El Salvador is the smallest country on the Central American isthmus and perhaps known for not having a strong African presence as the rest of the Central American neighboring countries. One myth that many believe is that since El Salvador is the only Central American country to not have a Caribbean coast, no existence of African people came into the country. Of course this is absolutely false. The earliest traces of African presence in El Salvador, according to Salvadoran historian Marvin Aguilar, goes back to 1528 with enslaved Africans forced to work in the haciendas on the indigo and cocoa mills and tending livestock.
Many of the 10,000 arrival Africans came from Western African nations, specifically from Senegal, Gambia, formally known as Senegambia, and Angola. Overtime the African population eventually intermixed with the general population. By the eighteen century, significant Afro-descendant populations were from Verapaz, San Vincente, Zacatecoluca, La Paz, Ahuachapan and San Miguel. In fact, San Miguel was reported to have 95% of its population be Afro-descendants. Overtime the African population began to intermix with the general population, resulting in Zambo, Pardo populations.
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On December 31, 1823, Salvadoran doctor, Jose Simon Canas decreed the abolishment of slavery in Central America. In 1933, General Hernández Martinez wrote a law, called the Immigration Limitations, prohibiting the entry of Blacks, Arabs, Chinese, “Gypsies” and many others. Furthermore, General Hernández Martinez urged the North-Central European immigration to whiten the Salvadoran population, trying to follow the example of Adolf Hitler. This law would not be abolished until 1959 and 1986, but these events strengthened the denial of its Black history.
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Hugeaux Photography: The African Indian Heritage Memorial in El Salvador - Central America 2013
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Afro-descendants have left a cultural legacy in Salvadoran society, such as the dance of the “Negritos of Cacaopera” (Black people from Cacaopera, a Salvadoran municipality) from the Morazan Department. In Ereguayquin, in Usulutan Department, there is the Tables dance in honor of San Benito de Palermo, a black saint. In Izalco, Sonsonate there is El Jeu Jeu dance.
There’s also “Baile de la Negra Sebastiana” explaining the arrival of the Spanish with the Indigenous tribes, and Black people in the country from the department of Ahuachapan. Other cultural elements of African origin are found in the food: Sopa de pata (leg soup) and platanos. Some elements of witchcraft, the canasto, the national instrument of El Salvador is the marimba, which has African origins, the figures of el Cristo Negro, cumbia music, although originated in Colombia has African roots. Artists such as Salarrue, Benjamin Saul, Francisco Gavidia, David J. Guzman have depicted Afro-Salvadorans through their art and stories. Since 2014, every last Saturday of August, el Dia del Afrodescendencia Salvadorena, has been celebrated to commemorate Afro-Salvadoran history and legacy.
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It’s important to understand why Afro-Salvadoran history has not been recorded well and why El Salvador has one of the lowest Black populations in all of Latin America. Today there are still many Salvadorans that continue to deny this history or simply don’t know this side of history. Many continue to have questions of their Afro ancestral lineage and those who do know of their Afro lineage wonder how should we identify ourselves: Afro-Salvadoran? Afro-Indigenous? Afro-Mestizx? Afro-descendant? This question will vary depending on each person but it is up to us to keep the conversation going, ask questions, listen, uplift and at times recognize our privileges.
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For Jackie Streetz discovering her Afro-descendant history came about via her spirituality. She had always suspected she had an African lineage because of comments she received growing up, especially about the texture of her curls, whenever she visited El Salvador.
It was not until a few years ago that her spirituality fulfilled the questions she had about herself. Jackie feels it’s important for her to start identifying as Afro-Salvadoran because this is her ancestral legacy. In addition, she hopes to start challenging the way Salvadorans view Afro-descendants, as people who contributed to what the world knows as Salvadoran culture today.
Jackie Streetz on Instagram @jackie_streetz
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“The way it happened quando descubri I had an African lineage was when I started to get more into my business since I was doing research para saber más de mi pais. I wanted to truly know my roots since there were gente always asking me since young if my father was black o algo por el pelo chinito.
So honesty, I always had una curiocidad to find out. Mi mama’s familia was mostly white-looking con ojos azules y verdes con indigenes features, y mi papa, from his family, had indigenes, dark, tall with super curly pelo. I remember when I was young that I was the darkest in my immediate family and everybody else was light-skinned and I hated that. I wanted to be like my siblings. I was always called trigueña. I didn’t meet the rest of my siblings until I was 3 years old and I remember looking at them thinking, ‘oh my gosh I have a brother and sisters I can play with’, but they would look at me with a disgusted look because of how I looked.
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That look always stayed with me and I took it personal. As I got older, I remember that I would try to scrub my skin to make it lighter because I hated being dark. With that being said, once I started to go into my business that was when I decided to some research. Within my research, I found out that the department that my family is from, San Miguel, had descendants in 1821. About 95% of the population in San Miguel was of African descent, and I thought to myself ‘wow ayi es de donde lo agaro.’
So I decided to ask my parents themselves, and my father mentioned that there was Indigenous and African in the family and that’s when I saw or knew of my lineage. I looked up images on YouTube and Google of Afro-Salvadorans and was like; ‘whoa these people look like me!’ it was nice to see. As I got older, my self-hatred of my skin color lessened. Even though I still have some insecurities, that’s the primary reason why I try to research as much as I can about my roots so that I can be proud. Unfortunately when I speak to my family about being Afro-Salvadoran they dismiss it, and say ‘no we are Indigenous in our family’ which is fine but that negation is unfortunate. Even with my oldest sister, when I spoke to her about all things that I found out about the slaves that were brought to El Salvador, her response was, ‘that’s not true they’ve never been there’ or ‘I’ve never seen Black people in El Salvador.’
