Cimarrona, I am black because the sun looked at me

Maisa Ayovi bathes in the estuary of her community Playa de Oro. The Ayovi family keeps the legacy of ancestral practices and protects the tropical forest of more than 700,000 hectares. This is the only border community where no mining or oil extraction is allowed, so the water remains clean. Playa de Oro, 2021.

Nicole Gudiño, 19, plays with a cotton plant in her hair. The black slaves who came to Ecuador were forced to work in cotton fields and coal mines. For Nicole, cotton plants represent the strength of her ancestors and the strength of their blood. La Loma, 2018.

Afroecuadorian women are celebrating La Virgen de la Merced, with songs and candles during the afro religious mass in Playa de Oro. Ecuador, 2019. Johis Alarcón

Rosa María Torres Carcelén, 78, is one of the oldest midwives and healers in La Loma. She learned about childbirth and healing at the age of 9, helping her mother and sisters in childbirth. La Loma, Ecuador, 2018.

Zulma Espinoza, poses for a portrait in her house. She is one of the black midwives preserve their knowledge and apply it in cities where many ancestral practices are threatened by modernity and globalization. Quito, Ecuador,. July 1, 2018.

Family members and friends celebrating Chalá-Pavón marriage. Juncal, 2018.

Melani Ayovi poses for a portrait at her home. For her, being a black woman means strength and family. Although she migrated to the city of Quito at a young age to finish her studies and work, the COVID-19 pandemic allowed her to return home with her mother and siblings. Playa de Oro, Ecuador. September 2021.

María Teresa Caicedo (23) poses for a portrait at her home while she is feeding her daughter Noa (3-month). She is one of the three communitarian teachers of Playa de Oro school. María is in the ultimate grade of her Social Work career at Esmeraldas University. She is the first woman in her family who is in the University. She went back to Playa de Oro when the COVID-19 pandemic started in Ecuador. After that, she started a communitarian education project when she was pregnant but still, her condition she worked every day from 8 am to 12 pm teaching at school for a minimum salary of $150,00. “We compromised ourselves because of the love that we have for the community. I want to improve the education for my daughter” María Teresa (23).

Mural painted on the walls of Caminos a la Libertad neighborhood in the northwest of Quito. An artistic commemoration of the strength of Afro-descendant women that inhabit this neighborhood in the city. Quito, 2018

Because the sun looked at me is a photo documentary essay that explores the story of the daughters and granddaughters of black women who survived slavery in Latin America.This project aims to remarks women empowerment for black liberation through spiritual legacy that remains alive through the preservation of ancestral practices as a way of cultural resilience, protect their territories, and resist racism.

Cimarrona refers to the wild female spirit that holds an African essence and expresses it in all forms of resistance against racism. The diaspora’s cultural migratory reconfiguration in their new territories renewed the African legacy in the so-called “new continent.” Black people arrived in Latinamerica in the XVI century. Thousands of enslaved bodies reached Colombia to be distributed in Ecuador and around the region. Black women planned cultural and military strategies for their liberation. Each expression and all spiritual rituals- currently combined with religious syncretism- are keys to reverting their forced deterritorialization.

In Latin America, one in every four people identifies as an Afro-descendant. Roughly 50% are women. These communities have more than five centuries of black resilience and one of the biggest bio-diversities in the world: mangroves, tropical forests, and mountains are protected by them. The continuance of traditions is fundamental for defending their territory, which, today, is menaced by illegal mining, timber extraction, and pollution by mercury. New cultural influence and mass migration of the new generations challenge their ancestry with the risk of losing it to globalization.In a world where violence against black people grows, their ancestral rituals and cultural migratory reconfiguration have been adapted to their new territories to settle down as a way to reaffirm their identity into new generations. Cimarron’s legacy is also the legacy of the new femininity and humanity liberation.