A few weeks ago, while searching for topics for the first paper, I came across some literature about Afro-Mexicans. Yes! Mexicans of African decent. I was really interested and I visited a website by Anthropologist Bobby Vaughn, I went to the Berkeley library and looked for more information on the subject and surprisingly there was significant scholarly literature about this topic. Despite all the literature about Afro-Mexicans people continue to have a hard time imagining Mexicans as black or continue to think that, as Bobby Vaughn writes, "there couldn't have been more than a handful of slaves in Mexico." Although there is variance on the number of slaves that were brought to Mexico , I find that irrelevant, they are are a part of Mexico and they are Mexicans.
For what I have read, many of the Afro-Mexican communities have been marginalized and experience racism (Vaughn), yet in the videos, there was also a sense of pride in being African AND Mexican. Although it is true that Mexicans more often than not ignore that third root, Africa, these people represent the great diversity of Mexico and Latin America. I find it interesting that although this people will refer to themselves as "negros" (Spanish for black), they understand themselves as simply Mexicans.
Here is the website
http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1936-bobby-vaughn-s-homepage-afro-mexicans-of-costa-chica
and I will post some of the videos
Thanks for posting this, I really enjoyed the historical tribute video you provided. Black is definitely not the first image to come to most peoples' minds when prompted with the construct of Mexican. My best friend is actually Mexican and Black, but her parents met in the US, so it was very informative to learn that these mixes were occurring throughout history, within Mexico also.
ReplyDeleteI also find it interesting that, though these people call themselves "Negro" (or Black), they consider themselves as completely Mexican. However, I guess I don't see it as all that different from how most people of African-descent in the US refer to themselves as "Black" and still consider themselves as being American. The term that I did find as a particularly interesting choice to be used in self-reference by Black Mexicans was "Cuban," I wonder why of all words that would be chosen.