CHS 345 Creative Project: Afro-Mexican People Today
Many communities of nearly 1.4 million people (representing 1.2 percent of a country’s population) has struggled oppression and lack of basic rights. These communities are of the African-Mexican people. In 2015, they were finally considered part of the Mexican national census. In Mexico, their census bureau is called, Instituto Nacional Estadistica Y Geografia. When Afro-Mexicans were finally considered part of the census three years ago, Mexico’s Human Rights Commission became aware of the discrimination that Afro-Mexicans face in their own country and vowed to fight discrimination and racial treatment against Latin America’s Black communities. Many countries have (barely) started to implement anti-discrimination laws and affirmative-action policies to protect Afro-Mexicans. Even though Afro-Mexicans have finally achieved being part of Mexico's census bureau in 2015, this is yet, only a big step of achievement. There is still a pathway for them to receive equal status due to their invincibility across different societies in Mexico and other oblivious countries.
Many Afro-Mexicans communities are almost completely separated from Mexico. Many Indigenous Mexicans and Afro-Mexicans reside in states like Veracruz, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. The Afro-Mexicans who reside in these three states, unfortunately, continue to face structural, economic, and political neglect. As result of marginalization against Afro-Mexicans, many Afro-Mexicans and Indigenous activists are currently fighting for their human rights as people.
Afro-Mexicans activists are either part of nonprofit organizations in their small communities or belong to a larger group of activists inside public universities. To this day, there are many non-profit organizations all across Mexico City fighting for their human rights and an ending to oppression against them.
An example of a current public university who has been working hard to make Afro-Mexicans visible is the, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM). UAM can be similar to California State Universities because, just like Cal. States contain twenty-three different campuses around California; UAM contains five different campuses around Mexico City. UAM is known for the significant amount of dedication input on research to defend social and human rights.
Above is an edited video of a seminar UAM had in 2017. This seminar is about the discrimination that Afro-Mexicans experience in their own countries of Guerrero and Oaxaca. As a result of the discrimination that they face, their communities have become belittled and are provided with limited access to education, good jobs and the public infrastructure (as some of them mention in the video).
