Rethinking Black Mobilization in Latin America

Maroon Socioterritorial Movements

“…Some literature, though, has challenged the view of social movements' territories as breaches in the system of domination (Zibechi 2014). It highlights how social movements are also shaped and permeated by capital and the patriarchal system (Asher 2007;Paschel 2018). There is also ambiguity in the relationship between counterhegemonic territories and the state.…”

“…2 In the new social movements literature, the transnational aspect has focused on the capacity of these groups to articulate solidarity networks worldwide (Radcliffe 2007;A. Andrews 2011;Paschel 2018;Vela-Almeida et al 2020). This case study, however, reveals the consolidation of palenques outside Colombian boundaries to expand a maroon way of life wherever they go, finding economic means to protect San Basilio de Palenque's territory.…”

“…Whereas historical research has paid attention primarily to maroon survival in colonial times, geographical research has analyzed how this legacy has been mobilized in different manners for African descendants in daily resistance against inequality and racial discrimination (R. Price 1973Price , 1983McFarlane 1986;Navarrete 2003;Cummings 2018;Krug 2018). Bledsoe (2017) described how maroon leaders in Brazil and their territories or quilombos are used as symbols of Black power in struggles against systemic racism to demand rights and the legal recognition of autonomous Black communities (Paschel 2018). Colonial marronage has also inspired modern escapes of African descendants fleeing from extrajudicial executions in the Pacific region of Colombia during the armed conflict (Oslender 2008).…”

“…This mobilization goes hand in hand with the rise of Afro-descendant social groups in the 1970s and 1980s. Afterward, these groups were reunited at the national level in the Proceso de Comunidades Negras (Organizing Process of Black Communities; PCN), whose origins lie mainly in the social and political mobilization of the Black rural communities living in the Pacific region who used Law 70 of 1993 against land grabbing (Wade 1993;Wabgou et al 2012;Paschel 2018). Law 70 recognizes these communities as holders of ethnic cultural and educational rights and owners of "vacant lands," as stated in the letter of the law, which they have occupied since the last part of the seventeenth century, mainly without title deeds (Romero Vergara 2017).…”

All Around the World Same Song: Transnational Anti-Black Racism and New (and Old) Directions for Critical Race Theory in Educational Research

“…On a global scale, interest convergence would similarly critique the motives of robust racial legislation, and this critique would center from oppressed groups' rejection of alleged racial progress. Latin America serves as an ideal locale for an interest convergence critique due to its contemporary history of adopting multicultural and racial equality reform, especially for Afro-descendants (Paschel, 2016a(Paschel, , 2018. Namely, Brazil and Colombia have adopted racial equality and constitutional reforms relative to higher education, health care, territorial rights, and social benefits.…”