About the Exhibition
Yanga: Journeys to Freedom, a groundbreaking exhibition at the African American Museum in Fair Park, explored both historical individuals and freedom movements.
Visitors to the museum explored the largely unknown story of Gaspar Yanga, one of the first liberators in the Americas.
A prince from an African royal family, Yanga was taken as a slave to Veracruz, Mexico, in 1570. Later, he defeated the Spaniards and negotiated with the King of Spain for one of the first free slave communities in the Americas.
Visitors experienced the three distinct AfroMexican experiences found in Veracruz, on the Caribbean coast, the Costa Chica region of Guerrero and Oaxaca, on the Pacific coast, and Coahuila on the Texas border.
This historical exhibit, curated by Jorge Baldor and Zameer Jiwani, of Latino Arts Project, included commissioned and collected Folk Art, interactive visual displays, sounds of African drums, and videos of festivals and original dances.
