African American
Related: About this forumLima: Where the pallbearers are black
LIMA, Peru (AP) Elegant in tuxedos and white gloves, the six black pallbearers silently and gracefully remove the mahogany coffin bearing a Lima tire magnate from his mansion. They slide it into the Cadillac hearse that will parade Jorge Reyna's body through the Chorrillos district where he was once mayor.
The pallbearers are in the job precisely because of the color of their skin, a phenomenon unique to this South American capital that was the regional seat of Spain's colonial empire for more than three centuries. In fact, prominent citizens such as Reyna, a widely respected, charitable man of indigenous origin who died at age 82, request black pallbearers for their funerals.
"He planned his funeral and wanted it to be elegant," said Reyna's widow, Clarisa Velarde.
Blacks routinely bear the caskets of ex-presidents, mining magnates and bankers to their tombs in Lima. The peculiar tradition exists neither in provincial Peruvian cities nor in other Latin American countries with significant black populations such as Brazil, Panama and Colombia.
http://news.yahoo.com/lima-where-pallbearers-black-075929226.html
Number23
(24,544 posts)I've spent alot of time there. In Argentina, you could go weeks without barely seeing a brown face, particularly as they've wiped out the virtual entirety of their indigenous population. I saw more redheads in Buenos Aires than I ever did in DC.
It is a place of great contrasts. Some of the best people I know are from that part of the world but it is by no means without its ills.
JustAnotherGen
(31,922 posts)"get" this article and it's reference until this morning . . . very interesting place Zimmie's 'mommy' comes from eh?
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Latin American racism is something passed down for centuries from the original Spaniards as their culture spread...