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afro

www.myspace.com/africanmexico

. . . invites you to BUSHMAN this TODAY @ THE WorldBeat Cultural Center. 100% Roots Reggae Music from Jamaica. For more info call 619-230-1190::::Mood: stoked stokedat 9:26 PM Jun 26 view more

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  • afro

  • 101 / Male
  • San Lorenzo de los Negros, Veracruz, MX
  • Last Login: 7/6/2009

152594695|101|11110|http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/114/m_2d6ca104505e8f7b2f9f45fecaf53c1b.jpg

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Details

  • Status: Married
  • Hometown: San Lorenzo De Los Negros, Veracruz
  • Height: 6' 0"
  • Ethnicity: Black / African descent
  • Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
  • Children: Proud parent
  • Occupation: Maroon Freedom Fighter

Blurbs

About me:


On behalf of the WorldBeat Center, we present to you a newly emerged topic and reality which touches basis on what has been underrepresented on Mexican official establishments and institutions: Afro-Mexico. Since the arrival of Hernan Cortez--not to mention the Olmec presence which clearly resembles African traits in early Mesoamerica--the African presence became notorious throughout Mexico. Thus, slavery like in the rest of the Americas became fundamental in the minery, sugar cane, and cattle industry. In spite of their key role in fueling a strong economy that would allow Mexico to become an independent nation from Spain, African descendants to this day remain systematically in the shadows of society. They are not only underrepresented and ignored in the Mexican CENSUS (INEGI) but also have been going through what we refer to as a cultural drought. The effects of globalization projects (such as NAFTA and PPP (Plan Puebla Panama)), which spread deep in rural, coastal, and southern Mexico, currently eliminate any intermediate option between the preservation of culture and that of economic sustainability for Afro-Mexicans. In effect, the African presence in Mexico has been consecutively struggling and resisting to obtain national recognition; thus allowing them the right to be considered in institutional reforms based on standard necessities.

We refer to this resistance as a Maroon Cultural Resistance: a common struggle amongst all African descendants of the Americas which focuses in forming a collective identity by rediscovering, reclaiming, and manifesting their African heritage. As a marginalized sub-culture, Afro-Mexicans have been evidently organizing for the past three decades. Here at the WorldBeat Center we been investigating this topic since 2003. Our goal here at the WorldBeat Center, nonetheless, is to raise awareness about this topic and educate the African-American and Mexican/Chicano/Latino youth in the San Diego/Tijuana area; all with the intention of building cultural bridges of common understanding.

With the resources we have accommodated over the past three decades at WorldBeat Center, we intent to put our tools in practice. One of our strategies will be to film every step we take along the way as well as to publicize what we document throughout public access TV and archive it in our online TV station called "WorldBeat Live!". Furthermore, through our experience promoting music, we intent to help document, support, and spread Afro-Mexican dance, music and other forms of culture. The information and material we gather will be used for educational purposes as well as to fund (e.g. art exhibits, music/dance groups, photographic exhibits, clothing and textiles, fair trade products, musical instruments, CD's and DVD's). This entire process and strategies used in the end will help empower communities for the purpose of reaching self-autonomy.

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