Afro-Peruvian
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Afro-Peruvians are citizens of Peru descended from African slaves who were brought to the New World from the arrival of the conquistadores to the end of the slave trade. They make about 3 to 4% of the Peruvian population.
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[edit] Early history
The first Afro-Peruvians arrived with the conquistadores, briefly in 1521, and then when they returned-and then stayed-in 1525. They fought alongside the conquistadores as soldiers and worked wherever needed. Because of their previous acculturation in Spanish language and culture, they performed a variety of skilled and unskilled functions that directly contributed to Hispanic colonization.
Gradually, Afro-Peruvians came to be concentrated in specialized fields that drew upon their extensive knowledge and training in skilled artisanal work and in agriculture. As the mestizo population grew, the role of Afro-Peruvians as intermediaries between the indigenous residents and the Spaniards lessened. The mestizos population increased through liaisons between Spanish and Indigenous Peruvians. From this reality, a racial hierarchy, or pigmentocracy, became increasingly important to protect the privilege of Spanish overlords and their Spanish and mestizo children. In the pigmentocracy Spaniards were at the top of the hierarchy, metizos in the middle, and Africans and Indigenous populations competed for the third slot. Mestizos inherited the privilege to help the Spanish administer the country. Furthermore, as additional immigrants arrived from Spain and aggressively settled Peru, they attempted to keep the most lucrative jobs for themselves. Hence after the early colonial period, few Afro-Peruvians would become goldsmiths or silversmiths. However, in the early colonial period Afro-Spaniards and Afro-Peruvians frequently worked in the gold mines, because of their familitarity with the techniques. Gold mining and smithing were common in parts of western Africa from at least the fourth century. In the end Afro-Peruvians were relegated to the back breaking labor of sugcarcane and rice plantations of the northern coast or the vineyards and cotton fields of the southern coast. The Indigenous population tended to work in the silver mines, which they had a more expert knowledge of than western Africans or Spanish, even in the pre-Columbian eras.
[edit] Slave trade
Black people from Africa were brought as slaves to America during the XVI century. Over the course of the slave trade, approximately 95,000 slaves would be brought into the country, with the last group reportedly arriving in 1850. They were initially transferred to Cuba and then to Panamá where they were brought to the Viceroyalty of Peru. Slave owners also purchased their slaves in Cartagena, Colombia or Veracruz, Mexico at trade fairs; and they took back to Peru whatever the slave ships had brought over. Slaves were distributed between encomiendas”” as a result of the “New laws” of 1548 and due to the influence of the denunciation of the abuses against Native Americans by Friar Bartholome De las Casas .
Slave owners in Peru also preferred slaves who were not from specific areas of Africa, and who could would be able to communicate with each other. First choice was for "Guinea" Blacks, slaves from the Senegal River down to the Slave Coast. They were welcome because the Spanish considered them to be easy to manage. These slaves had marketable skills - they knew how to plant rice, how to break in horses, how to herd cattle on horseback. Second choice was for slaves from the area stretching from Ghana to Eastern Nigeria, and then third, for slaves from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola,Mozambique and Madagascar of from the Congo, Mantenga, Cambado, Misanga, Mozambique, Terranova, Mina y Angola ethnicities - among others -. Thus, the slave traders began with the commerce of manual labor. Diverse land owning families had them working for nearly 250 years, benefitting from their efforts and sufferings..
In the year 1856, President Ramon Castilla y Marquezado declared the freedom of the Afro-Peruvian ethnic groups and abolished slavery, beginning a new stage in history. Until now, in the Afro-Peruvian communities the popular refrain remains celebrating the landmark decision of Castilla:
- Que viva mi papá,
- que viva mi mamá,
- que viva Ramón Castilla
- que nos dio la liberta'
- Hooray for my Dad,
- Hooray for my Mom,
- Hooray for Ramón Castilla
- Who gave us freedom
Ironically, those who suffered from this, were Chinese-Peruvian, who were used like "coolies", Cantonese word for slaves. The new citizens took the last name of their ex--bosses, or at least similar last names, like the slaves of the Florez family, natural of Moquegua, named themselves Flores or, in last instance, "Florez".
[edit] Afro-Peruvians today
Afro-Peruvians/Afrodescent Peruvians refer to the descendants of the diverse African ethnic groups who, in Peru, obtained a cultural uniformity. They are, mainly, in the central and south coast, with majority of the population in the provinces of Chincha, Ica and Cañete, although they are also in the northern coast of Peru like Lambayeque and Piura.
