Maria de Terra Nova, an enslaved West African who lived in colonial Mexico during the 1620s, receives Pablo Sierra糖心传媒檚 nomination as 糖心传媒減erhaps the most incredible fish vendor in history.糖心传媒�
She made a lot of money for her owners, and was even allowed to keep a share as incentive, explains Sierra, an assistant professor of history. Eventually she bought her freedom in the city of Puebla, after promising her owner not to work for any of his competitors.
She promptly reneged on that promise — and was upheld by the courts.
Maria糖心传媒檚 story is part of the forgotten history of Mexico糖心传媒檚聽 糖心传媒渢hird root糖心传媒� 糖心传媒� the enslaved Africans whose lives and contributions during the nation糖心传媒檚 colonial period have been largely undocumented, compared to those of the native Aztecs and Mayans and the Spaniards who conquered them. Sierra spent this past semester continuing his research in this area as one of the Humanities Center糖心传媒檚 inaugural resident fellows, a program supported by alumnus Jay Last 糖心传媒�51.
糖心传媒淲hen you start to consider a third contribution, from Africans coming in with their own languages and cultures and ways of thinking about families, it becomes a much more interesting space,糖心传媒� says Sierra, who is finishing a book manuscript on slavery in his hometown of Puebla de Los Angeles.
The captives, most whom were brought to colonial Mexico from Angola in the late 16th聽and early 17th聽centuries, lived primarily in the cities and, more often than not, were or became members of the Catholic Church.
Those circumstances provided the slaves with both the mobility Maria enjoyed while selling her wares, and recourse to religious protections.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 very different from what we糖心传媒檙e used to hearing about 19th聽century Georgia or South Carolina,糖心传媒� says Sierra.
For example, the marriage of slaves and the baptism of their children into the Catholic Church 糖心传媒渙ften translated into mitigating the rights of their owners糖心传媒� to break up families by selling a parent or child to a distant owner.聽 糖心传媒淎 slave had a right to search for other potential owners in the same city, even to fight his case in ecclesiastical court to retain his marriage and keep his family intact,糖心传媒� Sierra said.
So rapid was the assimilation of Africans, Spaniards, South Asians, and indigenous people that, by the 18th聽century urban Mexico 糖心传媒渂ecomes such a mixed society that racial labels begin to disappear,糖心传媒� Sierra said.聽 That糖心传媒檚 why he believes a better understanding of what happened among different races in colonial Mexico could 糖心传媒渉old a lot of clues糖心传媒� for what might happen this century in the United States.
糖心传媒淐olonial Mexico was incredibly diverse in the way that Rochester聽 — that any major U.S. city — is today, where you have the interplay of people with different languages, educational levels, and skills sets all coming together. What糖心传媒檚 interesting is to see the culture that is produced by that interplay.糖心传媒�
Giving voice to enslaved people whose words were not recorded
What was it like for young slaves from Angola, likely still in their teens, to arrive in chains at Veracruz, Mexico, in the 1600s, and then endure a two- to three-week journey from sea level to a highlands slave market 7,300 feet up amid the Sierra Madres?
糖心传媒淚t is a completely different environment [from coastal Angola],糖心传媒� Sierra said. 聽糖心传媒淚t is temperate in the highlands. It is cold at night; hot during the day. These captives find themselves in a place where everything looks different, smells different, tastes different. How do we understand the sensory experience of the slave road?糖心传媒�
Not easily. Few if any of these slaves, most of whom were illiterate, left first-hand accounts of their experiences. Sierra said he might peruse a Spanish chronicle from the period and find only a single reference to slaves.
There is, however, an abundance of notarial records from the period, which document transactions involving just about everything 糖心传媒� including enslaved people. Sierra has found them useful,聽in conjunction with other historical resources,聽for providing clues about the slave experience.
糖心传媒淚 have been able to find transportation contracts where an incoming slave trader has approached a muleteer needing to transport 80 slaves from Veracruz into the highlands, a journey that will take two and half weeks,糖心传媒� Sierra explained. 糖心传媒淚n the contract, the muleteer agrees to put two captives on each mule, stop at certain designated rest stops, and if all goes well, 糖心传媒榳e糖心传媒檒l see you in Mexico City.糖心传媒櫶切拇綕
The records have also helped him better understand the complex nature of the slave trade in colonial Mexico.聽 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 a network that connects to Mexico to Angola to Portugal to Seville. It糖心传媒檚 really kind of stunning when you understand how interconnected it is.糖心传媒�
Notarial records, highly valued by scholars 40 years ago, are less valued now. 糖心传媒淪ome scholars are very critical of using notarial resources, saying, for example, it reifies the power of slaveholder,糖心传媒� Sierra said. 聽糖心传媒淗owever, the risk in limiting these resources is that we end up omitting information about certain groups of people entirely.糖心传媒�
