Afro-Latin@ Project

Dr. George A. Priestley, a father, husband, friend, mentor

Dr. George A. Priestley, a father, husband, friend, mentor, role-model, activist and intellectual giant.

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Dr. George A. Priestley, a father, husband, friend, mentor, role-model, activist and intellectual giant. Dr. Priestley who fought tirelessly for many decades for the rights and dignity of minorities and the disadvantaged throughout the world succumbed to complications from diabetes on Sunday June 28, 2009 after a tough 4 month battle. He was 68 and is survived by his loving wife of over 4 decades Mrs. Marva Wade Priestley and his loving son Amilcar Maceo Priestley.

A Memorial Service will be held on Sunday July 5, 2009 at the Auditorium of Medgar Evers College-CUNY , 1650 Bedford Ave. (entrance located at Montgomery Street bet Bedford Ave and Franklin Ave. in Brooklyn, NY) between the hours of 2pm and 4pm with a repast immediately following, between 4pm and 6pm). In lieu of flowers, the family asks that a donation be made to the scholarship fund which is being established in his honor and which will be announced shortly.

Dr. George A. Priestley graduated from Brooklyn College in 1968; and had received both his Masters as well as his Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University by 1980. He served as Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies program at Queens College, and taught in the Political Science Department at that institution for 40 years. He has also taught for two years as an adjunct Professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Barnard College/Columbia University. Dr. Priestley played a significant role in mobilizing grassroots support in the United States for the passage of the 1977 Torrijos Carter (Panama Canal) Treaty which helped to re-establish the national sovereignty of the Republic of Panama following nearly 75 years of U.S. occupation and which called for the return of ownership of the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999. He was also a key facilitator of the dialogue on race in Panama and its diasporic challenges, as well as Panama's grassroots participation in the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

Dr. Priestley served on a number of academic and seditorial boards, including NACLA (North American Report on the Americas) and Tareas (one of Panama's leading social science journal). He was also a contributing editor of Wadabagei, a Journal of Caribbean Studies and its Diaspora and a senior researcher at the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos, and Justo Arosemena (CELA) in Panama where his research interest included studies in Comparative Politics, Central American Politics, Comparative Racial Formation, and Transnational Identities in the Black Diaspora; He is the author or co-author of several books and monographs and dozens of articles. Some of his better known publications are:

Ethnicity and Class in Central America
Military Government and Popular Participation in Panama: The Torrijos Regime, 1968-1975
Panama's Political Crisis: Is There a Democratic Alternative
Piel Oscuro: Ensayos y Refleciones al Filo del Centenario published in 2003 and co-written with long time friend and collaborator Alberto Barrow (he also edited and wrote the prologue to Mr. Barrow's 2001 book No Me Pidas Una Foto: Develando el Racismo en Panama).

One of Dr. Priestley's recent research project involved the Transnational Identities of Panamanians of West Indian descent, and a political biography of George Washington Westerman, journalist, diplomat and defender of minority rights in Panama.

Dr. Priestley has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Gulbenkian Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Diversity Initiative Grant, a Mellon Foundation Award, a National Endowment for the Humanities/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fellow 2002-2003, a 2008 honoree award by the NAACP-NorthEast Queens Branch and numerous grants from PSC-CUNY.

Dr. Priestley served as Executive Director of the City University of New York Association of Caribbean Studies, Program Chair of the 24th Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association-CSA (May 1999 at Hotel Panama, Panama City), was a member of the Executive Council of CSA and was a faculty member of Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies at the Graduate Center-CUNY (CLACLS). He was the President of the World University Service (United States National Committee) during the 1980s.

