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93 Negotiating Blackness within the Multicultural State in Latin America: Creole Politics and Identity in Nicaragua JulietHooker T his essay explores the ways that Afro-descendant Creoles are currently reimagining their collective identities in Nicaragua, in the context of multicultural policies that guarantee collective rights to land and culture to both the indigenous and Afro-descendant inhabitants of the country’s Atlantic Coast. It traces changes in the way English-speaking Creoles imagine and represent their identity within a Nicaraguan nation that is portrayed as overwhelmingly mestizo or Indo-Hispanic. The central aim is to analyze how and why a strong “black” racial group identity that is imagined in terms of transnational connections to the African Diaspora, including to an African past and Afro-Caribbean ancestry, is currently unfolding among many Creoles. In doing so, the essay traces shifting conceptions of Creole identity, focusing in particular on the connections between the current emphasis on blackness on the one hand, and changes to Nicaragua’s model of multiculturalism that begin to recognize the existence of racial hierarchy (by implementing specific policies to combat racism and racial discrimination) on the other hand. In particular, I try to show both how multicultural policies impact the self-making strategies of Nicaraguan Creoles, and how such policies are shaped by the forms of activism that emerge from current imaginings of Creole collective identity. My analysis of the way Afro-descendant Creoles in Nicaragua are currently imagining their collective identity and negotiating blackness in the context of official multiculturalism is framed by two seemingly unrelated events. The first was a special J uliet Hooker 94 seriesaboutAfro-LatinAmericansthatranintheMiamiHeraldduring2007,specifically an article focused on the “emergent black cultural and civil rights movement” among Creoles in Nicaragua. The article was notable both because the comments of those interviewed in the article showed how Creole racial identity is currently being imagined , and also because of the reactions it provoked among other sectors of the Creole community.Interestingly,whatwasmoststrikingaboutthearticlewasthequoteand accompanyingphotographofacontestantinaMissBlackPridebeautypageantbeing held in the Creole community of Pearl Lagoon. When speaking about her dress to the reporter, the young Creole woman said: “It reminds me of Africa. I’m so proud of my heritageandmyancestry”(Burch2007).Thisseeminglyinnocuousstatementofpride inone’sracialancestrywasnoteworthyforanumberofreasons.Oneofthemwasthat (atleasttothisobserver)therewasnothingaboutthepinksequineddresspicturedin the accompanying photograph that would immediately signal a connection to Africa. Another reason was because of the mere fact of the reference to Africa itself, given that it would seem to be more temporally and geographically feasible for Nicaraguan Creoles to establish a connection to people of African descent in the Diaspora. The second event that frames my analysis of current formulations of Creole collective identity in the context of state multiculturalism in Nicaragua occurred at a conferenceontheblackpresenceinMesoamerica,whereIpresentedapaperonCreole politics and history and the construction of Nicaraguan citizenship in the nineteenth andtwentiethcenturies.Attheendofmypresentation,aprominenthistorianofAfrica asked, “Where is Africa?” In other words, he wanted to know what role a connection to an African past played in Creole self-making practices. When confronted with this question, I realized that it was not one I could readily answer, in large part because a connection to Africa seemed rather absent from Creole accounts of their historical developmentasagroup,whichtendedtoemphasizelinkstopeopleofAfricandescent in the Caribbean. This question, coupled with the young black beauty-pageant contestant ’s comment about Africa, led to another set of questions: What does it means to be Creole and/or black or Afro-descendant in Nicaragua today, in the context of a self-proclaimed multicultural state? What does it mean to be Creole and/or black in multicultural Nicaragua? How is blackness negotiated and lived today in a state where multiculturalism has become official state policy, but where historically, racial hierarchy and racism have not been recognized? How are these identities negotiated and remade in the context of struggles for justice and equality? In order to examine these questions, it is necessary to understand the historical context in which these different self-conceptions of Creole identity are unfolding in Nicaragua. Creoles are not the only Afro-descendants in Nicaragua, but they are the group generally most associated with blackness. It iscrucial to note that in Nicaragua C re o le Po litic s a nd Id e ntity 95 there are two primary groups of people of African descent: the descendants of slaves broughtbySpaniardsduringthecolonialperiod,anddescendantsoffreeandenslaved blacks and mulattos who formed maroon communities on the Atlantic Coast. Creole and Garifuna populations on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast are examples of the latter, while the remaining population of African descent in the rest of...

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