Black in Latin America

Pardon the lateness of the post. I was misinformed about the due date of this assignment.

After watching the PBS program "Black in Latin America", I asked myself what the word race means. Is race a color? Is it an ancestry? Is it a history? How do we define? Is it defined for us?

According to the video, race in Latin America is based more on where one has come from than the color on one's skin. Why is that? That is because the demographics of Latin America are multiethnic, with a great deal of racial mixing. If someone is able to trace a great deal of their ancestry back to Europe, such as Spain, then that person would consider him or herself to be "white". Race in Latin America is defined by the people, and where they have come from. History has a great deal of influence on racial terms. Many people who live in Brazil are considered black because of their African ancestry. When Portugal colonized Brazil, many black slaves came from Africa.

Race in Latin America tends to be defined by the view of an individual, and less by the norms of society. That is not to say these two terms are unrelated. However, in the United States, race tends to be a more social and political term, and less of an individual one.