The study of race in Latin America has a long tradition, stemming back to the work of pioneering scholars such as Fernando Ortiz, Frank Tannenbaum, and Gilberto Freyre. Over the past decade, scholarly inquiries into issues of race have produced a score of works that have re-mapped the terrain of how we understand colonial race relations and modern projections of national identity. Many of these new works focus on the black experience and have virtually redesigned our long-held assumptions about the contributions of the African presence in the region. This one-day conference features three panels that explore some of the most recent advances in scholarship on Mexico, Central America, and South America. Particular emphasis will be given to the historical dimensions of the black experience from the colonial period to modern times. Questions of accommodation, resistance, acculturation/transculturation, mestizaje, and hybridity will also be explored.