Suchergebnisse

ResumenEste artículo estudia la cultura afrobarroca y la soberanía negra de los afromexicanos a través del análisis de la descripción de dos performances de "reyes negros" que se encuentran en la "Relación de las fiestas insignes que en la Ciudad de México se hicieron en la dedicación de la Iglesia de la Casa Profesa y beatificación de nuestro Santo Padre Ignacio" de 1610. La finalidad de este análisis es triple. Primero se busca distinguir estos reyes negros festivos de los presuntos reyes negros rebeldes. En segundo lugar, y más central al artículo, se busca exponer la cultura afrobarroca que los afrodescendientes desarrollaron en el México colonial, resaltando su agencia cultural, social y política en la formación de esa cultura. Por último, a luz de esa triple agencia, se teoriza sobre su soberanía, o autonomía y libertad en darle el carácter que quisieron a su cultura criolla.

In February 1539, Mexico City was the stage of a lavish two-day festival meant to commemorate the Truce of Nice, signed the year before between Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France at Aigues-Mortes. In this article, I analyze Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of a performance by "more than fifty" blacks with "their king and queen", all "wearing great riches of gold and precious stones and pearls and silver." This article argues that the black participants of this festival most likely belonged to a Catholic confraternity, which not only would demonstrate that black confraternities were brought to the Americas very early, but also that, as in the Iberian Peninsula, they were used by members as vehicles of social mobility and agency from the start of imperial expansion. Juxtaposing this and other black performances with instances of perceived black resistance to Spanish domination, the article shows how confraternities could offer blacks a space where they could continue some of their ancestral festive prac­tices without being perceived as a threat to colonial order.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Kongo Christianity, Festive Performances, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition -- Part 1 Ritual Battles from the Kongo Kingdom to the Americas -- 1 Sangamentos on Congo Square? Kongolese Warriors, Brotherhood Kings, and Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans -- 2 Moros e Christianos Ritualized Naval Battles: Baptizing American Waters with African Spiritual Meaning -- 3 A Mexican Sangamento? The First Afro-Christian Performance in the Americas -- Part 2 America's Black Kings and Diplomatic Representation -- 4 Representing an African King in Brazil -- 5 Black Ceremonies in Perspective: Brazil and Dahomey in the Eighteenth Century -- Part 3 Reconsidering Primary Sources -- 6 Envisioning Brazil's Afro-Christian Congados: The Black King and Queen Festival Lithograph of Johann Moritz Rugendas -- 7 The Orisa House That Afro-Catholics Built: Africana Antecedents to Yoruba Religious Formation in Trinidad -- Part 4 Aurality and Diasporic Traditions -- 8 On Hearing Africas in the Americas: Domestic Celebrations for Catholic Saints as Afro-Diasporic Religious Tradition -- Contributors -- Index