Gaspar Yanga was an African deported to the Americas in the sixteenth century. He became the founder, in Mexico, of the first Black town on the American continent.
The presence of Black people in Mexico is a little-known fact to the general public. Even less known is the importance of this community in the history of Black people on the continent. For it was Black people from Mexico who founded the first Black town in the Americas.
The founder of this town was Gaspar Yanga, an African slave. According to some sources, he was of West African origin (Senegal, Guinea, or Gambia), while others claim he came from Central Africa (Gabon). He was deported to the colony of New Spain (present-day Mexico), where he was enslaved. In 1570, he decided to rebel against this condition. He escaped from the plantation where he had been assigned, in what is now the state of Veracruz. He settled in a nearby area that was difficult to access from his former plantation. There, he founded a community of runaway slaves, known as “maroons.” In 1609, the maroons established the town of San Lorenzo de los Negros (Saint Lawrence of the Blacks), with Yanga as its leader. At that time, the Spanish colonists sent an army to subdue them.
The maroons won the battle against the Spaniards and retained their sovereignty. To prevent further conflict, the maroons, led by Yanga, were granted a favorable peace treaty. The sovereignty of San Lorenzo de los Negros was officially recognized by the colonists in 1618.
This was a first in the history of the American continent. No town in the New World had previously been governed and predominantly inhabited by Black people. To honor this achievement, the town was renamed in the twentieth century after its founder, Yanga. Located in the state of Veracruz, the town of Yanga remains today the heart of the Afro-Mexican community.
Sources:
Henry Louis Gates: 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro
Les Noirs cachés du Mexique
