who hide in plain sight. They mix from the beginning. You cannot see them, but it's there.
Many people remain unaware of their African ancestry. I asked my grandpa, why you never told me we are black? But today, those African roots are becoming more visible. Blacks are here now, and they are demanding that their rights be recognized. Mexico and Peru, the black grandma in the closet.
Black in Latin America. When you think of Mexico, what comes to mind? Endless sunshine, white sandy beaches, the Mayan and Aztec ruins, and Peru, Machu Picchu, the great Inca people, 5,000 varieties of potato.
many of us realize that far more slaves came to Mexico and Peru together than came to the United States in the entire history of the slave trade. I've come here to search for the lost history of black people in Mexico and Peru. The charming town of Tlacotalpan was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, but it boomed in the 18th century when it became a major trading center for sugar, cotton, cattle, and horses, all commodities produced by slaves, Indians, and mestizos.
Today, Tlacotalpan is known for its fandangos, music and dance that combine Spanish, indigenous and African traditions. Fandangos are a fitting metaphor for the African roots of Mexican culture. La la ba ba Fandango Those girls are great Now the boys dance or just girls? Well they always say that the first hour for us you know like watch the girls Ha ha ha ha Check if you were one too Dance with one of them later.
Rafael Figueroa, an ethnomusicologist, grew up here. He's an expert on this music, which he's heard since childhood. Fandango, it's a really mix of Hispanic and African mainly. Even though it's Hispanic instruments, they are played in a really percussive way, and they are played, you know, against each other, with the result of a big polyrhythm. Polyrhythm?
That's African. Yes. MUSIC PLAYS You know, I've seen Fandango's ending around 6 or 7 a.m.
next afternoon. I love this town. What could be more Mexican than La Bamba?
I remember singing... chorus along with Ritchie Valens on the radio. But I didn't know that the song was sung here as early as 1683 by Angolan and Congolese slaves. Like the fancy footwork called Zapateo, La Bamba is another example of Mexican culture's complex African origins, now blended into a rich, brown, ethnic mix.
But since so many black slaves came to Mexico, why doesn't anyone around here look especially black? They mix from the beginning. That's why you cannot see them, but it's there.
So the blackness is diluted. Yes. A lot of African elements are still present.
We are darker than the rest of the republic. Also the way of talking, we have specific accents. Really?
Yeah. Can you do it for me? You say helado, ice cream.
Here you... You would drop the D, so it's allow. Or you drop the final S of some words. But it's really common among the people from African origin. I've noticed some people will say bonetea instead of boneteas.
Exactly. I thought, what's wrong with you? About an hour and a half from the Fandango's festive atmosphere sits the somber port of Veracruz, one of the main points of entry of Latin American slavery. Starting in 1535, virtually all of the... commodities arriving in Mexico, including African slaves, were unloaded here.
It was called the Key of New Spain, the port of San Juan de Ulua. Judith Hernandez studies the archaeology of Veracruz, and Sagrari studies the archaeology Mario Cruz Carretero is a professor of anthropology at the University of Veracruz. Both are helping me imagine the arrival of hundreds of thousands of slaves through this very port.
How long did it take to get to Veracruz from the ports in Africa? Some records mention two months. That's a long time to be in a steam bath. Right, and I found 20% of the load died.
Mmm. And in the 16th and early 17th centuries, one out of every two slaves bound for the Americas disembarked in Mexico. In fact, in the year 1553, Viceroy Luis Valesco asked King Charles of Spain to curtail the trade, fearing an uprising. And with good reason. Until 1650, the number of blacks and mulattoes was roughly equal to the number of white people living here.
These are rings to which they tie their ships. They're heavy. The port didn't have a pier or docks.
The ships arrived directly here. What would happen when the slaves arrived? They would be checked medically?
There were paid surgeons to review the blacks. And the check-up consisted of licking the beard. They licked there?
That sounds nasty. Why? The sweat conserved salt.
So if he was salty, that meant they had good blood pressure. How much did the slaves cost? From 150 pesos to 400. Oh. Let me compare.
Okay. A house costs 400 pesos. Oh, wow. So a slave and a house. That's a lot.
It was a luxury. This is what the slaves would have seen first. after surviving the treacherous Middle Passage.
Here they encountered a new country, a new language, and a new life as someone else's property. These walls are covered with African blood because they were forced to construct this gorgeous building after the indigenous population decreased because of illness. And they were forced to dive into the ocean and get this...
This is tombs because they are made of coral. I see, coral, yeah. Yes, it's coral. And many of them died in this process. It's a history of death and a history of invisibility.
So this is the fingerprint of black history in Mexico. Right. It's right here. Right, definitely. Death and invisibility.
