Afro-Mexicans are an ethnic group which exists in certain parts of Mexico such as the Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Guerrero, Veracruz and in some towns in northern Mexico. The existence of blacks in Mexico is unknown, denied or diminished in both Mexico and abroad for a number of reasons: their small numbers, heavy intermarriage with other ethnic groups and Mexico’s tradition of defining itself as a “mestizaje” or mixing of European and indigenous. Mexico did have an active slave trade since the early colonial period but from the beginning, intermarriage and mixed race offspring created an elaborate caste system. This system broke down in the very late colonial period and after Independence the legal notion of race was eliminated. The creation of a national Mexican identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico’s indigenous and European past actively or passively eliminating its African one from popular consciousness. This has been changing in recent decades, with the “Third Root” movement which works to raise the political and social status of Afro-Mexicans and promote its existence and culture to the general population.

African slavery in Mexico[link]

Statue of Gaspar Yanga

There is an assumption that there was not much African slavery in Mexico since there are now so few people of obvious black ancestry. However, this is not the case.^[1]

Mexican anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán estimated that there were six blacks who took part in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The first African slave brought to Mexico is said to be Juan Cortés, a slave who accompanied Hernán Cortés in 1519. Another conquistador, Pánfilo de Narváez, brought an African slave who has been blamed for the smallpox epidemic of 1520. Early slaves were likely personal servants or concubines of their Spanish masters, who had been brought to Spain first and came with the conquistadors.^[1][2]

Mexico never became a slave based economy but slavery did fill important niches in the colonial period. While a number of indigenous were enslaved during the conquest, slaves during the rest of the colonial period were either black or mulatto (black/European. The demand for slaves came in the early colonial period, especially between 1580 to 1640, when the indigenous population quickly declined.^[3] Carlos V began to issue an increasing number of contracts between the Spanish Crown and private slavers specifically to bring Africans to Spanish colonies. These slavers in turn made deals with the Portuguese, who controlled the African slave market.^[1] Mexico was an important slave port in the New World, harboring slaves brought by Spanish before they were sent to other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.^[4]

Important economic sectors such as sugar production and mining relied heavily on slave labor during that time.^[3] After 1640, slave labor became less important but the reasons are not clear. One factor was that the Spanish Crown cut off contacts with Portuguese slave traders after Portugal gained its independence. It declined in mining as the high profit margins allowed the recruitment of wage labor. One other factor was that the indigenous and mestizo population rose, and with them the size of the free labor force.^[3] In the later colonial period, most slaves continued to work in sugar production but also in textile mills, which were the two sectors that needed a large, stable workforce, which could not pay enough to attract free laborers to its arduous work. Slave labor would remain important to textile production until the latter 18th century when cheaper English textiles were imported.^[3]

Other sector of slave labor was generally restricted to Mexico City, where they were domestic servants such as maids, coachmen, personal service or armed bodyguards. However, they were more of a status symbol rather than an economic necessity.^[3]

Although integral to certain sectors of the economy through the mid 18th century, the number of slaves and the prices they fetched fell during the colonial period. Slave prices were highest from 1580 to 1640 at about 400 pesos. It decreased to about 350 pesos around 1650, staying constant until falling to about 175 pesos for an adult male in 1750. In the latter 18th century, mill slaves were phased out and replaced by indigenous, often indebted, labor. Slaves were nearly non-existent in the late colonial census of 1792.^[3] While banned shortly after the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence, the practice did not definitively end until 1829.^[2]

View inside the Museo de las Culturas Afromestizas in Cuajinicuilapa

Slave rebellions occurred in Mexico as in other parts of the Americas, with the first in Veracruz in 1537. Runaway slaves were called cimarrones, who mostly fled to the highlands between Veracruz and Puebla with a number making their way to the Costa Chica region in what are now Guerrero and Oaxaca .^[2][5] Runaways in Veracruz formed settlements called “palenques” which would fight off Spanish authorities. The most famous of these was led by Gaspar Yanga, who fought the Spanish for forty years until the Spanish recognized their autonomy in 1608, making San Lorenzo de los Negros (today Yanga) the first community of free blacks in the Americas.^[2][5]

