Roatán, the largest of Honduras’s Bay Islands, sits off the northern coast of the mainland in the western Caribbean. Roatán is a site of deep Afro-descendant presence and struggle. From the Garífuna who were forcibly deported there by the British in 1797, to the free Black migrants from the Cayman Islands and other parts of the British West Indies who built Creole communities in the nineteenth century, Roatán is a living archive of Black Caribbean migrations, social and political struggle, and cultural memory. Despite waves of displacement, economic marginalization, and demographic change, Afro-descendant communities on the island continue to assert their claims to space, identity, and historical continuity.

Palacios, located on Honduras's Caribbean coast in the department of Gracias a Dios (historically part of the Mosquitia), carries the layered legacy of its 18th-century incarnation as Black River, a British-aligned settlement and one of the most important political and commercial centers on the Mosquito Shore. Founded in 1732 by English merchant William Pitt, Black River quickly became a node of regional power, shaped by Afro-descendant labor, Indigenous Miskitu alliances, and transimperial trade. This history continues to shape Palacios, a town that remains central to Mosquitia's Afro-Indigenous memory and territorial claims.

Limón is home to one of Costa Rica's largest Afro-descendant populations, shaped by migration from the British West Indies in the late 19th century. Excluded from citizenship and national identity, Black communities built their own institutions and cultural traditions rooted in Caribbean and diasporic belonging. From calypso music to Black feminist organizing, Afro-Costa Ricans have long resisted marginalization and continue to assert their presence as central to the nation’s past, present, and future.

Gales Point, a small coastal village in the Belize District, is one of the country's oldest Black and Creole rural villages, known for its deep African roots and traditions. Established in the late 1700s and early 1800s by self-liberated persons who fled enslavement, it functioned as an early maroon community where residents created self-sufficient settlements in the hinterlands. Isolated by geography, Gales Point preserved vital African traditions such as drumming, storytelling, and herbal healing, and continues to serve as a testament to the endurance of Black ancestral traditions in Belize.

Belize City, the largest city and former capital, is a key site in Belize’s Black history. Once known as Belize Town, it was the main port where enslaved Africans arrived in the 1700s to labor in the British logging industry. This laid the foundation for the Creole population and made the city a center of Black life. The city became a center for Black resistance (1919 Riots), labor organizing, and nationalist movements. Today, it remains a hub of political, cultural, and historical activity where Black identity in Belize has been formed and contested.

Founded in 1519 as the first European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas, Panama City has long stood at the crossroads of empire, migration, and Black resistance. From early maroon uprisings led by figures like Bayano to the arrival of Afro-Caribbean laborers during the construction of the Panama Railroad and Canal, the city has been shaped by the movement and struggle of African-descended peoples. Segregationist policies and nationalist ideologies of mestizaje sought to marginalize Black communities, yet Afro-Panamanians forged powerful traditions of social organizing and cultural expression.

Founded as a key Atlantic port and later transformed by the construction of the Panama Railroad and Canal, Colón has long been a vital center of Afro-Caribbean presence, labor, and political struggle. Generations of Afro-descendant communities, particularly West Indian migrants and their descendants, have navigated racial segregation, economic exploitation, and systemic exclusion while developing enduring forms of cultural expression and civic engagement. From early labor organizing and diasporic media to contemporary youth and women’s movements, Afro-Colonense communities have continuously asserted their autonomy, challenged inequality, and redefined the contours of Panamanian national identity.

Located in what is now referred to as Caribbean Nicaragua (but historically part of the Mosquitia), Big and Little Corn Island have long played a central role in Afro-descendant and Indigenous histories across the southwestern Caribbean. Big Corn Island, in particular, became a key site of British colonial settlement, maritime trade, and resistance. Its economy was shaped by enslavement and plantation labor, but its legacy is defined by emancipation, cultural endurance, and regional Afro-Caribbean kinship.

