ZAÑA, Peru — When Susana Baca, the Latin Grammy-winning Afro-Peruvian singer, serenaded Pope Leo XIV upon his arrival in Peru, it was a sign that the visit would provide an unparalleled spotlight on the culture that grew out of the African slave trade to this country.
Baca, arguably the best-known Afro-Peruvian musician, was also Peru’s first Black Cabinet minister and became a leading figure in the campaign to end the discrimination that has long made second-class citizens of Black Peruvians and Peru’s Indigenous peoples.
The U.S.-born Leo, whose own family tree includes enslaved people and slave owners, is expected to highlight Peru's African-descended community when he visits the hub of Afro-Peruvian culture on Saturday in the city of Zaña.
Leo will lead a prayer meeting at the sanctuary of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in Zaña, where he often went to pray while bishop of nearby Chiclayo.
In the 16th century, Mogrovejo was the first archbishop of Lima. He defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved people and was known for having confirmed St. Martin de Porres, the first Black saint of the Americas and the patron saint of racial harmony, social justice and people of multiracial backgrounds.
The pope has already apologized for slavery
In his first encyclical, "Magnificent Humanity," Leo made a sweeping apology for the role of past popes in legitimizing slavery in the Americas and failing to condemn it for centuries. It was a reference to the series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican that authorized European sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.
“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
The estimated 100,000 African slaves brought to Peru after the arrival of Spanish conquistadores toiled in sugar plantations and silver mines, with some becoming urban artisans. At one point, they and their descendants were more than 40% of Lima’s population.
Blacks now are a small fraction of Peru's 35 million people. But they have struggled to advance in the more than 170 years since emancipation.
“Historically, the Afro-Peruvian community — much like other Afro-Latin American communities — has faced a twofold form of invisibility: the denial of its demographic and cultural weight in the nation’s formation, and the reduction of its contributions to mere folklore,” said Alejandro Frigerio, researcher at the National Council for Scientific Research of Argentina who focuses in Afro-American religions.
He said Peru had made significant strides in institutional recognition of the community, but “the primary challenge remains ensuring equitable access to rights and eradicating both everyday and institutional racism.”
While Mogrovejo played a historic role in protecting enslaved people against Spanish colonial abuses, Frigerio urged Leo to explicitly address the current reality of Afro-Peruvians and the legacy of slavery in Peru or risk making an “empty gesture” in Zaña that merely glorifies a traditional, white Catholic saint.
The 2017 national census recorded 1,311 Zaña residents who identified as Afro-Peruvian, compared with 78,639 across the entire Lambayeque region.
Baca feels a connection to Leo
Baca, known for her velvet voice and barefoot dancing, told The Associated Press that she felt connected to Leo because of the importance he has placed in asking forgiveness for past injustices.
“I believe that one of the most important things in the history of Afro-Peruvians is that we did not remain submerged despite our history of suffering," she said after her barefoot performance on Wednesday. “We are an Afro-Peruvian people who have learned to forgive.”
“And perhaps this is what connects me, in my conscience, to the pope," she said in an email. "I feel that in all his homilies and teachings, the pope emphasizes the importance of asking for forgiveness and forgiving — that the injustices of many moments in history are less painful if we have the capacity to forgive and to be forgiven."
She said she chose to sing “Canción de Fe” (“Song of Faith”) and “Si me quitaran totalmente todo” (“If Everything Were Taken From Me”) to the pope because they embody the same notion of faith that Leo shares.
Leo’s visit pays homage to Afro-Peruvian history
Zaña, a historic town in northern Peru's Chiclayo province, was recognized by UNESCO in 2017 as a “site of memory of slavery and African cultural heritage.” Peru's government says the recognition was the first of its kind granted to a Peruvian Afro-descendant community or comparable communities along South America's Pacific Coast.
“There are communities capable of withstanding any blow — even seven ‘El Niño’ weather phenomena, or the even harsher, more perverse blows dealt by the darkest side of humanity, such as slavery,” former Culture Minister Salvador del Solar said during a ceremony in Zaña’s main square.
“Communities like Zaña can truly say that no blow has ever been strong enough to break them completely; they continue to reaffirm their Afro-descendant identity with pride.”
The Afro-descendant community is celebrating the return of Leo, their former bishop, and is particularly proud of Baca’s performance before the first pope with Black roots.
“I’m so proud to see an Afro-Peruvian person singing to the pope, and to know that Black blood courses through his veins,” said Felipe Gutierrez, a local chef and poet known as Frontado.
“That the pope has Afro-descendant blood is also a source of pride for Zaña because Zaña identifies with the Afros,” said Gutierrez, who writes and improvises the Peruvian art form known as “decimas.”
All four of Leo's maternal great-grandparents were "free people of color" in 19th-century Louisiana census records. As part of the melting pot of French, Spanish, African and Native American cultures in Louisiana, the pope's maternal ancestors would be considered Creole.
Zaña is home to an Afro-Peruvian museum, which features a rich collection of historical photographs, plantation carts and percussion musical instruments of African origin from Peru, Cuba and Brazil. It also holds records relating to enslaved people and some of the shackles used to restrain them.
One of its walls has photos of Leo during visits to the town when he was bishop. There are also large framed photographs of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, as well as South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
“We pay homage to them here in Zaña,” Gutierrez said during a recent visit to the museum, wearing a Chicago Bulls shirt with Michael Jordan’s iconic number 23 on the back. Leo was born in Chicago.
“They show us how someone who is Black as we are in Zaña became a president and we’re proud because we all deserve the same rights," Gutierrez said. “Black, Indigenous, all of us are equal in the eyes of God.”
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Winfield contributed from Chiclayo, Peru.
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