"Exhibit explores, celebrates African presence in Mexico"


"Through art and photos, the nation's often - overlooked third root suddenly comes to life."


Adapted from Ms. Elda Silva's article in The San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS, Sunday November 30, 2008.


The author says that when the traveling art exhibition manager Cesáreo Moreno told his own uncle in the city of Guanajuato what his latest project was, his uncle told him,"There's no Africans here, not in Guanajuato."

Moreno goes on to make a point, "I think that is the common feeling or attitude that many Mexicans have, that Oh, sure, there were some Africans that came over from Cuba, and they're now in Veracruz, but certainly not in our own backyard, certainly not in our family.

"This lack of recognition extended all the way to Los Pinos until 1992 -- the quincentennial of the Spanish encounter with the New World -- when the Mexican government officially acknowledged Africa as Mexico's tercera raíz or third root."

When it came time for Moreno to start his project, "the National Museum of Mexican Art enlisted Mexican anthropologist Sagrario Cruz - Carretero to work on the project with Moreno. "

Enter YANGA who claimed to have royal blood....

"As an epilogue / prologue of sorts, the exhibition posits the controversial theory of pre - Hispanic contact between Africans and the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

"Artifacts such as Olmec heads with seemingly African characteristics support the conjecture, Cruz - Carretero says.

[There is] a portrait of Yanga, drawn on an ostrich egg by artist Fernando Vázquez Jácome.

"A runaway slave who claimed to have royal blood, Yanga led a successful revolt against the Spanish and founded a free black town in 1609 [Wow! That's 11 years before Plymouth Rock!].

"Originally known as San Lorenzo de los Negros, the town on Mexico's gulf coast in the state of Veracruz was eventually renamed for him.

"Cruz - Carretero says, Actually Yanga was the axis of the exhibition. We wanted to underline these events (because) next year is going to be the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Yanga..."