The first African American to earn a PHD from USC co-lectured the event “The Black and Brown Connection: African Legacy in Mexico” to a crowd of 100 students Thursday.

Dr. Christopher D. Jimenez y West and Sherehe Hollins, author and adjunct faculty member for the Black Studies Department, attempted to deconstruct the conceived tensions and separateness between people of both African and Latino dissent.

The American public perceives African American and Mexican American relations to be riddled with conflict and division.

“You’ve been told a narrative that has never been true,” said West, “We erase the memory of the past in order to frame the present.”

“European domination” and “institutionalized white supremacy” in public education throughout the United States history has been used to divide and oppress African American and indigenous populations explained Hollins.

West and Hollins encouraged the crowd to look beyond what they usually perceive as American history. They looked back before the civil war, before the revolution, even before Columbus.

The Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica, which is believed to be the product West African explorers, the Moors that ruled the Spain for over 800 years, and the flood of 12.5 million slaves into mostly central and South America provide a bedrock for the connection between Africans and Latinos.

The Olmecs, which used a West African script, laid the foundation of Mesoamerican science for future empires such as the Aztec and Mayans.

The Moors forever altered the culture of Spain by introducing many words and customs.

Together one can see that the two main ethnic groups in Mexico, Central, and South America, indigenous and Spanish, are both strongly rooted in African Heritage.

Similar to the flight of slaves from the southern to northern states before and during the civil war era many black skinned individuals are fleeing oppression and suppression from Mexico into the US.

In “The Underground Railroad”, a film made in Juahaca, Mexico, stories told by afro-mexicans show a disparity of identity. Those that flee to the US find that they are seen as neither Mexican nor African.

“We need to educate others that there are some people in Mexico that still need help,” said Hollins during a Feb 17 lecture.

Student Jacqueline LaPerle offered, “If you don’t know your culture you end up being a Nowhere-ian.”

Despite the challenges, misdirection, and suffering brought to light during these lectures there is a transcendence of hope.

That hope, according to student Marqua Moye, is fueled by the fact that “I’ve got brothers and sisters all around the world.”