Africa in Jalisco

Abstract

In 2017, I enrolled in the 7th generation of the Master's Degree in Cultural Management and Development at the University of Guadalajara and, like any student, I had certain difficulties in defining my research topic. I only knew that I wanted Afro-Cuban music and dance to be part of it, so I had to organize my ideas, especially methodologically. I then wrote a thesis entitled Cuban popular dance as a generator of intercultural processes in Guadalajara, where I worked on the genesis of Afro-Cuban music and dance; the various religions of African origin that took root in Cuba, and how, with mixtures of European music that arrived on the island, rhythms such as rumba, danzón, mambo, cha-cha-cha, bolero, casino, etc. were generated. I also wrote about the arrival of these rhythms in Mexico, especially during the Golden Age of Cinema, and their transition to the city of Guadalajara, as Guadalajara has a very strong movement around Afro-Cuban music and dance. When I did this work, I was surprised to realize that every Latin American rhythm had black roots, denied as in the case of milonga and tango, but always present. The issue of blackness and African descent in Mexico was almost exclusively concentrated in areas such as Veracruz, Oaxaca, and Guerrero, as these were the main ports of trade for goods and people, but who said that there were no black people in Jalisco?