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Mexico's Black People |
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| Yanga, Veracruz The most famous black Mexican according to history is a man called Yanga, whom they say isla a Mandingo slave. He is the founder of the first free slave town in the Americas. The story says that Yanga and his clan were brought to farm the treacherous sugarcane plantations. Some of the slaves were brought from Cuba and others were bought directly from the Caribbean slave trade, and brought to Cordoba, near Veracruz, in Mexico. The slaves worked very hard in difficult situations, and soon, one stalwart slave among them, by the name of Yanga, began to plant the seeds of the dream of freedom in the minds of the slaves. After several revolts and demands for freedom and equal rights, the plantation owners were convinced that they had no choice but to give Yanga his own town, with his own people, with equal and fair privileges. History has it recorded that the act that took place near Cordoba and the Port of Veracruz, was the birth of the first free slave town in America. Today Yanga is a town in which most of the black achievement is visible mostly in a museum and a huge statue of the founder of the town himself, "el negroYanga". The guide at the museum explains that the reason why there are few black skinned people nowadays in the town of Yanga, is because the blacks there have mostly migrated to settle in the United States of America. The blacks who stayed behind in Yanga and it's municipality, intermarried with the Spanish, mestizos and other bloods, weakening out the dominant black skinned people. However, in smaller towns near Yanga and in Cuitlahauc, we found a couple of grandmothers that looked like they were straight out of Africa. |
Black Pirates From Isla Mujeres, to Xcalack, at the sea border of Mexico with Belize, there are several tales of pirates who came around with their black sidekicks, and reigned terror on the people until they were killed or sent running.. Isla Mujeres has her famous museum and legend of the pirates era. From Punta Herrerro, now a fishing village on the route of what was then the pirates and slave trade alley of the Caribbean. Fishermen there say that on clear moon lit nights, way into the quiet dawn, sightings have been reported of the ghost of a headless giant black man who is on patrol from one end of the fishing village to the other. The fishermen believe that the black giant was decapitated over a hidden treasure of a pirate in the past, so that the spirit of the black man will keep watch over the treasures. That black man's headless ghost is said to continue to patrol on guard of these treasures up till today, and is sometimes sighted by fishermen. They used that as an example of why it has not been possible for the fishermen to find any of the treasures even though many of the pirates ships were sunk in reefs of that part of the Caribbean. The pirates, forced to deboard with all their treasure chests, had no choice but to bury them as they faced their future without their destroyed ship. |
La Costa Chica "La Costa Chica" is translated into English to mean, "The small coast". This area of Mexico in the desert states of Oaxaca and Guererro, has a high concentration of black Mexicans, descendants of African slaves. Once in the big town of Pinaltapa Nacional, one can connect to several towns like San Nicolas, Ciruela, and other small towns that are still populated by black Mexicans. In these towns some traditions and culture of Africa are still intact there, like the festivals where they exhibit masquerade dances. The legends and themes of their dance is African and at these festivals, they strive to reconnect with the spirits of their ancestors in their first homelands far away over the ocean. In La Costa Chica, just the same as in Yanga, Veracruz, many of the black Mexicans have migrated to the United States of America. But unlike Yanga, Veracruz, there are still towns well populated by black Mexicans in La Costa Chica. Every year around February or March, these towns come together for an international meeting of all the black towns in the Mexico. In the town of Ciruela, a black Reverend Father from Trinidad and Tobago, named Father Glynn, has been helping for many years to guide the populations of these towns. The Catholic parish which he heads there have built a library and is documenting the ways and traditions of the people. This presence has helped to focus international attention on the black Mexicans of La Costa chica, and has also brought help. The bigger town of Pinaltopa Nacional, hosts the biggest library and museum. |
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