Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro-Latino Identity
In August of ’09, Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals took to Twitter to ask for help in setting up his Xbox 360 gamer tag–the Black Mexican. And recently, the Ocho to the Cinco, while flirting with a half Puerto-Rican woman on his dating show The Ultimate Catch, told her that he was Mexican. So, is he?
Ochocinco–the former Chad Johnson, who had his name legally changed to Ochocinco during Hispanic Heritage Month in 2008 because he wanted to see his number written in words (just not English ones, I guess)–came under fire after the first episode of the show for only choosing two black contestants (he admits he has a preference), and is now coming under some suspicion for his “Mexican” comments.
Many of you might be scratching your heads right now like, “Huh? GTFOH with that Chad!!”
But actually, it is quite possible for Chad to be Mexican, and as I watched that clip, I immediately thought about two things:
One, how rare it is to even hear the words “black” and “Mexican” together in a sentence unless that sentence contains news of racial violence between the groups, and two, the fact that Mexico also imported slaves—before America.
According to figures from Afro Mexico, the country was importing Africans as early as 1519, and they didn’t just import a few. Mexico imported so many Africans to work in silver mines, sugar plantations and cattle ranches that by 1553, “the black population soared to over 20,000”.
By 1570, Africans in Mexico outnumbered Spaniards by 3 to 1.
Afro-Mexican women. Photo by Bobby Vaughn
After 1570, the proportion of Africans to Spaniards fell slightly. Though their numbers in Mexico were at an all time high of 35,089 in 1646, in that year, Africans outnumbered Spaniards by 2.5 to 1, down from the previous 3 to 1.
By 1742, black Mexicans had dwindled to a population of 15,980, though they still outnumbered the Spanish.
68 years later in 1810, the number of Afro-Mexicans shrunk to around 10% of Mexico’s population.
Afro-Mexican young man. Photo by Bobby Vaughn
In total, from the 1500s to the 1800s, Mexico imported up to a half-million enslaved Africans.
After Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, the country abolished slavery and black Mexicans–who had their basic food, clothing and shelter needs met by slave-masters for over three hundred years–woke up one day kicked off plantations with nothing to call their own, and few willing to hire them.
Immediately, the percentage of their population to that of whites and other Mexican ethnic groups began a downward shift.
Today their numbers, which also include some black Seminoles, are around 1 million, making them about 1% of Mexico’s 111 million person population.
Black Seminoles
What is happening to Mexico’s blacks? And why are their numbers getting smaller when compared to other Mexican ethnic groups?
Black life in Mexico is a one of facing harsh stereotypes, with little to no opportunity for advancement through hard work or education as African-Americans had after the end of US slavery. Scorned by the government, Afro-Mexicans aren’t even counted among Mexico’s official citizens–as if they don’t even exist. According to writer Alexis Okeowo:
Afro-Mexicans are among the poorest in the nation. Many are shunted to remote shantytowns, well out of reach of basic public services, such as schools and hospitals.
Activists for Afro-Mexicans face an uphill battle for government recognition and economic development.
They have long petitioned to be counted in Mexico’s national census, alongside the country’s 56 other official ethnic groups, but to little avail…
In response to activist pressure, Mexico’s government released a study at the end of 2008 that confirmed that Afro-Mexicans suffer from institutional racism. Employers are less likely to employ blacks, and some schools prohibit access based on skin colour. But little has been done to change this. Afro-Mexicans lack a powerful spokesperson, so they continue to go unnoticed by the country’s leadership.
Because of discrimination, some Afro-Mexicans whose color and features allow them to hide their black heritage and claim instead a mix of indigenous Indian and Spanish blood, do-–a survivalist breach of their culture’s blurry color lines made easier by lack of knowledge about black Mexicans—even by many Mexicans.
And for some, marrying into the larger, lighter population is one of the only means of uplift.
Black Mexican women
What’s happening to Afro-Mexicans is a travesty, and it’s important to know their story because Afro-Mexicans are our people. Their stop was before ours, but we were all on the same ships.
Elder Afro-Mexican woman with boy. Photo by Bobby Vaughn
The less open we are to exploring all of our cultures as a global black people, our disparate populations around the world will continue to fall under majority, usually white, or light, tyranny, and disappear in quiet genocides fueled by ignorance of their existence.
Growing up, I would sometimes hear people self-identify as “black Indian”, “black Italian”, “black Spanish”, etc., and inevitably, someone in our circle would question their choice to be ethnically defined as something “other than just black”, as if being black and other was somehow a slap to black people as a whole.
Afro-Mexican youth dancing. Photo by Bobby Vaughn
As an Afro-Filipina woman, I too have faced this questioning of my identity choices from African-Americans.
It’s an issue that cuts to the core of multi-cultural black people on both sides of the Rio Grande.
Blacks who may be two, three or more ethnicities are often pushed by friends, families and communities to simply identify as one–usually “black”–regardless of the ties we may have to another culture, and regardless–at least in the US–if you only have a small amount of African-American ancestry.
Why this resistance to people claiming all of who they are?
black Mexican man
Perhaps the media has something to do with it. After all, if the only images people usually see of Latinos, Indians, Asians, etc., are all on the lighter, if not white end of the spectrum, those images become associated with what people from these groups should look like.
