Remembering the Legacy of Schomburg
“Schomburg may be considered the most illustrious
and self-conscious of all Afro-Latin@s”
Miriam Jimenez Roman & Juan Flores, The Afro-Latin@ Reader
“There is no doubt that [Black studies] is a field full of the most intriguing and inspiring possibilities. Already, the [Black person] sees [themselves] against a reclaimed background, in a perspective that will give pride and self-respect ample scope…”
This week, the Afro-Diasporic world celebrates the life of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Schomburg, born on January 24, 1874 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, is known for many things, but most importantly for being a foundational figure in studies of Black History and the African-Diaspora. As someone who self-identified as Negro and Puertorriqueño, Schomburg’s collection of artifacts and research of the African Diaspora and its ties to the Americas led to the beginning of a more comprehensive understanding of what we today call Afro-Latinidad. Our late co-founders, Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores, wrote the following about Schomburg in the Introduction to the Afro-Latin@ Reader:
[One of the] central cultural concerns of Afro-Latin@s becomes their relationship with African Americans, and more generally with an African diasporic world. This new perspective is embodied most prominently by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, a Black Puerto Rican who took active part in the anti-Spanish liberation struggle.
Schomburg’s Caribbean and Latino background has generally been eclipsed by his subsequent accomplishments as a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and as one of the foremost collectors and bibliophiles of the Africana experience, which culminated in the founding of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Given his immense educational contribution to knowledge about the Black world, which continued to include a special interest in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Spain, Schomburg may be considered the most illustrious and self-conscious of all Afro-Latin@s in the United States as well as the one whose aspirations and ambiguities seem most deeply exemplary of Afro-Latin@ social experience.
Schomburg’s life on the color line, his direct knowledge and experience of racism both in Latin America and the United States and his resultant affinity with African Americans, was also paradigmatic for Afro-Latin@s through the first half of the twentieth century.
Schomburg always called for us to have a holistic understanding of Blackness, and to use that understanding to correct the racialized historical record which obfuscates Black people and does not correctly credit the importance of Africa, aka Alkebulan, to the world. So, as we celebrate and honor his birthday, let us remain steadfast in ensuring that we answer Schomburg’s call, to deepen our understanding of Blackness and to have a more comprehensive understanding of the African Diaspora so that we can have a perspective that will engender pride.
To learn more about Schomburg, please see the following resources (and order them from our friends at cafe con libros, an afro-latinx, feminist bookstore in Brooklyn, NY):
Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford and Eric Velasquez (Great for children)
Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg by Vanessa K. Valdés
Arthur Alfonso Schomburg: Black Bibliophile & Collector (African American Life) by Elinor Des Verney Sinnette
“The Migrations of Arturo Schomburg: On Being Antillano, Negro, and Puerto Rican in New York 1891-1938” - Free PDF
“Las migraciones de Arturo Schomburg: Ser Antillano, Negro y Puertorriqueño en Nueva York. 1891-1917” - Free PDF
Written by Schomburg:
The Negro: A Selected Bibliography
The Negro Digs Up His Past - Free PDF