Kim Haas visits musician Marcos Forbes to explore the origins of calypso (© 2021 Haas Media LLC)
A quarter of Latin America’s nearly 600 million people have African ancestry, and that continent’s influence is reflected in the daily life of countries throughout the region. Kim Haas, executive producer, host, and creator of the public television series “Afro-Latino Travels with Kim Haas,” provides insights into the historical and cultural impact of people of African descent in Latin America from the 16th century to the present day.
Haas examines the origins of African people in the Americas beginning with the transatlantic slave trade, tracing how their settlement in countries like Brazil, Panama, and Costa Rica shaped key aspects of Latin America’s economic, social, cultural, and artistic development—seen in everything from music to cuisine to history-making infrastructure projects.
Brazil’s most iconic music and dance form, samba, owes its creation to the country’s Afro-descendants, with roots reaching back to enslaved Africans influenced by the Bantu and Yoruba peoples. Hass looks at how Afro-Brazilians fused their music and dance into a vibrant, globally recognized art form.
She also discusses how thousands of Jamaican and other West Indian immigrants in search of the “Sueño Americano” (American Dream) played a crucial role in the construction of the Panama Canal. The influx of Jamaican immigrants who built the Costa Rican railroad in the early 20th century left another mark on the country: rondón, the celebrated Caribbean coconut stew.
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