Of the five great African diasporas of historical record, as recently described by Colin Palmer, the fourth includes the story of Blacks in Spanish America. It remains the best studied of the “five major African diasporic streams,” thanks to pioneering work by scholars such as Palmer, Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, Frederick Bowser, Herbert Klein, Rolando Mellafe, and others, as well as a flurry of recent and forthcoming publications by a new generation studying this diaspora—among them the contributors to this special issue of The Americas, and the late Kimberly Hanger, to whom the issue is hereby dedicated.