AFROMESTIZO
THE THIRD ROOT
African
Heritage of Central America
By Kent C. Williams
©2001 - Kent C. Williams, Santa Rosa, California
El Salvador:
Afromestizos:
El Salvador is Central
America’s smallest republic and the most densely populated country in the
region. The 5,900,000 Salvadorenos are
one of the most racially mixed populations in the western hemisphere. With 94%
of its population considered to be mestizo,
El Salvador ranks as having the highest percentage of “multi-racial” population in the Americas. The native
American population makes up only 5%, those of European ancestry (mainly
Spanish, German and English) are 1% of the population and own and control much
of the land and economy. There are also smaller numbers of Palestinians and
Chinese living in the larger cities and towns. Many Salvadorans today are
unaware of El Salvador’s African heritage and the African contribution made to
mestizo culture has often gone
unrecognized by Salvadoran scholars.
A typical encyclopedia entry
on El Salvador does not usually mention an African presence in the country.
During my research I came across one entry that indicated the following
regarding the ancestry of the Salvadoran people: “Their ancestors were
predominantly Indians - Pipil, or Pokomam Maya, or Lenca - but also have
included other strains - colonial African slaves, their Spanish masters,
and a sprinkling of more recent immigrants from Europe and the Middle East.
Except for a few white families who have remained apart, these ancestral
groups have become submerged by a mixing of bloodlines”. This is one of
the more clearly written examples of what the population of El Salvador consists
of, that is, a blending of several different racial and ethnic strains forming
the population group known in Central America as mestizo
(“mixtures”).
El Salvador is the only
country in Central America that does not have a Garifuna, Miskito or
Afro-Antillean population. The other six republics have at least one, or all of
these groups living within their borders. El Salvador’s
connection with Africa goes back to a much earlier time, to the era of
Spanish colonial rule. The latter migrations of African descended peoples
settling in the other republics did not include El Salvador, and
as a result Salvadorans will tell you that their country is the only one
in Central America that does not have a “black population”. This is not all
together correct. For over four and a half centuries the population of El
Salvador has mixed its blood lines so completely into one multi-racial society
that the remote African origins of some of its citizens are unknown even to
those that have such a background.
The European settlement of El
Salvador began with the founding of the capital city San Salvador by Pedro de
Alvarado in 1526. At the time, the native American population of the area
was estimated at between 116,000-130,000 persons (some have placed the figure as
high as 500,000). By 1551 there were only 400 Spanish colonists living in the
country (almost all males) and the indigenous population had been
reduced as a result of the encomienda,
disease and miscegenation to around 50,000-80,000. A plague in 1578 reduced
still further the native population, so that
by the end of the 16th century there were perhaps no more then
10,000 persons of unmixed native American ancestry living in the country. The
almost complete destruction of the Pipil and Lenca civilizations had taken place
within a period of only 75 years.
Early in the life of the
colony cacao, sugar and indigo plantations, as well as mining operations,
created a strong demand for imported slave labor (coffee did not become
important in El Salvador until the 19th century).
The declining native American
population might also have influenced a Royal Ordinance issued in 1541
that gave the Spanish land owners and miners permission to import African slaves
into El Salvador. The following year, a Royal Ordinance known as the New
Laws ended the forced laboring of native Americans in the Spanish colonies.
The New Laws did not officially come
into effect in El Salvador until 1548
when the president of the “Jurisdiction of Los Confines” (which included El
Salvador) freed all native slaves in the country and recommended that more
Africans be brought to El Salvador to take the place of those who had been
freed. Over the next seventy-five years upwards of 10,000 Africans were brought
to work on the haciendas and in the
mines of El Salvador. Many died without leaving descendants, others however left their ethnic and cultural
imprint upon the ethnically mixed population.
During the 1540’s and
50’s most slaves in El Salvador were used in local mining operations. Latter,
from the 1570’s through the middle of the 18th century indigo (a
blue dye) became an important export and both Africans and natives were used as
laborers on plantations. It proved
rather expensive to import slaves into El Salvador to harvest indigo during its
short two-month season and this reduced large
numbers of slaves from ever being brought into the country. Despite this, in
several towns and cities Africans made up an important part of the population
during the colonial era.
In 1635 the town of San
Vicente was established by Spanish colonists and became an important center
for the indigo trade. African slaves were brought here to work on
nearby plantations. Several other towns also had African communities: Zacatecoluca
(south of San Salvador), Chinameca
(west of San Miguel), and Ahuachapan
and Sonsonate (both west of San Salvador) all had sizable African
populations at one time. The gold mines in the area around San Miguel were worked by Africans during the 1540’s and ‘50s, Santa
Ana and the capital San Salvador
also had its slave, “free” and “mulatto” communities. Slaves were
introduced throughout the country to do the labor of a declining and
“protected” native population.
With the mixing of
Spanish, African and native there arose free “mulatto” and
“zambo” communities in a number of towns. Zambos are persons of mixed native American and African ancestry.