The Afro-Peruvian population is between the 3-4% of the total population, between 1.5 to 2 million Afro-Peruvians and generally lives on the northern and southern coastal regions of Peru.
The greater concentration of Afro-Peruvians and Mestizos of Afrodescent is in the Callao a place that has always received many of the Afro-Peruvians from the north and southern coast historically. Departments like Ica, Lambayeque, Lima and Piura hold the rest of Afro-Peruvian population
In the southern coast of the Ica Region where there are many cotton fields and vineyards has been an area where there are many Afro-Peruvian farming towns and coastal cities known by their black populations such as El Carmen of the popular Chincha Province. There are other towns in the Nazca Province, Ica city and in the district of San Luis in the Cañete Province near Lima and Nazca to the south of Lima.
In Lima, the towns well known for having are large concentrations of Afrodescent populations are Chancay, Puente Piedra, Chorrillos, Rimac and La Victoria.
In the northern regions like La Libertad and Ancash, Afro-Peruvians also exist but the larger populations are concentrated in the northern valley plantations of the regions of Piura and Lambayeque.
Most Afro-Peruvian communities live in rural farming areas where mango, rice and sugarcane production is present. Contrary to the southern coast, these communities are mainly found away from the coastal shores and in to the region of the yungas, right where the plain hits the Andean chain.
The greatest Afro-Peruvian populations of the North coast are found mainly in the outskirts of the Morropon Province and concentrate themselves in Piura and Tumbes. The central province of Morropón is well known by its black communities in cities like especially in the cities of Chulucanas, Yapatera, Chapica del Carmelo, La Matanza, Pabur(Hacienda Pabur), Morropón, Salitral, Buenos Aires, San Juan de Bigote and Canchaque and to the north Tambogrande.
All of these cities belong to the Piura Region, where there are large rice fields and mango plantations. South from there, the Lambayeque Region and north of La Libertad where sugarcane production was in the past very productive, there several cities known for its black inhabitants. Examples are the famous colonial city of Saña in Lambayeque for being the second more important Afro-Peruvian city of the Peruvian north., also Tuman, Capote, Cayaltí Batán Grande, within the region of Lambayeque are known to have large amounts of Afro-Peruvian populations in the sugarcane region.
Recently it has been verified that the community with greatest concentration of Afro-Peruvians is the one of Yapatera in Morropón (Piura); composed of around 7,000 farmers whose majority is descended from old African slaves of “malagasy ”(Madagascar) origin.
Formerly Chicha, to the south of Lima and other communities in Ica, were known as the towns of greatest Afro-Peruvian concentration but due to the excessive mix between the afro inhabitants natural to the area and the Andean migrants, the Afro-Peruvian root has been more hybridized. Another reason is that many of the Afrodescent people also migrated towards Lima for better opportunities.
Freed slaves also arrived to small valleys in the rain forests of the Amazon as in Cerro de Pasco and Huánuco and there are still small populations exist with African ancestry mixed in.
[edit] List of famed Afro/Mixed-Peruvians
- Eva Ayllón - popular Peruvian musician.
- Guajaja - popular Peruvian musician.
- Susana Baca - folklorirst and current musician
- Nicomedes Santa Cruz - poet and folklorist.
- Caitro Soto - composer of famed Toro Mata rhythm. popularized by Celia Cruz in salsa style
- Teófilo Cubillas - one of history's greatest footballers ever.
- María Elena Moyano - civil leader
- Jefferson Farfan - actual leading scorer and star of PSV team.
- Julio Melendez - named the greatest Boca Juniors stopper
- Mauro Mina - boxer
- Cecilia Tait - the greatest smash in volleyball (Hall-Famer)
- Ricardo Palma - Limeño traditions writer of 1/4 African blood.
- St. Martin de Porres - famous Limeño saint.
- Ronaldo Campos de la Colina - one of the original founders of Peru Negro and preserver of Afro-Peruvian rhythms played on the cajon.
[edit] References
- Blanchard Slavery and Abolition in early Republican Peru
- Browser, F.P. The African Slave in Colonial Peru
- Lockhart, J. Spanish Peru 1532-1560: A Colonial Society
- Millones, Luis Minorias étnicas en el Perú
