Chocolate and Corn Flour

Anthropologist Laura Lewis explores the lives and self-understanding of Mexicans of African descent living in the agricultural village of San Nicolas on the Pacific coast of Mexico. In recent years, the area has been described by anthropologists, journalists, and activists as the cradle of Afro-Mexican culture, but residents call themselves Moreno or mixed black-Indians, neither denying their blackness nor identifying as Afro-Mexicans. Lewis argues for attending to local forms of race as she describes the conflicts between outsider investments and those of the residents. The last chapter follows some of the residents who have settled around Winston-Salem, but maintain their ties to the village.