Right. Professor Segrario Cruz has invited me to lunch, promising me two significant clues to help me solve the mystery of Mexico's missing black population. This is my family. Well, I show some pictures to show you. And this is a very old picture, and this is my grandpa with his sons.
That's the banditos. Yes. And this is the wedding of my parents.
Oh, look how pretty your mom is. But he's a dark man, and he's light. So your family's part black?
Yes. It's part black, and it's something that was omitted until I was 19 years old. How did you find out that you were part black? Because I traveled to Cuba. And when I arrived there, they started talking about the African heritage and the culture.
I suddenly realized my family was black. Because they looked like my grandpa, looked like my father. Yeah, they definitely looked black.
And when I started tasting the food, I said, Oh my God, it's the food my grandma prepares. at home. I recommend you to taste the mogo mogo. That sounds African. Yes, sounds African.
And we have the same recipe in Puerto Rico is fufu. In Ghana, fufu. Right. Fufu is like having a bowling ball in your belly.
Right. Yes. And in Cuba it's called mofongo.
And here we have fried yuca. I love fried yuca. It's like a big French fry.
Right. This was originally prepared by slaves because they needed carbohydrates. Yeah, they had to work all day in the sun.
Right. Mmm, this is some good food! How did it make you feel suddenly to discover you're black? Weird.
It was like if you will be this, you will discover that you are adopted. When you came back and told your family, did they tell you, like, you went loco up there, drinking too much rum? I asked my grandpa, why you never told me we are black?
And he held my hand and told me, sweetie, we are not black. We are morenos. A moreno.
Of course he was aware that he was a black man, but he rejected me. that identity. That's interesting. And I think this happens in most families, that you hide the black grandma in the closet.
The black grandma in the closet. Yeah. In America, traditionally, if you had one drop of black blood, you were black. If the one drop rule were applied in Mexico, all of these people would be black. Almost 500 years separate the onset of the slave trade and rumors of black grandmothers in a Mexican family's closet today.
What happened in between? From the market in Veracruz, African slaves were taken to work in mines, sugar cane fields, and wealthy homes. But they didn't accept their fates passively.
By the early 17th century, at least 10% had run away, forming independent settlements called palenques. The most famous runaway and rebel leader was a man named Yanga, the founder of this town, which is located a few hours inland from Veracruz. Carmen, who is Younga? A hero more than anything.
A black slave. Supposedly he was a slave of the Spanish who broke the chains. He freed himself from oppression that the Spanish had over him.
And he also liberated the slaves. What my girlfriend said. That's why they call Yanga the first free town in the Americas. Oh man, give me five, Gustavo. You're the man.
You're a genius. You could be a professor. In 1570, 50 years before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock, Gaspar Younga and several other men and women not only ran away from slavery, but spent 30 years hiding out in the mountains around Veracruz. attacking the Spanish in guerrilla raids and defending their community.
The Spanish never could subdue them. Finally, in 1609, the Spanish admitted defeat and offered Yanga his own independent town. town in exchange for peace. Yanga Settlement became what some scholars believe to be the very first town founded by free black people in all of the Americas.
Are most of the people around here black? No. Well, most people aren't completely black, but we are morenos. Cultures, they combine together and from others. So what are you?
Mestizos, because we are light brown. Are you moreno or are you moreno or no? Look. What are you, Indian? I am black.
You're a negro? You're a very beautiful negro. Hernan Cortes, the famous Spanish conquistador, arrived in Veracruz in 1519. Then he headed to Mexico City, which the Aztecs called Tenochtitlan. One of his fellow conquistadors was a free black man named Juan Garrido.
I'm following in his footsteps. Cortes was a black man. Perez was dazzled by the city's overall beauty, by its irrigation system, but especially by its gold. He brutally conquered it. Today, Mexico City is constructed on top of ancient Tenochtitlan.
With over 21 million residents, it's the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. I've come here to find treasures too. But these are housed in the National Museum of Mexico.
So what are you taking me to see? We are going to see the casta paintings. The casta paintings. Casi penis.
By the end of the 17th century, interracial relationships were on the rise. The Catholic Church allowed marriage between all groups. The law granted freedom to the children of black slaves and indigenous women.
White men increasingly impregnated black women. They always begin with Spanish and Indian, that it makes mestizo. All right.
Then mestizo and Spanish castiza. Castiza. The third one is castiza and Spanish, makes mestizo. Maria Elisa Velazquez is a professor of history and anthropology. Painted to show Europeans the diversity of the people here.
These 16 images are a sort of an anthropological cookbook, showing the results of mixing the genes of black people, brown people, and white people. What about me? Which one in the 16?
