For the first time in Mexico’s national history 1.38 million Afro-Mexicans are being recognized for their Afro-ancestry by the government.
Mexico is home to a diverse population, but national censuses have excluded documentation of African lineage since the Mexican Revolution of 1910. For 95 years, the national identity for Mexico was “mestizaje,” a term that only acknowledges interracial descendants of colonizers and indigenous communities, and ignores the role of African slaves in Mexican ancestry.
Latin America’s past of slavery and colonization is linked to anti-black racism, which some countries have tried to fight with anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies. Denying the existence of the black population by not counting them in the national census is one major way structural racism plays out in Latin American countries although anti-blackness is a pervasive issue in other issues, as well. According to Remezcla, Afro-Mexican activists have fought for more than 15 years for formal recognition in the Mexican constitution.
You are absolutely wrong about everything. Mexico has not conduct census on race PERIOD. It doesn’t matter whether you are white, indigenous, black or mestizo, RACE was not a word that appears ANYWHERE on the CENSUS. As far as I know the same thing occurs in several Latin American countries. Embracing a culture where ppl are race-blind has prevented the racial tensions that occur in the US. Please inform yourself before publishing this kind of bullshit.
Mexico is not race blind. With nick names like “huerro” “negra” and “india” throughout the region, skin color is certainly of comment; I have spent a lot of time in many Latin American countries and I have wonderful memories, however, ethnicity and pigment do play a role.