Table Of ContentAfro-Latinx Digital Connections
Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America
Afro-Latinx
Digital Connections
Edited by Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
University of Florida Press
Gainesville
Copyright 2021 by Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America.
26 25 24 23 22 21 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Arriaga Arango, Eduard, editor. | Villar, Andrés, editor.
Title: Afro-Latinx digital connections / edited by Eduard Arriaga and
Andrés Villar.
Other titles: Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America.
Description: Gainesville : University of Florida Press, 2021. | Series:
Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020046384 (print) | LCCN 2020046385 (ebook) | ISBN
9781683402046 (hardback) | ISBN 9781683402398 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Social justice—South America. | Social justice—Caribbean
Area. | Blacks—South America—Social conditions. | Blacks—Caribbean
Area—Social conditions. | Digital media—South America. | Digital
media—Caribbean Area. | Racism—Caribbean Area. | Racism—South
America.
Classification: LCC HM671 .A39 2021 (print) | LCC HM671 (ebook) | DDC
302.23/1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046384
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046385
University of Florida Press
2046 NE Waldo Road
Suite 2100
Gainesville, FL 32609
http://upress.ufl.edu
Contents
List of Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
1. Afro-Latinx Digital Cultures: Toward Complex and Diverse (Digital?)
Humanities 22
Eduard Arriaga
2. Digital Autonomy and Knowledge Production by Black Brazilian
Women: Interview with Silvana Bahia 45
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
3. Afro-Latina Minimal Computing: Interview with Sandra Abd’Allah-
Álvarez Ramírez 57
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
4. Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Cuban Digital Culture 65
Maya Anderson-González
5. Fighting Racism with Digital Weapons: Interview with Mónica Carrillo
84
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
6. International Organization Theory and Online Afro-Latin America 96
Yvonne Captain
7. Between Analog and Digital Activism in Afro-Colombia: Interview with
Yancy Castillo and Dora Inés Vivanco 119
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
8. Toward the Creation of an Afro-Argentine Digital Archive in the Cape
Verdean Association of Buenos Aires 127
María Cecilia Martino
9. Borrowing Digital Tools to Connect the Periphery: Interview with Alí
Majul 144
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
10. Using Games to Build Connections in Africa and Beyond: Interview with
Adebayo Adegbembo 156
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
11. Epilogue: Using Digital Tools to Build Afro-Latinx Connections and
Futures 164
Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar
List of Contributors 175
Index 177
Abbreviations
CENESEX Center for National Sex Education (Cuba)
CNOA Conferencia Nacional de Organizaciones Afrocolombianas
(National Assembly of Afro-Colombian Organizations)
IAF Inter-American Foundation
ICT information and communications technology
IDB Inter-American Development Bank
IO international organizations
IT information technology
MERCOSUR Mercado Común del Sur (Southern Common Market)
MINTUR Cuban Ministry of Tourism
OAS Organization of American States
PAIGC Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde
(African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape
Verde)
SEGIB Secretaría General Iberoamericana (General Secretariat for
Ibero-America)
Introduction
EDUARD ARRIAGA AND ANDRÉS VILLAR
This book about Afro-Latinx digital connections seeks to highlight how Latin
American and Caribbean people of African descent, or Afrodescendants, use
digital tools to bolster the agency of individuals and communities, both lo-
cally and across national boundaries. Many of the texts collected here are
written by academics; interest in digital technologies, however, exceeds the
boundaries of the academy, as anyone living in our contemporary connected
world can attest. We have therefore also included interviews with Afrodescen-
dants who use digital technologies to foster connections within and among
Afrodescendant communities. The technologies examined here are symptom-
atic of a digital network encircling the globe at a truly breathtaking speed, a
network which is itself the result of numerous interwoven networks of differ-
ent sizes. Developments in mobile technologies, artificial intelligence, and the
so-called internet of things are paving the way into a future of even greater
human integration with computational hardware and software. Yet compared
to the seemingly unalloyed enthusiasm that technology elicited just a few de-
cades ago, today we are more ambivalent about the implications of a digitally
connected world. On the one hand we cherish the apps on our phones and
the gadgets that seem to make our life more “convenient,” but on the other
hand we are also increasingly aware that the ubiquity of digital technologies
facilitates hacking, the proliferation of malware, and surveillance by state
