African Presence in Mexico - Exhibit

This groundbreaking exhibition highlights Mexico's "Third Root" and provides an important opportunity to revisit and embrace the African legacy in Mexico and the Americas. For nearly 500 years, the existence and contributions of the African descendants in Mexico have been overlooked. Almost a century after Africans arrived in Mexico in 1519, Yanga, an African leader, founded the first free African township in the Americas (January 6, 1609). Since then, Africans have continued to contribute their cultural, musical, and culinary traditions to Mexican society through the present day. This exhibition is filled with paintings, costumes, masks, musical instruments, and other examples of art and popular culture. Also included in this exhbition is a companion exhibition entitled Who Are We Now? Roots, Resistance, & Recognition that investigates the complex relationship between African-Americans and Mexicans in the United States.