Obscure Afro-Latino Slave Rebellions/History/Culture/Facts Thread

[cole phelps]

The Yungas
After their emancipation in the 19th century, Afro-Bolivians would relocate to a place called the Yungas. The Yungas, which is not far north from the city of La Paz, is where most of the country’s coca is grown. In parts of the Yungas such as Coroico, Mururata, Chicaloma, Calacala-Coscoma, and Irupana are a large number of Bolivians of African heritage. Before the Bolivians relocated to the Yungas, it was a place mostly inhabited by indigenous Aymara people and mestizos (European and Native mixed people). It is believed that the Natives thought that darker skin was more attractive, which is why they were impressed with the skin of the Africans when they first began arriving to Bolivia. For this reason, it is no surprise that many of the Afro-Bolivians would intermarry with the Aymara, adopt many of their cultural elements such as their style of dressing, and even become an Aymaran speaking subculture.[2]



In El Salvador, there was frequent intermarriage between black male slaves and Amerindian women. Many of these slaves intermarried with Amerindian women in hopes of gaining freedom (if not for themselves, then their offspring). Many mixed African and Amerindian children resulted from these unions. The Spanish tried to prevent such Afro-Amerindian unions, but the mixing of the two groups could not be prevented. Slaves continued to pursue natives with the prospect of freedom. According to Richard Price's book Maroon Societies (1979), it is documented that during the colonial period that Amerindian women would rather marry black men than Amerindian men, and that black men would rather marry Amerindian women than black women so that their children will be born free. Price quoted this from a history by H.H. Bancroft published in 1877 referring to colonial Mexico. El Salvador's African population lived under similar circumstances, and the mixing between black men and native women was common during colonial times.



Saya music
The biggest African influence in Bolivian culture is Saya music or La Saya. Saya, which is growing in popularity in Bolivia, is still very misunderstood. The reason for this lack of understanding of saya is because the interpretation of the instruments as well as the rhythm is very peculiar. It involves Andean instruments incorporated with African percussion. The primary instrument is the drum, which was passed on by their African ancestors, along with gourds, shakers, and even jingles bells that are attached to their clothing on the ankle area.
During the performance of saya, the Afro-Bolivians wear Aymara style clothing. The women wear a bright multi-colored blouse with ribbons, a multi-colored skirt called a “pollera”, with a “manta” (back cover) in their hand, and a bowler hat. The men on the other hand, wear a hat, feast shirt, an Aymara style slash around the waist, woolen thick cloth pants called “bayeta pants”, and sandals.
Every rhythm of Saya begins with the beating of a jingle bell by the Caporal (foreman) who guides the dance. This Caporal (also called capataz) guides the dancers with a cudgel (whip) in hand, decorated pants, and jingle bells near the ankles. The women, who have their own guide during this dance, sing while moving their hips, shaking their hands, as well as dialoguing with the men who play the bass drum and coancha.[

 

[cole phelps]

From 1851, the Colombian State promoted the ideology of mestizaje, or miscegenation. This whitening of the African population was an attempt by the Colombian government to minimize or, if possible, totally eliminate any traces of Black African or indigenous descent among the Criollos. So in order to maintain their cultural traditions, many Africans and indigenous peoples went deep into the isolated jungles. Afro-Colombians and indigenous people were, and continue to be, the targets of the armed actors who want to displace them in order to take their lands for sugar cane plantations, for coffee and banana plantations, for mining and wood exploitation.


There are six major groups: the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Ewe, Akan, and the Bantu (mostly Zulu). Most of the slaves were sent to Brazil, and the Caribbean, but lesser numbers went to Colombia and Venezuela. Countries with significant black, mulatto, or zambo populations today include Brazil (c, 100 million, if including the pardo Brazilian population), Haiti (8.7 million), Dominican Republic (up to 10 million), Cuba (up to 7 million), Colombia (5 million) and Puerto Rico. Recent genetic research in UPR Mayaguez has brought to light that 26.4% of Puerto Ricans have Black African heritage on the X chromosome and 20% on the Y chromosome, thus between 20%–46% of the Puerto Rican population has African heritage.




