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fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

Gaspar Yanga

Gaspar Yanga founded the first community of escaped slaves, or cimarrones, in present-day Mexico. Born in West Africa in the first half of the 16th century, Yanga was eventually kidnapped and taken as a slave to the port of Veracruz in Mexico’s Caribbean coast. There he organized a slave rebellion and took to the mountains by 1570, where he eventually settled for the next few decades, occasionally fighting the Spanish forces and ultimately winning a victory for his people. A major standoff against the Spanish begun in 1609 lasted for years and ended with the Spanish acceding to Yanga’s demands for self-rule. Like other free slave communities of the time, known as palenques, the terms for its existence included the introduction of Catholic clergy into the area and the promise to not accept any new runaway slaves within the town’s borders. The community founded by Yanga eventually became the town of San Lorenzo de los Negros in 1630. Now known simply as “Yanga”, the town currently hosts a yearly carnival celebrating its African heritage.

Yanga was featured in Black in Latin America yesterday.

This needs to be in our children’s history books.

(Source: fylatinamericanhistory, via fylatinamericanhistory)