Inside the Afro-Mexican struggle for inclusion

This year marks the conclusion of the International Decade for People of African Descent, declared by the UN to advance the rights of individuals of African origin globally. In Mexico, significant progress has been made regarding Afro-Mexican rights, but the efforts of local movements remain ongoing.

The first enslaved people arrived in Mexico in 1546, disembarking in Veracruz, a state along the Gulf of Mexico. However, it wasn't until 2019 that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador officially recognised the Afro-Mexican population in the federal constitution.

"This recognition makes us more visible," Yolanda Camacho Calleja, a leader in the movement for Afro-Mexican rights, told FairPlanet. Camacho Calleja is also the co-founder of Collective Ña'a Tunda, an NGO focused on empowering Afro-Mexican women by helping them understand their rights.

ongoing discrimination

An example of the invisibility faced by Afro-Mexicans is the first national survey on discrimination in Mexico, commissioned by the government in 2005. According to Minority Rights Group International, the survey addressed discrimination against eight different groups, but made no mention of Afro-Mexicans or the discrimination they experience.

Until the 2015 Intercensal Survey, Mexico had no official data on the number of Afro-descendants living in the country. In the 2020 census, around 2.5 million people identified as Afro-descendants, accounting for about 2 per cent of the total population. Most of them reside in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas, Coahuila and Michoacán.

However, Camacho Calleja cautioned in an interview with El Economista that many Afro-Mexicans responded to the census in ways that avoided identifying as Black to avoid facing discrimination.

Historically, Afro-Mexicans have faced discrimination on multiple fronts in Mexico. To this day, many live in regions with lower economic conditions and limited access to resources.

For instance, the lack of roads in Costa Chica, a region spanning parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero where a significant portion of the Afro-Mexican population lives, limits economic opportunities. The main sources of income for locals - fishing and agriculture - are increasingly threatened by climate change, further exacerbating the region's economic challenges.

Afro-Mexican communities also face limited access to education, healthcare and even the internet. In 2020, for example, over 83,000 Afro-descendants between the ages of 3 and 17 across Mexico were not attending school.

Afro-Mexican women face distinct forms of discrimination.

"Afro-Mexican women are hypersexualised," Camacho Calleja said. "They must listen to all kinds of comments [about their bodies]. I know students that were not granted places in universities. I know teachers who have suffered discrimination at schools where they work. Or, if a Black woman goes to a health center, it happens that they refuse to provide her with health care." 

In addition to facing discrimination, Afro-Mexican women in the Costa Chica region, where Collective Ña'a Tunda mostly operates, are also subjected to gender-based violence.

According to a study by Ilaria Sartini from the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Huelva in Spain, the social phenomena of emigration, alongside alcohol and drug consumption, combined with the cultural dimensions of machista practices in this region of Mexico, create the material and immaterial conditions where gender-based violence is produced and perpetuated.

beyond visibility

Having an official count of the Afro-Mexican population is crucial for understanding their demographics and identifying their particular needs.

"This could, in turn, lead to greater legal recognition and the development of specific public policies at different governmental levels in order to attend to their specific needs and improve their living conditions," write researchers Eduardo Torre-Cantalapiedra and Gabriela Sánchez-Soto in their study on Afro-descendents and social stratification in Mexico. 

Incorporating the needs of the Afro-Mexican population into public policies has been a key focus of the Afro-Mexican movement across the country.

"We have been knocking at the doors of institutions so that they grant us our rights," said Camacho Calleja. "I think we have progressed in this regard. Once we are included in public policies, we have the right to exercise the laws."

She highlighted examples such as eligibility for social programmes and the recent establishment of Mexico's first Afro University, which welcomed its inaugural students in early September in Santa María Cortijo. Additionally, in October of last year, Congress approved a series of reforms to legal frameworks concerning indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities, which came into effect this past April.

As a result, the Afro-Mexican community has been granted its first radio concession, and starting next year, they will be broadcasting on the new frequency, 107.3 FM. For now, the station, Voces Afromexicanas, is primarily active on Facebook, where it shares updates on Afro-Mexican culture, community events, meetings of the Afro-Mexican movement and progress in securing Afro-Mexican rights.

"At the beginning, they told us that we could be granted a frequency designated for the indigenous people. But we wanted our own," Camacho Calleja shared. She stressed that indigenous peoples and Afro-Mexicans have distinct histories and worldviews, and therefore require different approaches and treatment.

"One thing is to be visible, but with our own radio, we will also be listened to," Camacho Calleja, who promotes the Afro-Mexican radio station across the country, added. Their online presence extends as far as the US. 

Entering politics

Another positive development for the Afro-Mexican population is increased political representation at various levels. aría Celeste Sánchez Sugía from Iztapalapa, who served as a senator representing Mexico City from August 2021 to August 2024, made history as the first senator to identify as Afro-Mexican.

Rosa María Castro Salinas, who currently serves as a congresswoman, identifies as Afro-Mexican and is an activist advocating for women's leadership in Costa Chica, Mexico.

Women of African descent are also active in local politics within their communities. "This is thanks to the [2014] Parity Law, as well as affirmative action and proportional representation," said Camacho Calleja. "We have even reached the courts."

But while these are steps forward, they are not always easy to take. 

Camacho Calleja also attempted to enter local politics in her hometown of Villa de Tututepec. However, instead of receiving support, she stated that she was subjected to psychological abuse.

"We ran a campaign, but the other candidates were lying about me," she said. "One could feel machismo and discrimination against my candidacy as a woman," she recalled.

"In order for Afro-Mexican women to be able to participate in politics on equal and non-violent terms, what is needed is to raise awareness in institutions so that they open the doors to us in this process of participation," Hilda Margarita Guillen, a feminist activist and Public Prosecutor of the Municipality of Pinotepa Nacional in Oaxaca, told UN Women.

"We need to raise awareness among men. We need workshops, awareness about new masculinities where women are present with men to form a team and create an alliance."

"In these ten years of working as women, we have touched some sensitive issues. We have touched a few egos. They have beaten us in some ways," Camacho Calleja told FairPlanet. "My family fears the risk of defamation, the risk that a husband threatens me because I am working with his wife."

Another challenge pointed out by Camacho Calleja  is facilitating coordination between civil society organisations involved in the movement. 

"To coincide with other organisations and unite for the same purpose to advance with public policies has been a challenge,"she sai, adding that even within the Afro-Mexican movement there has been a sense of patriarchy and machismo attempting to impose ideas without considering women.

But, according to her, activists have resisted that dynamic, advancing as a women's organisation and creating their own agenda in support of the Afro-Mexican movement.

Image by Gift Habeshaw.