BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-MEXICAN - THE HIDDEN BLACK PEOPLE OF MEXICO :

re an ethnic group who exist in certain parts of Mexico such as Costa Chica  of Oascaia and Guerrero Vera Cruz and in some towns in the Northern Mexico. The existence of Black People in Mexico is unknown, denied or diminished in both Mexico and abroad for a number of reasons, their small number, heavy intermarriage with other Mexican ethnic groups and Mexico;s tradition of defining itself as a "Mestizeje" or mixing of European and indigenous. Mexico did have an active slave trade since the early colonial period but from the beginning, intermarriage and mix race off spring created an elaborate caste system. This system broke down in the very late colonial period and after independence the legal notion of race was eliminated . The creation of a Mexican identity especially after the Mexican Revolution emphasized Mexico's and European past actively or eliminating its African one from popular consciousness.

Although the vast majority had their roots in Africa, not all made the trip directly from Africa to America, some went through Hispanic elsewhere at the time. Those from Africa belong mainly from groups Sudan and Bantu. There is an assumption that their was not much African slavery in Mexico since there now so few people of obvious Black ancestry, how ever this is not the case. Mexico never became a slave economy but slavery did fill important niches in the colonial period. Most of the slaves were either black or mulatto and demand for slaves came in the early colonial period 1580 to 1640. Slaves started ariving in increasing number under the Spanish crown.