Cobb: The Other Side of Memin

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July 01, 2005

The Other Side of Memin

Here and there are some references to a stamp to which some African Americans took offense. Since I'm not particularly enamored with the politics of protest I've decided to take another angle. Much of that has to do with the fact that I've got a little bit of Juneteenth on my mind, but more on that later. The other has to do with my old friend Tony Gleaton.

It is a little known fact that Mexico banned slavery before the United States. It's fairly easy to dog Vicente Fox these days, and he certainly deserves a lot of criticism, but the Mexico of old deserves a lot of recognition too. It was the first post-colonial nation, and to the extent that progressives ought to mark that with some positive regard, a postage stamp is but a drop in the bucket. Then again, that may be the only bucket some folks are holding. I've been finding it odd that there are those who would say that Texans weren't racist in holding back news that slaves should be free, when just across the Rio Grande, it was already the case. Wouldn't it be interesting to have found an underground railroad that went South from Texas? Isn't it interesting that there's one today going North to Texas?

There was a time, in my progressive days, that I looked to Latin America for inspiration. I was an avid reader of Fuentes and Borges, although Marquez does nothing for me and my jury is out on Cortazar. Yet nothing quite brought home the affinity as hanging out with Tony Gleaton in his old studio on North Figueroa on the border of Pasadena.

Tony's black and white photographs were stunning and still are. But these were more than just testimony, they were a bridge. Knowing Tony made the difference. He was a Vietnam vet, and for him it was all about being in the territory. So we parted ways when he decided to take another long journey south of the border to capture more of his and our heritage - that of Africans in the New World.

It's not enough to know there are blacks in Mexico. They are not black in the way we are and there is no simple way to explain our kinship, but our willingness to do so is the first step to brotherhood and respect. It is a step most of us have not taken. It is the step I think we should take as we take this opportunity to complain about the lack of respect we get from people who have no clue about who we are and what we're like. For the truth is, almost none of us know who Afro-Mexicans are or what they are like, and without the photos of Gleaton, we'd know even less. After all, the complaint isn't so much of what Mexicans think of themselves, but of us African Americans. This isn't part of our politics.

I'm not prepared to suggest that none of us Anglos have what it takes to put Memin in context. It is what it is whatever we think. But I wonder if we are thinking long and hard enough about our international brotherhood to make such a big issue out of such a small item. If I can have my way, let Gleaton's images of real people be to reason to think of Mexico, not a postage stamp of a fictional character.

Posted by mbowen at July 1, 2005 03:31 PM

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Comments

Slow down. HAITI was the first post-colonial nation, throwing off the yoke of slavery almost three decades before Mexico abolished slavery against blacks (although I add that slavery against the native population continued for a few decades afterward in Mexico). Let's not forget that fact, even while giving Mexico its due for abolishing slavery against blacks before the United States.

Posted by: molotov at July 2, 2005 10:16 AM

The pictures are really stunning and I'm glad I stumbled onto this, because with all the hooha over the Vincente Fox and the political opportunism of the Jackson/Sharpton ilk, I wanted to see those real Afro-Mexicans and know their story.

Thanks for putting a face to that via your friendship.

Posted by: Ron at July 4, 2005 02:16 AM

that's all fine and dandy, but a caricature is a caricature...it really ain't all that deep - except that caricatures indicate broad social acceptance of extreme depictions, dehumanization, and marginalization. i use the word caricature to distinguish it from stereotype - because the genesis and implications can vary greatly...

mexico (not the same as mexicans), like other latin american nations has a long history of EXTREME discrimination against blacks and indians - not unlike the US...spanish, french, and portuguese colonies retained detailed color-schemes for all residents - witness Louisiana in the US...

there are areas with black folks in mexico - and, not unlike black folk in the us, they've been there longer than most of the europeans...i don't doubt that there is some level of strong identification or friendly feeling between mexican africans and the rest of the diaspora...if that were not the case, they would be about the only group to not express this sentiment...it is certainly alive in venezuela and colombia...it is a hallmark of the caribbean and europe.

the stamp is only as insignificant as any other lightly regarded symbol...still, symbols spring forth from the subconscious mind and reveal much about the inner workings of a society...and to the extent that symbols are embraced by a collective without question, they resonate with some commonly held belief in that collective. so the stamp is what it is - a symbolic reflection of commonly held perceptions of africans by the mexican government and its people - and that only matters to the extent that it impacts you or your circle of concern.

Posted by: Temple3 at July 7, 2005 07:43 AM

I dissent with the others comments:
discrimination in Mexico? yes.
like other countries? not much, most discrimination in post-colonial Mexico was against chinese, yes, against CHINESE there was even a massacre of they in the state of Chihuahua during the Mexican revolution lead by pancho villa. we even had a mixed black-white-amerindian president: vicente guerrero. and the cocopa laws the EZLN asked wasn't approved because it they were seen as segregative, the "modern" discrimination in Mexico is more against poors indeed money 'en-whites' anyone.

Posted by: Eduardo at July 9, 2005 05:54 PM

That's what folks in spanish-speaking countries with african populations usually kick - we discriminate against everybody - we don't see race, we only see class...the problem with this ahistorical analysis is that black has been made synonymous with poor through legislation and social/cultural practice. more to the point, roll out the caricatures of poor europeans in mexico...can't wait to see those.

Posted by: Temple3 at July 11, 2005 05:57 AM