Afro-Guatemalans

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Afro-Guatemalans
Afroguatemaltecos

Garífuna Vendor in Livingston, Guatemala.
Total population
0.3% of the Guatemalan population.[1]
Regions with significant populations
Livingston (Garifuna settlement), Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomas
Languages
Spanish • English • Garifuna
Religion
Roman Catholicism • Protestantism • Afro-American religions
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Latin Americans, Afro-Caribbean, Garifuna

An Afro-Guatemalan person is a person who lives in Guatemala, but has African ancestry in their historical and cultural roots. This term intertwines the conquest of America by the Spanish. The Afro-Guatemalan population is not numerous today. Although it is difficult to determine specific figures, it is reported that Afro-Guatemalans represent only between 1% and 2% of the country's population. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. They are of mainly English-speaking West Indian (Antillean) and Garifuna origin. They are found in the Caribbean coast, in Livingston (a Garifuna settlement), Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomas. In the 17th century, many enslaved blacks were able to secure for themselves or at least their future children through marriage to free people. Many of these marriages were with Mayans or Europeans, which created a mix between blacks, Mayans and Europeans. This resulted in a significant mestizo population that, over the years, has continued to dilute traces of African ancestry in many cases. Today this can be referred to as Afro-mestizos due to miscegenation.^[2]

However, there are two other groups in the country that are of African descent: Garifunas, an exiled Afro/Indigenous (primarily African) group, known in Spanish as zambo. They originally came from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent (Antilles), where escaped enslaved Africans and Amerindians intermingled and created a society and culture of their own. Spanish colonist became afraid and exiled them to the smaller island of Roatan. After realizing the small island could not sustain their population, groups of Garifuna later settled on the Caribbean coasts of several mainland Central American countries, including Guatemala.

The other group are the descendants of Afro-West Indian migrants who came from English-speaking Caribbean islands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries primarily to work for the United Fruit Company, as well as to work on railroad building, and in the whaling industry.