In the Mountains of Mexico, Black Descendants Celebrate Juneteenth

Just over 100 miles from the Texas-Mexico border, a small mountain town in Coahuila, Mexico, is preparing for their annual Juneteenth celebrations.

El Nacimiento de los Negros, translating to “Birth of the Blacks,” is home to a community of Afro-Indigenous families that trace their roots back to the United States. Known as “Mascogos,” the group are descendants of Black Seminoles who found a home in Mexico after fleeing slavery and the threat of slave catchers in the US.

Black Seminoles were formerly enslaved people who escaped the plantations they worked on and aligned themselves with the Indigenous Seminoles of Florida. The joined forces with the Indigenous tribes to fight the US in the Seminole Wars.

In the 1800s, many Black Seminoles were forced to relocate from places like Georgia and Florida to areas designated Indian Territory in Oklahoma. During that time, Black Seminole chief John Horse, who had both Indigenous and Black ancestry, led a group of people to Mexico, where slavery had already been outlawed. A group settled in El Nacimiento in 1852.

The Southern Underground Railroad

When the General Congress of the United Mexican States completely outlawed slavery in 1837, enslaved people in Texas had a viable route to freedom by going southward. Notably, in the 1936-1938 federal Slave Narrative project, emancipated freeman and San Antonio-born Felix Hayward remarked: “There wasn’t no reason to run up north… All we had to do was to walk, but walk south, and we’d be free as soon as we crossed the Rio Grande.” By 1849, African Americans began to make the journey into Mexico. 

Experts estimate that up to 10,000 people crossed the border to Mexico to secure their freedom and escape slavery, creating what is known as the Southern Underground Railroad.

Contrary to the Union’s agreement to return runaway slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Mexican law provided freedom for escaped slaves once they touched Mexican soil. Many of those escaped enslaved people, alongside Indigenous groups of Mexico, helped defend the Northern Mexican border in exchange for acres of land in Coahuila.

Celebrating Juneteenth in Mexico

Juneteenth marks the official end of slavery on June 19th, 1865 when 250,000 Black people in Galveston, Texas were informed of their freedom by executive decree. Historians estimate that as some Black Seminoles traveled back and forth from El Nacimiento to Brackettville, Texas, Juneteenth celebrations spread to Mexico as early as the 1870s. 

For more than 100 years, Mascogos in El Nacimiento have celebrated what they call “Dia de los Negros,” or “Day of the Blacks,” on June 19th. Many Black Seminole descendants still embark on the pilgrimage from parts of Texas to El Nacimiento to celebrate the day. Traditional cuisine includes a sweet potato bread called tetapún and slow-cooked asado pork. The dishes combine Indigenous, Black, and Mexican cultural inspirations.

After generations in northern Mexico, many members of the Black Seminoles in El Nacimiento strictly speak Spanish. However, the hymns passed down from African American descendants are still sung in English on Dia de los Negros, including “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “This Little Light of Mine.” 

As more Black Seminole descendants are leaving El Nacimiento to find work in Texas or other parts of Mexico, many Mascogos are worried their culture is waning.

To prioritize preservation, members have established the Museo Comunitario Tribu Negros Mascogos for local art, a hotel, a restaurant, and secured federal funding for community gardens. In 2017, the governor of Coahuila declared the Mascogo tribe as Indigenous people of the northern Mexican state.

As Juneteenth was officially recognized as a US federal holiday in 2021, tribal members are planning to promote cultural tourism as a source of support and revitalization for the enduring town, and prevailing traditions, of El Nacimiento de los Negros.