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8/4/2020 'We exist. We're here': Afro-Mexicans make the census
after long struggle for recognition | Mexico | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity
1/6
Mexico
'We exist. We're here': Afro�Mexicans make thecensus after long
struggle for recognitionThe Afro�Mexican population are often
overlooked in Mexico’scultural mosaic, but this year marks a
statistical first
David Agren in Mexico City@el_reportero
Thu 19 Mar 2020 05.00 EDT
3,388
When Bulmaro García encounters military checkpoints in Mexico’s
southern Guerrero
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8/4/2020 'We exist. We're here': Afro-Mexicans make the census
after long struggle for recognition | Mexico | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity
2/6
state, soldiers sometimes ask him to sing the national anthem to
prove his nationality.
García, a black man from the remote Costa Chica region, always
refuses, and insteadschools the soldiers – usually from other parts
of Mexico – in local history.
“We exist. We’re here. We occupy this area. We have a culture
and we proudly say thatwe’re Mexicans,” he said.
He attributes the soldiers’ ignorance to “classic discrimination
due to skin colour.[They think] if you’re black, you’re not
Mexican.”
The Afro-Mexican population has long struggled for recognition
in an overwhelminglymestizo country where the indigenous past is
lionized but lighter skin colour is oftenreflected in social
advancement and higher incomes.
This year’s census – which is being collected throughout March –
marks the first timethe country is counting its Afro-Mexican
population, providing official recognition for apeople often
overlooked in the Mexican cultural mosaic.
A 2015 survey from Mexico’s statistics institute estimated the
Afro-Mexican populationat 1.3 million. Observers expect the census
to put the current total at around 2 million –mostly in Guerrero,
Oaxaca and Veracruz states.
“It’s extremely important that they count us as Afro-Mexicans,”
said García, anengineer in the community of Cuajinicuilapa. “We’re
of African descent – but we’reMexicans because we were born here
and we built this country.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/06/mexico
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8/4/2020 'We exist. We're here': Afro-Mexicans make the census
after long struggle for recognition | Mexico | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity
3/6
Musicians play during the traditional Afro-Mexican Dance of the
Devils in Cuajinicuilapa, Guerrero. Photograph: AFP/AFP viaGetty
Images
From the very start of conquest of what is now Mexico, Africans
arrived alongside theSpanish, both voluntarily as conquistadores –
and as slaves.
Many intermarried with indigenous people and some Afro-Mexicans
have playedprominent roles in the country’s history – including the
independence hero José MaríaMorelos and early president Vicente
Guerrero.
More recently, however, their history has been one of
marginalisation and neglect inunderdeveloped regions such as the
Costa Chica, a dry, tropical zone to the south-eastof Acapulco.
When President Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited the region
recently, a localpolitician complained of inadequate roads, a lack
of hospitals and schools andrecurring blackouts.
“Our history was erased for centuries, so people think we don’t
exist,” Abad CamposRodríguez told the president.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1008202?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
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8/4/2020 'We exist. We're here': Afro-Mexicans make the census
after long struggle for recognition | Mexico | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity
4/6
America is at a crossroads ...... in the coming months, and the
results will define the country for a generation.These are perilous
times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian
holdsdear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth.
The country is at a crossroads. Science is in a battle with
conjecture and instinct todetermine policy in the middle of a
pandemic. At the same time, the US is reckoningwith centuries of
racial injustice – as the White House stokes division along
raciallines. At a time like this, an independent news organisation
that fights for truth andholds power to account is not just
optional. It is essential.
After 500 years,Cortés still loomslarge on both sidesof
Atlantic
Read more
Locals say the struggle for recognition started to gain momentum
ahead of the 500thanniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in
the Americas.
Indigenous groups saw nothing to celebrate – and García said
many Afro-Mexicancommunities felt the same since “we, too were
mistreated by the Spanish because theybrought us here by force.
“We knew we were different from the indigenous people, and we
were different frommestizos – so we started to struggle for
recognition.”
Many Afro-Mexican communities have “leaned into” their
identityfor social and cultural reasons, said Jayson M Porter, a
PhDcandidate in environmental history at Northwestern
University,who has studied the Costa Chica.
“The question is: how much they should lean in to their identity
forpolitical reasons?” he said, adding that it is unclear who
counts asAfro-Mexican – and what benefits that will bring.
Afro-Mexican identity is not straightforward: many self-identify
asnegro (black) though others dislike the term and prefer
Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant.
“There are people who say they don’t mind being called negro –
but it depends on howthey say it,” says Yolanda Camacho, a member
of the Colectiva de la Costa de OaxacaÑaa ‘Tunda – with ñaa ‘tunda
meaning “black woman” in the Mixtec language.
“In the word ‘Afro-Mexican’ are all the names of
self-descriptions that we giveourselves.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/31/hernan-cortes-mexico-spain-atlantic
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8/4/2020 'We exist. We're here': Afro-Mexicans make the census
after long struggle for recognition | Mexico | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/afro-mexicans-census-history-identity
5/6
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