Africa on Mexico's cultural radar

Further signs of growing interest in Mexico's African heritage -- deeply embedded in the Mexican mestizo DNA and all but forgotten for generations -- it's Africa Week in Mexico City. VivirMexico reports that a massive floor map of Africa will be on display in the vast Zocalo. DFinitivo reports on an African film festival visiting the capital. La Jornada has a story here. The enormous Reggae Music Fest took place over the weekend. Reggae is a major cultural force among youth in Mexico City, as in other parts of Mexico and within the Mexican diaspora in the United States.

Browse any of those blogs and note the breathtaking amount and variety of festivals that seem to happen in Mexico City on a weekly basis. Yet this is an especially fascinating topic (get to know President Guerrero) and cultural trend. Among books in my current pile is "African Mexicans and the Discourse on Modern Nation" by Marco Polo Hernandez Cuevas, which argues that the African line of the raza was methodically erased from the Mexican psyche during the colonial period, and has remained so since.

* Pictured above, the Zocalo, uncharacteristically barren. Previously, "Further ephemera on the flattening of the planet" and "But you don't look Mexican..."

Comments

[Bill]

Thank you Daniel for this wonderful Heads Up post about the African heritage in Mexico dating back to the 16th Century. I had come across some limited information about this subject during my research on black Africans in European history, but this post and your January post "But you don't look Mexican..." has given me even more leads on where to find this valuable history online.

You may be interested in checking out our group blog project (based in Germany) on black and African history in Europe (and the Atlantic World). Check the archives for February and March 2007 over at Jewels in the Jungle. The project has been very successful so far with participation from historians and history buffs from around the world. I will resume writing about these histories in May and would appreciate any help you can provide us on the heritage of Africans in Mexico and throughout Central America. Again, thanks very much for highlighting this information at your place.