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 communities were commonly established in hard to reach isolated areas in order to protect the inhabitants from Re enslavement.
Yanga's relative concealment has also led to it being forgotten by most historians. The Afro-Mexicans have been dispersed throughout states of Veracruz on the gulf coast, Oaxaca, and south to Guerro. There has been an underlining feeling that if the people and culture remain out of site that they will also remain out of mind. Many argue that Mexico's African past has been marginalized to an ambiguous mark in time, pushed aside in the interest of national pride based on a mixture of indigenous reality with European cultural idealization. In practice the ideology of racial integration is more often a myth with European hegemony dominating the halls of power within the society. Even the nation's glorious indigenous past is often reduced to folklore and ceremonial projection. The recognition of an African "third root" is even more challenging and often times dismissive.
As I spoke with my guide named Ale Bravo and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that since 1986 the town of Yanga has celebrated its very inception in an annual "Festival of Negritude" in the month of August. It's true that it took five decades after the Mexican revolution for Yanga to be considered a national hero of Mexico rediscovered by Vicente Riva Palacio. The grandson of Vicente Guerreo, "Mexico's so called first black president! The inquisitive Riva Palacio retrieved old Inquisition archives accounts of Yanga and of the expedition against him. From this research Yanga's story was reborn into the public's consciousness and made into an official anthology in 1870.
Historic records inform us that Yanga was quite old in 1609, upon learning that the Spanish garrison had left Mexico City in order to end the rebel movement once and for all; Yanga had assembled his fighters for the mother of all battles. This rebel force had but a few hundred fighters with firearms, and some were using old muskets of the conquistadors. Five hundred others were prepared to fight with machetes, poles, bow and arrows, and even rocks. Standing up to the large Spanish garrison would be extremely risky for Yanga, especially since a larger number of elderly and children made up a large part of his maroon army.
Historic reports show that Yanga was more interested in simply inflicting enough damage on the Spanish army not to completely defeat them, but to simply force them to the negotiating table. The Spanish had already entered into several peace negotiations with certain Indigenous tribes in regard to limited self rule. There was however a major difference between the Afro Mexican and Native American realities. Due to the initial system of slaver in which the captive Africans were brought into Mexico under, there was a great danger of these homelands becoming sanctuaries to other more runaway African slaves.
An immediate deal was not forthcoming and a ruthless battle ensued with heavy losses on both sides. Once the marines retreated back to their mountainous retreat the Spanish troops didn't have the stomach to pursue them. A Spanish barrister was sent out to meet Yanga in order to convince him that his fight was a lost cause. Yanga however stuck to his guns and reiterated his terms: A grant of farmable land and right to self government, Yanga in return offered the Spanish authorities the promise the legal return of any runaway slaves who, in the future, might flee to such a black safe heaven. In addition to their own town, the black rebels demanded in writing that all slaves who had fled before 1608 should be free, that only Franciscan friars should attend to their community, and that Yanga should be their governor and that all future successions should go to his descendents.
News of any agreement between Yanga and Spanish authorities sent chills down the white ruling elite of Mexico. Slave owners in many towns were livid and afraid at the same time. There were Rumors of slaves scheming with Yanga for further gains within every town. The question was asked by the ruling elite would not such a fatal compromise given to these band of rebel slaves embolden all blacks to demand their freedom? Would the African slaves rise up and kill everyone, especially the Spanish elite?
In spite of the opposition from slave ruling class and the almost paranoid thinking of the white Mexican elites, the Spanish had acceded to Yanga's demands, and his band of African rebels were officially settled at the slopes of Mount Totutla in 1630. To this day the legacy of Yanga has survived and in some instances even thrived with a huge statue being built in his honor.
As we traveled around Veracruz state there where other African cultural reflections such as several other communities with distinctly African names; Mocambo, Matamba, Mozambique, and even Mandingo. In many cases it's only the African name that remains while its enriching history is all but forgotten.
My guide Ale and I where invited back to the home of an Afro-Mexican lady named Maria Hernandez whose family roots go back to the time of Yanga and the founding of the town. She lived in a very modest home on the outskirts of the town about twenty five miles or so from the administration offices of Yanga. As we drove down a lonely dirt road we stopped at an old abandoned plantation home that was the central hub surrounded by miles of sugar plantations. I could feel the sense of cruelty that this house once carried like long ago echoes of ghost screaming out for justice or maybe simply acknowledgement.
