Travels of self-discovery: African heritage in MexicoPosted in Anthropology, Articles, Caribbean/Latin America, History, Media Archive, Mexico on 2012-10-06 19:11Z by Steven |
Travels of self-discovery: African heritage in Mexico
American Observer: American University’s Graduate Journalism Magazine
American University, Washington, D.C.
2009-11-12
Carmen Castro
Cesareo Moreno clearly remembers his family visit to Guanajuato, Mexico, in 2004.
He was on a mission to learn more about his Mexican heritage. Moreno told his uncle he wanted to learn more about the African culture.
His uncle thought Moreno was talking about a project [what project? Is it African-related?] on the Mexican coastal state of Veracruz, Moreno says. When he told his uncle his research was about [African in?] their home state of Guanajuato, Moreno says his gave a look of disbelief.
“He tells me in a dead serious way … just no there isn’t. It’s like it doesn’t exist. Not in our backyard. Not in our family. Not in our hometown,” Moreno said.
It’s reactions like this that have motivated Moreno to put so much time into learning about the history of Afro-Mexicans, descendants of African slaves. They were brought to Mexico during the Spanish colonization era in the early 16th century. It is a study that emerged in the 1940s with the groundbreaking research of anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán…
Read the entire article here.