By Gabriela Flores & Radwan Farraj
To kickoff Black History Month on campus, the Mexican Heritage Student Association (MeHSA) screened two documentaries that showcased the lives, struggles, and often erasure of Afro-Mexicans in Mexico. The event on Monday, Feb. 6, marked the first of several on-campus discussions and celebrations that Brooklyn College’s student organizations and clubs will host throughout February.
“The history of Afro-Mexicans, or Black Mexicans, is often erased as we saw in the documentaries,” said Valeria Pinet, MeHSA’s president, explaining that the college’s lack of Afro-Latinx course offerings is one of the reasons why her and her colleagues rallied in support of the Puerto Rican and Latino Studies department to hire a tenured Afro-Latinx professor. “On a local Brooklyn College community level, I just think it was important to highlight that, especially during Black History Month.”
In Mexico, there are approximately 2.5 million Afro-Mexicans. Most live in the coastal regions of Guerrero, Veracruz, and in Oaxaqueña towns such as Costa Chica. The country has ongoingly pushed to claim mestizo, an umbrella term that refers to a person of mixed Spanish and Indigenous origin, as the national identity. According to Pinet and several interviews showcased in the films, “mestizo” erases the Indigenous and Black identities of Mexicans, leading to persistent underrepresentation and discrimination. Despite the erasure of Afro-Mexicans, there are several African influences embedded in the country’s cuisine, music styles, and dances, including la danza de los diablos.
To illustrate the lives of Afro-Mexicans today, the event began with “Así somos: Afro Identities in the Coast.” The documentary discussed Mexico’s treatment of people with Black or Indigenous descent, the historical push to “better the race” with a closer proximity to whiteness, and the interviewees’ own embrace of their Black identity. One of the interviews even described the debate between “Afro-Mexicans” and “Black Mexicans.” The term “Afro-Mexicans” has an academic origin that erases any mention of Blackness, an identifier that some Mexican academics have considered as “discriminatory” as the notion of race.
“Back in the day, no one called themselves ‘Afro-Mexican.’ There are people who are not embarrassed of being Black,” said one interviewee in the film, who resides in Chacahua, a coastal town in Oaxaca. “In my case, I say, ‘I accept that I am Black. I am Black.’ That statement means accepting the people who are living and the people who have passed away. Why? Because my roots are Black.”
The second film shown at the event focused on Haitian migrants that emigrated to Mexico in search of better living opportunities. Titled, “Life Between Borders: Black Migrants in Mexico,” the film considers the lives of Black migrants who currently reside in Mexico. “The documentaries that cover the Afro-Mexican identity and the issues – it’s very limited. So these two are just what I thought provided the most information and were accessible,” said Pinet.
National organizations and local communities have helped to provide emergency shelters for migrants as necessary, with the number of emergency shelters in Tijuana alone totaling to 28, according to the film. Churches of different denominations have opened their doors to those who need help, but resources are limited. “The problem is that they have attended this situation that in reality corresponds to government. And in the end they’ve been left without resources,” said Paulina Olvera Cañez, president of Espacio Migrante, a binational community organization based in Tijuana that helps migrants and asylum seekers from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.
Migrants gave various reasons for why they chose to stay in Mexico, with some citing concerns regarding the American political climate. Others came to Mexico as students from Africa and chose to stay once they finished their education. Many of the migrants reported leaving Haiti in the wake of a devastating 2010 earthquake, and most of the migrants traveled through Latin America from as far south as Brazil to reach Mexico, according to the film.
Reflecting on the migrants that had traveled through Latin America to reach Mexico, one student said, “It’s incredible how much resilience these people have, to just move through not just eight different countries but to keep themselves motivated and to persevere through all these struggles they go through after that journey.”
As of press time, the African Student Union will be hosting an event titled “African Diaspora in America” in the Student Center’s Jefferson-Williams Lounge on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 PM.