However, I did point out to her how one of our famous saints is a black man as well as our Virgen from San Miguel es trigueña. I don’t bring it up anymore with my family because it just reminds me of the anti-blackness that our Salvadoran culture has.” ~ Norma Perez
Follow Norma: IG, FB, Twitter: @TheSalviVegan
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“I identify as Afro-Salvadoran, my dad’s side is from La Libertad and my mom is from La Paz. How I came to found out about my African ancestry was through my hair. I started to look into Instagram pages and YouTube videos for curly hair and products and how to style or maintain it. A lot of people were going natural and it made me think about my uncles’ hair. See, I’m the one with the curliest hair in my family, and when I started to think about whom else has curly hair like mine I thought about my uncles. I thought about this Eurocentric standard of beauty and I thought about how my uncles, with curly hair, were also dark skinned.
Then one day I saw a post from @CentAm_Beauty about Afro-Salvadoran history in Zacatecoluca. My mom is from Zacatecoluca and it started to connect the dots for me; I have a big butt and really full lips and I’m always asked where I get that from and if I’m half Black and half white. When I went to Houston in December, my dad’s lighter side of the family live there, I wore my hair down and lipstick to accentuate my full lips and one family member said to my sister, ‘who brought the black girl?’ it really made me think of the anti-blackness in our community.
I want to embrace my features more, I’ve never identified as Afro-Latina out loud because I still don’t know enough but at the same time I feel like I really need to be more public about my Afro-Salvadoraness to help combat this anti-blackness in our community and start embracing my features and history.” ~ Yesenia Cruz-Ramos
Follow Yesenia on Instagram @her_awesomeness
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“You don't look Salvadoran!
Oh, really why do you say that? Because you have really curly hair. I thought you were Dominican, Boricua or Colombian.
This is one of the many comments I get from new people I meet or even from my own Salvadoran diaspora. I was born in Long Island, NY but due to a family emergency, my parents had to return to El Salvador when I was around 5 years old.
Being raised in El Salvador has been one of the many blessings that I’ve had in my lifespan. Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the Salvadoran culture and traditions mainly because I grew up in Chalchuapa, Santa Ana. Chalchuapa is rich in history, we have two Mayan pyramids and the town has been preserved by the government as a prehistory town.
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Approximately in 2016, I became more interested to learn how El Salvador became the country it is today so I started to do research since the prehistory period. Throughout this process, I stumble with some facts that would change my life and view my beloved country with a different light.
Learning about the erased history of our African ancestors was something that really hit home. I felt like my whole life was a lie (not trying to sound dramatic) but living in El Salvador you are told that we are mestizo, that we are special because El Salvador is the only country in Central America that never had slaves when history says otherwise. It is wrong what the government has done, it's wrong that El Salvador has been brainwashing their people for many decades, lying about the true identity that we have.
Our African ancestors helped build the economy of El Salvador through agriculture & blacksmithing. A book that I have been reading that goes in-depth on afro-descendants in Central America called "Relaciones interétnicas: Afrodescendientes en Centroamérica" by José Heriberto Erquicia & Rina Cáceres. The book is free to download for anyone that wants to check it out. Like any other Latin country, we have a dark side of history and have been heavily influenced by outsiders and we tend to ignore are beginnings instead of feeling proud of them.
We suffer from an identity crisis, it pushes us to neglect our traditions and culture; making us disunited. It's going to be really hard to change the mentality of our parent's generation and the one before, but it's in our hands to rewrite history and fix those problems so our children don't have to deal with the problems we are currently facing.
El Salvador isn't the greatest country, we have serious problems from every angle you can think of but I believe that we have the right tools now more with social media and education to overcome all those problems. As a Salvadoran diaspora, we need to stop neglecting our country, all we are doing is adding on to the problems we have already. We need to travel more to our motherland, educate ourselves with our government system education, health, etc. We have so much to potential flip the cards around to better our country. That's the reason why I'm not calling myself just Salvadoran but Afro-Salvadoran to honor our ancestors.” ~ Sara Jordan
Follow Sara on Instagram @smileycurls_sv
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“To me, being unapologetically vocal about my roots is the least I can do to combat a history El Salvador tried to erase, one that many of my people still try to deny. It took a lot of unlearning colorism and self-hate and instead learning about our history. It means I connected with and felt so seen by Afro-Latinxs art and artists from other countries- Elizabeth Acevedo's poetry was transformative for me even though I'm not Dominican. Seeing Judy Reyes on TV was just, everything!
However, to me it also means learning to not center my own experience when there are conversations about US-Afro-Latinx; just because I didn’t grown up seeing people who look like me on Univision doesn’t mean I didn’t see women with my skin tone and hair pattern in mainstream media. I did even years ago, but we still don’t see women like Amara La Negra frequently in mainstream channels. It’s important for me personally to always listen to and take in different voices and conversations.” ~ Gaby Sosa
Follow Gaby on Instagram @itsgabywithoneb
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“Just recently in March I had to do an ancestry DNA to find out, about my Afro-descendant ancestry, because my dad refuses to accept it’s in our blood. My parents won’t talk about having Black family members, or maybe they don’t know their own history. I identify as Afro-Salvadoran and I feel proud. My family is from Sonsonate and I always suspected my African lineage because of how I look and the history of Afro and Natives in Sonsonate." ~ Jenny Osegueda
Follow Jenny on Instagram @jenny_osegueda8
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Es Mi Cultura is published every first Monday of the month by Tamika Burgess.
Tamika is a Afro-Panameña, California based Writer. Learn more about her by visiting TamikaBurgess.com
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