The new exhibition “Visibility & Resistance: New Acquisitions, Contemporary Afro Mexican Photography,” on view at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture through December 2, 2024, showcases the work of four contemporary Afro Mexican artists. The photographers––Dolores Medel, Hugo Arellanes Antonio, Koral Carballo, and Toumani Camara—are all recipients of Mexico-United States Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (COMEXUS) Fulbright grants. They came to the Schomburg this past Friday, August 9, to talk about their work and their communities.
The exhibition is part of a new effort by the Schomburg to enhance its documentation of Afro Mexicans. The famed African diaspora library had only a scattered collection of information about Black Mexicans, such as a copy of the 1837 congressional decree that abolished slavery throughout the country and some photos of Black Mexicans working in silver mines in the 20th century. Other documents, also on display in the exhibition, include books that detail Black life in Mexico during the 1700s.
Renee González de la Lama, director of the COMEXUS program, said at the opening of the exhibition that when she initially saw the the Schomburg’s documentation about Afro Mexicans, “I was really sad to see that the Schomburg’s photographic archives had examples of all the people from all the Latin American countries except Mexico.
“In Mexico,we have many firsts that I believe are important in this context, not only among photographers, but with the presence of Afrodescendant populations. We had, for example, the first Black president on the American continent, the first Black governor on the American continent. I think these are firsts that are also important in the context of the Schomburg’s research.
Karen Juanita Carrillo/Manon Loiseau photos
“There is also the fact that Mexico was the country that welcomed many slaves who fled [the United States after] slavery had been abolished in our country. They came to enrich Mexico with a Black population that went beyond the population that had arrived enslaved.”
Mexico’s Black community can be found in areas throughout the nation and have traditionally established villages in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, and Coahuila. The photographers whose work is on display hail from the Costa Chica region, Veracruz, Puebla, and Mexico City. They spoke about how the regions they were raised in have influenced their photography.
Dolores Medel, who is from the Tuxtla region of Veracruz, called her native state “a jungle region where tabaco grows—where there is a tradition of witchcraft or shamanism and where there is also a lot of traditional music, like the son jarocho…and also there is a cosmopolitan region. There were migrations coming in from different parts of the world––Africa and the Caribbean above all. I think that has an influence on me because the setting and the environment is very accessible and allows me to see stories and to tell stories.”
The Schomburg Center’s director, Joy L. Bivins, said the “Visibility & Resistance” exhibition is both beautiful and “meaningful, and it intersects with our nearly century-long project of uncovering the genius of people of African descent around the world through their cultural production.” For more info, visit www.nypl.org.