You will be here, look. Let me see. This one, a mulatto. The little kid, that's the mulatto. The beautiful brown baby like me.
Yes, of course. What would Barack Obama be? Also a mulatto.
Okay, Beyonce, she would be a mulatto? What would Tiger Wood be? A Lobo, with African descent blood and also indigenous blood. These people were crazy. Yes, they need pseudo-scientific reasons to explain why some cultures would be...
be inferior and you have to make them slaves. And they found it. They found it. 16 shades of blackness.
Yes. But why were your white people more willing to sleep with black people than my white people? Quite well, because the culture of the Spanish church allow the marriage between all the ethnic groups. And also the Spanish people have a narrative more open to the mixture because of the Arabic, presence in Spain. The Moors were in Spain for 800 years or whatever.
So it was kind of easy to have these mixtures and I think that's a different story from the United States. By 1810, boldened by the American Revolution and the French Revolution, Mexicans sought their own independence, but it would take time. So the War of Independence, 1810-1821.
Yes, it was a very long war. The revolution was started by a priest named Father Hidalgo. He called for the abolition of all castes, saying Indians, Mulattos, and other castes all will be known as Americans. After he was killed, his cause was taken up in succession by two generals, a priest named Jose Maria Morelos and Vicente Guerrero.
In fact, both were Afro-descendants. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Two black people were generals in the War of Independence?
Yes. So this is like George Washington being black. He is.
For Americans. Yes, yes. That's astonishing.
Yes. After Morelos was killed by the Spanish in 1815, the Negro Guerrero, as his enemies mockingly called him, saw the war to its conclusion with the help of many black Mexicans. In one story, Guerrero's father beseeched him to surrender to the Spanish. In front of his men he answered, you are my father, but the country comes first. La Patria es Primero is now a famous phrase.
throughout Mexico. Yes, and in fact, in 1830, Guerrero stopped slavery by writing the law in the Constitution. 33 years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Yes.
Also, an important thing about Guerrero is that he was the second president in Mexico. So you had your Barack Obama in 1830. That's right. So once again, Mexico is the head of the United States. Yes, of course. That's amazing.
Imagine if George Washington and John Adams had been African Americans. Would we have needed a civil rights movement? When Guerrero, who was a mulatto, abolished slavery, he also eliminated racial categories from birth, marriage, and death certificates.
Today, there are states and towns all over Mexico named after Morelos and Guerrero. Morelos is even on the 50-peso bill. But many Mexicans don't even know that they were black men, or that they owe their independence to these two men of visible African descent. After almost a century of denying its multicultural and multiracial roots and an official policy of whitening, Mexico began to embrace a new national identity.
In 1925, the philosopher José Vasconcelos published an electrifying essay called The Cosmic Race, arguing that Mexico's mixed-race heritage made it superior and unique. Almost overnight, Mexico's mestizaje culture became a popular brown pride movement. But if everyone was brown now, what had happened to Mexico's black roots? The blackest part of Mexico today is called the Costa Chica.
It's on the Pacific coast, on the opposite side of the country from Veracruz. South of Acapulco and north of Puerto Escondido, the land is swampy and the towns are extremely poor. The Costa Chica has remained Mexico's blackest part of the country.
...region for centuries because it was so isolated. There wasn't even a highway to get here until the 1950s. Born in Trinidad, Father Glenn Jemmott has been ministering to congregations in the Costa Chica for the past 25 years. Part of Father Glenn's mission has been to raise black consciousness, even founding an annual conference. of black towns.
I wanted to learn from him how the Mexicans who can't pass as brown or cosmic relate to their blackness and their heritage of slavery. The first occasion when I said a mass, And the grown man came and he said, who are you? And I said, I am the priest. And for about 10 minutes he went on, you're not a priest.
You couldn't be a priest. I've never seen a black priest. We black people only work the land.
We load trucks and whatever. You can't be the head man. Exactly. And he was really talking about himself. Everything is against an African-Mexican seeing himself.
someone who can lift his head and take his place in Mexican society as an equal. A racial controversy in 2005 brought Mexico unwanted international attention. The Mexican government issued a commemorative stamp featuring the popular black cartoon character Memin Pingüin.
Most Mexicans loved this character, but African Americans were incensed, calling it a racist throwback. Jesse Jackson even flew to Mexico City to complain about it personally. personally to President Vicente Fox.
The stamp became an instant collector's item, and the comic book was reissued from its first printing. The government never apologized and has never recalled the stamp. Memon Penguin.
I mean, if you're sitting in Boston, you look at it, it looks like Sambo. Mexicans who are very intelligent people, their reaction was, you cannot judge him by racist standards of the end of the century because it was based on the 19th century. 1940s so there's nothing wrong about Penguin you sort of pinch yourself to see what?
