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  • Afro-Mexican Constructions of Diaspora, Gender, Identity and Nation by Paulette A. Ramsay
  • Álvaro Ramírez
Ramsay, Paulette A. Afro-Mexican Constructions of Diaspora, Gender, Identity and Nation. Kingston: U of West Indies P, 2016. Pp. 204. ISBN 978-9-76640-579-3.

Paulette A. Ramsay's book, Afro-Mexican Constructions of Diaspora, Gender, Identity and Nation, sheds important light on the unique Afro-Mexican people and culture of the Costa Chica in Mexico. These descendants of escaped slaves, who founded semi-autonomous settlements known as palenques, have preserved much of their African cultural heritage and have influenced the development of the country culturally and politically, yet they have received scant historical attention to the point that most of their Mexican compatriots ignore their existence. As Ramsay states in the Introduction, this has been the case since colonial times, but it has been the politics of mestizaje, implemented after the Mexican Revolution, that has been most detrimental to the Afro-Mexican communities given that this ideology privileges the indigenous and the European, and excludes the black population from the national discourse; thus, erasing Afro-Mexicans socio-culturally, politically, and economically. Ramsay endeavors to rectify this by offering an incisive study of Mexico's tercera raíz as found in dance, folk tales, poetry, and corridos produced in the Costa Chica.

In the first chapter, Ramsay applies Roland Barthes' semiotic theory to the "visual rhetoric" of the successful comic book series, Memín Pingüín, to show how this popular character—created by a non-black writer—is portrayed with many black stereotypical traits such as cowardice, mental retardation, disloyalty, and violence. Most Mexicans, says Ramsay, consume their first images of black people through their reading of these comics during childhood and eventually become oblivious to the racist ideology undergirding the stories. She offers as evidence the commemorative stamp of Memín Pingüín issued in 2005, which caused an uproar in the United States. The fact that intellectuals, such as Enrique Krause and Carlos Monsiváis, defended the stamp and denied any racist intentions does not convince Ramsay, who asks: "Why is it that other Afro-Mexicans, the likes of José María Morelos y Pavón and Vicente Guerrero, were not honored with similar celebratory stamps?" One could answer that both of these heroes have states named after them, and Morelos's image is on the fifty-peso bill that millions of Mexicans handle every day. Still, Ramsey's point is well-taken: Memín Pingüín appears to promote toleration of diversity while reproducing images that reinforce negative perceptions of blacks in Mexico.

Chapter 2 deals with feminine constructions in folk tales compiled in Jamás fandango al cielo (1993). In these oral narratives, recounted by both men and women, Ramsay avers that although [End Page 151] the central protagonist is a male, it is the female that eventually comes forth to establish agency and to challenge patriarchal notions of women. She analyzes the tale, "Yoatzin," through the lens of eco-feminist criticism to demonstrate that, as is the case with nature, Afro-Mexican women have their own existence and possess their own reality and identity, very much independent from men who attempt to dominate them. Through this process, they also attain knowledge of themselves as both part of the nation and of their local community. Likewise, Ramsay uses Africana Womanist theory to highlight the psychological and physical strength of Afro-Mexican women who find empowerment to construe concepts of self beyond external notions of beauty, capable as any male in shaping familial and national bonds.

In chapter 3, Ramsay explores the social construction of masculinity in an Afro-Mexican context. She offers a persuasive textual analysis of several corridos to reveal how power, language, and violence intersect in the creation of masculine identities by black men that also function as a form of resistance to oppression, marginalization, and social injustice suffered by Afro-Mexican communities in a country which promotes false homogeneity. The argument, however, is marred by faulty translations. For example, in "El Zanatón," the author translates "guachos" as "bastards," but in Mexico "guachos" denotes soldiers, this can lead to a serious misinterpretation...

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