Nydia Taylor (b. 1953, Corn Island) is a patchwork artist, poet, community organizer, and sociologist whose arpilleras (textile artworks) vividly depict the everyday lives, labor, and care practices of Black women on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast. Raised by her grandmother, Taylor learned to sew and crochet in childhood, skills that would become central to her artistic and political vision. Her life has encompassed revolutionary activism, feminist leadership, and cultural work, including organizing women’s groups on Corn Island and serving as the island’s political secretary during the Sandinista era. Taylor’s arpilleras foreground scenes of communal care, domestic life, and regional autonomy, offering an Afro-Mosquitian feminist vision rooted in embodied survival and historical memory. She is also the author of Mangoes in the Morning (2019), a bilingual children’s book illustrated with her own patchwork and based on her childhood on Corn Island.
Hugo Sujo Wilson's Oral History of Bluefields (Managua: CIDCA-UCA, 1998) is a bilingual collection of oral testimonies that traces the rich and complex history of Bluefields, Nicaragua. Through the voices of its residents, the book explores the city’s origins, early inhabitants, pirate legends, and architectural heritage, as well as everyday life, dress, recreation, and popular beliefs. It also delves into key historical moments—including the presence of U.S. Marines, Sandino’s influence, and the 1926 revolution—while documenting community institutions like the UNIA and local lodges. With reflections on race relations, migration, folk medicine, and cultural practices, this volume offers an invaluable portrait of life on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast.
ODECO focuses on the development and empowerment of Afro-Honduran communities. They work towards social justice, economic development, and the promotion of cultural heritage. ODECO has been active in advocating for the rights of Afro-Honduran youth and has called for greater political participation and representation.
An organization of Afro-descendant women of all ages across Nicaragua.
The Interoceanic Panama Canal Museum, located in Panama City's historic Casco Viejo district, is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the Panama Canal and its global, national, and local significance. Housed in a former Canal-era post office, the museum traces the Canal’s construction from the French attempt through the U.S. era and eventual Panamanian control, highlighting the political struggles, labor histories, and international interests that shaped its development. Special attention is given to the contributions and experiences of Afro-Caribbean laborers whose work made the Canal possible.
In Panama in Black (Duke University Press, 2022), Kaysha Corinealdi traces the multigenerational activism of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians as they forged diasporic communities in Panama and the United States throughout the twentieth century.
Delvin “Pen” Cayetano is a celebrated Belizean artist and musician from Dangriga, known for his influential role in preserving and innovating Garifuna and Creole cultural expression. Largely self-taught, Cayetano began his artistic journey in the 1970s and later expanded his reach internationally after relocating to Germany. He returned to Belize in 2009, where he and his wife established the Pen Cayetano Studio Gallery in his hometown. As a pioneer of punta rock, Cayetano blended traditional Garifuna sounds with modern instruments, creating a genre that transformed the Belizean music scene. His early work with the Turtle Shell Band laid the foundation for this musical innovation. Over the years, Cayetano has received numerous honors, including being named a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2013. His creative legacy lives on through his children’s band, The Cayetanos, and through the continued display of his artwork, such as a major exhibit at the Museum of Belize.
Phillip Montalbán Ellis is an Afro-Nicaraguan reggae artist from Bluefields, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. Emerging in the 1980s, he became a central figure in the region’s musical identity by blending reggae with local Afro-descendant and Indigenous traditions. Singing in English Creole, Spanish, and Miskito, Montalbán uses his multilingual music to explore themes of identity, resistance, spirituality, and regional pride. In the late 1980s, he was part of the band Soul Vibrations alongside musicians like Raymond Myers, Clifford Hodgson, and Adolfo Bendlis. Known for their Black consciousness and politically engaged lyrics, Soul Vibrations was prominently featured in the documentary Rock Down Central America. As a solo artist, Montalban has released albums such as Pachamama, Africa, Evolution, and Viva La Vida (2023), continuing to bridge cultural worlds through music that affirms the diversity and dignity of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.
This volume examines contemporary political processes affecting societies, organized groups, social collectives, and individuals identified—or self-identified—as Black or Afro-descendant. Drawing from case studies and theoretical analyses, the contributors explore the political dimensions of Afro-descendant organizing and the strategies these communities use to assert themselves as cultural and political subjects within their respective contexts. The book advances a clear and compelling argument: that the right to self-determination and collective organization based on respect for "difference" and "multicultural citizenship" must be accompanied by the equally valid freedom not to choose ethnic identification, affirming the right to a citizenship "without adjectives."
