Carlos Lara is a Salvadoran Afrodescendant visual artist, activist, and educator whose work centers the beauty, complexity, and resilience of Afrodescendant communities and LGBTQ+ identities in El Salvador. A portraitist and painter working in drawing, still life, and male nudes, Lara uses visual art as a tool for cultural affirmation and self-recognition. He is the sub-director of the Organización de Afrodescendientes Organizados Salvadoreños (AFROOS), which promotes the recovery and visibility of African heritage in El Salvador through community engagement, education, and cultural production. Lara’s practice has long explored the intersections of race, sexuality, and identity, rendering Black and queer bodies with dignity, tenderness, and political clarity. His 2021 exhibition Rostros Afrodescendientes en El Salvador, held at the Biblioteca del Mercado Cuscatlán, foregrounded Afro-Salvadoran presence through portraiture, inviting viewers to see and celebrate Black lives often erased from national narratives.
Carlos Rigby (June 19, 1945 – May 23, 2017) was an Afro-Caribbean poet, trombonist, and performance artist from Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua. A pioneer of Caribbean-Coast spoken-word poetry, Rigby burst onto the scene in the 1960s with anti-Somoza interventions that fused Creole rhythms, dance, and sharp bilingual wordplay. Rejecting established literary norms, he celebrated ancestral knowledge, nature, and Black identity in works like “If I Were May” and “Words of the Peasant at the Inauguration of the Maypole.” Imprisoned for his Sandinista activism and later honored with the Rubén Darío Order and the title of Living Human Treasure, Rigby lived and performed poetry as a continuous act of resistance and cultural affirmation.
Casa Museo Afrodescendiente Carl Rigby Moses, located in the historic Cotton Tree neighborhood of Bluefields, Nicaragua, is housed in a restored 1890s wooden home once part of one of the city’s earliest Afro-descendant settlements. The museum features exhibits on the history of the house, the city, and the origins of Afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean Coast. Created in honor of renowned poet Carl Rigby Moses, it also serves as a space for artistic expression and cultural reflection for the Creole and Garífuna communities. The project is the result of collaborations among local residents, educators, NGOs, and regional and national institutions.
Kawe Calypso is a music group from Cahuita, Costa Rica, focused on preserving and promoting traditional Costa Rican calypso. Founded by Donald Williams, Otilio Brown, and Alfonso Goulbourne, the group brings together decades of experience as composers, performers, and educators. In addition to performing, Kawe Calypso leads the "Calypso Cahuita Youth" project, which teaches local children and youth about calypso music and culture, supporting the continuation of this Afro-Caribbean tradition in Costa Rica.
Association for the Development of Black Costa Rican Women
CentAm Beauty, founded by Zaira Miluska, is a digital space dedicated to showcasing the beauty and diversity of the Central American isthmus. Rejecting monolithic representations, the platform highlights the varied cultures, identities, and experiences across the region and its diaspora. Through visual storytelling and community-driven content, CentAm Beauty affirms the richness and complexity of Central American life.
The Central American Black Organization (CABO) was founded in August 1995 in Dangriga, Belize. The primary purpose of our organization is to make visible the African presence in Central America. CABO fights against racial discrimination and seeks to build and promote solidarity amongst Afro-descendents in Central America. Our organization has branches in every Central American country (except El Salvador).
June Beer’s poem “Chunkuu Faam” captures the struggles of a rural Afro-descendant family in Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast as they try to secure a future for their children through education. Written in Miskito Coast Creole, the poem weaves a vivid picture of subsistence farming, community resilience, and the barriers posed by systemic exploitation. As the couple seeks a bank loan to support their children’s schooling, they encounter deception and dispossession, ultimately losing their farm. Through sharp social critique and intimate storytelling, Beer exposes the predatory nature of financial institutions and the structural inequalities faced by Black coastal communities.
The CIDCA Historical Cultural Museum, located in Bluefields, Nicaragua, is dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich cultural heritage and historical memory of the Caribbean Coast. Operated by the Centro de Investigaciones y Documentación de la Costa Atlántica (CIDCA) and the Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University (BICU), the museum centers the histories, identities, and resistance of the region’s Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and mestizo communities. Its exhibitions feature oral histories, archival documents, cultural artifacts, and artistic expressions that reflect the autonomous region’s struggles and contributions.
