film

De Florida a Coahuila (The History of the Black Seminoles)

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Producer(s)	Producciones Trabuco S.C.
Director(s)	Rafael Rebollar
Release Date	2002
Runtime	50 min
Format(s)	16mm, 35mm, video, DVD, web
Language(s)	English
Youth Media	no

Film Description

This documentary tells the story of the Mascogos, known in the United States as the Black Seminoles. Descendants of runaway slaves who made common cause with Seminole Indians in Florida, the Black Seminoles migrated west in the mid-1800s when US authorities forcibly took their Florida territories, and eventually resettled in northern Mexico, where they negotiated with the government to defend the border in exchange for tracts of land and citizenship. Filmed in Nacimiento, Coahuila, and in Brackettville, Texas, where some community members eventually resettled, this video documents the complex history of the black and indigenous peoples who lived along national borders, and their current descendents' efforts to maintain their culture and document their history. (The second in a three-part series of documentaries on the history of Africans in Mexico.)