Influenced by Indigenous, African, and European cultures, Latin Americans (those born and having roots in Latin America) hold complex identities that place them anywhere within the black skin/white skin spectrum. In fact, it is not rare to see siblings sharing the same parents and being on opposite ends of this black and white spectrum resulting in different lived experiences. This piece specifically focuses on phenotypes like skin color because it helps illustrate the anti-Blackness that is present and reinforced in Latin American cultures. It is important to take this into account because it highlights the complexities that Latina/o/x (pronounced Latina/Latino/Latinx) face. While there are anti-Indigenous sentiments in Latin America, this piece is not intended to downplay the oppression that Indigenous Latina/o/x populations have faced or are facing (a later piece will highlight their atrocities committed by Europeans). Instead this piece demonstrates through historical and current accounts how Latin America use/d white supremacy to oppress communities of color. In fact, through the use of religion and law, which I will show, Europeans have executed an anti-Black agenda while slightly lifting up Indigenous communities.
Influenced by white supremacy, which is the permanent and constant effort through various means to oppress people of color in order to uplift white people, Latina/o/x culture centers European culture while marginalizing both Black and Indigenous culture. While presenting historical examples there is a deep foundation of anti-Blackness that influences the current context of Latina/o/x culture.
The long oppressive history of Latin America can be explained through white supremacy, very much mirroring the same tactics used by Europeans to form and sustain the United States. For example, when the Europeans came to Latin America, they first began their empire by stealing the land from Indigenous communities: the first step to building any empire. There was so much stealing of land in Latin America that the Spanish and Portuguese had to use a treaty signed by Pope Alexander the VI to designate each country their “share” of land (See Treaty of Tordesillas). By the “power” of the pope it is clear to see the ramifications of this treaty through language. For instance, Brazil is the only country in Latin America that has Portuguese as their official language. The rest of the countries of Latin America has Spanish as their official language because they were conquered and ruled by the Spanish.
Once Europeans stole land from Indigenous civilizations, they enslaved and forced Indigenous communities to work the lands across Latin America, including the Caribbean, Mexico, and parts of Central and South America.
After witnessing the atrocities that Europeans committed towards Native communities in the island of Hispaniola (the island that contains Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Bartolomé de las Casas (1474-1566)—a Spanish Bishop—advocated stopping the suffering of Native communities on the island. In order to stop the maltreatment of the Natives, de las Casas suggested using enslaved Africans as a replacement. Despite de las Casas’s regret to suggest the use of enslaved Africans later in his life, the Spanish, along with Portugal, began importing millions of enslaved Africans to their colonies across the Americas to address the dying of millions of Natives that were not prepared to fight off diseases like smallpox. Enslaving Africans and using them to work the fields was extremely lucrative. So much so that the last country to ban the transportation of enslaved Africans in the western hemisphere was Brazil in 1888 (Haiti being the first in 1804).
The proposal made by de las Casas in the sixteenth century demonstrates the foundation of anti-Blackness that carried over to the rest of Latin America and can still be seen today. Case in point, imagine walking the streets of Mexico City as a Mexican and being told that you did not belong and were a foreigner because you were black. This is a common experience among Afro- Mexican in Mexico. In two unfortunate cases, two Afro-Mexican women were deported to Honduras and Haiti because they were black despite having Mexican issued identification cards. The police officers that detained these women suggested that they could not be Mexican because according to them there were no Blacks in Mexico (see https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35981727). The police’s actions exhibit anti-Blackness that stems from years of reinforced hate towards Black people in Latin America. In fact, the invisibility of Afro-Mexican in Mexico is itself a anti-Blackness.
Despite an early presence of Africans in Mexico since the sixteenth century through slavery, Mexico only recently began recognizing its Afro-Mexican population though its census in 2015. After including Afro Mexicans, the Mexico Census counted around 1.38 million people of African descent which is about 1.2% of the country’s population. While Afro-Mexicans have been only recently recognized by the Mexican government other non Afro-Mexicans around Mexico were unaware of their presence in Costa Chica, which is on the southern part of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mexico would have not included “Afro” as a category in their census if it were not for the efforts of the advocacy group Negro Mexico. It is important to note that gains will never be given, they can only be fought for, especially when forms of oppression are present, in this case anti-Blackness.
While making Afro-Mexicans invisible for many years and only recognizing them six years ago, Mexico centered the Indigenous Aztec civilization on their national flag since 1821. The Golden eagle that is centered on Mexico’s national flag represents an Aztec legend where the Aztec civilization would be built where an eagle is seen on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattle snake. Mexico’s effort to hide their long history of Afro descendants clearly demonstrates the anti-Blackness that continues to linger through white supremacy after Bartolomé de las Casas suggested to use enslaved Africans as labor over Indigenous communities. It is critical to fight against the anti-Blackness that exists in Latin American culture especially if you have roots in Latin America and are not Afro Latina/o/x. First steps include recognition and awareness. Follow Negro Mexico on Facebook and blkclatinasknow on Instagram.
