Defining the Caribbean

A friend sent this article in French to me about defining or categorizing the Caribbean. As one would expect, some of the islanders interviewed on defining the Caribbean had differing views. From a cursory look at the differing maps representing Trinidadian, Cuban, Jamaican and Guadeloupean perspectives on the confines of the Caribbean, the Hispanophone and Francophone speakers were more likley to include coastal Central America and northern South America. Trinidadians did include coastal Venezuela, but not Colombia. Jamaicans only included Guyana and Suriname with small portions of Central America (Panama, etc.) as part of the Caribbean. Guadeloupeans, on the other hand, included a much broader definition of the Caribbean that resembled academic definitions of the "Greater Caribbean" region, including coastal South America, all of Central America, and southern Florida. Besides the Guadeloupeean pan-Caribbean view, Cuban definitions of the Caribbean were second place in terms of broadly defining the region. Cubans included southern Florida, Central America, the 'traditional' Caribbean, and northern South America's coast. Interestingly, southern Florida was not considered part of the Caribbean by Trinidadians, perhaps reflecting immigration patterns (Jamaican and Cuban immigrants have established communities in Florida). Also of note is the broad Caribbean region described by Guadeloupe considers the Gulf Coast of the US, primarily Louisiana and New Orleans, as Caribbean. This may reflect a shared francophone heritage or perhaps a broad definition of Caribbean or Antillean identity rooted in the creolite movement of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Regardless, it's fascinating how different Caribbean students, representing English-speaking "West Indians," Spanish-speaking Cubans, and francophone speakers define their region of the world. For clarification, I shall post those images of the Caribbean below:

This map depicts the 'traditional' Caribbean, consisting of only the islands (Greater and Lesser Antilles) and the French, Dutch, and British possessions in Central and South America (Belize, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana).

What I have translated as the "Greater Caribbean" includes Mexico, all of Central America, and all of northern South America. This corresponds more with the actual history of exchange, migration, and cultural/racial miscegenation that has taken place throughout this region, from the Gulf Coast, Florida, and the Antilles to Central and South America. Another commonality of the region is the shared history of the Atlantic Slave Trade, European conquest and colonialism, American imperialism, and the use of mostly Romance languages. Although most of Mexico and Central America boast no substantial phenotypically 'black' populations outside of Panama and certain provinces of states like Costa Rica, the African presence can be seen in the colonial period and some of the music, especially the use of marimbas among indigenous peoples in the area. Colombia and Venezuela must be included because of the important demographic and cultural impact of the slave trade and Afro-descendants, too.

Cuban perceptions of the Caribbean here. It includes the Antilles as the core region and peripherally Central America and the northern coast of South America.

Students from Guadeloupe have the broadest definition of Caribbean, corresponding well with the aforementioned "Greater Caribbean" map. One could arguably push for inclusion of coastal Ecuador, the coastal lowlands of Peru, and perhaps northeastern Brazil as extensions of the Caribbean due to similarly influential Afro-descendants, although that goes beyond the Caribbean Sea.

Jamaicans view the Caribbean as essentially the "West Indies" with Belize, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and, marginally, southern Florida and Panama. Venezuela and northern Colombia are also present.

Trinidadians interestingly exclude Colombia but consider the entirety of Venezuela as "Caribbean," perhaps due to the close proximity of the nations and a history of migration and influences. However, they exclude Florida while every other group of Caribbean students included Florida. Without additional research, my only explanation for that trend is a reflection of the lack of large Trinidadian diasporic communities in Florida.

Again, the main pattern for defining "Caribbean" for many of these students is based on a large West Indian/Caribbean diasporic presence (in the case of Central American nations like Panama or Florida) and a high proportion of African-descended peoples. It would be fascinating to get the racial demographics of the Cuban students, and to include Haitians, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans, to get a fuller picture of how Antilleans define themselves in relation to each other.

The following is my initial response to the article in an email to a friend. Defining the Caribbean, like any other region or form of categorization, relies on oppositional binary thinking that does not reflect the reality or porous borders. Models of understanding the world are only models, not necessarily accurate depictions of the world as we live it. The following email to a friend is a brief reflection on that and the limitations of defining a "Caribbean" and distinguishing it from "Latin America" or the Americas.

Interesting. I never thought of Mexico as part of the Greater Caribbean. I guess in some senses it makes sense for the coastal regions of Mexico and Central America to be considered "Caribbean," even if the population of African descent is small. I know Veracruz in Mexico was one a very important port of entry for slave trading in Mexico, although the current population is not phenotypically "African" like Haiti or Jamaica. I know son jarocho music has African as well as indigenous influences, probably because it arose in the Veracruz region.

