“Being Afro-descendant for me is a process of self-discovery of the non-European cultural essence that lives in me. It is identifying myself with the Afro-Latin cultural broth that was mixed during slavery. It is knowing that I am part of a social group that suffers from multiple discrimination, due to to the strategies of legal and institutionalized control and exploitation in our societies. It is wanting to transcend social relations of domination and power, in order to obtain socioeconomic equity. It is wanting to celebrate and vindicate, in myself and in others, the value of the blow of the drum and the blackness that embraces our bodies. It is loving and honoring my mother, my grandmother, my land, my language. It is wanting to go beyond social inclusion and claim our independence through the liberation of those false stigmas that hold us back. they devalue and facilitate oppression. It is giving birth to more Afro-descendants and building with them a new concept of Afro-descendants. It is feeling at home when I taste rice, beans , corn or banana, or when I celebrate San Juan dancing culo e’puya. It is definitely and above all the joy I feel when I see myself reflected in the pretty faces of my people.”

– Milvia Pacheco, Venezuelan mother, artist, dancer, leader and activist