A retrospective look

Scales and articulations around the visibilization of contemporary Afro-Mexican populations

Abstract

The identification of contemporary Afrodescendant populations in Mexico and their recognition as part of the country’s ethnic diversity is a very recent task on the government’s agenda. Government actions respond to long-standing historical processes and also, to a large extent, to political conjunctures at different scales and times that intensified just over a decade ago. This article is a retrospective look at some conjunctural factors that at one time favored the visibility of the Afro-Mexican population, its incorporation into the government agenda, and its subsequent constitutional recognition in 2019. In particular, the interest is to focus attention on the political articulations of indigenous leaderships with the Afro-Mexican mobilization. The International Year for People of African Descent in 2011 is established as a synchronous and conjunctural point that will serve to show the confluence of tensions and articulations. The analytical resource to approach this moment and space is scale, a concept developed in human geography, relevant not only to refer to a location but as an interpretive scheme. The sources that support the argument are linked to the ethnographic work carried out between 2011 and 2019 in the Costa Chica region of Oaxaca, the documentary archive of the region, and historiography specialized in the subject.