For example: Have you ever seen a Mexican on TV darker than George Lopez? And as far as “media Mexicans” go, he’s considered dark.
black Mexican woman
Lack of inclusion from lighter Hispanics coupled with confusion from black Americans places Afro-Latinos in an unusual place, and probably has a lot to do with the skeptical rumblings surrounding Chad Ochocinco’s “Mexican” moments. As Miriam Muley writes:
As an Afro Latina, Puerto Rican to be exact, I have always struggled to find my place in the world of Latinos and in the world of African Americans. Neither group has ever fully embraced my Afro-Boricua roots and desire to move freely from the world of salsa, mofongo and pasteles to the world of jazz, collard greens and sweet potato pie.
Hispanics are always shocked when I speak Spanish without an obvious accent (“Where did you learn to speak Spanish so well?”) and are puzzled to learn both of my parents were born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. (“So one of your parents must be Black?”).
African Americans cannot fathom the idea of a Black Hispanic. There is no awareness of the fact that 95 percent of all slaves who came to the Western Hemisphere during the Middle Passage were enslaved in Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico. Only 5 percent were sent to the United States, and this was 100 years after the slave trade to Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries began.
While the “Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries” Miriam writes about are often depicted in travel brochures as sunny, multi-cultural paradises, a complex rubric entrenched during slavery placing whites or lights at the top and blacks at the bottom in social status and standards of beauty remains.
Many Afro-Hispanic people grew up rarely seeing positive portrayals of people who look like them.
Latino television is like a modern version of the highly segregated viewing experience our grandparents knew, filled with mostly white central characters and a background of black actors playing servants or buffoons.
And to see a celebration of dark Latina beauty was, and still is, even rarer.
Even Latina, a magazine “dedicated to Latinas” which has been in business since 1996, only recently featured a dark-skinned black Latina on their cover for the first time–in December 2009!
While the cover is a wonderful moment for Afro-Latinas, the question remains: What took so long?
- Latina Magazine’s first black cover model
Without a doubt, issues of beauty equality and social inclusion from their larger culture are still pivotal issues among black Latinos.
Sadly, some Afro-Latinos whose genetic dice didn’t land on the side of them looking like their oppressors, succumb to self-esteem issues engendered by their society and alter their looks to, by using potentially toxic creams to lighten their skin. Like Sammy Sosa.
Sammy Sosa's new skin. His hair is different too.
Today, through generations of activism, many Afro-Latin people have come to the fore in restoring a sense of pride among black Latinos by educating themselves and others on the tremendous contributions of Africans and their descendants to Latin culture.
And a similar movement is brewing among Afro-Mexicans.
Every year since 1996, dozens of towns along the 200-mile long coastal region known as Costa Chica (one of two regions in Mexico with significant black population, the other being the state of Veracruz) have come together to celebrate “Encounter of Black Mexico,” featuring regional dance, music and round-table discussions about black life.
Costa Chica, in the red square
In 1999, the Museo De Las Culturas Afro-mestizas or Museum of Afro-mestizo Culture, dedicated to the history of the Costa Chica, opened in its de facto capital, Cuajinicuilapa. The museum educates local people and tourists about the arrival of African slaves in the 1500s, and displays African clothes, food and musical instruments with explanations on how these objects were incorporated into Mexican life.
Afro-Latin and Afro-Hispanic cultures offer fascinating looks into the history of the majority of Middle Passage survivors–a history important for blacks on both sides of the border.
While it’s common knowledge that many enslaved blacks escaped north via the underground railroad, what’s less known is that quite a few also escaped south, with Mexicans providing food and safe-houses for many on their way to freedom.
Afro-Mexican children. Photo by Bobby Vaughn
To further explore the diversity of Afro-Mexicans, researcher and photographer Bobby Vaughn has a beautiful gallery of Afro-Mexican people on his website, which offers invaluable information on black Mexicans.
African-Americans have dealt with, and continue to deal with many of the same issues as Afro-Latinos/Afro-Hispanics, and the similarities between the different groups are abundantly obvious.
Are you a black Latino or Hispanic whose been questioned about your identity choices?
Have you ever been told that you “don’t look” Latino of Hispanic by members of your own culture?
What do you find most frustrating about the lack of understanding surrounding Afro-Latinos?
What do you love about being Afro-Latina or Afro-Hispanic?
Other comments? Let’s hear ‘em! I’d love to hear from you.
*And for the record, the jury is still out on whether Chad Ochocinco is Mexican, unless someone probes the issue with him further. But I’m guessing because he’s already planning his next numeric name change to Hachi Go, in all likelihood, he probably isn’t.
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Heavy Mentalist is written by freelance multi-media hip hop, pop culture, race and social justice journalist Cherryl Aldave. The name Heavy Mentalist is a take on the classic Killah Priest album, Heavy Mental. Cherryl has written for Wax Poetics, the Source,Scratch, Elemental, Rime, Insomniac, FEDS,HipHopDX, PopandPolitics, Allhiphop.com, Yes! Weekly and more. Her words also appear in the books Wax Poetics Anthology Volume 1,Bandana Republic, How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office and The Quotable Rebel.
