Ben Vinson III and Bobby Vaughn’s short interdisciplinary anthology makes several welcome contributions to the emerging field of Afro-Mexican scholarship. Vinson’s opening historiographical essay (55 pages) provides the most comprehensive overview of seminal publications on the Afro-American experience yet to appear in print. This work is a “must read” for students new to the topic. Vinson divides his review into three temporal categories: 1521–1821 (the colonial through independence period), 1822–1910 (which he labels the “prerevolutionary” era), and 1910 to the present (postrevolutionary) (p. 19). Modern Afro-Mexican scholars know most about publications falling within Vinson’s first and third periods, but the period between independence and the 1910 revolution is less familiar, making this section of the essay all the more enlightening. Vinson’s essay not only contributes a very useful reference source; his insightful assessment makes it easier to situate these works, and future studies, within a better context.
Bobby Vaughn’s 21-page...
