IN OUR OWN WORDS…

"Before people called me a spic, they called me a nigger."
Pablo "Yoruba" Guzmán, Palante!: Young Lords Party

1666: New York
“With a few shots from their guns the English bring down the flag that waves over the fortress and seize the island of Manhattan from the Dutch, who had bought it from the Delaware Indians for sixty florins. Recalling the arrival of the Dutch over half a century ago, the Delawares say: The great man wanted only a little, little land, on which to raise greens for his soup, just as much as a bullock’s hide would cover. Here we first might have observed their deceitful spirit. New Amsterdam, the most important slave market in North America, now becomes New York; and Wall Street is named after the wall built to stop blacks from escaping.” Eduardo Galeano, Faces and Masks

“The ghostly trace of 'NIGGER' on a message board hanging from Ileana's door failed to assault her as it had the first time she returned to her dorm room to find it." Loida Marítza Pérez, Geographies of Home

“ola / my papa thot he was puerto rican & we wda been / cept we waz just reglar niggahs wit hints of spanish… now I love somebody more than...” Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf

“‘I’m a Negro.’ / ‘You ain’t no nigger,’ José said. / ‘I ain’t?’ / ‘No. You’re a Puerto Rican.’ / ‘I am, huh?’ I looked at José and said, ‘Course, you gotta say that. Cause if I’m a Negro, then you and James is one too. And that ain’t leavin’ out Sis and Poppa. Only Momma’s an exception. She don’t care what she is.’” Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets

1695: The Capital of Brazil
“Black slaves are the brick and mortar of the castles… [of] São Salvador de Bahia, seat of the viceroy and the archbishop, the most populated of all Portuguese cities after Lisbon. From the cathedral pulpit Father Antonio Vieira insists on gratitude toward Angola, because without Angola there would be no Brazil, and without Brazil there would be no Portugal, so that it could be very justly said that Brazil has its body in America and its soul in Africa.” Eduardo Galeano, Faces and Masks

“Aquí el que no tiene dinga / Tiene mandinga . . ¡ja, ja! / Por eso yo te pregunto / ¿Y tu agüela, aonde ejtá?” Fernando Fortunato Vizcarrondo, ¿Y tu agüela, aonde ejtá?

1696: Black Virgin, Black Goddess
“To the docks of Regla, poor relations of Havana, comes the Virgin, and she comes to stay… Today, September 8, is fiesta day in this little town of artisans and sailors… the people eat meat and corn and beans and manioc, Cuban dishes, and African dishes, ecó, olelé, ecru, quimbombó, fufú, while rivers of rum and earthquakes of drums welcome the black Virgin, the little black one, patron protector of Havana Bay… The black Virgin of Regla is also the African Yemayá, silvered goddess of the seas, mother of the fish and mother and lover of Shangó, the womanizing and quarrel-picking warrior god.” Eduardo Galeano, Faces and Masks

"…Run a hand through your hair like the whiteboys do even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa." Junot Díaz, "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie" from Drown