Today is World Day for African & Afrodescendant Culture. I want to talk about what it's like to be Afro-Salvi. For decades, the Salvadoran state told us that Black ppl do not exist in ES or that we must be mixed w Black ppl outside ES, but we've always been here.

This is the myth of El Salvador - "Black ppl do not exist in El Salvador" & is bc of immigration limitations enacted by Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez in 1930's ES. It was called the Ley de Migracion de 1933 & banned entrance from non-white backgrounds, esp Black ppl.

This led to many white/mestizx/Ladinos to reject Black ppl of their heritage & identity & appropriate our culture as for the nationalist Salvadoran identity. The rejection of Black ppl in ES is just the legacy of Maximiliano Hernandez & representation of ES's eugenicists roots

Growing-up I was made to question my Salviness bc of my darker skin & hair texture. I was deemed too "dark to be Salvi." Salvi boys always treated me w less respect compared to white/mestizx Salvi girls...later learned it was misogynoir.

All this shit fucks w u. this made me hate my Black features & led to a lot of denial. Seeing my darker skin vs other Salvi girls led to self-harm. It's like gaslighting & abuse at a national, community, & cultural level.

It wasn't until I decided to stop straightening/keratin treatments (which is just a low-key relaxer btw), that I began my journey of finding out about my roots. I learned abt Black haircare so that I could repair my hair & in that journey I repaired my relationship w my Blackness

I looked at my family history & confirmed my suspicions. My dad (Afro-Salvi) told me his grandmother was from "somewhere in the Caribbean" or that my paternal grandfather & his parents were "bien morenitos" a lot of our customs are seen as campesino, but really its afroindigenous

This led me to start taking courses on Black/Afro-diasporic studies & learned "wow the myth in ES is just another blanquiamento campaign". Citizenship was tied to race in ES, similar to fight for citizenship for Black folks in the US in the early 20th century.

This made me understand my dad's (& his Black family's) hesitancy to ID as Black. It meant losing ur homeland, ur rights in the country, & experiencing violence at the hands of the state, esp in my grandparents gen, during & right after La Matanza. It meant life or death for them

For me to ID as a mixed-race Black/Afroindigenous person means taking back that history & stopping the legacy of Hernandez Martinez. Finally I have community & able to now embrace myself & my heritage.