There were many instances when black and mulatto men would intermarry with Mayan and other native women in Guatemala. These unions were more common in some regions than others. In Escuintla (called Escuintepeque at the time), the Pipil-speaking natives who lived at higher elevations tended to live away from the lowland coastal hot lands where black and mulatto men were concentrated. Yet, as black men grew in number during this period (1671-1701), a tendency developed for them to marry native women. In Zapotitlán (also known as Suchitepéquez), Spaniards were proportionately more significant than in Escuintla. Thus the smaller African population had less opportunity for endogamy and was disappearing by the early 18th Century as blacks married Mayans and mulattoes married mestizos and lower-ranking Spaniards. Finally in Guazacapán, a Pipil district that was 10% non native, church marriages between Mayas or Pipils and free mulattoes were rare. But black men frequently married Mayan women in informal unions, which resulted in a significant population of mestizaje here and throughout the coastal region. In the Valle de las Vacas, black male slaves also intermarried with Mayan women

 

[cole phelps]

The Nations


The Casa Mínima, built by freedmen following the 1812 abolition of slavery in Argentina.

Slaves would group themselves in societies they called nations, some of which were Conga, Cabunda, African Argentine, Mozambique, etc.
The commonalities among the meeting places of the nations included artificially flattened and sanded opened spaces for dancing; others were closed in with interior free space. In some cases the rooms were carpeted, and curtained, having been provided these items by the slave owner. The nation had its king and queen, previously chosen by democratic election, and a throne was erected where the flag of a particular nation was displayed. Every nation had a flag. There was also a platform, or dais, which among other things was used to receive great dignitaries such as Juan Manuel de Rosas, his wife, and his daughter, as portrayed in a painting by Martín Boneo. The headquarters was the site of social gatherings and dances.

Often the Afro-Argentine societies centered around the barrios, such as the del Mondongo nation or the del Tambor society. The Mondongo nation was one of the most important in Buenos Aires and was composed of 16 blocks in the barrio of Monserrat. Its name derived from the large quantity of tripe (mondongo) consumed by its members. The name Tambor was quite common in many towns, as the drum was the favored African instrument for dances and songs.[citation
Sometimes slaves were purchased individually from abroad through an agent. For example, a letter sent from Rio de Janeiro says:

“

My dear sir: on behalf of the schooner Ávila I send you the negro girl that you charged me with purchasing here. She is thirteen or fourteen years old, was born in the Congo, and is called María. I will put on record that I have received the five hundred peso price. Greetings to you.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I've always been curious about this kind of history. Obviously they won't teach it in public school because there's not enough white people involved. Glad you posted it here in TLR, too.

 

[cole phelps]

Decline of the Afro-Argentine population


The bloody War of Paraguay (1865-1870) and the Yellow Fever Epidemic have been attributed to the drastic diminution of the Afro-Argentine population.
Causes of Reduction

• Heavy casualties caused by constant civil wars and foreign wars: Blacks formed a disproportionate part of the Argentine army in the long and bloody War of Paraguay (1865–1870), in which the loss of lives on both sides were high.
• Epidemics, especially of yellow fever in 1871: the traditional history holds that the epidemics had greater impact in areas where the poorest people lived.
• Emigration (meaning movement of a population out of one country to another, as opposed to immigration: movement of people into a country from another). Large numbers of Afro-Argentines emigrated particularly to Uruguay and Brazil, where black populations had historically been larger and had a more favorable political climate;
• Massive immigration from Europe between 1880 and 1950,[12] boosted by the Constitution of 1853, that quickly multiplied the country's population. Like Australia in the 1950s to 1980s, European immigrants were encouraged while non-Europeans were virtually excluded.

Slavery was officially abolished in Argentina in 1813, although many Afro-Argentine were still held as slaves, and were only granted their freedom as a condition of fighting in Argentina's wars. For this reason, African males had disproportionate numbers in the war against Spain for Argentina's independence. A huge number of African descended males were killed in the war compared to the Spanish Argentines.
Unfortunately, a free Afro-Argentine had less chance of survival than an enslaved Afro-Argentine. Enslaved Afro-Argentines were seen as investments, and so were taken good care of. On the other hand, free Afro-Argentines were left with menial jobs for low pay, or forced to become beggars in the streets. For this reason, poverty in the Afro-Argentine community was prevalent at the time. In fact, many Afro-Argentines died from disease because they could not afford proper medical care. Many Afro-Argentines were decimated by frequent plagues like yellow fever.[

 

[cole phelps]

African influence in Argentine culture

Tango
Perhaps the most lasting effect of black influence in Argentina was the Tango, which charges some of the characteristics of the festivities and ceremonies that slaves developed in the so-called tango, meeting houses in which they are grouped with permission from their masters. Although not yet clearly demonstrated, it is considered that even the milonga (and dance) and chacarera draw on its influence, and the minstrel song, besides the fictitious dark Martín Fierro, the minstrels were famous Gabino Ezeiza and Higinio D. Cazón. The pianist and composer Rosendo Mendizabal, author of "El Entrerriano", was black, as well as Carlos Posadas, Enrique Maciel (author of the music of the waltz "La Pulpera de Santa Lucía"), Cayetano Silva, born in San Carlos (Uruguay) and author of the San Lorenzo march music, and Zenón Rolón, who wrote numerous academic music, funeral march as the Great in 1880 was run in honor of the Liberator José de San Martín to be repatriated the remains.

