Journal Article, Taking an Afrocentric approach to the study of Africans who were enslaved by the Spanish in Mexico, the author traveled to Mexico on many occasions to study the retention of African cultural forms, concepts, practices, and values. This article provides the reader with a critical literature brief on the issues surrounding the current discourse.
Gonzalez,Anita, (Author), Jackson,George O. (Photography), and Pellicer,Jose Manuel (Photography)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Austin: University of Texas Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
163 p, rticulates African ethnicity and artistry within the broader panorama of Mexican culture by featuring dance events that are performed either by Afro-Mexicans or by other ethnic Mexican groups about Afro-Mexicans. She illustrates how dance reflects upon social histories and relationships and documents how residents of some sectors of Mexico construct their histories through performance.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
282 p., Prior tO 1640, When the Regular Slave Trade to New Spain ended, colonial Mexico was the second largest importer of slaves in the Americas. Even so, slavery never supplanted indigenous labor in the colony, and by the second half of the 17th century there were more free Afromexicans than slaves in Mexico.
Recent scholarly interest in the populations of African descent in Latin America has contributed to a growing body of literature. Although a number of studies have explored the issue of blackness in Afro-Latin American countries, much less attention has been paid to how blackness functions in mestizo American countries. Furthermore, in mestizo America, the theoretical emphasis has oftentimes been placed on the mestizo/Indian divide, leaving no conceptual room to explore the issue of blackness.
Journal Article, Examines the experiences of Afro-Cuban immigrants in non-traditional settlement sites in the Southwest. Drawing on 45 interviews with Afro-Cubans in Austin, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico, the authors explore how respondents position themselves relative to the local Mexican-origin population. Specifically focuses on the implications of 'Hispanic' identity in these cities as a category that is heavily tied to Mexican origin, 'brownness,' and the suspicion of illegality. As Afro-Cubans, respondents face a different racialization process than many non-black Latino immigrants, in that their blackness marks them as outside the bounds of regional constructions of Hispanic identity.
Journal Article, Uses data from a nationally representative panel survey of Mexican adults to examine the extent of skin color based social stratification in contemporary Mexico. Despite extreme ambiguity in skin color classification, the author finds considerable agreement among survey interviewers about who belongs to three skin color categories. The results also provide evidence of profound social stratification by skin color. Individuals with darker skin tone have significantly lower levels of educational attainment and occupational status, and they are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to be affluent, even after controlling for other individual characteristics.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
189 p., Presents an Afrocentric analysis that acknowledges Mexico's African, Amerindian, Asian, and European ethnic heritages. This work introduces the theory of the widespread Africanization of Mexico from the 16th century onwards. It focuses on the idiosyncrasy of the people who have shaped and continue to carve Mexico and Mexicanness.