As we entered the small home of Maria we were offered the traditional staple of Veracruz : Tamale de elote which consist of dough, corn, and sugar added. This tamale reflects the historic links of this region with its major export "Sugar". Sugar was the main crop and a huge reason for the importation of African slaves. Its impact can be felt and seen in almost every aspect of colonial life in Veracruz.
As my interpreter and I spoke with Maria over lunch we were shortly introduced to and thin, older gentleman with intense almost piercing eyes and wearing a traditional straw Mexican hat. After a few moments his intense stoicism was broken with a very warm smile and an even more valuable conversation. Maria introduced him as Manual Sylvia who was originally from the state of Tabasco which is located directly south of Veracruz. We then got on the conversation of the ancient Olmec civilization and the origins of the ancient and mysterious founders of Mexico.
The next day Ale and I headed to the cool mountainous university town of Jalapa. Here we visited the Museum of Anthropology of Jalapa and saw first hand the magnitude of the ancient Olmec heads.
The ancient Olmec civilization is now considered to be one of the earliest great civilizations in Mesoamerica. This mysterious civilization was believed to have been centered on the southern Gulf coast in today's present states of Veracruz and Tabasco. We know far less about the Olmecs than we do about, for example the Mayans or Aztec civilizations. Many anthropologists simply assumed that their artifacts were part of the Mayan empire. The general accepted believe is that the culture arose from indigenous Native American population or the early immigrants that crossed over from the barring straight. There is another theory, more exotic, more controversial, and much more interesting to me theory that connects this ancient group of early Mexicans to Africa!
Many of the early anthropologist and scientist, with deeply held western biases against any form of African contribution to modern civilization, would not even entertain this connection for years. However after one lays eyes on the huge seemingly African featured relics discovered, its very hard not to make this connection.
A respected member of the international anthropology community Dr. Ivan Van Sertima believes that certain cultural features of the Olmec civilization show strong connections to their African origins, for example he says certain facial adorations, tattoos, specific hairstyles, and certain gestures, reflect its deep rooted connections to West African culture.
Van Sertima is also an expert linguist regarding indigenous African languages and goes on to assert that West African meanings to smoke are dyamba and dyemba. He believes that these words can account for Indigenous Mexican words such as the Guahiba, sema, Baniva, djeema, scema, and others. His final closing argument is that the physical features of the Olmec found heads show an overwhelming evidence of African ancestry.
The vast majority of modern archeology does not agree with the theory of early African seafarers sailing halfway across the world to set up a new civilization. The most widespread theory concerning this is named the "isolationist" theory which asserts that oceans are barriers, not highways, and that the Olmec culture is completely homegrown. This suggest that the so called Negroid features are merely stylized images of the Siberian hunters that created all of the so called indigenous tribes of the Amazon, the Andes, North and Central America.
Another perspective has been taking by British archeologist Nigel Davies. Davies is also a critic of the theories of ancient seafaring Africans settling in ancient Mexico. He on the other hand believes that the Olmec relics are of African origin, he asserts however that there are Negroid civilizations that are indigenous to Asia and believes in the possibility that some of these Negroid peoples joined other migrant groups coming across the Bering land that connected Asia to North America.
The mystery of the African influence on Olmec culture will remain a mystery with the question put to modern day archeologist: Why do so many of the Olmec figures look so much like Africans? How can the figures that look so obviously Negroid not actually be connected to Africa? This is surely a debate that needs to be seriously looked at by both historians and modern cultural anthropologist. Its within this context that we must view Mexico's African legacy.
Mexico's African legacy runs the danger of being exoticized, of being brought to the surface in order to highlight their "Otherness" while ignoring their "Mexicanness. The cultures of this wonderful mixture should remind us of the preceding generations, however must not simply regulate them to an isolated fixture in history. As always they remain dynamic participants in their world view. To understand the culture and history of the people of Yanga and other Afro-Mexican communities, we must transcend simply physical appearances and cease determining the extent of Africa's influence simply by how much one "looks" African, and seriously examine the cultural dynamisms which influence certain sections of the country at large.
Lastly, there are people of African decent in Mexico. Many may marvel at these relatively isolated communities that can still be found along its Pacific and gulf coasts. Of more significance is understanding the myriad forms that mark the African presence in Mexican culture, both past and present, and critically examining the many African mysteries within Mexico that still need to be explored.