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Mexico's Hidden African Heritage

Mexicans of African heritage? This often seems like a strange combination in the minds of many. The images and overall knowledge of this legacy force many of us to re evaluate many old preconceptions about not only Mexico, but more generally about issues effecting historical relationships within the African Diaspora.

Six months ago I made an historic trip to the town of Yanga, in the state of Veracruz on Mexico's gulf coast. Originally known as San Lorenzo de Los Negros, renamed Yanga in 1932 after its rebellious African founder Gasper Yanga. Yanga led the largest rebellion from Spain where he secured a locale that was safe and inaccessible to settle and build his small town of over six hundred people. The African rebels secured provisions by raiding Spanish caravans that were bringing goods from the highlands to Veracruz. Networks were built with other neighboring runaway slaves and the indigenous population. After resisting capture for over thirty eight years, its founder Yanga, negotiated with the Spanish in order to establish the first free community in the western hemisphere in 1609.

Today Yanga is a medium sized town with over 25,000 with a mixed population of Afro-Mexicans and Mestisos from the surrounding highland region. It was a huge relief to walk around in the cool mountain air after being in draining humidity of down town Veracruz. Off to the distance I could see the white brilliance of Pico de Orizaba which is the highest peak in Mexico. After looking out over the horizon, I thought that maybe this huge almost ethereal mountain was an early inspiration to the African Rebels.

As a Journalist I had to ask myself how and why was this Yanga so successful in leading a rebellion at such a time and against a world power that was as strong as Spain? As I stroll past the huge recently erected statue of Yanga, built on the edge of town, I realize that the historical memory of his descendents lives on in the everyday faces of the people. Yanga's people have been living there lives as they have for hundreds of years, adapting to a dynamic and sometimes imposing dominant Hispanic culture and giving very little thought to an aspect of world history in which they are the lone representatives of. The evidence was not that any of them were born in Africa but because Africa was born in them.

Yanga's relative isolation was the reasoning for its founding and also for its continued existence as a predominately black community. Rebel slave

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