From early in the colonial period, African and African descended people had offspring with people of European or indigenous races. This led to an elaborate caste system based on ethnic heritage. The offspring of mixed-race couples was divided into three general groups: mestizo for Spanish/indigenous, mulatto for Spanish/black and zambo or zambaigo for black/indigenous. However, there was overlap in these categories which recognized black mestizos. In addition, skin tone further divided the mestizo and mulatto categories. This loose system of classification became known as “las castas.” This did have problems. For example, those with African and indigenous heritage would hide the African as indigenous had a somewhat higher status at points in colonial history. Slaves with indigenous blood would be branded to prevent this. Free persons of African blood would hide such to avoid paying head taxes, not imposed on the indigenous. Las castas paintings were produced during the 18th centuries, commissioned by the wealthy to reflect Mexican society at that time. They portray the three races, European, indigenous and African and their complicated mixing. They are based on family groups, with parents and children labeled according to their caste. They have 16 squares in a hierarchy with the most European at the top. Indigenous and black women may appear at the top if they mix with European, but similar men never do. There is evidence that those of African heritage were classed as inferior to the indigenous, such as the idea that African heritage could not be “cleansed” in future generations. Also, as the formal caste system began to erode, those classed as “castizo” (Spanish/mestizo) were considered white, but moriscos (light-skinned offspring of Spanish and mulattos) were considered mulattos.^[2]

Numbers[link]

Numbers related to Mexico’s African descendant population have been in dispute or not clear. Many sources indicate that the percentage was very small, never exceeding two percent of the population and assimilated physically into the rest of Mexico’s mestizo population by the mid 18th century.^[2] One reason for the dispute is that defining Mexico’s black or African population is difficult as race is not seen in Latin America as distinct categories but rather as a continuum. While Mexico did have an official caste system (called “las castas”) in the colonial period, race was legally done away with after Independence with no official statistics on race since then.^[2][3]

In colonial Mexico, Africans far outnumbered Europeans, with the estimates of the number of Africans brought to Mexico ranging as high as 200,000, mostly in the 17th century. From the mid 16th to mid 17th century, Mexico had the most African slaves.^[4] A major reason that African population outnumber the Spanish was that many Spanish women or families would not go to the new colonies because of the lack of security. This strongly limited the growth of the Spanish population. The African origin population in 1553 estimated at over 20,000. In 1570, the black population was three times that of the Spanish. In the 1640s, the African population was over 35,000, about 2.5 times that of the Spanish. By the 1740s, the number declined to about 16,000 but African descendents outnumbered the Spanish descendents until 1810.^[1]

There have been no official figures on the numbers of Mexicans of African descent since 1810, when a census found that African descended people made up 10 per cent of the total population.^[6] Between 1895 and 1930, only the 1921 census contained questions about race. Racial indicators remain in marriage licenses until 1940. In 1930, over ninety percent of those who identified as “afro-mestizo” married within their own group. In 1940, this number drops to fifty percent, with most instances of marrying outside the “afro-mestizo” group is to mestizo women.^[2] Estimates of their numbers today range widely from 200,000 up to about a million.^[7]

^[8] or between two and nine percent of the total population.^[9] Many indigenous groups are much better counted and conceded to be larger.^[4]

There is no record that large numbers of Africans or African descendents died or migrated out of Mexico.^[4] The main reason for the low numbers despite Mexico’s history of African slaves is that most of these descendents have been so intermixed that those with strong African features or cultural elements only exist in a few places in Mexico.^[5] While Veracruz is considered to have the largest black population and does have distinct African elements in its culture, the largest number of visibly African-descended people live in the Costa Chica region in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero.^[6][10] There are also some small communities in the north of the country, especially Coahuila, which were the result of escaped slaves and free blacks migrating from the United States.^[4]

Invisibility and discrimination[link]

José María Morelos

Most Mexicans deny that there are issues with race; however, there is evidence that those with obvious African heritage or features do face discrimination.^[2] While European and indigenous people are considered part of the “mestizo” nature of Mexican ethnicity, African people and cultural contributions are not. There are a number of possible reasons for this. There are few to no fully African descended people in Mexico as almost all of those brought from Africa and their descendents intermixed with European and/or indigenous peoples.^[9] Those with significant African physical heritage have maintained only vestiges of their original cultures, generally do not diverge much from the mainstream culture in dress, language, housing food, etc.^[4][11]