Is something wrong with me? He's your mind brother and you see the extent to which and people have really bought into a system which is biased. Do you think, in your experience, they'll have a Barack Obama in this generation? I don't think so. There's so much that has to be done before black Mexicans have access to education, political participation, social acceptance, and these things must be in place.
before you begin to produce leaders. I would also say that I have seen changes there. I now hear young people saying in a more assertive fashion, Soy negro. Why? It is because of the kind of visibility we've been able to generate.
And all the things that have spun off from that. MUSIC Hey, how you doing brother? This place looks like Harlem to me. This looks like Africa, Mexico.
It does, it's great. We speak Spanish, but we believe in the resurrected Christ. I mean, the Spanish culture, the European culture is also in us.
And because of that, it's... It's difficult to say we are only blacks. What are we?
A mix? A mix, a mix. Eduardo Zapata is a journalist, a native Costa Chican, and an example of the the new generation Father Glyn mentioned, a generation proud of their black identity.
What have these people gathered to celebrate? That one of them was ordaining the priest. He makes many of the people here feel proud. The Toro de Patate is danced throughout all of America, from Argentina to Mexico. The Toro de Patate dance celebrates the bull, which is part of most Latin American cultures.
But when it's danced in Afro-Latino communities, the bull has a special significance. His valor becomes a metaphor for freedom from slavery. Eduardo, are you described as a black person, a negro here in Mexico? Claro.
When you're little, nobody questions it. When you leave here, when you go to Mexico City to study, you go to Acapulco, you go to the US, you realize you're different. That you're a Mexican, but you have something that's not the same as all Mexicans. you discover that you're black.
Do black people suffer discrimination here in Mexico? Yes, we are a racist society. If you're in the cities, they stop you, ask you for your ID card.
They make you sing the national anthem. And they could accuse you of coming from Cuba to destabilize things or something like that. It isn't said, but in every Mexican family there is a black person. And do you know what the city folks say? They say he was born black, but we love him anyway.
Tell me about Memin Penguin. Do you think it's racist or not? No. No, okay.
No, you go out into the street and ask people and they're not worried. It's just a character. They don't identify with him. He's still just in stories. It's kind of like laughing at yourself, if you take it with humour and with sarcasm.
Why did Jesse Jackson come here to see Vicente Fox? Jesse Jackson should have worried about all the blacks that go to work there and aren't treated like people. They're treated like third-class people.
Because he's not into... He's interested in black people who are living. He's interested in, I mean, being winged. Politics.
Israel Reyes, a teacher in the Costa Chican town of Coahue, is waging a campaign to promote Afro-Mexican pride. He hosts the radio show Cimarron, the voice of the Afro-Mastizos, which broadcasts bi-weekly throughout the Costa Chica. He's trying to force the country to recognize the rights of its black citizens. The first step is being included in the census, to make it known that there are black people in Mexico. And those black people didn't get stuck in colonial times.
And they aren't just in history books, in the times of slavery. That's the thought. are here now, right now, today, and they are demanding that their rights be recognized. Do you think your effort will be successful to change the census?
We started the process in which we had talks with government authorities. At the last minute, they informed us that it's not possible to include a question on the census, but we are pushing forward a pilot census for the black population in Mexico. Oh, that's good.
How will it benefit the black community if they can say Afro, Blanco, indigenous. The benefits would be public policies for these populations. Better living conditions, education, health, housing, access to federal programs.
If we don't start, we will never know how many blacks there are in Mexico. Good luck. I think it's very very important. We are being visited today by a very well-known professor, Professor Gates.
Professor, what do you hope the results of your work in the Costa Chica will be? I hope that it makes Americans more aware of Mexico's complex racial past. Mexico's black past didn't just disappear. It's still here and in two forms.
It's an essential part of the history, culture, and DNA of the country. But for some, it's written on their faces. The visible remnant of all that didn't melt in the mestizo melting pot that we call Mexico.
Mexico is a victim of its own success. It had a noble idea. It abolished slavery. slavery in 1830, 33 years before the United States did. But it had a romantic idea that if it eliminated racial categories, it would eliminate racism.
But that was really a form of racism itself. You can't be great if you try to suppress a huge aspect of your history and a huge part of the identity of your people. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck. I was introduced to Afro-Peru through the voice of Susana Baca. I was searching for a last-minute Christmas present, and I found a CD called The Soul of Black Peru.
Now I have to confess, before that day, I didn't even know I didn't know that there was a black Peru and I certainly didn't think Peru had soul. At least this kind of soul. For me Peru was the great Inca civilizations.