Some slaves attempted to gain their freedom by marrying into the native
population. Laws were passed by the Spanish to prevent such Afro-Amerindian
unions, but the mixing of the two groups could not be prevented. Slaves
continued to marry natives with the idea that they might gain freedom, if not
for themselves, then for their racially mixed offspring. The children of such
unions were free under Spanish law.
In Richard Price’s book Maroon
Societies (1979) he documents that among Africans and natives during the
colonial period “Indian women
would rather marry Negroes than Indians; and neither more or less, Negroes
prefer to marry Indian women rather than Negresses, so that their children will
be born free”. Price quoted this
from a history by H. H. Bancroft published in 1877 refering to colonial Mexico.
El Salvador’s African population lived under similar circumstances, and the
mixing of African men with native women was common during colonial times.
In 1625 a planned slave rebellion in San Salvador was narrowly averted. As a result, Spanish colonial
authorities became more reluctant to import any more slaves into the country
then absolutely necessary. Throughout all of Central America there were growing
free mestizo and mulatto populations. Together with cheap native labor, fewer slaves
were brought to El Salvador and Central America after 1625 then during the
previous century. A process of the mixing together in El Salvador of
“mulatto”, “zambo” and “mestizo”
resulted in a population that was 31% of mixed ancestry by 1779. The
census that year recorded “mulattos” and “mestizos” (together) as persons of
mixed racial ancestry. This census reported
25,000 “mulattos and mestizos” living in the San Salvador area in that year.
During the first 150 years
the Spanish colonies in Central America saw few European women immigrate.
Alister White in El Salvador (1973) writes “The
first Spanish ladies do not appear to have arrived in El Salvador until Pedro de
Alvarado brought twenty in 1539 to Guatemala, virtually selling them to the
colonists”. African men also took native women as their wives, resulting in
the creation of the zambo population
group. Mullatos, mestizos
and zambos eventually came to mix with each other creating the so called
mestizo population of today. At the
end of the colonial era the mixing of the various races in the country was well
on its way in creating a population that no longer had strong ethnic identities
as native, African or European.
At the time of independence
(1821), the population of El Salvador was over 50% of mixed racial ancestry.
Today the figure is over 90%. There are really only various “shades of
brown” in the country with few extremes in color variation. American humorist
P. J. O’Rouke once described the Salvadorans as being “mestizo lite”
perhaps because they tend to be less “Indian looking” then many Mexicans or
Guatemalans.
After the establishment of
the “United Provinces of Central America” (1823-1838) three Salvadorans Jose
S. Canas, Manuel J. Arce
and Fr. Jose M. Delgado became instrumental in the abolition of slavery
in Central America. In April of 1823 the National Assembly of the Federation met
in Guatemala City to write a constitution for the new Republic. On December 31,
1823 Jose Canas, a deputy in the constituent assembly, introduced a measure
providing for the abolition of slavery in Central America. The measure passed
and Fr. Delgado wrote into the constitution that slavery would be abolished
throughout the new
Federation. The constitution was adopted in November of 1824 and in March the
following year the first president of the Federation Manuel Arce proclaimed an
official end to slavery in Central America. The
Federation was the first nation in the “New World” (after Haiti) to
abolish slavery. This was as a direct result of the efforts of three of El
Salvador’s most important 19th century statesmen.
British settlers in
neighboring Belize thought that the act of abolition was directed deliberately
at them in order to encourage their slaves to escape and hurt the economic
interests of the British in Belize! A number of slaves did in fact flee across
the borders into Guatemala and Honduras. At the time of the abolition there were
around 1,000 still Africans being held in bondage in the five provinces. Many
belonged to the Franciscan Order. Most
Afro-Central Americans living in the Federation at the time of the abolition had
either obtained their freedom, or were the racially mixed descendants of the
rising mestizo majority.
During my research several
Salvadorans I spoke with mentioned that for many years the constitution of
El Salvador prohibited the immigration and settlement of black people in
the country. The small, mainly European descended oligarchy, apparently wanted
to discourage the kind of immigration from the Caribbean that the other Central
American republics experienced during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Other anti-black immigration laws were also enacted in Costa Rica,
Guatemala and Panama mainly against English speaking Afro-Antilleans.
In the area of folk and
popular music, the influences of Africa on El Salvador become very apparent. The
national folk instrument, the marimba, has its origins in Africa and was brought
to Guatemala and the rest of Central America by African slaves during colonial
times. The melodies played on it show native American, African and European
influences in both form and style. Salvadoran popular music, as well as its
social dances, show strong connections to the rhythms of western and central
Africa. The most popular social dances in El Salvador are those that have been
adopted from the Afro-Caribbean rhythms and dances. The Cumbia
came from Colombia, the Rumba-Bolero from
Cuba and the Merengue from the
Dominican Republic. No Salvadoran social event is complete without the playing
of these Afro-Caribbean dances. They are so completely integrated into
Salvadoran life that they are today the most typical expressions of the popular
musical traditions of the country. In their Salvadoran form they take on a style
that is similar, yet different, from that which they originated.
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