'The African Presence in México' breaks new ground
CULTURE MIX
CONSIDERING all the recent speculation about hostility between blacks and Latinos, you have to cringe when you hear what happened to historian Christopher West on a working trip south of the border four years ago. The African American academic was helping research the influence of tourism on children in Isla Mujeres, an idyllic island near Cancun, when a local boy on the street threw a piece of pan dulce at him.
The insult (not the first he had encountered) might be seen as more evidence of that racial animosity, currently fueling the notion that some Latinos are cool to Sen. Barack Obama because he's black. But West considered the gesture an anomaly and went on to shoot some hoops with his Mexican friends and colleagues.
In fact, the historian says he's been accepted as family in some parts of Mexico, thanks to his wife, Ilda Jimenez, a Mexican American anthropologist he met when they were students at USC. The union of the two communities is reflected in their surname, which they changed to Jimenez y West. Today, as history curator at the California African American Museum, Christopher Jimenez y West continues to explore the often overlooked cultural connections between the country's two largest minorities. This week, he was busy preparing for the opening of a groundbreaking exhibition, "The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present," which celebrates what is called the Third Root of Mexican culture, adding African to the mix of European and native Indian.
Through paintings, photos, lithographs and historical texts, the visiting exhibition tries to dispel the myth that blacks had a minimal influence on the culture of our southern neighbor, a myth held by many Mexicans either through ignorance or prejudice. In addition, two related exhibitions explore the connections between blacks and Latinos in the U.S., highlighting shared social roots in leftist politics and showcasing local collaborations between African American and Latino artists.
News about racially charged street killings and campus brawls tends to overshadow the day-to-day, positive interactions between the two communities in Los Angeles, says Jimenez y West. "Part of the tension is simply the result of people being uninformed, at all levels," he says. "The reality is this is a long-standing conversation."