 

[cole phelps]

During the colonial period, many black people often intermarried with the native population (mostly Aymara). The result of these relationships was the blending between the two cultures (Aymara and Afro-Bolivian).
After Bolivia's Agrarian Reform of 1953, black people (like indigenous people) migrated from their agricultural villages to the cities of La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz in search of better educational and employment opportunities. Related to this, black individuals began intermarrying with people of a lighter skin coloring such as blancos (whites) and mestizos. This was done as a means of better integration for themselves, and especially their children, into Bolivian society

 

[cole phelps]

During colonial times and until the abolition of slavery in Guatemala (liberal government after independence) was important to the African population. Most Spanish houses of the time in Guatemala, especially in Santiago, had Indian servants and African slaves. In both cases, most of them were female. Because most Spanish who emigrated to Latin America at this time were men, looking rich and did not carry with them their wives, often had sex with her maids and female slaves, causing racial mixtures, increasingly abundant while growing the Spanish settlers in the territory, racial mixture which was maintained until the destruction of Santiago by severe earthquakes in 1773 and the jurisdiction of the new capital in Guatemala City in 1770. With racial mixtures, mulattoes, eventually came to outnumber blacks enslaved. On one side were those black and mulatto slaves who worked in houses and estates and on the other hand, a large population of free blacks who scattered in towns and cities. The growing miscegenation between black slaves and free mulattoes increasingly increased the population of free mulattoes. The drastic reduction in the importation of slaves to Guatemala and increased free slaves eventually prompted some places that have a predominance of slaves pass to have a predominance of free blacks. Moreover, the mixture of mulattoes and mestizos caused higher incomes and a higher position for those with lighter skin. While some roads were blocked for people of African descent, especially in college and in the church. While miscegenation and learning the Spanish language and standards were increased, more Afro - Guatemalans have access to jobs.[2] So also, the slave population was mixed also with indigenous and white populations of Guatemala and the whole group of African people in the colony, were not "pure black", to call that.[3] Many slaves were hired to work in various jobs such as in the carnage. The mulattoes were often involved in the illegal killing of livestock. Although


we know little about Afro - Guatemalans working in the agricultural sector, several sources in the last third of the sixteenth century, identified Afros farming communities in the present Jalapa, El Progreso, Santa Rosa and Jutiapa departments, and in the area surrounding the city of Sansonante, in the current El Salvador. Many of these slaves were born in Africa, usually in the region of Senegambia. However, it also had African slaves born in America. The Pacific coast was also home to many blacks and mulattoes free sticking by his great abilities as vagueros, to the extent that the laws of the sixteenth century forbidding them riding on horses or have weapons were almost always ignored because their skills were as necessary as feared, skills that would later valuable recruits from colonial militias and gave opportunity for upward social mobility. Free people of African descent and slaves also worked on the production of indigo in the Pacific coast of Guatemala and, especially, of El Salvador.[2] People of African descent tended to work in the mills, usually doing the work of supervision during Xiquilite harvest. This station lasted only one or two months a year, making it unprofitable to maintain a permanent workforce only enslaved workers to produce indigo. Some owners of mills, hired more slaves of which them needed to produce indigo since used for other activities, such as livestock.
Between 1595 and 1640, the Spanish crown signed a series of contracts with Portuguese traders to dramatically increase the number of African slaves in America. So many slaves came from the Angolan port of Luanda, mostly slaves who were used as laborers in the sugar cane, since in these years were enormously developing sugar production in the territory

 

[cole phelps]

Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña (Spanish: [biˈsente ɡeˈreɾo]; August 10, 1782 – February 14, 1831) was one of the leading revolutionary generals of the Mexican War of Independence. He fought against Spain for independence in the early 19th century, and later served as President of Mexico. He was also the grandfather of the Mexican politician and intellectual Vicente Riva Palacio.


Guerrero was born in Tixtla, a town 100 kilometers inland from the port of Acapulco, in the Sierra Madre del Sur, his parents were Pedro Guerrero, a Mestizo, and María de Guadalupe Saldaña, an African slave.[1][2][3] His family consisted of landlords, rich farmers and traders with broad business connections in the south, members of the Spanish militia and gun and cannon makers. In his youth he worked for his father’s freight business. His travels took him to different parts of Mexico where he heard of the ideas of independence.
Vicente’s father, Pedro, supported Spanish rule, whereas his uncle, Diego Guerrero, had an important position in the Spanish militia; however, Vicente was opposed to the Spanish colonial government. When his father asked him for his sword in order to present it to the viceroy of New Spain as a sign of goodwill, Vicente refused, saying, The will of my father is for me sacred, but my Fatherland is first. "Mi patria es primero" is now the motto of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, named in honor of the revolutionary.
He married María de Guadalupe Hernández and their daughter María de los Dolores Guerrero Hernández married Mariano Riva Palacio, who was the defender lawyer of Maximilian I of Mexico in Querétaro, and had Vicente Riva Palacio.

 

[cole phelps]

Guerrero joined in the early revolt against Spain in 1810, first fighting alongside José María Morelos. When the War of Independence began, Guerrero was working as a gunsmith in Tixtla. He joined the rebellion in November 1810 and enlisted in a division that independence leader José María Morelos had organized to fight in southern Mexico. Guerrero distinguished himself in the battle of Izúcar, in February 1812, and had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel when Oaxaca was claimed by rebels in November 1812.
"A young man with suntanned face (N.B. "broncínea", lit. bronze-coloured, swarthy), tall and strong (N.B. "fornido", strapping, muscular), aquiline nose, bright and light-coloured eyes and big sideburns"
— physical description of Vicente Guerrero Saldaña by Jose María Morelos y Pavón, 1811
Following the capture and execution of Morelos in late 1815, Guerrero joined forces with Guadalupe Victoria and Isidoro Montes de Oca, taking the position of "Commander in Chief of the rebel troops. He remained the only major rebel leader still at large, keeping the rebellion going through an extensive campaign of guerrilla warfare. He won victories at Ajuchitán, Santa Fe, Tetela del Río, Huetamo, Tlalchapa and Cuautlotitlán, regions of southern Mexico that were very familiar to him.

When Mexico achieved independence, he at first collaborated with Agustín de Iturbide, who proposed that the two join forces under what he referred to as the Three Guarantees or El plan de Iguala. This plan gave civil rights to Indians but not to African Mexicans. Guerrero refused to sign the plan unless equal rights were also given to African Mexicans and mulattos. Clause 12 was then incorporated into the plan. It read: All inhabitants . . . without distinction of their European, African or Indian origins are citizens . . . with full freedom to pursue their livelihoods according to their merits and virtues.[4]
Iturbide and Guerrero eventually agreed on these ideological mandates – that Mexico be made an independent constitutional monarchy, the abolition of class distinctions between Spaniards, creoles, mestizos and Indians, and that Catholicism be made the state religion – earned Guerrero's support, and, after marching into the capital on 27 September 1821,[5] Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico by Congress. However, when Iturbide's policies supported the interests of Mexico's wealthy landowners through continued economic exploitation of the poor and working classes, Guerrero turned against him and came out in favor of a Republic with the Plan of Casa Mata.
When the general Manuel Gómez Pedraza won the election to succeed Guadalupe Victoria as president, Guerrero, with the aid of general Antonio López de Santa Anna and politician Lorenzo de Zavala,[6] staged a coup d'état and took the presidency on 1 April 1829.[7]
Guerrero, as head of the People’s Party and a liberal by conviction, called for public schools, land title reforms, industry and trade development, and other programs of a liberal nature:
"A free state protects the arts, industry, science and trade; and he only prizes virtue and merit:if we want to acquire the latter,let's do it cultivating the fields,the sciences, and all that can facilitate the sustenance and entertainment of men: let's do this in such a way that we will not be a burden for the nation, just the opposite, in a way that we will satisfy her needs, helping her to support her charge and giving relief to the distraught of humanity: with this we will also achieve abundant wealth for the nation, making her prosper in all aspects."
—Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña, Speech to his compatriots

"....A man who is held up as ostensible head of the party, and who will be their candidate for the next presidency, is General Guerrero, one of the most distinguished chiefs of the revolution. Guerrero is uneducated, but possesses excellent natural talents, combined with great decision of character and undaunted courage. His violent temper renders him difficult to control, and therefore I consider Zavala's presence here indispensably necessary, as he possesses great influence over the general."
— Joel R. Poinsett, US minister for Mexico (i.e. Ambassador), about the character of Vicente Guerrero
Guerrero was elected the second president of Mexico in 1829. As president, Guerrero went on to champion the cause not only of the racially oppressed but also of the economically oppressed. The most notable achievement of Guerrero's short term as president was ordering an immediate abolition of slavery on September 16th of 1829.[8] and emancipation of all slaves. During Guerrero's presidency the Spanish tried to reconquer Mexico however the Spanish failed and were defeated at the Battle of Tampico.

