The following is a very necessary thread pertaining to Afrodescendencia y Negritud in Puerto Rico:

While it is important to recognize the vast presence of racism and colorism in the archipiélago, as well as history of colonial policies intended to do the work of the colonizer: whiten Puerto Ricans both physically and mentally (“Gracias al Sacar”), here is also the following:

Afrodescendencia is spreaded through Puerto Rico. Afrodescendiente is anyone with Black/African ancestors. Within Afrodescendencia, there exists Afrodescendencia visible and Afrodescendencia no visible.

Visibly Black and mixed Black boricuas with visible features are Afrodescendientes visibles, which means their Afrodescendencia is visibly manifested.
Remember: every Black Puerto Rican is Afrodescendiente but not all Afrodescendientes are Black.

“White passing” and/or non-Black boricuas with no visible African features but have Black/African ancestors and/or relatives are Afrodescendientes no visibles. This means their Afrodescendencia is not visibly manifested but is inherited.

With so much racial integration in MANY areas of Puerto Rico, especially rural and small-town communities, there are many white passing boricuas who have been immersed in Afrodescendiente culture in Puerto Rico, like bomba and plena music, etc.

This is why you see a lot of racial diversity en muchos bateys de bomba (not talking about gentrified areas nor talking about white European criollo Puerto Ricans with no trace of African ancestry que se cuelan).

Existe mucha gente afrodescendiente, tanto visible como no visible, que practica mucho esta tradición super ingrained en sus familias, y eso es algo normal en Puerto Rico.

However: las palabras Afrolatinx, Afroboricua y Afro-Caribbean were created to manifest the existence of visibly Black people outside the U.S., that Black people also exist in Latin America and other regions of the world, related to Pan-Africanism.

It is important to have conversations of racism and colorism in Puerto Rico, especial when there exists Afrodescendientes both visible and not visible. However, erasing someone’s ancestry because of phenotype is literally doing the colonizer’s work.

To have conversations of racism and colorism without erasing ancestry of racialized people, especially within the Afrodescendiente community in Puerto Rico, is the key to start decolonizing Eurocentric notions of race in Puerto Rico.