AFRO-MEXICANS, A FORGOTTEN LOT!

Afro-Mexicans make up about 2 per cent of Mexico’s 129-million population. However, after the Mexican Revolution in 1910, the state emphasised a Mestizo (mixed Indigenous and European) identity, marginalising Afro-Mexicans.

But who are the Afro-Mexicans? Spaniards captured their ancestors in Africa and sold them into slavery in ‘New Spain,’ now modern Mexico, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. Those Africans who escaped plantations settled on Mexico’s highlands and Pacific Ocean coastline to become what we know today as Afro-Mexicans, now one of Mexico’s 69 distinct cultural identities.

Almost 500 years later, during the 2019 census, Mexico amended its constitution to recognise Afro-Mexicans as an ethnic group. This historic step acknowledged Africans’ existence in the country and paved the way for healthcare funding, among other benefits.

We hope this marginalised community of Africans obtains economic and political equality in the country they call home