Machu Picchu, the Andes. And yet 300 years ago, the capital of Lima was considered a black city. To find out what happened to all those black people, I'm starting with the only one I've ever heard of. Susana Baca was born and raised in a seaside town outside Lima. Today, she's an international music star, but she's devoted years to researching Afro-Peruvian music traditions.
I began with my mother. I asked her to tell me things about her life. After that, I interviewed my aunties and after that I traveled through Peru, especially along the coastline where the Afro-Peruvians had settled.
I almost reached the border with Ecuador, searching for music, poetry, verses. Susana told me that she didn't even realize that she was black and that this might make her different from her classmates Until she was in high school Terrible Terrible it was terrible Something happened and I was very ugly and very sad for me. When they told us in school that the teacher was going to come to choose the girls who danced very well, I thought, well, I'm going to be chosen because I dance.
She only chose the white girls. The Indian girls and the black girls did not belong to the dance group. What in your environment gave you the strength to overcome racism like that? Our family gathered on Sundays.
I would go to where they were playing music, to the ankles, playing guitar, the aunties singing and there I was. in the middle. That was my salvation. And then happily, when I won the Grammy, a lady said, because of her, the world knows about us.
This was so beautiful for me to hear. Bravo. Bravo....knows about Susana Baca, but like me it probably doesn't know very much about the estimated 2 million other Afro-Peruvians who live here. I want to find out who they are, where they come from, how they've contributed to this country, and how they're treated. How is their history different than that of Afro-Mexicans?
My guide is Carlos Aguera, a native of Peru and a professor of history and Latin American studies at the University of Oregon. The street we are in is part of the neighborhood called Malaga. Malambo was the name given to the slave market, where slaves were brought after they arrived in Callao, the port west of Lima. The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro brought the first slaves to Peru in 1527. Legend says that upon seeing the first Africans, some of the Native Americans began to rub their skin, trying to remove their blackness, as the Spanish ravished Peru's gold, silver, and emeralds.
The The diseases they carried decimated the indigenous people, just as in Mexico. To replace them, first on sugar plantations and then in the silver mines, the Spanish imported at least 100,000 African slaves. And within 100 years, Peru became the richest region in the New World. At its height, how black was Lima? Between 30 and 40% black.
And many people considered Lima a black city because they were surrendered. by blacks wherever they went. Surrounded by blacks. Black people were especially conspicuous in the city of Lima, where they were day slaves, skilled craftsmen who contracted their own jobs and gave a portion of their income to their masters. With the surplus, they could buy things, including, over time, their own freedom.
They were water carriers. They were street vendors, they were domestic servants, they also became artisans. One of the largest religious processions in all of Latin America was inspired by the artistry of an unnamed Angolan slave.
Painted in the 17th century, this image of Christ is called El Señor de los Milagros, the Lord of the Miracles. Oh my God, it's beautiful. Yeah, look at that lit up.
There was an earthquake in the 17th century. The whole area was destroyed except the wall where the Christ was painted. This was attributed to a miracle.
I think it's a miracle. I think it's a miracle that the brother painted it in the first place. And in fact, actually survived not one, but several earthquakes.
And so they started worshiping this image, and it became a cult, mostly among the Afro-Peruvian population, but then gradually it expanded, and then today, during the month of October, they take a copy onto a procession followed by hundreds of thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands, huh. So that's it, painted by a slave from Angola.
It's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. Another famous painter left a documentary view of black life in Lima over a hundred years later. Oh, look at that. How beautiful.
Look. I am so nervous. It's the first time.
It's very exciting. It's your first time seeing the original? It's the first time I've held an original painting by Pancho Fierro. Pancho Fierro. a free black man painted images known to every Peruvian schoolchild Maribel era Lucia is showing me his rare original paintings he has left us the most important images of the 19th century he shows us a society in a way that we could probably not seen documents what's this this is a funeral the deceased a man this is the widow She's crying.
Were the pallbearers black-headed? It is a custom in Peru. It is highly criticized nowadays, but it continues to be the right thing to do.
Since slavery? Up to today. The pallbearers have been black. Yes.
Oh, my. This is like a picnic. It is very beautiful, isn't it?
This is a typical dessert, and it is in the hands of Afro-women. They were both slaves? You cannot tell the slaves from those who were not slaves, because they all tell the took part in the same customs. They wore nearly the same clothes. Well, what do we have here?
Impresionante. Exuberante. Exuberante.
In three races. Indian, black, white. This scene is fantastic. It shows us three women, but the one that takes center stage is the Afro woman.
He was an anthropologist, in effect. He was in the street all the time. He painted as he looked at what was going on around him.
Have these pictures changed the way you understand colonial society in Peru? Yes, definitely. Because when we think about slaves, we always think about plantation slaves, chained at their feet, constantly beaten up.
