Essays on Mulatto

Despite the fact that both the United States and Brazil have a history of the institution of slavery, each country documented a different reaction to the emancipation of those in bondage. Racial relations among Brazilians were significantly different in comparison to the documented experiences of African Americans residing in the United States after the abolition of slavery. For instance, while African Americans became subject to discriminatory laws that included Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes, Brazil did not experience the same form of government-imposed racism. In other words, legislations did not institutionalize racism among the people of Brazil; however, ...

Introduction

It was a unique time in history; slavery had been abolished, Jim Crow las were in effect but the civil rights movement had not yet begun. Voices like Langston Hughes spoke out against the racial oppression. Hughes himself wrote many short stories, poems and plays in his time. One of the themes that repeats itself in the works of Hughes is the word “mulatto”. “Mulatto”, a word used to describe a person of mixed black and white heritage, elicits a negative feeling or response from most people given the prejudiced nature of the word. Due to the negative nature ...

Published in 1889, Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate is set in revolutionary Mexico of the early twentieth century. At that time, society and the family institution exercised an authoritative and oppressive control on women’s activities and expression; in fact, such control had existed since colonial times, Up until recent times, women had been playing a subservient role from which even in the twenty-first century they are still struggling to break themselves free. Not only were women denied participation in society and politics as individuals with their own voice and identity, but they were mostly confined to ...

The Haitian Revolution is thought to be the largest, most successful slave revolt in history. The slave revolt took place between 1791-1804 after which they had succeeded in not just ending slavery but also French control on the island. The Haitian Revolution was a series of revolutions that went on at the same time. Prior to the revolutions Saint Dominigue, or Haiti as it is known today was the wealthiest of France’s overseas colonies. The colony was a major exporter of coffee, cotton and sugar all of which was grown by slaves. In the 1730’s the French ...

Having dark skin does not necessarily mean that a person is from Africa or even that they consider themselves ‘black’ at all, and in fact the entire question of what ‘dark’, ‘black’, ‘brown’ or ‘white’ really means has varied a great deal throughout history and different societies. None of the Aborigines of Australia of the Maori of New Zealand were considered Africans, although they were certainly treated as second-class citizens, much as the Native Americans were. In India, the dark-skinned people of the Deccan Plateau and the Untouchables and Dalit were not Africans, although they also suffered considerable discrimination. In Brazil ...

The issue of race has been at the core of Cuba’s cultural identity for hundreds of years. Liberation from Spain, an egalitarian quest, and the empowering concept of cubanidad brought Cuba into the family of nations, and yet independence came with racial complications with which the country struggled well into the 20th century. “Cuba and Cubanness were represented in vastly different ways in 1899, when the defeated Spain had to relinquish sovereigntyDespite their differences, all these definitions had a common element: the shared belief that ‘race’ was at the very core of the nation.” The persistent problems of race ...