Diálogo Volume 5 Number 1 Article 5 2001 Mexico in the Context of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Bobbie Vaughn Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo Part of the Latin American Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Vaughn, Bobbie (2001) "Mexico in the Context of the Transatlantic Slave Trade," Diálogo: Vol. 5 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol5/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Latino Research at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Diálogo by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mexico in the Context of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Cover Page Footnote This article is from an earlier iteration of Diálogo which had the subtitle "A Bilingual Journal." The publication is now titled "Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal." This article is available in Diálogo: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol5/iss1/5 Mexico Veracruz rural A in family in the TransatlanticContext of the SIave Trade By Bobbie Vaughn The presence of people of African When most think of the Trans-Atlantic or otherwise inadequate for the labor descent in Mexico, while a subject that slave trade that brought millions of intensive productive endeavors for which the slaves were used. In most of never ceases to fascinate me in my Africans to the Western Hemisphere, Mexico is rarely a country one thinks of. these countries, a mercantilist economy of studies, has scarcely raised an eyebrow When one considers the impact of the extraction converted many of these neither in Mexico, nor in the larger slave trade on Latin America, most of countries into export-exclusive economies. world. Part of this is due to the fact that the attention is placed on the countries Slave labor was the vehicle by which the their presence is largely unknown where we find very large Black treasures of the "New World" would be outside of the rural regions where the populations today. In South America, exploited: precious metals, sugar, coffee, majority of them live. Their numbers are one considers first and foremost, Brazil, cotton, etc. relatively small, and they have not and to a lesser extent, Colombia and generally made a point of making their possibly Venezuela. Attention then New Spain (the Spanish colony that roughly corresponds to contemporary presence widely known. In this article, I shifts to much of the Caribbean, be they the Spanish-speaking countries such as Mexico) also participated in this will offer a brief historical foreground Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and mercantilist political economy, and of the Afro-Mexican population, Puerto Rico, or the French-speaking African slave labor was certainly primarily to situate their experience Haiti, or the English-speaking Jamaica, utilized. Particularly in earliest stages of within the larger framework of the Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados. the slave trade—the 16th and early 17th TransAtlantic slave trade. The purpose These are countries where the Black centuries— Mexico played a prominent of this article, however, is to present presence has been large, if not the role. This was a time when the Spanish some ethnographic data on the majority, and they are places from Empire controlled nearly the entire contemporary populations of Afro- which immigrants have increasingly newly "discovered" hemisphere. Later, the Portuguese would begin to exploit Mexicans. The vast majority of Afro- arrived to the United States and have played an increasing role in our popular Brazil unencumbered by the Spanish Mexicans reside on opposite coasts of culture, music, and sports. Crown, and the English would enter the Mexico—the Pacific Costa Chica region, traffic in human bodies at full strength, and the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. The vast majority of these Black peoples making the 18th century the peak of This article will treat both populations —a total of some 8.5 million!—arrived the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. But before in comparative perspective, and, instead to the hemisphere at some point the large-scale traffic in sugar, tobacco, of pretending to present a definitive between 1519-1867. As is well known, cotton, and human beings that would piece of ethnographic truth, I hope to these slaves were brought to augment, completely change the face of the raise questions, and pose issues for or replace an indigenous work force Americas there lived a man named Juan— a slave who landed in Mexico in 1519. further research. that for various reasons (some cultural), was determined to be less cost-effective, The first African brought to New Spain entirely coastal one. However, the there is a less-developed idea as to how is said to be one Juan