSUSB Department of Ethnic Studies. This group developed educational resources now available online. IAlso check out our the "Enshrining Blackness" virtual conversation that Afróntalo co-sponsored with Afrolatin@ Forum in October 2023.

360 Virtual Tour: You can visit Afróntalo from anywhere with our H5P virtual exhibition (Spanish version also available), created in collaboration with the CSUSB Office of Multimedia and Immersive Technologies. 

Lotería Afrolatina: A twist on the classic Mexican bingo game, Lotería Afrolatina features 54 Afrolatine people, communities, and cultural products. Created by CSUSB students Alessandro Corsaro (art and design) and Evy Zermeno (research), the game includes the 54-card deck, 32 game boards, and a rule book with short biographies for each game icon. Non-profit organizations and educators can request a FREE copy of the game -- we have a limited number of print copies, and if we run out we will send you an electronic version to print from home/work. 

Events Sponsored | Supported by the Afróntalo Exhibition

Why was the exhibition called Afróntalo? 

“Afróntalo” in Spanish means “Face It.” This reflects the intention of our exhibition to recognize the erasure of Afro-descendants and the prevalence of anti-blackness in the Americas. Additional meaning can be found in breaking the title into two separate phrases, “Afro” and “Ntalo.” The first phrase, “Afro,” reflects the Afro-descendant focus of the exhibition. The second phrase “Ntalo,” has at least three meanings in African languages. In Xitsonga, spoken in parts of Zimbabwe and Eswatini, ntalo means “abundance.” In Lingala, a language spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ntalo means “value.” Finally in Ganda, the primary language spoken in Uganda, ntalo means “war.” Collectively, these three words reflect the impetus of Afróntalo to make clear the widespread and deep roots of Afro-descendants in the Americas, the incredible importance of Afro-descendant contributions and populations historically and today, and the need for action to bring attention to these matters and the contemporary needs of Afro-descendant communities.

Why did this exhibition use the term Afrolatine?

Afro-descendants (persons of African descent) who have heritage ties in Latin America, inclusive of the Caribbean, use a variety of terms for identity and self-description. These include Afro-Latino, Afro-Latina, Afro-Latinx, and more geographically-specific terms like Black Panamanian or Afro-Salvadorian. In this exhibition we use “Afrolatine” for consistency when referring to the population generally or as a whole. Afrolatiné is a non-cisgendered term based in Spanish (rather than English) morphology. Choosing a non-hyphenated term was also a deliberate choice, based in our partners’ reflections on Afrolatiné identity as holistic rather than binary or fractured. 

Where is “Latin America”? 

“Latin America” is a political term coined during the colonial era referring to regions that were part of New World Spanish, French, and Portuguese empires. In this exhibition we use “Latin America” in reference to all of Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, regardless of colonization and official languages today. This is in recognition of the historical, gastronomic, musical, religious, and other cultural and identity ties that exist across the region, particularly among Afro-descendants. 

This exhibition was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [GSM-251848-OMS-22] and with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities [HFAP22-129]. Visit www.imls.gov and www.calhum.org.

Additional financial sponsors for the development and installation of Afróntalo included: the CSUSB Office of Student Research, the CSUSB Office of Community Engagement, the CSUSB Department of Ethnic Studies, and the US Embassy in Mexico’s Understanding African Heritage in Mexico through Exchanges Fund. Exhibition support has also been provided by: the US Department of Education’s 2021 Fulbright Hays Seminar Abroad Program “Exploring African Heritage in Mexico” organized by Comisión México-Estados Unidos para el Intercambio Educativo y Cultural (COMEXUS), the National Endowment for the Humanities 2022 Summer Institute “Transnational Dialogues in Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies” organized by the University of Pittsburgh, the CSUSB Professors Across Borders program, the CSUSB Office of the Provost, CSUSB’s College of Extended and Global Education, the CSUSB College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Office of the Dean, the Garcia Center for the Arts, Raiz de la Ceiba, the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino, and CSUSB’s Black History Month Programming Committee.

Additional event sponsors included: The CSUSB Department of Art and Design, the CSUSB Los Amigos Club, and the Undocumented Student Success Center.   

Any views expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of our sponsors.