Cimarrona, I am black because the sun looked at me
Johanna Alarcón
Cimarrona, I am black because the sun looked at me, is a photo documentary essay that explores the story of the daughters and granddaughters of black women who survived slavery in Latin America. This project aims to highlight women's empowerment for black liberation through a spiritual legacy that remains alive through the preservation of ancestral practices as a way of cultural resilience, protecting their territories, and resisting racism.
This project started when one of my friends told me, You are lucky to live with your mother; my people were deterritorialized. I never got to meet my mom, Africa. The only way for us to get back to her is through our spirituality. Karla Viteri. Since that day, I began documenting my friends, their families, neighbourhoods, and the ancestral territories in Ecuador where the black spirit expresses itself. Cimarrona refers to the wild female spirit that holds an African essence and expresses it in all forms of resistance against racism. The diaspora’s cultural migratory reconfiguration in their new territories renewed the African legacy on the so-called “new continent.” Black people arrived in Latin America in the 16th century. Thousands of enslaved bodies reached Colombia to be distributed in Ecuador and around the region. Black women planned cultural and military strategies for their liberation. Each expression and all spiritual rituals combined with religious syncretism are keys to reverting their forced deterritorialization.
In Latin America, one in every four people identifies as an Afro-descendant. Roughly 50% are women.