Exploring the African foundations of Latin American history
At LATINOS of CT, we did not want February to end without honoring Black History Month and recognizing the role it plays in the history of Latin America.
Black history is not separate from Latino history. It is deeply intertwined with it, even when it has not always been acknowledged.
Many of us grew up surrounded by traditional music, food and cultural expressions without fully understanding where they came from or how they survived centuries of displacement and erasure. In my case, Historical research and cultural tradition make it clear that enslaved Africans brought to Peru played a foundational role in the creation of the Peruvian cajón, an instrument passed down through generations. The cajón has always carried meaning beyond rhythm. It represents survival.
In many West and Central African societies, drumming was more than music. It was communication, spirituality and community structure. Drums were used in ceremonies and even to send messages between villages. During slavery throughout the Americas, drums were often banned because slaveholders feared their power to unite people and organize resistance.
In Peru, enslaved Africans were forbidden from playing traditional drums. They adapted by using wooden shipping crates and boxes found near docks and plantations. From those constraints came innovation. The cajón emerged from resilience and creativity under oppression.
In 1977, Afro Peruvian musician Caitro Soto sold the cajón he was carrying to Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía for 12,000 pesetas at the time, according to Diario El Comercio. The instrument was later incorporated into flamenco music and gained international recognition. Today the cajón is widely associated with flamenco, yet its Afro Peruvian origins are not always emphasized. Moments like this remind us how easily cultural origins can shift in public memory when history is not intentionally preserved and told in full.
For many immigrants, there is something familiar about that instinct to preserve identity. The desire to hold onto language, music and memory even when circumstances try to reshape you is not new. It has always been part of survival.
As I grew up listening to festejo and later came to the United States, discovering Afro Caribbean traditions like bomba and plena in Puerto Rico and palo in the Dominican Republic, I began to see how connected our histories are. The rhythms may carry different names, but the heartbeat feels familiar because it shares the same roots.
Across Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, the Caribbean and beyond, African polyrhythms and call and response traditions became foundational to what we now call Latin music. Later, those rhythms traveled again. In New York City during the twentieth century, Afro Caribbean communities blended Cuban son, Puerto Rican musical traditions and percussion rooted in Africa. That fusion became salsa, a genre born in the diaspora but grounded in centuries of African influence.
By Anacleto Escutia
Guerrero
Mexico and Central America
When people think of Mexico and Central America, Black history is often overlooked, yet Afro descendant communities have been present since the colonial era.
In Mexico, particularly in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero and Oaxaca, Afro Mexican communities have preserved traditions for generations despite historical invisibility. Vicente Guerrero, one of Mexico’s key independence leaders and its second president, was of African descent. His leadership played a role in abolishing slavery in Mexico, yet his African heritage has not always been centered in national narratives.
Throughout Central America, the Garifuna people in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua represent another powerful legacy of African survival. Their language, music and spiritual traditions trace back to West and Central African roots, blended with Indigenous Caribbean heritage.
South America
South America’s Afro descendant influence is both historic and ongoing.
In Colombia, San Basilio de Palenque was founded by formerly enslaved Africans who escaped and formed one of the first free Black towns in the Americas. The community preserves a Spanish based creole language and cultural traditions that reflect centuries of resilience.
Brazil has the largest Afro descendant population outside of Africa, and its music, religion and cuisine carry visible African influence. Samba, capoeira and Candomblé are all rooted in African heritage.
Peru’s coastal regions maintain strong Afro Peruvian traditions, particularly in music and dance.
Argentina presents a different but equally important story. During the colonial period and into the nineteenth century, Buenos Aires had a significant Afro Argentine population, in some periods making up a large percentage of the city. Over time, war casualties, disease, migration patterns and national narratives that emphasized European identity contributed to the misconception that Argentina did not have a Black population. Today, Afro Argentine communities continue to reclaim their visibility and challenge that historical erasure.
Language, Food, and Music
Africa’s influence lives in everyday life across Latin America.
In language, words such as ñame, conga and chévere trace back to African linguistic roots. Musical terminology and even certain speech rhythms in Caribbean Spanish reflect African influence, especially in coastal regions where Afro descendant populations were concentrated.
Food traditions also reflect resilience. Enslaved Africans were often given leftover cuts of meat such as tripe and organ meats. From those limited ingredients came richly seasoned stews and dishes that are now staples in many countries. Techniques of slow cooking, layering spices and using every available ingredient reflect West African culinary practices.
Ingredients like plantains, yams, okra, black eyed peas and rice cultivation methods were shaped by African agricultural knowledge. Across Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico and coastal Peru, those influences remain central to national cuisines.
In Peru, turrón de Doña Pepa is connected to Afro Peruvian communities and dates back to the colonial period, demonstrating how even traditional sweets carry layered histories.
Music remains the most audible legacy. Samba in Brazil, cumbia in Colombia, bomba and plena in Puerto Rico, palo in the Dominican Republic, Afro Peruvian festejo and salsa born in New York all share rhythmic foundations rooted in Africa. These genres are not side notes within Latin culture. They are central pillars.
The Legacy We Carry Forward
The drum became the heartbeat of Latin America because it had already been the heartbeat of Africa. When drums were banned during slavery, rhythm did not disappear. It adapted. It lived in memory, in movement and in improvised instruments like the cajón.
Those histories are not distant. They live in our celebrations, in our family gatherings and in the music our children grow up hearing. They live in words we speak and dishes we cook without always realizing their origins.
Black history in Latin America is not an appendix to our story. It is part of our foundation. Recognizing that truth allows us to see our cultures more fully and more honestly.
As we reflect during Black History Month, we are reminded that preserving history is an act of responsibility. When we learn it, teach it and pass it forward, the rhythm continues not only as music but as inheritance.
Sources:
• Encyclopedia Britannica – Afro Latin Americans
• Smithsonian Folkways – Afro Peruvian Music and Cultural History
• National Museum of African American History and Culture – Transatlantic Slave Trade context
• Library of Congress – African Influences in Caribbean Language
• BBC Mundo (Wikipedia) – Afro Argentine Communities and Historical Erasure
• UNESCO – San Basilio de Palenque Cultural Heritage
• Peru Ministry of Culture (Wikipedia) – History of the Peruvian Cajón / Afro-Peruvian heritage