But Pancho Fierro gives us a lot to regain the past. Slavery in Lima was more relaxed, more flexible. I think Pancho Fierro wanted to show us the happiness that the Afro population could have. 25% of the slaves in Peru lived in Lima during the colonial period and would have had this more relaxed life.
experience of slavery. So slavery in Peru was similar in this sense to slavery in Mexico, but very different than slavery in the United States. But was this truly the experience of the typical slave in Peru?
To find out, I asked Professor Aguirre to take me to a hacienda. For those working in the fields suffered really harsh conditions. It was even hard to feed their own children. Their best shot at being free was us to run away.
From the 16th through the 20th centuries, haciendas dotted the coast. The Hacienda San Jose is two hours south of Lima. It probably housed about 800 slaves, hundreds more than the average hacienda. Though more than 300 years old and damaged by a recent earthquake, a lot of evidence still survives of the harshness of plantation slavery. Every hacienda had a place to punish slaves.
They were branded, whipped, sometimes left there without any food. Punishment was a mechanism to enforce order and social control. Just imagine a riot or a rebellion of these slaves.
As in Mexico, and about at the same time, revolutionaries in Peru found thousands of plantation slaves ready to abandon their fields and join the war of independence, lured by promises of freedom and equality. Simon Bolivar has to win the contest, hands down, for the most statues in the Western Hemisphere. A Venezuelan aristocrat with a special talent for leading revolutions, Bolivar liberated six Latin American countries from the war.
the Spanish. In 1821, together with General José de San Martín, he freed Peru. But unlike their Mexican counterparts, Bolívar and San Martín didn't keep their promises to end slavery after independence. Slave owners themselves, they passed laws granting freedom only when slaves reached certain ages.
First it was 18, then it was 21, then finally it was 50. Wait for another After the 33 years, in 1854, would another leader, Ramon Castillo, ultimately free the remaining Afro-Peruvian slaves? After abolition, not a lot changed. Just as in the former Confederate states after the Civil War, most of the former slaves became sharecroppers on the very same land they had always worked.
One hundred and fifty years later, there's still many people living in the same places, doing the same work that their slave- ancestors did. You know I've never been this close to cotton before. First time?
Could you show me how to pick cotton? So the cotton comes off clean without the straw, without the little leaves. I got a lot of leaves so I'm bad.
What time do you start picking cotton every day? From 4 a.m. in the morning until 6 p.m.
in the evening. Could I ask you how much you are paid? 14 soles a day. About five dollars a day.
Oh That's hard work. It's hard, but we have to do it. Because of the fact that we are in need, we have to do it.
How old were you when you started picking cotton? When you learned how to pick cotton? I was seven.
Do you think your children will pick cotton too? No, we don't want that for them. It's hard work.
Thank you. And take this cotton ball as a souvenir. Cotton from Chincha.
Oh, good. Yeah, let's get rid of this. I got my cotton, that's right.
These workers live in the black town of El Carmen. Most of the town's inhabitants are descended from the slaves of the Hacienda San Jose. Still suffering from extreme poverty, only 27% of the Afro-Peruvian people even finish high school, and only 2% get a college education. In recent years, this historically black community has reinvented itself as the authentic heart heartbeat of Afro-Peruvian music.
The Balambrosios are like the Jackson 5 of Afro-Peruvian music, except there's 15 of them. Their late patriarch, Amador Balambrosio, helped to lead the revival of Afro-Peruvian music in the 1960s. Today, there's a party going on. Why is it important to you to preserve the traditions of the Afro-Peruvian community?
Especially today in the world of hip-hop and reggae. African music that goes back 350 years. We are a family with roots and we still preserve the black presence.
The day we play another type of music that we're featured on giant posters and we look really good, that will be the day that we're making black culture disappear in this place. Do you feel like you're fighting? fighting racism, that you're standing for black power.
Racism is everywhere. The blacks are labeled as being those who work in the doorways of hotels, or in a restaurant, or, this black guy dances really well, that's all he's good for. intelligent. I think that music gives you the strength to fight for what you're saying. Despite the kind of pervasive racism that Chebo describes, last year the Peruvian government made an unprecedented public apology to its black citizens.
We extend an historical apology to Afro-Peruvian people for the abuse, exclusion, and discrimination perpetrated against them since the colonial era until the present. While the government's statement doesn't mention slavery explicitly, Peru is the only Latin American country to have apologized to its black citizens for historic racial discrimination, starting in the colonial period, which is when slavery started. I wonder how black activist groups feel about this unprecedented act.
It's not a no to say sorry, no? We need to translate it in public policies to Afro-Peruvian people. I believe that Peru could be the most racist country in Latin America.
