ome money for manumission. They also asked for a shorter working week with safer and easier working conditions. One other demand they had was the right to use their spare time as they wanted, which meant live out their culture with plays, song, dance and other feast related activities.Another document we read is “The Foundation of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de los Morenos de Amapa, Mexico.” In this document we learn about Americans of African descent, and we read a little bit about their complex history of slavery and freedom. We learn about all the events that led to the foundation of this town in northeastern Oaxaca, Mexico. The town was founded by descended from Cimarrones, runaway black slaves, who had been living in the mountains of Teutila from the early seventeenth century.In the book we also see a lot of paintings and illustrations related to the situation of the slaves in Latin America. Two of the paintings we look at are two castas paintings from the eighteenth century Mexico. In one of the paintings we see a Mestizo, which is a child of a Spanish man and an Indian woman. In the other painting we see a Mulatto, which is a child of a Spanish man and an African woman. The castas paintings were supposed to portray different racial combinations in the late colonial Mexico. The term castas referred only to those of mixed race. Slavery is an essential part of the Latin America history; a part one should wish was erased from history. People have discussed during the years which slaves who had it the worst. This is really irrelevant, because being a slave is terrible in itself, and this is a fate that no human being should have to experience. ...
