The afro-descendant ethnopolitical mobilization in Mexico and the inmaterial cultural heritage

Abstract

In the construction of the Mexican nation-state model, based on Indian American otherness and the mestizo sector, the figure of African slaves ony appears as part of the colonial historical past, so that the social dynamics of contemporary African descendants are virtually invisible. Things have changed. Currently efforts aim to articulate its visibility as a social group,and legal figure, part of the landscape of cultural diversity in Mexico. Proof of the latter are the efforts that government institutions, with support from academic and civil society organizations, are making to account for their existence, both numerically and geographically, through surveys and various forms of ethnopolitical mobilization led by different segments of the population of the Costa Chica.

The aim of this paper is to analyze on the relevance of including intangible cultural heritage in the process of ethnogenesis of this population, as part of the struggle for cultural rights and how they are linked –or not– with the black population settled in other parts of Mexico.