Monica Carrillo. runs Lundu, the Center for Afro-Peruvian Studies and Advancement. Lundu campaigns against the kind of racism that black people here encounter every day. There is a character, the name is Negro Mama.
Mama in Peruvian is no mama, is no mother, is mama, is like a stupid. So the name of the character is Negro Mama. And he paints his face. He's white?
She's white. For example... That's...
Oh my God! That's La Negro Mama? Yes.
So he's playing a stupid black man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he use black gloves like monkey.
And he walk like monkey too. That's terrible! This is Negro Mama. And all the time he's stealing or he's trying to rape women.
This is like minstrel shows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't believe it. It's disgusting.
It's disgusting, but Lundu organized protests against Negro Mama two months ago. ago and it was removed from the air but he backs one week ago it came back one she came back why did it come back yeah because they say that we are attacking the free speech they accuse you of censorship yes but now we are trying to organize an international campaign with institutions in the United States of course you can sign me up yes it was the first time in the Peruvian history that a racial discussion was so big and about Afro-descending people too. But at the same time, people spit on my face.
They did? Yes. Other people try to, how do you say this, run over. Yeah, run over. Yeah.
This kind of situations you can feel in Peru. You can feel every day, but in this context, maybe we are living a more dramatic problem. I've seen some racist things on television in my lifetime.
Alfalfa and buckwheat from our gang. Amos and Andrew, of course, are at the top of the heap, but I have never seen anything as racist as La Negra Mama, shown each week in prime time here in Peru. Black Peruvians themselves are criticizing racist stereotypes in popular culture.
Yet back in Mexico, that kind of criticism still comes largely from outsiders. Cheche, yesterday I saw La Negra Mama for the first time. Do you think it's important to get it off the air?
I think that in Africa... the fight is not whether you are against it or not, because if they get it off the air, they are going to give it more importance. But if people don't pay attention to it, don't give it value, then gradually it is going to start disappearing.
Cheche Campos and I have traveled similar paths, albeit in different countries. We're the same age, we've been influenced by the same authors, and we've both spent our careers as professors. How is Peru different for a black person today? than it was when you and I were students. I think it has changed significantly because before we were totally invisible.
Now we are visible and I, after many years, I believe it is not an issue of finding Africa. It is an issue about finding Peru. At its depth, it's about finding integration.
The future of blacks is multiculturalism in Peru. That's right. I believe that the black organization... organizations have to worry more about other aspects than waste energy on the fight against discrimination and racism.
The fight for development and culture is a bigger fight that in the long run brings better results. Obama would not have been able to take on the presidency if he hadn't been above the issue of color. Because if you are obsessed with color, you are the president of the black people.
I wonder if Cheche is right. Mexico and Peru, and of course the United States, are so much richer for their multicultural heritage. And without a doubt, the entire world is headed towards even more heterogeneity. But without acknowledging where each of us has come from, what's the foundation upon which a multicultural society rests?
In both Mexico and Peru, black history and culture have been traditionally undervalued. and black people continued to be discriminated against, denied equal access to the societies that their ancestors did so much to create. Afro-Latinos have a double identity as citizens and culturally.
They're both black and Latino. Tempo Balambrosio invited me to a beautiful celebration. His niece is quinceañera.
This is the traditional rite of passage for 15 year olds all throughout Latin America. Just marvelous to see it done in a black community here in Peru. So aware of the kitschiness of these rituals and self-conscious about it. and playing with it. It's so multicultural.
Music from Italy, music from Mexico, salsa music and music from, of course, Afro-Peru. After her father slips on her first high-heeled shoes, she'll dance all night with family and friends. The marvelous way in which her community has modified the quinceanera reflects how her ancestors have shaped this country. My only hope is that she'll continue to wear her double heritage proudly, that of a Peruvian who also happens to be black. To find out more about how the people of Latin America embrace their African history, visit pbs.org.
To order Black in Latin America on DVD for $29.99 or to pre-order the companion book for $26.95, call 1-800-336-1917 or write to the address on your screen. Today, Tlacotalpan is known for its fandangos, music and dance that combine Spanish, indigenous and African traditions. Fandangos are a fitting metaphor for the African roots of Mexican culture.
La la ba ba Fandango Those girls are great Now the boys dance or just girls? Well they always say that the first hour for it's you know like watch the girls Ha ha ha ha Check if you were one too Dance with one of them later. Rafael Figueroa, an ethnomusicologist, grew up here.
He's an expert on this music, which he's heard since childhood. Fandango, it's a really mix of Hispanic and African mainly. Even though it's Hispanic instruments, they are played in a really percussive way.
