BOOK REVIEW

The making of morenos: local culture and the Afro-Mexican Costa Chica

Laura A Lewis, Chocolate and Corn Flour: History, Race, and Place in the Making of ‘Black’ Mexico, Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2012.

Steven Farry
The University of Melbourne

Chocolate and Corn Flour is an ethnography of the morenos (black Indians) of San Nicolás, Mexico. The book refutes the presence of African cultural imports among the San Nicoladenses and argues that local conditions have produced a distinct moreno culture through which the community asserts its belonging. Extensive fieldwork informs the book’s detailed readings of local culture and practices; however, the author’s standpoint is somewhat problematic.

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