Ricardo Mariani

Ricardo Mariani Ríos is a sociologist and cultural researcher dedicated to Afro-Caribbean studies and community empowerment. He earned his BA in sociology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in 2010 and completed an MA in social and political anthropology at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Buenos Aires in 2014. In 2015, he founded Proyecto Nangobá, a nonprofit promoting Capoeira and Afro-Brazilian culture in southern Puerto Rico. Named “Cultural Worker in Residence” at the Casa de Arte y Cultura de la Playa de Ponce in 2022, he led initiatives to preserve the cultural identity of the community. In 2023, he earned a certificate in Afro-Latin American studies from Harvard University. His current research explores Black confraternities in Puerto Rico and their ties to Afro-Atlantic spiritual and cultural traditions, contributing to decolonial discourse and ethnographic scholarship in the Caribbean.