Dolores Medel sat down with NYIHA MEDIA to discuss the Afro-Mexican Exhibition at the Schomburg Center
On August 9, 2024, the New York Public Library unveiled a poignant exhibition entitled “Visibility & Resistance, Afro-Mexican Photography” at one of its research libraries, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. NYIHA MEDIA attended both the exhibition and the panel of participating photographers. We selected one of the panelists, Dolores Medel, for an in-depth conversation. Dolores is based in Veracruz, a state heavily influenced by its links to the Caribbean.
On view: August 9 through December 2, 2024.
Dr. Steeve Coupeau: Our readers would like to know you on a personal level. What inspired you to get started in photography and how did it happen?
Dolores Medel: I began to study photography formally at the age of 17, in my hometown, San Andrés Tuxtla, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. My first teacher was a retired ex-military man from the Mexican army, who had photography as a hobby and passion. His name is Estuardo de Ganges. He just turned 95 years old and he is in perfect shape, fortunately.
He taught me all the basics of photography, from history to technique. He even had a darkroom installed at the back of his house, where I learned to develop and print in black and white.
Later, I earned a degree in Communications, worked for a few years as a journalist, enrolled in the Contemporary Photography Seminar at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City in 2011. There, I began to work on personal projects. I have been working in the photography program of the Universidad Veracruzana for more than a decade. That’s where I have learned the most about photography. I work on various projects as a freelancer and continue with my personal projects.
Dr. Steeve Coupeau: You are a native of Veracruz, a State of Mexico that is home to some of the most visible ethnic and cultural expressions of African heritage. Can you describe the historical factors that led to the presence of an Afro-Mexican community in Veracruz?
Dolores Medel: Veracruz is the gateway to the Western world. The Spanish colonizers arrived in Veracruz when they conquered Mexico. Of course, they brought African people with them but not necessarily as slaves. At some point between the 15th and 16th centuries, 90% of the population in the Port of Veracruz was of African descent.
There was never segregation in Mexico, which is why people mixed constantly, something that continues to happen today. That was the first “black” imprint in Mexico. One of the best-known stories is that of “Nyanga”. According to the myth, he was a member of the Gabonese royalty, who was brought as a slave to Mexico. It is not clear whether that’s true. What is certain is that he led the first rebellion of maroons in what was then New Spain. He then founded a town called “San Lorenzo de Los Negros” in the central area of the State of Veracruz.
That town is now called Yanga, in honor of the Founder. However, many of the blacks who accompanied Nyanga in the founding of the first free town in America, in the 17th century, retreated to surrounding areas. The Afro-descendants concentrated in the towns around Yanga and what is now Cuitláhuac, such as Mata Clara or Mirador. That area is perhaps one of the oldest black historical sites in Mexico, along with the Costa Chica region in the Mexican Pacific.
Now, it is difficult to talk about Veracruz as an African enclave, because there was a lot of mixing between Africans and indigenous peoples and with some of the groups of Spaniards who stayed. There was significant intermarriage with other ethnicities.
You can find many residents with African features in Veracruz. Our blackness is undeniable although sometimes it is not evident at first glance. It is common to nickname someone “El Negro” or “La Negra” and there is no offense per se. I think we all have an uncle or a friend whom we call “El Negro”. In my view, blackness is a collection of features, knowledge and stories in Veracruz. African heritage is most palpable in the culture, food and music.
The second great wave came in the last century with the arrival of many people from the Caribbean. Many people came to Mexico to work in the tobacco industry, sugar cane and the entertainment world. I know several people whose grandparents were black people who were dedicated to music or sports, such as baseball. Culturally, Veracruz has been “the Caribbean beyond” since the XVI Century.
Now, we have a third wave, which is the Haitian migration. For more than a decade now, thousands of Haitians began to arrive to Veracruz, fleeing the political and social crisis on the island. Now we have many small children who were born here, their parents are from Haiti, but they are Mexicans. In the not-too-distant future, I am sure that the population that identifies itself as Afro-descendant in Mexico will be a very high percentage.
Dr. Steeve Coupeau: What steps still need to be taken to achieve racial equality in Mexico?
Dolores Medel: Historically, in “New Spain”, there was no segregation as such, but rather an attempt to engineer a “new race”, the mestizo, where all the cultures that had arrived in the country would come together. The problem is that mestizaje was thought of as the mixture of only two ethnicities: the indigenous and the Spanish, but we know that there is not just one indigenous ethnicity, and not just one type of Spaniard.
In the various processes leading to the concept of a new Mexican identity, the black population has been made invisible. For example, it is common to speak of the Independence of Mexico as the birth of a new nation, by and for Mexicans. There is talk of the Criollos (children of Spaniards born in Mexico, formerly New Spain) and of the indigenous peoples, but little is said about the fact that the descendants of Africans were there fighting as cannon fodder. They were, along with the indigenous, those who were at the forefront of the war. They won independence, but there has not been an official recognition of this historical fact. So, a good strategy would be to promote black history in Mexico, to honor Afro-Mexicans in history books at all educational levels.
We need to accept that our genetic load contains African blood. It is a deep and difficult work that has been carried out for many decades and that reached a high point in 2019 with the constitutional recognition of Afro-Mexican peoples and communities, which legally did not exist before.
What consequences did this bring? Well, an identity crisis among people whose blackness is more evident, and a total denial among those who apparently do not have black blood. This process resulted in discrimination, exclusion and poverty. It also brought the exoticization of black people, which is another form of racism. That is why it was so important that, in the 2020 national census, the question “Do you consider yourself Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant” were included for the first time.
But there is still a lot of work to do, in terms of self-recognition. How do you define whether you are Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant? Mexico is a racist and classist country, not only with black people, but also and in a different way (sometimes worse) with indigenous peoples. Both indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples tend to be those with the least access to a decent life. They have the least access to better standards of living, which is not easy in a country where the majority of its inhabitants still retain vestiges of a colonized way of thinking.
Dr. Steeve Coupeau: What key message you want US viewers to take away from the Afro-Mexican exhibition at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture?
Dolores Medel: My position is that we need to recognize Mexico as a diverse country where Afro-descendants have the place they deserve. It’s about using photography to say: we exist, we resist and we have our own stories to tell.
ACT NOW: To learn more about Dolores Medel’s photography, visit her website at: https://www.doloresmedel.com/.