“This is the most liberal and munificent Government on earth to emigrants – after being here one year you will oppose a change even to Uncle Sam”
—Stephen Fuller Austin, 1829, letter to his sister describing Guerrero's Government of Mexico (and Texas)
Guerrero was deposed in a rebellion under Vice-President Anastasio Bustamante that began on 4 December 1829. He left the capital to fight the rebels, but was deposed by the Mexico City garrison in his absence on 17 December 1829. Guerrero hoped to come back to power, but General Bustamante captured him from his home through bribery and a group of reactionaries had him executed.
After his death, Mexicans loyal to Guerrero revolted, driving Bustamante from his presidency and forcing him to flee for his life. Picaluga, a former friend of Guerrero, who conspired with Bustamante to capture Guerrero, was executed.
Honors were conferred on surviving members of Guerrero's family, and a pension was paid to his widow. In 1842, Vicente Guerrero's body was returned to Mexico City and interred there. Guerrero’s political discourse was one of civil rights for all. Mexicans with hearts full of pride call him the greatest man of color to ever live.[9]
​

 

[cole phelps]

Legacy


Statue in honor of Vicente Guerrero

Guerrero is a Mexican national hero. The state of Guerrero is named in his honour.
Several towns in Mexico are named in honor of this famous general, including Vicente Guerrero in Baja California and the Mexican State of Guerrero, on the mainland of Mexico.

 

[cole phelps]

Mexico
Many black men sought conjugal companionship with the local Amerindian women due to a shortage of black women (there were three times as many male slaves as female ones). Black men, both free and slave, kept Amerindian concubines. Although this was discouraged by the Spanish, it did not deter black men from pursuing Amerindian women. Even if a black man was a slave, by having children with Amerindian women (who were considered free subjects) their offspring would be free. Black male slaves who took Amerindian concubines were in effect circumventing the class stratification of colonial society. As time went on, black men (free or slave) were allowed to marry Amerindian women. However, their offspring would have to pay tribute to the Spanish government. Mixing between black men and Amerindian women led to the process of endoacculturation

 

[cole phelps]

Zumbi monument in Pelhourinho Square, Brazil:
A Quilombo was a free settlement of escaped slaves, and it sustained itself by sabotaging plantations or capturing slaves to force them to join. Quilombo Dos Palmares was a self-sustaining settlement in Brazil which, at its peak, had about 30,000 members. Zumbi was the last of its leaders, and fought the Portuguese military with enough prowess to elude them for two years after Dos Palmeres was taken over. The Portuguese feared him not only as a physical threat (he was a descendent of Angolan Imbangala warriors, and believed to be immortal), but also as a leader who could undoubtedly inspire slaves and runaways alike to fight for their freedom. He is a symbol of resistance against all the madness of New World dominance: slavery, colonial exploitation, and domination. He fought for freedom in the 17th century, was a hero for the 20th century Afro-Brazilian political movement, and still inspires today.

 

[cole phelps]

Candomblé (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɐ̃dõˈblɛ]) is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practiced chiefly in Brazil by the “povo de santo” (saint people). It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to other parts of Bahia state in Brazil. Although Candomblé is practiced primarily in Brazil, it is also practiced in other countries in the Americas, including Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama; and in Europe in Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The religion is based in the anima (soul) of the natural environment, and is therefore a kind of Animism. It was developed in Brazil with the knowledge of African Priests that were enslaved and brought to Brazil, together with their mythology, their culture and language, between 1549 and 1888.
The rituals involve the possession of the initiated by Orishas, offerings and sacrifices of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom, healing, dancing/trance,and percussion. Candomblé draws inspiration from a variety of people of the African Diaspora, but it mainly features aspects of Yoruba Orisha veneration

 

[cole phelps]

El Negro Primero
One of his most famous lieutenants, during Venezuela’s fight for independence is, Pedro Camejo, has been immortalized in Venezuelan history as “El Negro Primero,” because he was always the first to ride into battle. In the final battle of Carabobo, Camejo was mortally wounded but returned to General Paéz to utter one of the most famous statements in Venezuelan history: “General, vengo decirle, adiós, porque estoy muerto” (General, I have come to say goodbye, because I am dead).
A statue of El Negro Primero stands in the Plaza Carabobo in Caracas—the only statue commemorating a Black in all Venezuela. Curiously, he is always depicted wearing a turban, the same iconography used for the mythical Negro Felipe