Sosa Skin Lightening Fires Debate About Afro-Latino Heritage

I once lived in a building with a superintendent who was Dominican. He was the best super I've ever had. If there was a problem, he showed up when he said he would and did what he could to help me out. Anyone who's ever lived in New York City knows that's not always the case.

One day, I was just shooting the breeze with my super when he said: "I like you guys because you treat me well. Other people in this building, my own kind, treat me like some sort of slave because I'm Negro."

"Black," I said.

"I'm a black Dominican. My skin is darker than yours. We have the same hair. Our ancestors both come from Africa, but in my country, they love the light-colored people more."

He wasn't exaggerating. In the Dominican Republic, there is almost a complete denial of the country's African roots in favor of its European and Spanish heritage. According to estimates, 90 percent of the country is black, but census figures show only 11 percent of people in the country identify themselves as black.

Dominican hairdressers are world-renowned for their hair-straightening skills. In New York City, Dominican salons are well known among African Americans for their cheap, yet potent perms and hair straightening methods.

That's why no one should have been too surprised when baseball legend Sammy Sosa showed up at the Latin Grammy Awards looking several shades lighter. Sosa first claimed that he was undergoing a "skin rejuvenation" process, and that the flash from the photos made him look lighter than he appeared.

"He's not trying to be Michael Jackson," former Cubs employee Rebecca Polihronis, who talks frequently with Sosa, told the Chicago Tribune.

And then Sosa admitted that he was using a bleaching cream during an interview with a Spanish-language network. Sosa also said he wanted to endorse the cream and market it in Latin America and America.

"It's a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some," Sosa told Univision's 'Primer Impacto' in an interview. "It's a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin] but has bleached me some. I'm not a racist, I live my life happily."

The world is still waiting for Sosa to explain his heavily processed hair and green contact lenses.

The issue is one of the hottest topics of discussion in the Latino community, said Hector Bonilla, a co-founder of Encuentro, a group that focuses on Afro-Latino issues.

"It's called internalized oppression. For 500 years, people of African descent have been socialized to believe that the more European you are, the better you are," said Bonilla. "Sammy Sosa was a Dominican who was respected by all Latinos. For him to do something like this, a lot of people feel it is showing his self-hate."

In the Dominican Republic, much of the animus toward darker-skinned people can be traced to the country's rift with Haiti. The two nations are both situated on the island of Hispaniola. After wresting its freedom from the French, Haitians took over the entire island.

According to a series about Afro-Latins published in the Miami Herald:

To this day, the Dominican Republic celebrates its independence not from centuries-long colonizer Spain, but from Haiti. ... Dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled from 1930 to 1961, strongly promoted anti-Haitian sentiments and is blamed for creating the many racial categories that avoided the use of the word "black." The practice continued under President Joaquín Balaguer, who often complained that Haitians were "darkening'' the country. In the 1990s, he was blamed for thwarting the presidential aspirations of leading black candidate José Francisco Peña Gómez by spreading rumors that he was actually Haitian.

And Dominicans aren't the only Afro-Hispanics struggling with their African heritage.

"It's very embedded in the culture of Latin America and America," said Bonilla. "Just look at Peru, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, African Americans and the fraternity culture. They all have the color issue. In Jamaica, the lighter you are, the closer to white you are, the more relevant you become. "

At a recent event celebrating the music of Puerto Rico, Bonilla said he was shocked when people began walking out after music with heavy drums, reflecting the country's African heritage, began playing.

"There are a lot of people, who, if they had the same resources as Sammy Sosa, would do the same thing to their skin," said Bonilla.

Despite protestations that he's no Michael Jackson, Sosa is causing buzz within the blogosphere with his new look.

The Latino gossip site Hissip wrote:

Sammy, who had been so handsome, had resorted to using a lightening cream to, er, rejuvenate his skin. But rejuvenation that cream did not perform; it was more like disfiguration. A disfiguration made complete by light-eyed contacts.

It's sad that Sosa, like Michael Jackson, is not satisfied with his enormous talent. It just goes to show how slavery, oppression and racism still affects us today. Unfortunately, because of his fame, Sosa may be setting the process in motion again.

"Sammy Sosa is just a reflection of greater societal ills," said Bonilla.