In Latin America, only those with African physical features are considered black.^[4] for those who fit this profile in Mexico, there is little consensus as to how to refer to them. Some sources state that “afromestizos” is considered acceptable and preferred over “afrodescendientes” (African descent) and that “negro” (black) is not pejorative unless it is with a certain intonation. However, it then says it is better to say “morenos.”^[9] A survey done in the Costa Chica region determined that the Afro-Mexicans here themselves preferred the term “negro” (black).^[7] White and mestizos in the Costa Chica call them “morenos” and the indigenous call them “negros.” Researchers have called them “afromestizos” or “Afro-Mexicans” with the aim of using a neutral term.^[7] Then there are those who prefer be classified as simply “mestizo” with most of the rest of the Mexican population.^[4] While many acknowledge their African roots, many still stress their indigenous ones as “more authentically Mexican.”^[2]

While Afro-Mexicans have been stereotyped as being loud, opinionated, lazy, and fond of singing, dancing and parties, the main issue is that they are not considered to be Mexican at all.^[2][9] Despite a number of well-known Mexican heroes with African blood and features such as Vicente Guerrero, José María Morelos, Juan Álvarez, Valerio Trujano, Mariano Tabares, the Hermenegildo Galeana and Nicolas Bravo.^[11][12] Since Independence, the construction of a Mexican national identity has focus on its European and indigenous roots, with the African considered to be residual. The idea of this construction, especially since the Mexican Revolution, was to create a single notion of what it means to be “Mexican.”^[7] Since 1928, Mexico has celebrated October 12 as "The Day of the Race" and this singular Spanish-Indian mix denies the African-descended population.^[12] Not many in Mexico are even aware of the African element in the population of Mexico,^[12] in part because the African part of Mexico's story has been limited to a few sentences in school books.^[13]

This invisibility has led to Afro-Mexicans being shut out of most sectors of Mexico’s economy and lacking access to most social and governmental services. Most live in isolated rural communities in Veracruz and Oaxaca but even tourist cities such as Acapulco lack access to social programs such as employment support, health coverage, public education, food assistance and other from the Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL) .^[6][8][14] Education levels are low and teen pregnancy rates are high.^[9] They lack adequate primary and secondary education and are largely absent from institutions of higher education.^[6]

Just under seventy four percent do not have access to government medical services (80.5% in Guerrero, 63.5% in Oaxaca and 26.8% in Veracruz). Ninety five percent of Afro-Mexican workers do not receive paid vacation time and just over ninety four percent do not receive the legally mandated Christmas bonus called “aguinaldo.”^[9] The Afro-Mexican communities near Yanga lack schools, pushing young people to migrate out in search of work.^[8] The Costa Chica area lacks roads, which hinders economic activity, along with the Pinotepa region declared a national reserve, banning logging.^[6] The majority of the black Mexican population works in subsistence agriculture, fishing, construction and domestic work.^[6][8]

The African presence in Mexico has often been denied or trivialized.^[5] José Vasconcelos’ book “La Raza Cósmica” explicitly promotes the idea of a European/indigenous identity and eliminating the idea of a black component.^[2] During the 19th and early 20th centuries, European immigration was encouraged while Asian and African immigration were discouraged.^[2] In the 1940s, the first study of Afro-Mexican presence and culture was undertaken by Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán to show that indeed a separate subculture and society exists.^[14] His major work was published in 1958 and called Cuijla:Esbozo etnográfico de un pueblo negro which established study of the ethnicity.^[4] Although he became Mexico foremost expert of African influence in Mexico culture, his work was not well-receive in his lifetime as it clashed with Mexico’s idea of itself as Spanish/indigenous.^[5] Aguirre Beltrán’s work was the only study of Afro-Mexicans until the 1990s.^[11] The ignorance of Mexico’s “third root” has continued. Blacks in Mexico have been statistically invisible in government records.^[7] In 2005, the Mexican government commissioned the first ever national survey on discrimination, but this work failed to include questions aimed at Afro-Mexicans.^[5] Afro-Mexicans from the Costa Chica, are often mistaken for immigrants from Belize or Cuba .^[5] Even in Veracruz, which is considered to be the country’s “blackest” state, Afro Mexicans are not considered to be “real Mexicans” but rather as immigrants from the Caribbean.^[4] In 2011, Afro-Mexican representatives have complained that the ethnicity has been detained and accosted by military who accuse them of not being Mexican, unaware that the ethnicity exists in Mexico.^[15]

