Educational Media Reviews Online

The intention ofForgotten Roots is to establish that Mexican Culture was not only influenced by the Spanish and indigenous Indian populations, but that of the African slave as well. Slaves were brought to Mexico first by the Conquistadors and secondly, as a part of the slave trade in the Caribbean; these African slaves played an important and now mostly forgotten role in the development of Mexican Culture.

During the colonial period in the 16th Century, Veracruz, Mexico was a major port of New Spain dynamically inhabited by Portuguese, Flemish, Greeks, native Indians and Black slaves. Slave labor was important to the economic development of New Spain. There are many written accounts found in the Spanish documents of the time condemning certain areas of Veracruz for illicit activities such as gambling, dancing and the intermixing of the races. Few Spaniards brought their wives with them to the New World, thus many men took Indians and Black women as concubines or married them. Black men often married Indian women. These combinations of races gave birth to a society divided into castes. Pairings between Mulattos and Mestizos became very complicated and even ludicrous in extent. Names were used to describe the percentage of mixed blood a person had such as Cuarteron, Terceron, Lobo, Coyoted, “tente en el aire, salta patras.” For example, Cuarteron represents someone who is closer to European in blood, where as Salta pat’tras is someone who is closer to an African in blood. This is where the word Afromestizos derives from and it refers to the mixture of Black and Indian blood. Blood wasn’t the only thing that intermingled; culture, religion, and tradition also combined to define new ground.

This film does the difficult job of bringing together the history of Blacks in Mexico - a long over looked aspect of Mexican history and culture. African influence is evidenced in established traditions, names, dances, music and religious iconography. The filmmaker uses original artwork, interviews, music, and cultural activities as a way of pointing out the African influences now ingrained in Mexican culture. The Forgotten Roots is the first part of director Rafael Rebollar’s series The African Diaspora in the Americans Collection. The only other title from this series currently available is From Florida to Coahuila: The History of the Black Seminoles.