Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Costa Chica of Oaxaca and Guerrero in Mexico

Mostly constituted by savanna, Costa Chica is a tropical strip of land between the Pacific coast and the Southern Mountains of Mexico. Its extension comprises parts of two states, Oaxaca and Guerrero respectively, starting in the North from the Port of Acapulco in Guerrero, and concluding in the South in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca . Numerous towns and villages are connected by the interstate Costera highway, which since 1965 was open to public transportation.
Regardless the increasing influence of modernization introduced via neoliberal politics and globalization, many of the poorest villages far from the highway still remain in isolation only communicated by unpaved dusty roads. In these villages, the Afro-Mexican phenotype is more manifest; hence, remnants of language and tradition of the Afro-descendents continue since the colonial period.
Costeños, Morenos, Afromestizos , Afro-Mexicans are some of the terms used by both outsiders and locals to call the current population resulting from a variety of interethnic blending of Africans, Amerindians and Europeans. The first two terms, Costeños and Morenos are the most preferred by themselves, the last two, Afromestizos and Afro-Mexicans respectively, have been employed by national and international scholars.
This web page include just a glimpse of the Costeños cultural richness; nevertheless, it is a tribute to all our friends and people of Costa Chica who are always in our harts.

No comments:

Post a Comment