While most Mexicans deny that they are racists, there was an incident which sparked tensions between Mexican and African-Americans in the United States. Mexico has had a comic book series established in the 1940s by Yolanda Vargas Dulché called “Memín Pinguín.” The central character is a shy and docile boy with black skin and exaggerated “African” facial features, which have been compared to the simian.^[4][12] It was an unchallenged aspect of Mexican culture until the federal government decided to issue a stamp with the character’s likeness, gaining the attention of the U.S. press and politicians.^[12] This caused denunciation in the U.S. which in turn pushed Mexican authorities to defend the characters and many Mexican to rush and buy the stamps.^[13] Another incident related to the governor’s race in the state of Michoacán, where an opponent insinuated the black Cuban wife of candidate Lázaro Cárdenas of being communist and anti-Catholic and therefore untrustworthy because of her heritage.^[4]

In 1992, the Mexican federal government officially recognized those of African descent as the “tercera raíz” or third root of Mexican culture.^[12][16] This is one of the results of the Third Root movement headed by a number of Afro-Mexican organizations since the late 20th century.^[12] This movement was spurred by both internal and external political forces for Mexico to recognize its various cultural groups. In the 1960s and 1970s, various leaders, especially those affiliated with the liberation theology movement, acknowledged and promoted the fact that Latin America has a wide variety of cultures that should be acknowledged, including African. Many of these were English speakers, influenced by the civil rights movement in the United States. However, efforts by these missionaries and activists had limited effect because they did not take into accounts some elements of Mexican/Afro-Mexican culture and politics such as the fact that Mexican law abolished race as a legal factor and the constitution provided some economic guarantees not found in the United States.^[7] Around the same time, black and indigenous communities had partnered in various ecological and economic projects, taking advantage of public and private monies in order to benefit local populations. These included organizations such as Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular and Convención Estatal Indígena y Afromexicana.^[7] The movement today includes organizations such as the Encounter of Black Populations, Black Mexico and more who work with both within Mexico and other African diaspora organizations in Latin America.^[6] The movement for Afro-Mexicans has been particularly strong in the Costa Chica region.^[7]

One success of this movement is that now Afro-Mexicans are represented separately in census counts. Another was the 2003 sponsorship by the federal government of the Third Root program, which developed educational television programs and promoted scholarship on the African heritage of Mexico.^[12] In Veracruz there has been a resurgence of African-influenced Son Jarocho music.^[6] A radio station in Jamiltepec has a one hour show on Sundays called “Cimarrones” dedicated to Afro-Mexican music and culture. The magazine Fandango was established in 2000.^[7] The Universidad Veracruzana now sponsors research and seminars on Afro-Mexicans, including black towns near Mexico’s border with Texas. Mexican filmmakers such as Rafael Rebollar are receiving recognition for their documentary work illustrating “La Raiz Olvidar” (The Forgotten Ones) and “Los Moscogos,” both dealing with stories relation to people of African and indigenous heritage. An anti discrimination law was approved in 2005, designed in part to deal with issues for this group.^[12] Oaxaca has since officially recognized Afro-Mexicans as an ethnic group.^[6]

Although in many parts of Mexico, many people of African ancestry still do not identify themselves as such, the increased migration of Afro-Mexicans to other parts of the country and to the US has significantly impacted on this population's consciousness of its African roots.^[6] According of missionary Glyn Jemmot, who work in the community of El Ciruelos in the municipality of Pinotepa Nacional, “black consciousness in Mexico is very recent.”^[9]

Afro-Mexican population in the Costa Chica[link]

Girl from Punta Maldonado, Guerrero.

Afromexicans from Costa Chica, Oaxaca.

The Costa Chica (“small coast” in Spanish) extends from Acapulco to the town of Puerto Ángel in Oaxaca in Mexico’s Pacific coast. The Costa Chica is not well known to travelers, with few attractions, especially where Afro-Mexicans live. Exceptions to this are the beaches of Marquelia and Punta Maldonado in Guerrero and the wildlife reserve in Chacahua, Oaxaca .^[10] The area was very isolated from the rest of Mexico, which prompted runaway slaves to find refuge here. However, this has changed to a large extent with the building of Highway 200 which connects the area to Acapulco and other cities on the Pacific coast.^[13] African identity and physical features are stronger here than elsewhere in Mexico as the slaves here did not intermarry to the extent that others did. Not only is black skin and African features more prominent, there are strong examples of African based song, dance and other art forms.^[12][17] Until recently homes in the area were round mud and thatch huts, the construction of which can be traced back to what are now the Ghana and Ivory Coast.^[10] Origin tales often center on slavery. Many relate to a shipwreck (often a slave ship) where the survivors settle here or that they are the descendents of slaves freed for fighting in the Mexican War of Independence.^[4][18] The region has a distinct African-influenced dance called the Danza de los Diablos (Dance of the Devils) which is performed for Day of the Dead. They dance in the streets with wild costumes and masks accompanied by rhythmic music. It is considered to be a syncretism of Mexican Catholic tradition and West African ritual. Traditionally the dance is accompanied by a West African instrument called a bote, but it is dying out as the younger generations have not learned how to play it.^[4][18]

