Afro-Salvadoran

Afro-Salvadorans or Afro-Mestizo Salvadorans are the descendants of the African population that came to El Salvador, who have completely mixed into the general Mestizo population in specific places creating a population of Afromestizo Salvadorans. A total of 10,000 African slaves were brought to El Salvador.^[1] El Salvador has no English Antillean (West Indian), Garifuna, and Miskito population, largely due to laws banning the immigration of blacks into the country in the 1930s, these laws were revoke in the 1980s.

History

The declining Native American indigenous population influenced a Royal Ordinance issued in 1541 that gave the Spanish land owners and miners permission to import African slaves into El Salvador. The New Laws did not officially come into effect in El Salvador until 1548 when the president of the "Jurisdiction of Los Confines" (which included El Salvador) freed all Native Indigenous slaves in the country and recommended that more Africans be brought to El Salvador to take the place of those who had been freed. Over the next seventy-five years upwards of 10,000 Africans were brought to work on the haciendas and in the mines of El Salvador. In 1635 the town of San Vicente was established by Spanish colonists and became an important center for the indigo trade. African slaves were brought here to work on nearby plantations. Several other towns also had African communities: Zacatecoluca (south of San Salvador), Chinameca (west of San Miguel), and Ahuachapan and Sonsonate (both west of San Salvador) all had sizable African populations at one time.^[2]

There is a growing population of Afro-Salvadorians in the city of Santa Ana and San Miguel since these are two of the second largest cities in El Salvador. Many have lived there for decades and have still reside in the barrios. The population of the Africans in Santa Ana is small but noticeable and which also gave the city the name "La Cuidad Morena". They are told apart from the locals by their physical features.^[2]

With the mixing of Spanish and African, Indigenous and African there arose free "mulatto" and "zambo" communities in a number of towns. Zambos are persons of mixed Native Indigenous and African ancestry. African slaves attempted to gain their freedom by marrying into the native indigenous population. Laws were passed by the Spanish to prevent such Afro-Amerindian unions, but the mixing of the two groups could not be prevented. African slaves continued and preferred to marry the Indigenous with the idea that they might gain freedom, if not for themselves, then for their racially mixed offspring. The children of such unions were free under Spanish law. It's said that among Africans and indigenous during the colonial period, African women would rather marry Indigenous men rather than African; and neither more or less, Africans men preferred to marry Indigenous women rather than African woman, so that their children will be born free.^[3] This resulted in the creation of the zambo population group. Both mulattoes and zambos eventually came to mix and merged in to the much larger and vaster Mestizo mixed European Spanish/Native Indigenous population creating Afro-Mestizos. At the end of the colonial era the mixing of the various races in the country was well on its way in creating a population that no longer had strong ethnic identities as Native American, European, or African, but that of tri or Multiracial, perhaps one of the only places were these three races entirely mixed together. ^[2]

In 1625 a planned slave rebellion in San Salvador was narrowly averted. As a result, Spanish colonial authorities became more reluctant to import any more slaves into the country then absolutely necessary. Throughout all of Central America there were growing free mulatto and Zambo populations. Together with cheap native labor, fewer slaves were brought to El Salvador and Central America after 1625 then during the previous century. A process of the mixing together in El Salvador of "mulatto", "zambo" and "mestizo" resulted in a population that was 31% of mixed ancestry by 1779. The census that year recorded "mulattos" and "mestizos" (together) as persons of mixed racial ancestry. This census reported 25,000 "mulattos and mestizos" living in the San Salvador area in that year.^[2]

At the time of independence (1821), the population of El Salvador was over 50% of mixed racial ancestry. Today the figure is over 90%. There are various "shades of brown" in the country with lesser extremes in color variation that cluster together.^[2]

Anti-black immigration laws in El Salvador

General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez instituted race laws in 1930 that prohibited blacks from entering the country, this changed during the 1980s and the law was removed.^[4]

African influence in Salvadoran culture

In the area of folk and popular music, the influences of Africa on El Salvador become very apparent. The national folk instrument, the marimba, has its origins in Africa and was brought to Guatemala and the rest of Central America by African slaves during colonial times. The melodies played on it show Amerindian, African and European influences in both form and style. Salvadoran popular music, as well as its social dances, show strong connections to the rhythms of western and central Africa. The most popular social dances in El Salvador are those that have been adopted from the Afro-Caribbean rhythms and dances. The Cumbia came from Colombia, the Rumba–Bolero from Cuba and the Merengue from the Dominican Republic. No Salvadoran social event is complete without the playing of these Afro-Caribbean dances. They are so completely integrated into Salvadoran life that they are today the most typical expressions of the popular musical traditions of the country. In their Salvadoran form they take on a style that is similar, yet different, from that which they originated.^[5]

Noble Salvadorans of African ancestry

• Karla Cubias - Salvadoran singer
• Shawn Martin - Nicaragua-born, naturalized Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for C.D. Águila
• Nildeson - retired Brazilian and naturalized Salvadoran football player, who played as a striker
• Celio Rodríguez - retired Brazilian and naturalized Salvadoran football player

Noble Salvadoran Americans of African ancestry

• Sabi - American pop singer-songwriter, dancer and actress (Afro-American father)
• J. R. Martinez - U.S. Army soldier

References