The idea for my final project stems from an exercise that I had to do about my name: Selena Ashley Castro. I focused on my last name, Castro, since I never really looked into it. Within a couple of minutes of researching the name, I figured out that it was Portuguese. Upon their arrival in Puerto Rico, slaves from West Africa were speaking Portuguese and may have been given these names from their masters. This sparked an idea that has been constantly on my mind, but that I have never thought about researching.

Growing up, and even now, I don’t identify as black. From what I know, my entire family is, simply put, Puerto Rican. I’ve always wondered about my ancestors: were they slaves? traders?Tainos? a mixture? This personal inquiry sparked a huge question that I want to focus on: Why have Afro-Latin@s remained invisible? What is the history behind this? What are specific African influences in Caribbean/Latino culture? Afro-Latin@s are usually characterized as black or Hispanic; it is hard to think of the in-between. Who fits into this category? Who is allowed to fit into this category? What is the Afro-Latin@ experience like in America? in the Caribbean? How do both the Caribbean and the black community view Afro-Latin@s?

I have to settle on a very specific topic, and step away from this wide scope, but dealing with identity requires all of these questions to be asked.