There are a number of “pueblos negros” or black towns in the region such as Corralero and El Ciruelo in Oaxaca, and the largest being Cuajinicuilapa in Guerrero. The latter is home to a museum called the Museo de las Culturas Afromestizos which documents the history and culture of the region.^[4][18]

The Afro-Mexicans here live among mestizos (indigenous/white) and various indigenous groups such as the Amuzgos, Mixtecs, Tlalpanecs and Chatinos .^[10] Terms used to denote them vary. White and mestizos in the Costa Chica call them “morenos” (dark-skinned) and the indigenous call them “negros” (black). A survey done in the region determined that the Afro-Mexicans in this region themselves preferred the term “negro,” although some prefer “moreno” and a number still use “mestizo.”^[2][4][7] Relations between Afro-Mexican and indigenous populations are strained as there is a long history of hostility.^[10][13]

Afro-Mexican population in Veracruz[link]

Like the Costa Chica, the state of Veracruz has a number of pueblos negros, notably the African named towns of Mandinga, Matamba, Mozambique and Mozomboa as well as Chacalapa, Coyolillo, Yanga and Tamiahua .^[12][17][19] The town of Mandinga, about forty five minutes south of Veracruz city, is particularly known for the restaurants that line its main street.^[17] Coyolillo hosts an annual Carnival with Afro-Caribbean dance and other African elements.^[20]

However, tribal and family group were separated and dispersed to a greater extent around the sugar cane growing areas in Veracruz. This had the effect of intermarriage and the loss or absorption of most elements of African culture in a few generations.^[17][21] This intermarriage means that while Veracruz remains “blackest” in Mexico’s popular imagination, those with black skin are mistaken for those from the Caribbean and/or not “truly Mexican.”^[4]

The phenomena of runaways and slave rebellions began early in Veracruz with many escaping to the mountainous areas in the west of the state, near Orizaba and the Puebla border. Here groups of escaped slaves established defiant communities called “palenques” to resist Spanish authorities.^[5][16] The most important Palenque was established in 1570 by Gaspar Yanga and stood against the Spanish for about forty years until the Spanish were forced to recognize it as a free community in 1609, with the name of San Lorenzo de los Negros. It was renamed Yanga in 1932.^[5][8] Yanga was the first municipality of freed slaves in the Americas. However, the town proper has almost no people of obvious African heritage. These live in the smaller, more rural communities.^[8]

Because African descendents dispersed widely into the general population, African and Afro-Cuban influence can be seen in Veracruz’s music dance, improvised poetry, magical practices and especially food.^[17][19][21] Veracruz son music, best known through the popularity of the hit “La Bamba” has African origins.^[5] Veracruz cooking commonly contains Spanish, indigenous and African ingredients and cooking techniques.^[17] One defining African influence is the use of peanuts. Even though peanuts are native to the Americas, there is little evidence of their widespread use in the pre Hispanic period. Peanuts were brought to Africa by the Europeans and the Africans adopted them, using them in stews, sauces and many other dishes. The slaves that came later would bring this new cooking with the legume to Mexico.^[17] They can be found in regional dishes such as encacahuatado, an alcoholic drink called the torito, candies (especially in Tlacotalpan), salsa macha and even in mole poblano from the neighboring state of Puebla.^[21] This influence can be seen as far west as Puebla, where peanuts are an ingredient in mole poblano.^[17] Another important ingredient introduced by African cooking is the plantain, which came from Africa via the Canary Islands. In Veracruz, they are heavily used breads, empanadas, desserts, mole, barbacoa and much more. One other defining ingredient in Veracruz cooking is the use of starchy tropical roots, called viandas. They include cassava, malanga, taro and sweet potatoes.^[17][21]

Afro-Mexican population in northern Mexico[link]

There are some small black towns in the far north of Mexico, especially in Coahuila and the country’s border with Texas. Many ex slaves and free blacks came into northern Mexico in the 19th century from the United States.^[4] One particular group was the Mascogos, which consisted of runaway slaves and free blacks from Florida, along with Seminoles and Kickapoos. Many of these settled in and around the town of El Nacimiento, Coahuila, where their descendents remain.^[5]

References[link]

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