Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 August 2005
The year is 2015, and across Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean there are social movements demanding racial justice as political parties jockey to incorporate candidates of African and indigenous descent. Textbooks are being rewritten to highlight the contributions and unique experiences of indigenous and black Latin Americans and affirmative action programs are being debated and implemented. W. E. B. DuBois's famous line, “The problem of the twentieth century will be the problem of the color line,” applies to Latin America in the twenty-first century. What led us to this moment? And what tools does political science have to explain it?Mark Q. Sawyer ([email protected]) is associate professor of political science and African American studies at UCLA.