This southern town is the oldest and largest Garifuna settlement in Belize. Located in the Stann Creek District, it has been central to preserving Garifuna history, language, music, and spirituality, and played a key role in the rise of Punta Rock. The name, meaning “standing waters” in Garifuna, was officially adopted in the 1970s during a broader cultural resurgence. It is also where Garifuna Settlement Day was first celebrated here in 1941, drawing people from across the Americas to honor ancestral memory through ritual, music, and community.

The San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina Archipelago is home to the Raizal people—Afro-Caribbean descendants of enslaved Africans, Jamaican settlers, and seafaring communities with enduring ties to the western Caribbean and Central America. First settled by English Puritans and enslaved Africans in the 1630s, the islands became key nodes in a transnational Afro-diasporic world shaped by resistance, migration, and maritime exchange. Though formally annexed by Colombia in the 19th century, Raizals maintained cultural and political autonomy well into the 20th. Since the 1950s, waves of mainland migration and state-led assimilation have threatened Raizal land, language, and identity. In response, Raizal communities across the archipelago and diaspora have mobilized to defend their cultural survival and assert their rights as a distinct people.

Livingston, Guatemala, also known as Labuga in Garífuna, is a historically Black town shaped by colonial displacement, Garífuna resistance, and state neglect. Located on the Caribbean coast and accessible only by boat, Livingston became a key settlement for the Garífuna people after their forced exile from St. Vincent in 1797. Over generations, Garífuna communities built a distinct cultural and spiritual life rooted in ancestral memory, language, and land. Despite this, Livingston has long been marginalized by the Guatemalan state, excluded from national infrastructure and subject to economic abandonment and racial discrimination. While the town is often commodified as a site of Afro-Caribbean culture for tourists, local struggles center on land defense, youth migration, and cultural preservation. Today, Garífuna residents resist erasure through political organizing, diaspora ties, and artistic practices that affirm Black Indigenous presence on Guatemala's Caribbean coast.

La Ceiba, located on Honduras's northern coast, is a key site for Afro-Caribbean life and Black resistance. It is home to the Garífuna and Bay Island Creole communities, both with deep histories of migration, autonomy, and cultural preservation. The Garífuna arrived in 1797 after exile from St. Vincent, building matrifocal, land-based communities, while the Creoles migrated from the Cayman Islands in the 1800s and maintained ties to the English-speaking Caribbean. In the early 20th century, U.S. banana companies like Standard Fruit seized Garífuna land around La Ceiba with state support. Today, land grabs by tourism and drug cartels continue to displace these communities. Despite constitutional protections, the Honduran state often denies Garífuna territorial and cultural rights. In response, organizations like OFRANEH lead the fight for land, autonomy, and cultural survival.

Bluefields, historically part of the Mosquitia, has long been a central site of Black life, memory, and struggle on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast. Rooted in maroon resistance, enslavement, and British colonial entanglements, its Afro-descendant communities forged distinct cultural and political identities well before formal emancipation in 1841. Across generations, Black residents have organized for land rights, regional autonomy, and cultural survival—from a 1790 uprising to post-revolutionary movements and beyond. Through music, Maypole traditions, visual and literary arts, and grassroots activism, Afro-descendants in Bluefields continue to assert their long-rooted history, sovereignty, and belonging on their own terms.

San Miguel, in eastern El Salvador, played a central role in the country’s colonial economy, where thousands of enslaved Africans were forced to labor in gold mining and indigo, sugar, and cacao production. Many of the region’s current residents are descendants of Afro-mestizx and Afro-Indigenous communities, though formal recognition of Black identity has long been denied. While El Salvador is often imagined as a homogeneously mestizx nation, San Miguel reveals a deeper, often suppressed African legacy. Black Salvadorans continue to face erasure and discrimination, shaped by whitening policies and anti-Black migration laws of the 20th century. Yet African influence endures in food, language, music, and everyday cultural practices, pointing to a persistent, if marginalized, Black presence.