 Visually, Ismael Rivera represented the Afro-Latin American through his music videos. Through the music video, people can visually see places of poverty and the suffering that Afro-Latin American goes through and the environment that they are trapped in. Though arts, blacks are able to preserves their identity and culture. People can see the expression of the artist and they way they view about themselves and the world. Arts of the Afro-Latin American reveal the religion and culture that is getting lost in the Afro-Latin American world because of the repression by whites.
Blacks struggled to maintain their identity and some people lose their identity.  Famous Chinese Afro-Cuban artist, Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982) once focused on European arts and style and even lived in Europe for a time period. Upon his return to Latin American, he discovered his lost identity and his rejection of his culture due to the suppression in society. Lam’s lost of identity reveals the struggle that blacks have gone through and the harsh environment that caused people to reject who they were. Later in life, Lam focused on Afro-Latin American arts and he painted abstract disproportional art, which represented the different identities people have of the blacks and the imperfection they believe blacks are. Lam represented the blacks by expressing a deeper meaning in his art. He paints about the religion and preserves the meaning of what the deity represented in the culture.
Jose Bedia (1056-), Wilfredo Lam’s follower, focuses his work mainly on Africa and Native American religion in arts. His art not only shows a religious aspect, but also about the suffering and the blacks and overcoming the suffering.
The Jungle
Images cited:
Works cited:
- Lowery Stokes Sims. “The Painter’s Line: The Drawings of Wifredo Lam.” Master Drawings, Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring 2002: JSTOR. 10 November 2009. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1554554>
- Thompson, Robert Farris. "Sacred silhouettes." Art in America July 1997: 64+. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 November 2009.
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