For Central America, Belize and the West Indian descendants of laborers who came to places like Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica (province of Limon is very 'black') are definitely "Caribbean." Belize in British colonial days was known as "British Honduras" and consisted of a heterogeneous population, including various peoples of African descent. I think there is a Garifuna presence as well in terms, the Garifuna being descendants of African runaway slaves and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean who were gradually resettled in Central America by the British. I think some descendants of Saint Dominguan slaves were also settled in Central America when the region was still under Spanish colonial rule (look up the black auxiliaries of Spanish royalism in the early years of the Haitian Revolution. Unlike Toussaint Louverture, they remained loyal to fighting under the Spanish name against France and Britain. Perceived as a threat to the social order in Santo Domingo and Cuba, some were resettled in Florida and Central America.

Of course, northern South American countries like Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana are always considered "Caribbean" and excluded from "Latin America." And from the little research I've conducted in Colombian, Venezuelan, and Brazilian history and race relations, the coastal regions of those aforementioned nations are "Caribbean," too. The largely African-descended populations, presence of obvious African-derived cultures (music, religion (Candomble, samba, cumbia, champeta, palenquero Spanish in Colombia, Cartagena and Barranquilla as slave ports for colonial Nueva Granada, etc.)) and the racialized geography makes it quite clear. The Chocho, or Pacific coast of Colombia, is also majority Afro-descended, ignored, and part of the racialized regionalism of Colombia. Southwestern Colombia and the Esmeraldas coast of Ecuador is also mostly Afro-descended. If one wanted to expand the definition of "Caribbean" even further, the coastal lowlands of Peru with its African-descended populations or southeastern Brazil and Minas Gerais for its African-descended populations. 

I guess at that point you might as well just call it all "Afro-Latin America," which shows how problematic these labels are since they're projections by scholars and outsiders on the peoples of this hemisphere. I guess I would realistically define Caribbean as the islands and coastal regions of states that border the Caribbean Sea and its environs. I would include coastal Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, parts of Costa Rica and Guatemala, and Belize as well as northeastern Brazil (Bahia, maybe Pernambuco?) because of the presence of significant or majority Afro-descended populations that are thoroughly 'mixed' culturally and/or 'racially.' I guess Patrick Chamoiseau and other Martinican writers as well as some negritude poets and theorists have tried to define Caribbean as rooted in 'blackness' or "Creolite," the latter referencing the mixed/creole heritage of the Caribbean as African, European, indigenous, and Asian. I suppose someone like Aime Cesaire would define "Caribbean" in a manner that emphasizes the African component whereas Patrick Chamoiseau and other Francophone writers would emphasize Caribbean as a fusion of the various peoples who inhabit/ed the region. Clearly, the latter definition of "Caribbean" sounds like the "raza cosmica" or mestizaje nationalism of many Latin American nations, which emphasize racial mixture as national identity. 

I guess it's difficult to really 'define' the Caribbean then. People have unsurprisingly criticized the excesses of negritude and the weaknesses of mestizaje and Creolite in masking racial oppression or maintaining the marginalization of certain identities, such as the African component in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and other countries. In the end, the strict separation of Latin America and the "Caribbean" based on linguistic differenes does not hold, and it's often applied randomly. Haiti or francophone islands like Martinique, for instance, are often excluded from "Latin America" but they speak Romance languages like Spanish and Portuguese. As for anglophone islands like Jamaica or Trinidad, many of those peoples have migrated and worked in the Spanish Caribbean or Panama. Furthermore, peoples often spoke various languages so many older Trinidadians spoke French or a Creole because of shifting European colonial authorities. Regardless, these ideological divides between Latin America and the Caribbean clearly don't reflect reality. And I neglected to mention New Orleans and Miami. New Orleans was essentially a Caribbean society well into the 19th century, with a racial structure that mirrored Saint Domingue or colonial Haiti, not to mention it was also briefly a Spanish colonial city. Miami and parts of Florida have also been longstanding "Caribbean" regions, since African-descended slaves and free people of color have always been part of Spanish Florida's somewhat freer racial relations. Indeed, from what I can recall, African-American slaves from the US often fled to Spanish Florida before the US annexation and many African-Americans joined Seminole and other indigenous communities. 

I'm not sure why I wrote this very long, rambling email, but thanks for sharing that article. It's always interesting to see how folks from the Caribbean define themselves. I remember my mother, who never identified as Latina or Latin America, telling me as a young child that Haiti is "in South America." I remember white Americans trying to tell me that I should "identify as Latino" because Haiti is in Latin America, but I don't think they're really aware of the social and racial dynamics of Haitians in Cuba, Dominican Republic, or elsewhere.