Juneteenth and the Mascogos

In the United States today, we are celebrating a relatively new federal holiday: Juneteenth. Meant to mark the emancipation of US slaves, Juneteenth celebrations extend on the state level back to 1865, when the Union formally ended slavery in Texas — from there, other states with communities of African Americans began to acknowledge the day. And, as this sign in Spanish alludes to, Juneteenth is actually celebrated in Mexico because of a unique group of people known as the Mascogos.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, some black Americans escaped their bonds of slavery and migrated to Florida, where the Spanish allowed them their freedom. There, they mixed with the indigenous Seminoles, even being called “Black Seminoles”, and also “Mascogos” (a term that might derive from the Indigenous term for Seminoles). In 1821, the USA got Florida from Spain, and a few years later in 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act to transport all Native Americans in the south to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears.

The Mascogos realized this would mean they would likely be caught up in slavery, and they obviously didn’t want that. So about 300 of these folks decided to flee to Mexico, led in part by a man called John Horse (or John Caballo) in 1858.

They settled in the desert around Coahuila, at the base of the Sierra Madre, and called their new village Nacimiento de los Negros or “birth of the blacks” — the rock in this photo gives the name. For decades, they maintained many African American cultural elements, like songs in English and traditional outfits. And, like many other African Americans, they celebrated Juneteenth, a day to remember the importance of freedom from enslavement.

Today there are few Mascogos left, but the ones that remain at Nacimiento still observe the day.