The Latin American Identity and the African Diaspora: Ethnogenesi ...

his acculturation and visibility in the social context of Spain and Portugal already had a long and continuous history in the creative literature. As the quotation that opens this chapter (taken from a monograph by Moses E. Panford, Jr.) shows, the black figure as a literary and theatrical constant appeared to be both culturally anticipated and a depiction of the social reality of the Iberian environment of the day. However, when considering issues of ethnic diversity in a given society in the atmosphere of today, most studies that focus on race, racial groups, ethnicity, and ethnic groups in a particular society utilize either sociological methods or a historical timeline as a guide or as the emphasis of their direction. Yet creative literature as an integral element of the social environment in which it is produced can likewise function as an informative medium, with both time and space as contextual parameters. Furthermore, when the author's exposition is adjusted to the time slot of his characterization, the creative construct can likewise offer insight into the historical period of the artistic production. Consequently, when the conjunct of time, space, and character roles is interpreted as the exemplum of a sociological presence within a specified framework of historicity, a literary expression or image of this nature can certainly be accepted as the opinion that guides the author's art. Such an approach has been found to express the inherent lyricism of a writer in the production of his or her creation based on a personal perception of locale and moment.

For example, two recent studies among the various others that have been added to the growing body of literature that strengthens the validity of an African-descendant image in Latin America are: Stinchcomb, The Development of Literary Blackness in the Dominican Republic (2004), and Hernández Cuevas, África late en la mexicanidad (2007) [Africa Pulsates Within the Mexican Identity]. Both books focus on the creative literature of a specific Latin American country with the intent of establishing therein an Afro Latin presence as fact. While one viewpoint is presented from the perspective of a North American scholar who is not native to the environment and the other from that of a Latin American academic born and raised in the culture, the opinion of each, in questions of an identifiable Africanity in situ, coincides without