UNESCO's work towards recognizing the Afro-descendant legacy
The undeniable influences and significant contributions of Afro-descendant population in Mexico manifest in our words, the flavours we enjoy, the rhythms that make us dance, and the spaces we share, in critical thinking against exclusion.
However, Afro-Mexican communities continue to face discrimination, violence, and inequalities. The International Day of Afro-Descendant People (August 31st) is an opportunity to take action for their full recognition and the guarantee of their human rights, as well as to address past injustices and decisively tackle those that persist.
During the colonial period, around a quarter of a million African people were forcibly brought to New Spain (currently Mexico) to work as slaves on plantations and haciendas, along with their languages and worldviews. While the main entry points were port areas like Acapulco and Veracruz and borders between viceroyalties, the Black heritage has taken root and endured throughout the country, despite the 20th-century mestizaje narrative.
The 2022 National Survey on Discrimination (ENADIS) revealed that over half of the Afro-descendant population aged 12 and above in Mexico feels perceived as foreign by most people. Moreover, the majority indicated that discrimination based on appearance is one of their major issues, along with when seeking employment.
One of UNESCO's works in Mexico to address the present and future of more than 2.5 million individuals who identify themselves as Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant is the preservation of memory to reaffirm their identity, contributions, and representation, including in both formal and informal learning landscapes.
To be Afro-Mexican means recognizing where I come from, taking pride in what I have, knowing that I have a voice and a history that deserves to be heard
To support transformation processes, UNESCO in Mexico accompanies the National Strategy for Inclusive Education with the Ministry of Public Education. One of its actions involves promoting intercultural education that highlights the contributions of Afro-descendant communities to the country's history and development. This is an urgent measure, as still over a quarter of Afro-descendant individuals perceive high levels of discrimination in schools, surpassing the 17% reported by indigenous people in the 2022 ENADIS.
Engaging with memory is a daily exercise, and tourist attractions serve as powerful resources, such as World Heritage sites, for example Tlacotalpan, the fortified historic city of Campeche, and the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro route. Among their criteria for Outstanding Universal Value are events, ideas, and intangible heritage related to Afro-Mexican history.
Territories like Yanga in Veracruz, the first free town founded by African and Afro-descendant population in 1640, Cuajinicuilapa in the Costa Chica of Guerrero, and Santo Domingo Square in Mexico City represent places of deep identity and historical resistance. They are also part of the Route of the Enslaved People, a UNESCO global project celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024. Through this project, the goal is to remember and educate against hatred, racism, and discrimination. San Juan de Ulúa is also part of this route and requires special mention, as it aims to be listed as a World Heritage site, highlighting the criterion related to memory.
To be Afro-Mexican means being proud of my history, heritage, and the person I have become, without allowing the racist attitudes of others to hinder me from fully living my life
UNESCO adopts a critical and transformative approach to prevent the perpetuation of racism and drive lasting change. As part of its global strategies, the Social and Human Sciences sector has developed global forums against Racism and Discrimination, responding to the worldwide call initiated by the Mexican State before UNESCO to combat racial discrimination, incitement to hatred, and racial hate crimes. The first in-person edition of the Global Forum, with a hybrid alternative, was held in Mexico City in November 2022.
A panel featuring representatives from governments, civil society, and academia from Mexico, the United States, and Canada was held and served as a guide for the Declaration on the North American Alliance for Racial Equality and Justice, signed by the three countries at the 2023 North American Leaders' Summit, aiming to establish a Trilateral Network of Experts on Racial Equality and Inclusion to strengthen civil society participation.
A national reflection is ongoing through the campaign #RevolucionaElAlgoritmo (#RevolutionizeTheAlgorithm), developed during the UNESCO Second Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination in Mexico City. The campaign now continues with international dialogues, and it has done with locations in South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, and soon Ethiopia, supported by the UN Live Museum, UNIC, and an increasing number of UN agencies.
As the only United Nations agency with a mandate dedicated to Communication and Information, UNESCO addresses contemporary and emerging challenges, including diversity promotion and countering misinformation and hate speech.
#RevolucionaElAlgoritmo is an initiative with RacismoMX and the creative agency Bombay. It began with an exercise of searching for keywords on the internet. One could be Mexican, Afro-descendant, or Afro-Mexican, encouraging reflection on the displayed results, their recurrences, and differences. In the initial 2022 campaign, it was surprising that indigenous and Afro-descendant individuals did not appear in "positive" categories like happy man or woman, successful man or woman. Whereas for searches related to poverty, brown and black people appeared predominantly.
Jordan Giger, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, participated in the documentary of this activity and shared the following:
"It's interesting that when we search for the term 'lawyer' in English, there's more female representation compared to the search in Spanish, which almost exclusively shows white men. It says a lot about the algorithms for Mexico, with images that seem more desirable and noted on the web. It speaks about the society we live in, even in Mexico. When searching, you can see which skin tones or genders are preferred."
The fields of action and proposals are numerous but also require deep internal analysis. UNESCO assesses the current state of racism in philanthropy to develop a proposal establishing an anti-racist agenda, in coordination with the Mexican Center for Philanthropy. This tool will reach more than 1550 organizations and individuals.
