More than ‘A Hidden Race’: The Complexities of Blackness in Mexico and Peru

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Notes

1. Although racial and color categories are social constructions and should thus be placed in quotations, for the purposes of smoother reading, in the remainder of the article, we will not use quotations around such terms unless referencing an outside source.

2. Individuals of mixed Indigenous and Spanish ancestry.

3. In this article we employ the terms ‘Afro-Mexican’ and ‘Afro-Peruvian’ to refer to the populations in Mexico and Peru that are of African descent. We acknowledge, however, that these are generally not emic terms, a point we discuss later in the article.

4. The paintings are visual representations of the caste system portraying race mixture between Indians, Spaniards, and Africans.

5. This observation is based on the first author's ethnographic work in Veracruz.