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Abstract
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005, the United States public and the world got a first-hand view of the effects of centuries of structural racism. The discussion was primarily about the different ways in which African-Americans and white residents experienced the storm and its aftermath. The debate soon complicated with the sudden recognition of the presence of Latinos, mainly Mexican and Central American, that came to New Orleans to work in the clean up and reconstruction. Observers pointed out that, much of this population was not actually new. In fact, it included Latino storm victims, evacuees, and returnees. Despite the information, the media continued to portray Latinos as newcomers, potential threats to the local labor conditions, and possible disruption of the historic black/white/Creole racial identity of the city. Four years after Katrina, the presence of Latinos in New Orleans is much more visible. However, the media and local residents' perceptions are ambiguous. In effect, it is framed as a new racial tension between blacks and Latinos.
In this paper, I look at the place of Afro-Latinos over their past and current role in New Orleans. Using interviews with Honduran Garifuna, I attempt to answer the following questions: 1) how do they fit into the larger patterns of Latino migration to New Orleans, 2) how the Garifuna accommodated into the racialized structures of the city's inequality (before Katrina, 3) what was the impact of the hurricane on this population, 4) what are their patterns of return, and finally, 5) how they negotiate their place within the current black/Latino racial binary. I argue that the invisibility of the Latino population, before and during Katrina, is a symptom of their socio-economic marginalization. However, I consider there are certain advantages to such invisibility. This is a situation, which the Garifuna seem to recognize and purposefully cultivate. They use their ambiguous position as Afro-Latinos in a city, which sees black, and Latino as mutually exclusive categories in order to stay under the racial radar.
Key words: Garifuna, Hurricane Katrina, Afro-Latinos, New Orleans, racism
After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005, there was much discussion in the national media and in academia about the role that racial identities and racialized structures...