Film: "Black in Latin America: Brazil, a Racial Paradise?"
Take copious notes on this very important film and give expansive answers to the following questions (these are good sample midterm questions)
1) Tell me about the numbers of Africans that were brought to Brazil and tell me how that contributes to Brazil's racial/ethnic complexity:
2) Tell me about Capoeira and its cultural significance
3) Tell me about Candomblé and its cultural significance
4) Tell me about Brazil's attitudes towards Blackness- why are they so complicated?
5) Tell me about Xica da Silva and what her example tells us about the complexities of race relations in Brazil (and Latin America)
6) Tell me about Branqueamento and what it tells us about race and power
7) From what you saw of the film and from what you've been reading (and what we've been discussing), what question should I have asked you that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
Extra Credit: Black in Latin America - Mexico & Peru
1. List at least 5 ways in which African culture influenced current Mexican customs/traditions
2. How are Mexicans with darker complexions are discriminated against in their own country, and how that is similar to racial tensions in other nations?
3. Explain the significance of art for Peruvian race classifications and the colonial past of the country. What does it show us about the Afro-Peruvian experience?
4. Compare the experience of Afro-Peruvians who largely do not finish high school, and continue to live in poverty. How does this prove a challenge in the lives of these people, and where else in the world do we see such discrimination and lack of resources (make sure to put specific countries and explain your thought process)
5. Look up information on Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (the host of the film series). List at least 5 of his credentials as a historian and scholar.