SouthTalks: “Imagine Freedom: Sounding Yanga’s Cry across Gulf Shores”

“Imagine Freedom: Sounding Yanga’s Cry across Gulf Shores” with Dolores Flores-Silva and Keith Cartwright

In the mountains of Veracruz from 1570 to 1609, a young African-born Gaspar Yanga led resistance against the Spanish and forced recognition of his group’s freedom, self-governance, and rights to the land. Yanga’s Freedom Cry addresses the legacy of this Maroon community and its founder through interviews with residents of Yanga, Veracruz, and adjacent towns. The film pays homage to the Africans who won their freedom and examines how Yanga’s triumph and Afro-Mexican legacies still challenge us in spaces shaped by racial legacies across the Gulf.

Dolores Flores-Silva, from the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz, is professor of Latin American literature and culture at Roanoke College. She writes on topics ranging from Maya poetry to Afro-Mexican history.

Keith Cartwright is chair and professor of English at the University of North Florida and served as Fulbright-Robles Chair of US studies at Universidad de las Américas Puebla.

Cartwright and Flores-Silva are collaborating on a book project and series of documentary films examining the Gulf of Mexico as a transnational region and enduring cross-cultural frontier.

SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) that explores the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series is free and open to the public, and takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted.