‘The Radical Clarity of Miriam Jiménez Román’: Opening Remarks for Cumbre Afro

I want to begin by offering a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Mayra Santos Febres and the entire team of the 5th edition of Cumbre Afro for honoring Miriam in this year's gathering. It is a wonderful thing that she is being remembered here, in the archipelago of Puerto Rico, and reclaimed by the academy that once rejected her. Miriam wouldn't have cared for all the pomp and circumstance of this dedication, but she would be deeply thankful for the recognition of the work.

I would like to begin my remarks on Miriam by stating that she is one of the most influential scholars of the last thirty years in Africana studies, particularly regarding Latino populations. One of Miriam’s greatest strengths was her clarity: as a Latina, she was never confused about her racial identity. As evidenced in the interviews we recently published on our website, especially her conversation with Dr. Johonna Fernández, Miriam was clear from a very young age that race was a determining factor in her life.

For Miriam, race and ethnicity were essential categories that we, as Latinos, had to fully identify. As a Puerto Rican woman, she understood this through her experience in East Harlem. Those who know that neighborhood, like Dr. Marta, know that during Miriam’s formative years, East Harlem was a community marked by what she would later define in her essays as "the color line." However, for Miriam, speaking about race was not an act of superficial provocation; it was the understanding that our community needed a profound analysis of these categories to properly integrate and fight in this world.

Miriam was, above all, a builder. A little-known aspect of her work was her active participation in movements in Mexico to achieve the recognition of Blackness in that country’s census. She worked side-by-side with Mexican comrades to expand the definitions of race and ethnicity within their nation; because of this, one of her first essays published by the Smithsonian was on Afro-Mexican identity. One might ask: what was an Afro-Puerto Rican woman doing writing about Afro-Mexican identity? The answer is that Miriam always had a long-term goal: for us to understand that race, ethnicity, culture, and nationality are distinct categories that manifest in diverse ways and transform our life experiences.

That will to build was constant. Although she was deeply proud of the Forum’s work, she recognized a void where Black women were not at the center of the conversation. That is why she created the Black Latinas Know Collective, as a necessary space to center the thought of Black women and transform our environment. It was Miriam who introduced me to the Combahee River Collective statement, whose fundamental premise is that if Black women were free, everyone would be free—for that would mean having destroyed the systemic conditions that keep them at the base of the social pyramid. Miriam believed in this not only in her work, but in her life: her mission was always to ensure that the Black woman was at the center, both in academia and in the world.

And so today, as we celebrate the life and enduring legacy of our founder and eternal director, Miriam Jiménez Román, I feel moved to reflect on what she would think of the world around us. Although I think of her often, I wonder: "What would Miriam think of what is happening today, in our world, in our country, and within ourselves?"

For many of us who knew her personally, connecting with Miriam’s perspectives was a profound way to navigate life's challenges. I often search for her words, hoping to find a distillation of her wisdom that resonates with our current moment. Searching through her texts, I was reading one of her most significant essays, "A (Black) Man of the People: José Celso Barbosa and the Puerto Rican Race Towards Whiteness," and I found this quote that is very appropriate:

"Certainly, the most problematic aspect of prevailing constructs is that they do not allow for the protest of those who are excluded because, in theory, there is no exclusion."

This quote, while contextually not necessarily about protest, accurately captures how dominant constructs attempt to deny dissent by falsely claiming that exclusion does not exist, and therefore, there is no need to protest.

As we commemorate Miriam’s birthday today, we observe protests for migrant justice and Black liberation unfolding nationally and globally, both causes she passionately defended throughout her life. On one occasion, during a speech at The Point in the Bronx, she shared a profound reflection:

"We are trying to find a way to be fully human, to ensure our humanity is not questioned, to be 'all we can be.' But we aren't there yet, and I don't think I’ll see it in my lifetime. Even so, the struggle to reach it is worth it."

In honoring Miriam's legacy, we feel compelled to reflect: How can we dismantle oppressive systems? How do we persist in our protests and advocate for a society more just than the one we inherited? Personally, I find guidance in her words from that same speech:

"Much of the work we have to do consists of re-training ourselves, changing the parameters of how we think about things so we don’t just accept what we were taught."

Therefore, let us commit ourselves to this re-training: let us keep learning, being critical, and dismantling the systems within our own minds. May our protests be loud, our solidarity resolute, and our commitment to migrant justice and Black liberation be unshakable. For this paves the way to reclaim our full humanity in a world that strives to deny it. Let us commit ourselves not just today, but throughout our lives, so that we may leave a legacy similar to the one Miriam left us—and perhaps even a better world.