Outside of academia he has held numerous positions including that of President of the Third Congress of Black Panamanians (1988), Co-Coordinator of Panama's National Association against Racism, and Vice-President of the Third Congress of Black Culture of the Americas. Most recently Dr. Priestley through a grant from the Ford Foundation and with the support of Queens College-CUNY founded and served as the Principal Investigator of the The Afro Latin@ Project (www.afrolatinoproject.org), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which aims to document, promote, coordinate and support the development of Afro-Latin@ studies and grass roots activities in the United States. The most recent initiative of the Afro-Latin@ Project, which Dr. Priestley was actively working on as recently as four days prior to his passing, was the "H.I.V. Project" which seeks to research and document the occurence and impact of H.I.V. infections on the African diasporic community in the Americas starting with Panama, Honduras and the Dominican Republic and ultimately facilitate the development of community and public policy oriented means of education and prevention.

DR. PRIESTLEY WILL BE SORELY MISSED BY THE MANY WHOSE LIVES HE TOUCHED AND INSPIRED.

Dr. George A. Priestley, un padre, esposo, amigo, mentor

Dr. George A. Priestley, un padre, esposo, amigo, mentor, papel-modelo, activista e intelectual gigante.

Un servicio conmemorativo se celebrará el domingo 5 de julio de 2009 en el Auditorio de Medgar Evers College-CUNY, 1650 Bedford Avenue. (entrada situada en la calle Montgomery apuesta Bedford Ave. y Franklin Ave. en Brooklyn, Nueva York) entre las horas de 2 p.m. y de 4pm con una repast inmediatamente después, entre las 4pm y 6pm. En lugar de flores, la familia pide que se hizo una donación al fondo de becas que se está creando en su honor y que se anunciarán en breve.

Dr. George Priestley
Nació el 13 de octubre de 1940, en Guachapalí (Barrio El Marañón), Panamá. Inició sus primeros años en las aulas de clases en la Escuela José De Obaldía. Cursó el primer ciclo de secundaria en el Colegio Artes y Oficios.

Becado, George Priestley culminó su instrucción media en el Instituto Pan Americano, un prestigioso colegio privado exclusivo de capas medias, con altísimas calificaciones, que le merecieron ocupar el Cuadro de Honor de su graduación. Laboró, brevemente, como Asistente de Contabilidad en una conocida empresa privada y, posteriormente, se trasladó a Estados Unidos y se graduó en Brooklyn College. Realizó estudios de postgrado en Lisboa, Portugal y recibió una Maestría y Doctorado en la distinguida Universidad de Columbia (Nueva York), pasando a ser uno de los pocos panameños titulados en la historia de esa institución académica.

Fungió como Director del Área de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Queens College y fue profesor del Departamento de Ciencias Políticas de dicha institución. También fue Profesor Adjunto del Departamento de Estudios Pan Africanos en Barnard College /Universidad de Columbia. Además, cumplió con compromisos profesionales en numerosos consejos editoriales, incluida NACLA (North American Report on the Americas) y la Revista Tareas , una de las publicaciones de ciencias sociales más reputadas de Panamá, junto a los Doctores Alfredo Soler (q. e. p. d), Carmen Miró, Guillermo Castro, Ligia Herrera y Marco Gandásegui, entre otros. Desde la década de los años 1970, estableció una relación de colaboración, y un largo andar, con el Sociólogo, Poeta y Cineasta, Gerardo Maloney, Director del Centro de Estudios Afropanameños "Armando Fortune". Igualmente, contribuyó como editor invitado de Wadabagei, una revista de Estudios del Caribe y su Diáspora. Priestley también fue investigador senior en el Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos "Justo Arosemena" (CELA), en Ciudad de Panamá, República de Panamá.

Las investigaciones del Dr. Priestley cubrieron estudios en Política Comparativa, Política en Centro América, Formaciones Raciales, e Identidades Transnacionales en la Diáspora Negra. Es autor y co-autor de varios libros, múltiples ensayos y atículos. Algunas de sus publicaciones más destacadas son: Etnicidad y Clases en Centro América; Gobierno Militar y Participación Popular en Panamá: El Regimen de Torrijos, 1968-1975; La Crisis Política en Panamá: ¿Existe una Altenativa Democrática?; Piel Oscura Panamá: Reflexiones y Ensayos al Filo del Centenario (Noviembre 2003).

