Afro-Mexicans

Afro-Mexicanos

By: Yesenia RamirezSpanish

7th Period1 de Diciembre 2005

Introducción • There lives a group of people hardly

known to the rest of the world, Mexicans who are descendents of Africa.

• How did they get there? • This presentation will attempt to enlighten

the audience on how Africans got to Mexico through:– The Olmec Indians– The Africans who accompanied the Spanish

Conquistadors– Escaped slaves who found Vera Cruz, Mexico a

safe haven.

Olmec Indianos• Colossal stone heads

were found throughout Mexico

• They were carved by the Olmec Indians who are considered to be the Mother Culture of Mexico.

• The African facial features of these stone heads prove that Africans were part of Mexico’s heritage many, many years ago.

Conquistadores de Negro• One of the earliest known

persons of African descent to arrive in Mexico was Juan Garrido.

• Juan accompanied Herman Cortes, a Spanish Conquistador, and participated in the fall of Tenochtitlan.

• The Aztec Indians, who had never seen a person of color, was so amazed by Juan’s dark skin, that they made him a god.

• Juan was also credited with introducing wheat into the Americas.

Otro Conquistadores de Negro

• Other Afro-Mexicans who contributed to the increase in the Afro-Mexican population were:– Gaspar Yanga, a

descendent from a royal family, who led a revolt on the sugar plantations of Vera Cruz in 1570.

– Vicente Guerrero, Commander in Chief of the Mexican army during the 1800s who fought for equality.

Esclavos Fugad• Many Afro-Mexicans contribute

their ancestry to the slaves who escaped to the mountains near Vera Cruz, where the majority of Afro-Mexicans live today.

• During the 1860s, Gaspar Yanga, a national hero, along with about 500 people, fled and took refuge in these mountains.

• The Spanish was unable to defeat his growing community and therefore, granted his establishment a “free town.”

• The town that Yanga established, now called Cordova, is still in existence today.

Afro-Mexicanos Hoy• Despite their invisibility, Afro-Mexicans have

come together and formed the “Encuentro de Pueblos Negros” (Gathering of Black Nations) to relate their common history as Colored people, to strengthen their union as communities, to organize and open realizable paths to secure their future, and to resist their marginalization in the life of the Mexican Nation.

Fotografías de Afro-Mexicanos

Referencia • www.afromexico.com• www.black-network.com• www.laprensa-sandiego.org• www.mesoweb.com• Microsoft Student 2006

¡Gracias para tu Atención!

Yesenia