Black Mexicans (article)

[Huruma]

The Mexican populace's African "third root" is occasionally honored, but Mexican officials have generally ignored it. University of Minnesota demographer Robert McCaa wrote, "Afro-Mexicans, who numbered one-half million in 1810, more or less vanished, thoroughly intermingled and unidentifiable by 1895 if the official discourse is accepted at face value."

That discourse should be viewed skeptically. It's unlikely that African racial characteristics had become so blended in by 1895 that they had actually vanished. Yet, since then, black genes appear to have been so broadly distributed around the population that few Mexican individuals stand out today as notably black.

In fact, the black contribution to Mexico's "cosmic race" has been so forgotten that in last November's race for governor of the state of Michoacán, Alfredo Anaya of the former ruling party PRI hammered away at his opponent Lázaro Cárdenas, the scion of Mexico's most famous leftist dynasty, for having a part-black Cuban wife and son.

Anaya argued, "There is a great feeling that we want to be governed by our own race, by our own people."

One of his supporters said, "It's one thing to be brown. The black race is something different."

Ultimately, this strategy failed, as Anaya lost. Still, he came within five percentage points of beating the son of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the man who is widely believed to have been cheated out of Mexico's presidency in 1988 by massive PRI vote fraud. Further, this Lázaro Cárdenas is the grandson of the Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's most popular president, who is still adored for triumphing over the United States by nationalizing American-owned oil companies in 1938. So, considering the vast name recognition enjoyed by Cardenas, Anaya's pro-mestizo and anti-black ploy cannot be dismissed as wholly ineffectual.

By 2001, after generations of intermarriage, no more than 1 percent of the Mexican population is said to be identifiably African. Most of the remaining Afro-Mexicans are concentrated in the humid coastal regions, rather than the cooler highlands or dry northern desert.

There are self-consciously Afro-Mexican communities on the Gulf of Mexico near Vera Cruz, where the slave ships docked. There are heavily black villages on the Costa Chica on the Pacific, although the residents tend to see themselves as simply Mexicans with dark skins. One confusing factor is that Mexico also imported slaves from across the Pacific, including some African-looking New Guineans and also Negritos from the Philippines.

Life can be difficult for black Mexicans, because they are often assumed to be illegal immigrants from elsewhere in Latin America, such as Panama. The Mexican police often treat illegal aliens harshly.

Mexico's obliviousness to its black roots is slowly changing. An Afro-Mexican Museum recently opened south of Acapulco in Cuajinicuilapa in the state of Guerrero, which is named after the Afro-Mestizo second president.

So, what happened to the Afro-Mexicans who made up one tenth of the population in 1810?

The massive importation of East African slaves into the Middle East has not left much of a visible trace there either, although Prince Bandar, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to America, is clearly part black. Historian Bernard Lewis attributes this lack of blacks to the tendency in the Islamic world to castrate male slaves and work both sexes to death.

In contrast, the Mexican experience appears to have been much more benign. According to Cerda-Flores, intermarriage continued steadily until African genes had widely diffused into the population.

It's often argued these days that race is purely a "social construct." This view often puzzles geneticists, such as the forensic anthropologists who are employed by the police to examine hairs left at crime scenes and determine the race of suspects from their DNA.

Yet, there is a definite sense in which societies construct their own genetic makeups. America's color line and "one drop" rule have kept the genes of black Africans relatively isolated. In contrast, Mexico's color continuum and openness to interracial marriage have spread them so widely that there are few conspicuously black Mexicans left.

http://www.isteve.com/2002_Where_Did_Mexicos_Blacks_Go.htm

 

[2stepz_ahead]

i read this awhile ago.......they look just like the black native americans....the ones people say never existed

 

[PPLSIntiative]

Good Post. This should be stickied. Perhaps it can heal wounds between two communities? Perhaps not?

 

[waterproof]

THERE THEY GO (c) Mystikal, Full Episode: Mexico & Peru: The Black Grandma in the Closet http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-lat...xico-peru/227/

 

[2stepz_ahead]

blacks are frowned upon all over this planet....even in africa

 

[The Lonious Monk]

Yeah, I heard about this on Henry Gates' "Black in Latin America" special. For the most part Blacks are looked down on in Mexico. It was kinda funny though. They showed that village mentioned in the article that was created by the rebel slave. All the people in the village look like normal everyday mexicans, but they all refer to themselves as being black. Anyway, it just seems like most of their black population was assimilated into the majority. It could be worse. They could have done like Cuba and Brazil and paid Europeans to come to the country in order to whiten the population.

On a side note, a couple statements in the article are why I don't put any real stock in Mexican complaints about their treatment in America or their claims about having access to lands hear due to their native heritage. First, they treat immigrants from other countries like crap, so it makes no sense that the Mexican President would complain about how Mexican immigrants are treated in America. Second, they treat their indigenous population like crap, so this pride in their indigenous roots seems manufactured in order to push their agenda.

 

[Paul Hate.]

Mexicans near the coasts say they seen black mexicans before..regular mexicans and chicanos claim they never even seen on em on tv before.Soo..but idgaf them mestizo ass latinos hate us.I dont fuck with them.