The Puerto Rican capital witnessed a large gathering of Afro Puerto Ricans and anti-racist activists on Tuesday, May 14. Even with threats of the day’s heat index reaching as high as 108 degrees Fahrenheit, demonstrators showed up in San Juan for an Afro Hair Pride rally designed to prove that people with afro-textured roots love their hair attributes and the inheritance it portrays.
For three hours, 30 different groups gathered with supporters to occupy the grounds in front of legislative offices and pressure politicians to pass Senate Bill 1282 (PS 1282). The bill, which was already approved in the Senate on April 18, now just needs to be evaluated and passed by the House of Representatives before making its way to the governor for his signature.
But this session of Puerto Rico’s Legislative Assembly ends as soon as this June.
“So we are a little bit against the clock,” Sacha Antonetty-Lebron, founder of the Afro Puerto Rican magazine Revista Étnica, told the AmNews. “And if we do not see this bill in the House, the effort of having won in the Senate would remain, but, unfortunately, we would have to start the whole process all over again next year.”
The Afro Hair Pride rally was organized by Revista Étnica, the Cimarrona Resistance Collective, and the community organization Colectivo Ilé—three groups that are part of Puerto Rico’s anti-racist movement network.
The network has been promoting anti-racist education and ways to help change public policies since 2020, following the global anti-racism uprisings after the murder of George Floyd. One of the programs they created was called AfroJuventudes, which allowed young people to talk about the issues affecting them. Many spoke about the racial discrimination they suffer and their lack of job opportunities—often tied to a prominently Black physical appearance. “We worked with 50 young Black and Afro-descendent women throughout the archipelago of Puerto Rico,” Antonetty-Lebron said. “And one of the issues we were working on was hair. We also talked about the opportunity to do activist work, we gave anti-racist education, and showed that we can generate public policies that could bring about change throughout the country.”
A day to celebrate kinky hair
The Afro Hair Pride rally was used as a day to celebrate kinky hair and to show off varied hairstyles alongside music, art, grooming and styling stations, book exhibitions, and educational materials. The event was modeled after Brazil’s Marcha do Orgulho Crespo (Afro Hair Pride March) which first took place in São Paulo in 2015 but has gained fame for its celebrations in southern Brazil’s Paraná state.
Speakers at the Puerto Rico rally included Alanis M. Ruiz Guevara of the Cimarrona Resistance Collective. Ruiz Guevara had been serving as an intern in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives when she heard about the work of the U.S.-based CROWN Coalition. PS 1282, the “Law Against Discrimination Based on Hair Styles,” is Puerto Rico’s version of the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act which, in some 23 U.S. states and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, prohibits denial of employment, admission to educational institutions, or other opportunities to people because of their naturally kinky hair texture.
This year’s version of the bill is a follow-up to the original 2021 legislation which stalled in the House of Representatives. Co-authored by Senators Ana Irma Rivera Lassén and Rafael Bernabe Riefkohl of the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (Citizen Victory Movement), the text of the PS 1282 bill points out that the discrimination against people who wear their hair in natural Black hairstyles is so emotionally and psychologically potent that it forces Afro Puerto Ricans to “change their identity or their physical appearance in order to access different spaces in education, employment or even housing.”
The bill references an article from Revista Étnica, which looked at how anti-Black racism affects children in Puerto Rican schools. In the archipelago’s public and private schools, there are explicit rules against hair styles that feature braids or that use so-called “ethnic-cuts.” “Racist slurs or lack of racial affirmation in the school or family environment are events that shape and define childhood identity development,” the article, written by Edmy Ayala, argues: “And it may even follow them into adulthood. Language has been repeatedly identified as a tool that perpetuates individual and institutional racism.”
Ruiz Guevara had worked with groups from Puerto Rico’s anti-racist movement network like Programa de Afrodescendencia de la UPR, Colectivo Ilé, Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, Taller Salud, Braave and Corredor Afro to create the petition that called for the creation of PS 1282. The petition is available at https://dejatesentir.com/ley-antidiscrimen-cabello-afro/. Afro Puerto Ricans encourage supporters to sign it, even if they’re not based in Puerto Rico: the ideas behind it are universal.
The petition states that it wants a law that promotes healthy self-images and that combats systemic discrimination. “Testimonials and statistics show that discrimination based on African hair, hairstyles, and stylings can impact girls as young as five years old, setting a terrible precedent for their current and future experiences in school and the workplace,” the petition declares: “Imagine entering the world of work and having your talents, skills, and abilities be what really matters, and having your hair celebrated and appreciated, not scrutinized.
“That is the present and future we are forging with this bill. A present and a future where your identity is not questioned or violated and you can live well, in dignity, and fulfill your dreams.”