Visibility & Resistance, an exhibition of newly acquired Afro-Mexican photography by Hugo Arellanes of Costa Chica Guerrero State, Toumani Camara a Senegalese Mexican of Mexico City, and Koral Carballo and Dolores Medel of Veracruz; is at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, Manhattan; from August 9 – December 2, 2024. FREE. 🇲🇽 🇸🇳
@arellaneshugo | @toumicamara | @koralcarballo | @lolamedel
The key photo by Koral Carballo is powerfully poetic. Let’s decode it.
The turned away pose suggests a marginalized individual. The figure could be African or Indigenous. Mexico is an Indigenous nation, and this mix is the subject of the exhibition. Curly African hair or straight Indigenous hair can be markers of one’s heritage, but this figure’s hair type is ambiguous, just like Afro-Mexican heritage. Their back is covered in blue glitter. Indigo blue is the color of Mother Afrika, which trafficked Africans were forced to leave behind. The figure faces bougainvillea flowers which are native to Central and South America.
This one image encapsulates the meaning of the entire exhibition. ¡Bravo!
Afro-Mexican
Afro-Mexican is an interesting mix. The very definition of Latin is some combination of Indigenous, European and African (Asian should be included too). We are all mixed.
The African Diaspora is the world’s largest diaspora. Because of colonial racism (which still devils us), the African Diaspora lives in a parallel universe. You can be looking right at it, but unless you’ve been taught to read it, you probably won’t see it.
Mexico’s African heritage comes from Colonial Veracruz, Mexico’s Caribbean gateway. Kongo musicians were singing the Mexican wedding song “La Bamba” there as early as 1683 (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.). Son jarocho of Veracruz is a call-and-response music and social dance with obvious African origins (like almost all the social dances of the Americas). Son jarocho’s various guitars are Spanish in origin, but are played like percussion which is a signature of Mother Afrika. Zapateado, one of Mexico’s traditional dances, was created when in fear of uprisings, colonial authorities banned the African drum. So the people said we’re not drumming, we’re just stomping our feet. LOL. Today most people see zapateado as Mexican, but it is African in origin.
Taught to deny it from birth, most Mexicans have an African grandmother in the closet (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.). Mexico’s Afro community has migrated from Veracruz on the Caribbean, to Guerrero State on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Mexico recognizes many Indigenous communities, but not its Afro-Mexican community. They are trying to get the benefits of recognition now.
The People Fought the Colonizers At Every Opportunity
The colonial narrative is that Indigenous and African peoples were happy to be kidnapped, abused, robbed, raped, enslaved, and murdered, and just accepted their fate as the natural order of things. Wrong! People fought back against the European colonizers at every opportunity.
Yanga, a town in Veracruz State is named for Gaspar Yanga, who is believed to be descended from a Central African royal family. He led an uprising in 1570, escaped to the hills and founded a free town of maroons or cimmarons, which might be called a quilombo in other parts of Latin America. The Spanish tried, but could never defeat him and is people, In 1618, Yanga negotiated freedom for his people and Yanga became the first free town in the Americas.
Today, Yanga celebrates two patron saint festivals. One on February 2 to Candelaria, the patron saint of the African Diaspora and Tenerife, Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and another for Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and mixed race people. Yanga also celebrates its founder in mid-August, Black August.
Latins and Americans Are Far More African Than We Have Been Taught
Colonizers steal everything, including your culture and identity. They claim everything is theirs. But the reality of being Latin, and being American, is that much of our popular culture and prosperity originates in the African Diaspora or Indigenous peoples. In the Americas, African and Indigenous are often blended because we both escaped the colonizers together.
I’m from Los Angeles and always thought the city was founded by Spanish Mexicans. A plaque in the old town square identifies the founding families. A few were Spaniards, a few were Indigenous, but most were African Descendants. We were never taught that in school. Many other cities throughout the Americas are now considered Hispanic, but were once considered African. The African Diaspora influenced many places you would never expect.
Colonial narratives elevated Europeans and diminished everyone else. These narratives have become embedded in our national cultures, but they don’t serve us any more. Afro-Mexicans can be proud of two or three heritage cultures. We are all mixed, and now is a time to be proud of our heritage ~ all of it.
When we learn to love and respect all peoples, our world grows exponentially.