And they are played, you know, against each other. With the result of a big polyrhythm. Polyrhythm. Polyrhythm, of course. That's African.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, I've seen Fandango's ending around 6 or 7 a.m. next afternoon. I love this town. What could be more Mexican than La Bamba? I remember singing the chorus along with Richie Valens on the radio as in the arrival of hundreds of thousands of slaves through this very port.
How long did it take to get to Veracruz from the ports in Africa? Some records mention two months. That's a long time to be in a steam bath.
Right, and I found 20% of the load died. And in the 16th and early 17th centuries, one out of every two slaves bound for the Americas disembarked in Mexico. In fact, in the year 1553, Viceroy Luis Valesco asked King Charles of Spain to curtail the trade, fearing an uprising.
And with good reason. Until 1650, the number of blacks and mulattoes was roughly equal to the number of white people living here. These are rings to which they tie their ships. They're heavy. The port didn't have a pier or docks.
The ships arrived directly here. What would happen when the slaves arrived? They would be checked medically? There were paid surgeons to review the blacks. And the check-up consisted of licking the beard.
They licked there? That sounds nasty. Why? The sweat conserved salt. So if he was salty, that meant they had good blood pressure.
How much did the slaves cost? From 150 pesos to 400. Oh. Let me compare.
Okay. A house costs 400 pesos. Oh, wow. So a slave and a house.
That's a lot. It was a luxury. This is what the slaves would have seen first. after surviving the treacherous Middle Passage.
Here they encountered a new country, a new language, and a new life as someone else's property. These walls are covered with African blood because they were forced to construct this gorgeous building after the indigenous population decreased because of illness. And they were forced to dive into the ocean and get this...
These are stones because they are made of coral. I see, coral, yeah. Yes, it's coral.
And many of them died in this process. It's a history of death and a history of invisibility. So this is the fingerprint of black history in Mexico. Right.
It's right here. Right. Death and invisibility. Professor Segrario Cruz has invited me to lunch, promising me two significant clues to help me solve the mystery of Mexico's missing black population.
This is my family. Well, I show some pictures to show you. And this is a very old picture, and this is my grandpa with his sons. The banditos. Yes.
And this is the wedding of my parents. Oh, look how pretty your mom is. But he's a dark man, and he's light.
So your family's part black? Yes. It's part black, and it's something that was omitted until I was 19 years old.
How did you find out that you were part black? Because I traveled to Cuba. And when I arrived there, they started talking about the African heritage and the culture. I suddenly realized my family was black. Because they looked like my grandpa, looked like my father.
Yeah, they definitely looked black. And when I started tasting the food, I said, Oh my God, it's the food my grandma prepares. at home. I recommend you. But I didn't know that the song was sung here as early as 1683 by Angolan and Congolese slaves.
Like the fancy footwork called Zapateo, La Bamba is another example of Mexican culture's complex African origins, now blended into a rich, brown ethnic mix. Bravo! But since so many black slaves came to Mexico, why doesn't anyone around here look especially black?
They mix from the beginning. That's why you cannot see them, but it's there. So the blackness is diluted?
Yes. A lot of African elements are still present. We are darker than the rest of the republic.
Also the way of talking, we have specific accents. Really? Yeah.
Can you do it for me? Yes. You say helado, ice cream.
Here you drop the D, so it's helado. Or you drop the final S of some words. But it's really common among the people from African origin. I've noticed some people will say boletia instead. I thought, what's wrong with you?
About an hour and a half from the Fandango's festive atmosphere sits the somber port. of Veracruz, one of the main points of entry of Latin American slavery. Starting in 1535, virtually all of the commodities arriving in Mexico, including African slaves, were unloaded here.
It was called the Key of New Spain, the port of San Juan de Ulua. Judith Hernandez studies the archaeology of Veracruz, and Segrario Cruz Caratero is a professor of anthropology at the University of Mexico. of Veracruz. Both are helping me imagine who hide in plain sight.
They mix from the beginning. You cannot see them, but it's there. Many people remain unaware of their African ancestry. I asked my grandpa, why you never told me we are black?
But today, those African roots are becoming more visible. Blacks are here now, and they are demanding that their rights be recognized. Mexico and Peru, the black grandma in the closet.
Black in Latin America. When you think of Mexico, what comes to mind? Endless sunshine, white sandy beaches, the Mayan and Aztec ruins, and Peru, Machu Picchu, the great Inca people, 5,000 varieties of potato.
many of us realize that far more slaves came to Mexico and Peru together than came to the United States in the entire history of the slave trade. I've come here to search for the lost history of black people in Mexico and Peru. The charming town of Tlacotalpan was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, but it boomed in the 18th century when it became a major trading center for sugar, cotton, cattle, and horses, all commodities produced by slaves, Indians, and mestizos.