Afro-Chilean
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Afro Chileans are citizens of Chile, descended from African slaves who were brought to the New World with the arrival of the conquistadors towards the end of the slave trade.
[edit] History
It is well documented that chilean national dance, the cueca, had black elements in its original concept. Also, the famous Historian Francisco Antonio Encina once wrote that 13 per cent of the explorers that came to Chile with Diego de Almagro were black. Historian Gonzalo Vial Correa mentions that "up to the year 1558, the number of blacks, mulattos and zambos in Chile was of about 5,000; compared to 2,400 Spaniards, 17,000 mestizos and 48,000 indians". According to these statistics, up to the end of the 16th Century almost 20 per cent of the Chilean population had some kind of black blood.
From another perspective, during the Colonial times Chile was part of the black slaves traffic industry. They came through two routes: one that started at the Iberian peninsula and went down all the way to Porto Bello, Panama or Cartagena de Indias. Slave traders would get several of these "black goods" and delivered them to the markets of the "Nueva España", Central America and Peru. Slaves that got to the Chilean ports of Coquimbo and Valparaiso had a price that was two or three times higher.
The second most direct route started from Buenos Aires and went through Cuyo to Mendoza. It crossed the mountains to the Aconcagua valley, where slaves were delivered to Santiago and Valparaiso. Most of them were sold and transported ilegally. During the 18th Century, Valparaiso was an important port for the slavery business. According to the Oro Negro foundation, in 1783 2,180 slaves were shipped to the Callao port.
Chile banned slavery in 1811 through the "Liberty of womb" law made by Manuel de Salas, seven years after he had read the following announcement in a newspaper: "For sale: 22 to 24-year-old mulatto, nice condition, good price. Thanks to this ban, dictated in 1823, Chile became the second country in the world to prohibit slavery, after Denmark.
The African minority that lived in Santiago, Quillota or Valparaiso began to mix with indians, gypsies, and Europeans, shaping a whole new ethnic and cultural identity for Chile.
Finally, there was one more event that added the African inheritance to the Chilean blood. When the city of Arica was finally integrated to Chile, in 1929, a lot of Afro-descendants began living under the Chilean law. And they are still there, looking life with the conviction that they are far more than what official tales makes us believe. They are part of the "Black Arica", and they work daily to promote their traditions and culture, proving that their influence goes beyond the "cueca" or "zamacueca". Their face is proud and shows unmistakeable traces of the Black Africa.
[edit] See also
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