Days before we kick off the Afro-Latino Festival here at the Schomburg Center, Communications Intern Kiani Ned reflects on its importance and Arturo Schomburg's legacy:

In 1926, Arturo Schomburg’s extensive collection of literature, artwork, rare books, slaves narratives, and manuscripts were purchased by Ernestine Rose for $10,000. The Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art was housed at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library, and Arturo Schomburg was appointed curator of the collection. Later, the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art became the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.  

Today, the Schomburg Center houses some of the most rare and purposive objects by and about people and cultures throughout the African diaspora. The Schomburg’s very roots are in the African diasporic experience. Schomburg used the $10,000 he earned for his collection to travel the world and collect black historical objects from England, Germany, France, Spain, and Cuba.

As a young boy in Puerto Rico, Schomburg was told that black people lacked culture or history. This was a comment that he would never forget. It contributed to Schomburg’s decision to devote his life to sourcing and collecting black history.

In April of 1891, Schomburg immigrated to Harlem where he continued to study the histories and accomplishments of people of African-descent. It was in the United States, that Schomburg began to refer to himself as “Afroborinqueño” -- Afro-Puerto Rican in English, because of his experiences with racial discrimination. Schomburg’s identification as an Afro-Latino would influence his quest for knowledge for the rest of his life. He would go on to advocate for Puerto Rican and Cuban independence from Spain, teach Spanish, and write scholarship about Caribbean and African-American history.

Through his work for the Negro Society for Historical Research, co-founded with John Edward Bruce, Schomburg continued to write about the lives and struggles of black people in New York, the United States, and abroad.  

The Schomburg Center has always been a site for understanding the ever-expanding African diaspora -- from its first iteration as the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art to its continued celebration of the many aspects of the Diaspora through programs such as the Afro-Latino Festival and the Black Iris Project: Madiba.

Consider the African Diaspora. Consider that it exists in iterations -- its expansion is inherent and inevitable. Consider that like boundaries, borders, and language, it has always been expanding. Language, music, literature, and art-- many examples existing at the Schomburg Center, are our evidence of its constant expansion.

More About the Schomburg’s Afro-Latino Heritage and Arturo Schomburg:

Our Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division houses an exhibition guide for The Legacy of Arthur A. Schomburg: a Celebration of the Past, a Vision for the Future, along with biographical titles including The Migrations of Arturo Schomburg: On Being Antillano, Negro and Puerto Rican in New York by Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof and children’s book Arturo and the Hidden Treasure by Ada Myriam Felicié Soto.

In our Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, you can check out the biographical film, The Legacy of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.  

Photographs of Arturo Schomburg, his family, and his travels can be found in the Photographs and Prints Division.
Schomburg’s scholarly typescripts and manuscripts about histories of people of African descent, and information about Schomburg’s family background are in the The Arthur Alfonso Schomburg Collection in our Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division.