Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths?

Acknowledgments

Neither time nor space allow me to acknowledge the support I received from hundreds of individuals who helped bring this book to fruition. Maria P.P. Root, Paul R. Spickard, Teresa K. Williams-Leon, Ludwig (Larry) and Francis Lauherhass, Nina Moss, the Huber family (Dona Maria, Valburga, and Teresa), and Vera de Araujo-Shellard provided personal and professional encouragement, which made it possible to carry on in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and against overwhelming odds. This manuscript would not have been possible without the editorial assistance provided by Josef Castañeda-Liles and Chris Bickel. Stephen Small, Edward Telles, and Howard Winant provided invaluable feedback that helped refine my analysis. Connie McNeely and David Estrin helped tighten up the manuscript without sacrificing my ideas. Sheila Gardette, José Garcia, Monique Vogelsang, Tarik Sadowski, Maiya Evans, Paulo de Luz Moreira and Nicholas (Nick) Hall are outstanding research assistants who helped track down material in the United States and Brazil. Marcelo Paixão, professor of the Instituto de Economia at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, provided critical assistance in collecting recent data in Brazil. My research also benefited from the collections at the Center for Afro-Asiatic Studies, Biblioteca Nacional, Academia Brasileira de Letras—all in Rio de Janeiro—and Lily Library at Indiana University in Bloomington. Miki Goral and Norma Corral, who are the backbones of the Reference Department at the UCLA Research Library, and Sylvia Curtis, UCSB Black Studies Librarian, left no stone unturned and went several extra miles to acquire critical sources. I am also indebted to Jiro Ochoa at University Postal Shipping and Copies, as well as Grafikart Copy Shop, for their technical support in completing this project. My thanks to the Fulbright-Hays Commission for a grant to do research in Brazil, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, for awarding me both acknowledgments an Academic Senate grant to do archival research in the United States and a Faculty Career Development Award, which gave me the time I needed to complete the manuscript. However, completion of this project would not have been possible without a generous grant from the K & F Baxter Family Foundation. I owe a special debt to my colleagues and the staff in the Center for African American Studies and the Latin American Center at UCLA, as well as the Department of Sociology and Center for Black Studies Research at UCSB. A special thanks to the many individuals I have met at support groups and at conferences on the topic of intermarriage and multiracial identity, whose sentiments and experiences I have tried to capture in this book. Also, I am eternally grateful to Nadia Kim, Julie Silvers, Shadi Alai, and the many other students in my classes who have had faith in my vision and me when others have not. Sandy Thatcher of Pennsylvania State University Press is an exemplary editor. I am grateful to him, the copyeditor, and the readers recruited by the Press. Santa Barbara, California February 2006 xvi acknowledgments ...