When the Spanish first arrived in Mesoamerica, they brought free Africans with them. Among them was Juan Garrido, a conquistador who belonged to Juan Ponce de León's entourage. Garrido was born on the West African coast, the son of an African King. Garrido went on to join Hernando Cortés in the Spanish conquest of Mexico. These African contributed to the conquistadors success in New Spain, but they did not share in the victory because of their status. The decline of the Amerindian population and the difficulty of making Native Americans into slaves and later the Pope's prohibition against enslaving them, prompted the Spanish to import large numbers of from Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, the Congo, and Angola.
During the colonial period in Veracruz, Spaniards placed restrictions on contact between Africans and Natives to discourage the formation of alliances. Intermarriage between the races, whose descendants were called Lobos in the caste system of New Spain and Zambos in other parts of Spanish America, was heavily discouraged by some individuals in the Catholic clergy. Africans soon outnumbered Europeans in certain areas, and the Spanish implemented many tactics to ensure that they remained the dominant racial group in Mesoamerica.
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Emiliano Zapata... click here for more |
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In the early days of the colonial period, slavery was very harsh, and lead to rebellions. In 1609 there was a black rebellion in Veracruz, lead by Gaspar Yanga and Francisco de la Matosa. After fierce battles, Yanga came to negotiate a peace with the viceroy Luis de Velasco. A black community, called "San Lorenzo" (Later renamed Yanga) was founded and still exists; it would be the first of several.[which?] But this would not stop the hostilities. In the sixteenth century the Spanish crown sent a group consisting of Indians, Creoles (white Spaniards Born in Mexico) and Mestizos as well as some blacks to "pacify" the area of 'troublemakers' in 1609 and put an end to the actions of the fugitive slaves; Jesuit priest Juan Florencio Laurencio wrote about these events. The Spanish troops who left Puebla to placate the rebellions in January of 1609 numbered around 550, of which perhaps 100 were Spanish soldiers and the others were recruits and adventurers.Spanish authorities latter suspected a new rebellion in 1612; they imprisoned, tortured and executed 33 slaves (twenty nine males and four women). Their heads were cut off and remained in the main square of Mexico City for a long time as an example.
These settlers are from Oklahoma Indian Territory and made a free African village in Nacimiento, Coahuila and a few villages along the Texas-Mexico border. Some of the Indio African in yucatan traveled to the country of Belize. Though there is an African presence in Belize some forget their roots. In recent years, some Afro-Mexicans include blacks who immigrated to Mexico from Caribbean countries such as Cuba, or from Africa to earn money in Mexico as contract workers. Many Afro-Mexicans also went abroad throughout the colonial period as well as after Mexico had gained it's independence to find better economic fortune, mostly to the United States, where they and their U.S. children are called Hispanic Americans
The black population of the sixteenth century in New Spain was arround 6%. Because of the need for manual labor there were increase shipments, and by 1646 New Spain had an average of about 168,000 black slaves in the territory.
