Leaders Call for Solidarity: 'Mexico Is Also Afro-Descendant, Not Only Indigenous' teleSUR | |
go to original November 28, 2015 |
Afro-Mexican leaders gathered for the Second International Conference of Afro-descendants in Oaxaca, Mexico Nov. 27, 2015. (Twitter/Socpinda)
Afro-Mexican leaders this week have called on fellow Afro-descendants from Latin America to support their struggle for legal recognition of their unique ethnicity.
The call for solidarity was made during the Second International Conference of Afro-descendants in Oaxaca, Mexico, which gathered over 30 Afro community leaders from 18 different countries.
Opening the conference, Afro-Mexicans made clear that the Mexican Congress must pass a bill that recognizes their distinct ethnicity in the Constitution, a requirement for their communities to access basic services.
According to a 2007 study on racial and ethnic discrimination in Mexico, 74 percent of Afro-Mexicans do not have access to health care while 96.5 percent of Black workers do not get paid vacations.
“Mexico is also Afro-descendant and it should stop from being seen as only an Indigenous country. We share a common struggle with our Indigenous siblings, but it should also be seen as a country of Afro-descendants,” affirmed Isidro Ramirez Lopez, director of the Organization for Social and Productive Development of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Descendant Communities (Socpinda).
Afro-Mexicans are currently not recognized as a formal ethnicity and are therefore not counted in the national census.
Read the rest at teleSUR
Related: Manana Cuba Raises 71000 for Afro Cuban Music Festival (Cuba Journal)
Related: Ecuador to Include Afro-Ecuadorean History in Textbooks (teleSUR)
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