Cortés, a slave historical record evidences a large they (Blacks) came to live where they who accompanied the conquistador concentration of Blacks in urban are. Because of Veracruz's proximity to Hernán Cortés in 1519. The indígenas, centers. In fact, the majority of the the Caribbean, and the relatively apparently captivated by his dark skin, slaves in New Spain worked in the constant contact between Cuba and never having seen an African before, central mining centers of Guanajuato Veracruz since the colonial period, and took him for a god. Another of the and Zacatecas, as well as in the more importantly, in the last half early conquistadores, Pánfilo Narváez, metropolis of Mexico City (see Ngou- century, Veracruz has always touted a brought a slave who is said to have Mve [1994] for Blacks in mines, and certain kinship with Cuba. Rather than carried with him the devastating Bowser [1975] and Seed [1982] for more offer a detailed narrative as to the smallpox epidemic of 1520. Juan Garret on urban Blacks in New Spain). circumstances under which they arrived was yet another of these early Black from Cuba, most Afro-Veracruzanos arrivals, and in addition to participating Africans were also deployed to the rural understand their origins as a matter of in defeat of the great Aztec City of coasts of Veracruz on the Gulf of common sense. One man, quite proud Tenochtitlán, is also thought to be the Mexico, and to the pacific coastal region of his Afro-Veracruzano heritage, over first man to sow wheat in Mexico. called the Costa Chica, comprising the the course of a long discussion with me Garret took part in various Spanish states of Guerrero and Oaxaca. In remarked, "Pues, ya sabrás que los expeditions, including a trek to Veracruz, Black slaves were used negros vienen de Cuba. [Well, I'm sure Michoacán in 1523-1524, and Cortés' primarily in the labor-intensive sugar you know that the Blacks come from last great expedition to Baja California industry of Xalapa in the late 16th, and Cuba]." I then suggested to him that in 1535-1536 (Gerhard 1978). early mid-17th century. In these sugar there is historical evidence of a slave processing mill and cane fields, African trade that brought Blacks directly from Perhaps the most illustrious of the early slaves were imported specifically to Africa to Veracruz, and our discussion Black slaves in New Spain was replace Indian laborers. On the Pacific continued. Estebanico. Estebanico was part of an coastal plains, Blacks worked mainly as ill-fated expedition from Mexico City to ranchers and cowboys, for livestock was Why is it assumed that Black Veracruzanos Florida in 1528. Estebanico and 3 the primary economic activity of this come from Cuba? Why is Cuba generally Spanish soldiers survived shipwreck and region in the colonial period, and associated in Mexico, as a Black country? wandered lost for eight years. During continues to be important to the local Further ethno-historic research into those eight years, they wandered what economies today. 20th century Veracruz would likely is now the southern United States, and show that the immigration of a large northern Mexico, from the mouth of number of Cuban big band musicians the Mississippi River to the Pacific THE COSTA CHICA AND might lead us to some answers. In the Ocean, by way of Texas, New Mexico, 1940s and 1950s a mambo craze swept Chihuahua, Sonora, and Sinaloa. He and VERACRUZ: ORIGIN his party survived and eventually returned to Mexico City, where a last expedition was organized. Estebanico NARRATIVES never returned from this one, and his The Costa Chica and Veracruz are where fate remains a mystery (Cue Cánovas the vast majority of Afro-Mexicans live 1963:48-49; Orozco Linares 1992:100- today, and here I will offer some 101; Simpson 1976:65-66). ethnographic notes that might serve as a point of departure for further analysis These early slaves were essentially and comparison. When I refer to Afro- personal servants of their Spanish Mexican communities or towns, I am masters. They were most likely taken referring to any number of towns in from West Africa, then transported to both the state of Veracruz, and the Seville, where they were Christianized, coastal plains of the states of Guerrero and learned Spanish. These slaves were and Oaxaca. These communities are not part of a mass slave trade. The slave home to significant concentrations of trade that changed the demographic people who self-identify as negro or face of Mexico began when the Spanish moreno. In Veracruz, these towns monarch, Carlos V, began issuing more would include (but are not limited to): and more asientos, or contracts Tamiahua, Mata Clara, El Coyolillo, between the Crown and private slavers, Jamapa, and Tierra Blanca. In the Costa in order to expedite the importation of Chica, the list is much larger, and a slaves in the 1590s.