The AfroLatinidades Research Cluster enjoins the long legacy of research on AfroLatinx history, politics, culture, and identity in Caribbean-based Latinx Studies by extending this foundational nodal point in the field to Chicanx and Central American Studies. The field of Latinx Studies has been undergoing a major paradigm shift since the 1990s as the demographic diversity within the category of Latinidades has steadily expanded to include AfroMexican and AfroChicanx culture, most recently featured in the dynamic Son Jarocho Movement. The Black diaspora's reach into Central America has been the subject of Latin American Studies for decades, and the consolidation of Central American American Studies has extended this work into US-based Latinx Studies alongside Central American diaspora studies that further compound the complexities of AfroLatinidades.
For more information about the ongoing and planned activities of the UCSB AfroLatinidades Institute, please see the institute website at: https://afrolatinidades.wordpress.com.)