The African Presence in Yucatan

This chapter focuses on the African roots of the Yucatan and provides fresh insights into the origins, arrival, and integration of Afro Caribs during the colonial period and into the evolving roles of Afro-Yucatecans in the socioeconomic network of New Spain. It presents documentary evidence indicating that Mexico's “third root” (Africans and their descendants) can be traced to the early colonial period. They probably came to Mexico during that time and, more specifically, the Yucatan came together with the Spanish conquistadors. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the Antilles,...

This chapter focuses on the African roots of the Yucatan and provides fresh insights into the origins, arrival, and integration of Afro Caribs during the colonial period and into the evolving roles of Afro-Yucatecans in the socioeconomic network of New Spain. It presents documentary evidence indicating that Mexico's “third root” (Africans and their descendants) can be traced to the early colonial period. They probably came to Mexico during that time and, more specifically, the Yucatan came together with the Spanish conquistadors. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the Antilles, predates the demographic collapse of the indigenous native populations of the Caribbean.