Sus proyectos de investigación más recientes cubrían las Identidades Transnacionales de los Panameños de Ascendencia Antillana y una Biografía Política del insigne George Westerman, periodista, diplomático y defensor de los derechos de las minorías en Panamá. Como Director del Proyecto Afro Latino, una iniciativa que cuenta con los auspicios de la Fundación Ford , venía coordinando el trabajo de un equipo de profesionales de las ciencias sociales de República Dominicana, Honduras y Panamá, que buscan determinar el impacto del VHI-SIDA en las poblaciones negras de esos países, respectivamente, y la formulación de propuestas de políticas públicas y acciones de cara a la atención de este tema. En el caso de Panamá, el trabajo está focalizado en la Provincia de Colón.

El Profesor Priestley fue merecedor de numerosas distinciones, incluida la Honorable Orden Gulbenkian, una beca de la Iniciativa de la Diversidad de la Fundación Ford , un Premio de la Fundación Mellon , y numerosas becas de investigación de la unidad de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York (CUNY), que le permitieron mantenerse en un ir y venir, permanente, en íntima conexión con su patria. Aun cuando residió por más de 40 años en Estados Unidos, optó por no hacerse ciudadano estadounidense y asumió las limitantes civiles que ello implicó.

El Profesor Priestley fungió como Director Ejecutivo de la Asociación de Estudios del Caribe del City University of New York, Director de Programa de la 24ª Conferencia de la Asociación de Estudios del Caribe-AEC (mayo 1999, Ciudad de Panamá). Fue Presidente del Comité Nacional Estados Unidos, del Servicio Universitario Mundial-WUS (Ginebra, Suiza), durante la década de los años 1980.

Más allá de la academia, George Priestley ocupó numerosas posiciones, incluida la Vicepresidencia del 3º Congreso de Culturas Negras de las Américas (Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1982), la Presidencia del 3º Congreso del Negro Panameño (Panamá, Nov-Dic 1988), y co-coordinador del Comité Panameño contra el Racismo.

El Observatorio Panamá Afro, una iniciativa animada por el Dr. George Priestley y aun pendiente de formalización, llevará su nombre In Memoria.

Son estas apenas unas líneas sobre George Priestley (Octubre 13, 1940-Junio 28,.2009) cuyo trabajo, contribuciones y legado trascienden esta breve nota.

The Real Economics Of Immigration Reform

"By ignoring the role of Immigration policy in our economic situation, Americans are actually hurting themselves."

Cristina Jiménez

Shortly after the November election, a few congressional offices privately acknowledged that it would be smart for the Obama administration to try to include pro-immigration provisions in the upcoming stimulus package. Some policy staffers were reading studies and hearing testimonies about how hardworking immigrants drive productivity and job creation across many different sectors of the economy. But as the stimulus bill gets finalized in conference this week and heads to Obama's desk for a signature, immigration will be debated only in the narrow terms of E-verify, the Bush-mandated system that all businesses benefiting from the stimulus may be required to use to verify the immigration status of their employees.

What more can we expect? After all, immigration reform is a tougher sell in a recession. That’s the blunt observation Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib recently offered: "Pushing any kind of immigration reform, particularly one that includes a path toward legalization, is a lot harder in an environment in which Americans are losing jobs."

Yet the political difficulty predates the Wall Street collapse and job-loss figures. For years, there has been little analysis of how a path toward legalization would increase the positive economic contributions of undocumented immigrants. Instead, conservative critics have found willing partners in the media and government to turn immigration reform into a zero-sum game, a war of us-versus-them in which every job performed by an "illegal" must have been stolen from a more deserving American.

The politics won't change until the real economics of immigration reframe the debate.

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Who Are Afro-Latin@s ?

Afro-Latin@s (our spelling incorporates a combined o and an a at the end to include masculine and feminine identities) currently occupy a crucial place in racial and ethnic relations in the United States and internationally.

Learn more here