The Spirit of My Mother is a Spanish-language Honduran film by Alí Allié that follows a Garífuna woman’s return from Los Angeles to Honduras, where she honors her late mother, rediscovers her cultural roots, and seeks healing from a past marked by trauma with an American soldier.
El Negro en Costa Rica is a documentary held in the National Archives of Costa Rica that explores the history, cultural traditions, and lived experiences of the Black population in the province of Limón. Through interviews and historical context, the film highlights the community’s Caribbean roots, contributions to national life, and ongoing struggles for visibility and equality within Costa Rican society.
Carlos Meléndez and Quince Duncan's El Negro en Costa Rica (first published in 1972, Editorial Costa Rica) is a landmark historical and social study that traces the experiences and contributions of Afro-descendant communities in Costa Rica. Released on the centenary of Jamaican migration to Limón, the book brings together the perspectives of historian Meléndez and celebrated Afro-Caribbean writer Duncan in what they describe as an “anthology” of essays, archival materials, and critical reflections. It explores both the colonial-era African presence and the later arrival of Afro-Caribbean migrants, highlighting their central yet often overlooked role in shaping Costa Rican society. As the first major work of its kind, El negro en Costa Rica remains a foundational text for understanding race, national identity, and Afro-Costa Rican history.
The EscuelAfro "Miguel Ángel Ibarra" is an educational initiative by the Fundación Afrodescendientes Organizados Salvadoreños (AFROOS) in El Salvador. Named after Miguel Ángel Ibarra, author of the 1932 novel "Cafetos en Flor," the school aims to empower Afro-Salvadoran individuals through comprehensive training programs. Participants engage in courses that cover historical, cultural, and social topics pertinent to the Afro-descendant community, fostering a deeper understanding of their heritage and promoting active citizenship.
Carlos Agudelo's “Estudios sobre afrodescendientes en Centroamérica: Saliendo del olvido” (Tabula Rasa, 2017) provides a critical overview of the evolving field of Afrodescendant studies in Central America. Tracing the histories of African-descended populations from the colonial period through the 19th- and 20th-century nation-building eras, Agudelo highlights key scholarly contributions and thematic trends in the literature. The article also examines contemporary research on the social, political, and cultural experiences of Afro-Central Americans, with particular attention to the Garifuna due to their prominence in regional scholarship. It serves as both a historiographic review and a call to address the long-standing marginalization of Afrodescendant communities in Central American studies.
Eulalia Bernard was a groundbreaking Afro-Costa Rican writer, poet, educator, and activist who played a central role in advancing Black cultural and political consciousness in Costa Rica. Born in Limón in 1935 to Jamaican immigrant parents, she was the first Afro-Costa Rican woman to publish a book in her country. Her work, written in Spanish, English, and Limonese Creole, centered the histories and voices of Afro-descendant communities, particularly in Limón, and called for the recognition of Black identity within the Costa Rican nation. A pioneer in education, she founded the Chair of Afro-American Cultural Studies at the University of Costa Rica and taught widely across the Americas. Bernard also served as a diplomat and ran for political office, breaking barriers in both cultural and political spheres
Finding La Negrita (Jaded Ibis Press, 2022) by Natasha Gordon Chipembere is a captivating retelling of the Black Madonna narrative, which has driven Costa Rica’s national and spiritual identity since the 1700s. In powerful prose, Natasha Gordon-Chipembere delivers a vivid and intimate living portrait of slavery in this nation, which was radically different than plantation bondage in other parts of the Americas.
Paul Thomas Lokken's "From Black to Ladino" (PhD diss., University of Florida, 2000) explores the experiences of people of African descent in rural colonial Guatemala between 1600 and 1730, focusing on their transformation and integration into the racial and social structure.
The first book on women’s political history in Belize, From Colony to Nation (University of Nebraska Press, 2009) demonstrates that women were creators of and activists within the two principal political currents of twentieth-century Belize: colonial-middle class reform and popular labor-nationalism. As such, their alliances and struggles with colonial administrators, male reformers, and nationalists and with one another were central to the emergence of this improbable nation-state.
This chapter traces the cultural, historical, and literary significance of the figure Mayaya (goddess of fertility and spring) within the Creole tradition of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast, particularly as embodied in the palo de mayo ritual and the iconic folk song “Mayaya las im key.” Duke explores how Mayaya serves as a symbolic conduit for gendered, racial, and communal memory, linking oral traditions, dance, music, and poetry across generations. Through close readings of popular songs, oral histories, and contemporary poems, especially by Creole women, Duke shows how the figure of Mayaya becomes a site of cultural resilience, erotic expression, and political critique. The chapter culminates in a rich analysis of Creole women’s poetry, underscoring how their writings reclaim ancestral legacies, assert autonomy, and challenge marginalization within the broader Nicaraguan national narrative.
