It is the 231st anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, and I would rather return to the eighteenth century – or perhaps earlier – and start over. Then again, ours is not the only country whose government, or official culture could use reevaluation. This is from Mexico’s Third Root, by Luz María Martínez Montiel:
I.
Wherever people gather in the poor fishing villages of Costa Chica on Mexico’s southwest coast–in their homes, on the streets, in the town squares during festivals–someone is likely to step forward and start singing. These impromptu performers regale their audience with songs of romance, tragedy, comedy, and social protest, all inspired by local events and characters. At the heart of the songs, called “corridos,” is a sense of human dignity and a desire for freedom rooted in the lives and history of the people of Costa Chica, many of whom are descendants of escaped slaves.
The corridos reflect oral traditions inherited from Africa. The words are improvised, and a corrido that brings applause is apt to be committed to memory, to be sung again and again as an oral chronicle of local life. The lyrics are also rich in symbols, a tradition that may have started when singers among the first slaves invented “code words” to protest the cruelties of their masters.
II.
The Spanish colonists took full advantage of technology that Africans had developed for work in the tropics and adapted and improved in the New World. Yet today, many African contributions to advancing the technologies of fishing, agriculture, ranching, and textile-making in Mexico remain unappreciated.
Although strongest in black enclaves like Costa Chica, the African presence pervades Mexican culture. In story and legend, music and dance, proverb and song, the legacy of Africa touches the life of every Mexican.
I am myself in Mexico, and I will be through July 17. I have scheduled several posts to come up while I am gone. My July 4 activity is to consider moving here permanently.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
“Yet today, many African contributions to advancing the technologies of fishing, agriculture, ranching, and textile-making in Mexico remain unappreciated.”
I sometimes wonder how much European and European-American racism is directly responsible for fall-out such as this.
i love this one.
i wish i, too, were in mexico. take me, next time.
Well I think we should all move here. And I did not know corridos were of African origin…
Beautiful findings! There are a lot of things to have been happy about. Thank you again Prof. 🙂
I love the stories of the African influence in other cultures. I enjoyed that information. Thank you for it. I’m looking forward to your future post concerning your trip. Take care.
Hey, PZ — Am I seeing the development of an artist’s colony, as it were, somewhere in the middle of Mexico where Nezua, et al, and you and I and whoever else could settle in to write and draw and sustain and be sustained for…well…for a while, at least?
CS – yes, I am thinking of something like this. We need capital, though don’t we … or do we? Meanwhile, greetings from Puebla, where I just went to the Museo Amparo, which has a stellar pre-Columbian collection. Then you move on to colonial art and it is really kitschy by comparison. European art is overrated. Now I am wireless at the Italian Coffee Company (sic) on the zo’calo. To Cholula tomorrow.
I’m right with you. Ya know it!
BTW, capital is a logistical discussion, not a problem, it seems to me. But then, I’m ridiculously cavalier by most folks’ standards.
yes, now we are getting to it.
Yes – this is my attitude compared to most people I know, but of everyone talking I am the most metida in the system – mortgage, other debt, and real taste for the soft life. I did find the gang in Cholula who are lovely, but *man* do they live a hard life in the physical sense.
Having done this post caused me to look at phenotypes in Mexico DF and yes – there are lots and lots of Afro-Mexicans.
I love Mexico.